BUILD YOURSELF A BOAT Haymarket Books
No but wait you’re the water —from “Willing in the Orisha”
HOW IT BEGAN: In my MFA program at Bard, Ann Lauterbach asked me, “Are you representing or presenting?” And I wanted to see if I could present Blackness both in theory and in practice without performing it or decodifying it for the consumption of non-Black readers. I had to ask myself a series of questions that ultimately came down to one question—what is the project of Blackness? The answer I found was that Blackness is survival. And then that question led me to the question behind the entire book project—what goes beyond survival? What comes after it? What does it look like to depart from a journey of survival and enter a journey of thriving?
INSPIRATION: The Black Arts movement, psychology, the way a good R&B
album pushes at the edges of your spirit and makes you feel new things, In the Break by Fred Moten, the everyday joy of being a Black girl, the everyday trauma of being a Black girl.
WRITER’S BLOCK REMEDY: Two things. One, I learned from a Black studies professor at the community college I attended that there is no such thing as “being a genius” but that we all have a genius, and that your genius comes and goes on her own accord. She will eat when you feed her but will rest when she’d like. I turn to this thought when I am afraid that I’ll never write a good poem again, because it reminds me that the first poem wasn’t up to me and neither will the last one. And two, I remember that by living with intention I am in the process of writing poems. A poem or a series of poems may ruminate in your brain for days, weeks, months—and you may sit down four or five times to write it, but it won’t come until it’s ready. But if I am looking at the world through poetic lenses and thinking of all of my work through the lens poetry has gifted me, then the poems are being written and will touch the page when it is time.
ADVICE: You’ll never get another debut! Your first is your first. Fight for yourself, advocate for your project, and trust your community if they tell you it’s not ready.
AGE: 27. RESIDENCE:
Boston—but I’m a proud and loud New York City native.
JOB: I’m a political media strategist, currently working on the Warren for President team. TIME SPENT WRITING
THE BOOK: Five years. TIME SPENT FINDING A HOME
FOR IT: Well, I didn’t worry too much about trying to find a publisher until people started asking me if I had a full-length book. When Haymarket reached out, I knew it was the right time and the right press.