The Poets of This Place Called Poetry
October 17th, 2008 by Admin
Annie Yu
“I think a journal is a place where you can mess up. You don’t have to worry about showing it to anyone. Most people get really intimidated by a page, but you’ve got to just jump in and do it.”
Film and audio portraits of Annie.
Antoinette Osborne
“Without writing, I would be more of an “inside-the-box” person; I would be scared of a lot of different things. But through my writing, I’m adventurous; I can be someone I’m not.”
Film and audio portraits of Antoinette.
Antonio Caceres
“For so long, poetry was just an individual thing. But when I was in WritersCorps, it felt like I was in a team of writers.”
Film and audio portraits of Antonio.
Dubb
“Poetry…I started off by putting it in the WritersCorps book. Then I gave it to a couple of my friends, and sent it to my family. It keeps growing and growing, but the head and the brain are always with me.”
Film and audio portraits of Dubb.
Eric Foster
“Poetry changed my life. Without poetry, I wouldn’t be as confident in front of other people, or even as confident in myself. When you’re alone — thinking and writing — you really get to know who you are.”
Indiana Pehlivanova
“In the real life, if you make a mistake, you get punished. It’s either black or white — you have to do it the right way or the wrong way; you have to choose. But in poetry, if you make a mistake — if you stutter in front of someone, nobody’s going to laugh. It’s a world where you’re free to do whatever you want.”
Film and audio portraits of Indiana.
Jorge Aburto
“It’s hard to imagine how bad you miss your family when you’re really far away from them. It’s hard to tell them by phone or letter, ‘Hey, I miss you. I remember all the good times we had.’ But we can tell everything in poetry, by showing our thinking and our minds.”
Film and audio portraits of Jorge.
Lateefah Simon
“I was 18 years old and eight months pregnant when WritersCorps first came to the Center for Young Women’s Development. We were pretty feisty, hard-core girls at the time — many of us had already left high school; I hadn’t graduated yet. I didn’t consider myself a poet.
I remember the first day. There was a fantastic woman named Elizabeth, who had a great laugh. She was our WritersCorps teacher. She told us just to write. There were no rules, no periods, no grammar, no spelling. That was the first time I’d ever abandoned my fear of writing.”
Film and audio portraits of Lateefah.
Robin Black
“The first poem I ever wrote was in seventh grade, on the day I got out of juvenile hall. Since then I haven’t gotten into any trouble. Poetry’s kept me in a good light and around good people. It opens new doors you didn’t know you had. The more you write, the more you understand yourself and how you work. It let me know I had something to say.”
Film and audio portraits of Robin.
Sandra Pulido
“I write about loneliness, pain, revenge and sometimes love. When I show my poems to people, they get surprised. They say, ‘There’s no way you can write like this.’ If I write about love, they say, ‘I don’t see you with a boyfriend.’ If I write about pain, they say, ‘You never say you have any problems.’”
Film and audio portraits of Sandra.
Shahid Minapara
“My father always told me that poetry comes from the blood. Most of my poetry involves a lot of cultural writing. It’s very spiritual and colorful. It’s imaginative, but it’s based on our culture and the experiences we’ve had in India. It’s our roots; it’s where we come from.”
