Boston-based writer Porsha Olayiwola is no stranger to the stage, having performed spoken word and poetry across many national and global competitions. In 2019, she was appointed poet laureate for the city of Boston. She is the co-founder of the store Just Book-ish in Dorchester and an Assistant Professor of Poetry at Emerson College.
She is also the spring artist-in-residence for Michigan State University’s Womxn of Color Initiatives. The campus program organizes events for women and non-binary people of color in the greater Lansing area.
WKAR's Sophia Saliby spoke with Olayiwola about her work ahead of several events and performances at MSU this week.
Interview Highlights
On the first poems she wrote and performed
I probably wrote my first poem, definitely in elementary school. I think I used to write all the time, but the first one I can remember writing and then performing out loud is in eighth grade, when I was running for office, for Student Vice President, and I recall distinctly that my speech for office was definitely a poem. So, it's probably the first time I like begin writing and performing it out loud.
On bringing a poem to the stage
Once the poem is finished, or we believe it's as close to as finished as possible, we then begin to internalize the poem in the body, right? And that consists primarily of memorizing it and getting it closer to the bone, if you will. Because the closer we are to understanding it and knowing it by heart, the closer we are to actually getting to the core of the poem and being able to emote that in a performance.
On writing and creating during difficult times
I'm not necessarily shying away from the dark and the terrible but figuring out ways to use it to illuminate or to ignite folks. And sometimes I'm often really just trying to create the world I want to see, right? That's what Toni Morrison said, if there's something that doesn't exist, we must create it, right? And so, that's how I've been kind of approaching the time that we're in, not shying away from it, actually electing to engage with it deeply and on an intimate level, but then also figuring out ways to turn it into something else, to turn it into a blossom, whether that be by igniting the people or building a new world.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Boston-based writer Porsha Olayiwola is no stranger to the stage, having performed spoken word and poetry across many national and global competitions. In 2019, she was appointed poet laureate for the city of Boston.
She is also the spring artist-in-residence for Michigan State University’s Womxn of Color Initiatives. The campus program organizes events for women and non-binary people of color in the greater Lansing area.
Porsha joins me now to talk about her work ahead of several events and performances at MSU this week. Thanks for being here.
Porsha Olayiwola: Thank you so much for having me.
Saliby: To start, when did you write your first poem?
Olayiwola: Oh, wow. I love this question. I probably wrote my first poem, definitely in elementary school. I think I used to write all the time, but the first one I can remember writing and then performing out loud is in eighth grade, when I was running for office, for Student Vice President, and I recall distinctly that my speech for office was definitely a poem. So, it's probably the first time I like begin writing and performing it out loud.
When I was running for office, for Student Vice President, and I recall distinctly that my speech for office was definitely a poem. So, it's probably the first time I like begin writing and performing it out loud.
Saliby: So, it seems like poetry for you has always kind of been associated with performance.
Olayiwola: Performance, and I think also I can't untangle the notion of a statement of like writing with a purpose, oftentimes, that is related to in service of myself, my people or people in general.
Saliby: You have a long history of competing and coaching in poetry slams. Could you take us through the process of writing a poem and then taking it to the stage?
Olayiwola: I mean, yeah, I could, I can try to do that. But, you know, I like to root a lot of my work in the simplicity of just simply thinking. And so, I first start by thinking about a poem or a concept, and that might mean mulling over it for several days or hours, and then moving past the thinking stage and actually researching, depending on what the poem is, right?
If it's about the interpersonal and the life of self, it might mean recalling memories or talking to my mother or looking at family photos. Or, if it's something a little bit more historical-based which a lot of my writing is, it might mean making a lexicon of all the words associated with this particular theme or looking up the history of a thing.
And so, after I've thought for a long time and done research and then thought some more, I actually set a timer for about seven minutes to try to get it all out and just do like a free write based off all the things I've been thinking. And then after that, we spend about eight hours editing, right? Which is where the hard work is.
And once the poem is finished, or we believe it's as close to as finished as possible, we then begin to internalize the poem in the body, right? And that consists primarily of memorizing it and getting it closer to the bone, if you will. Because the closer we are to understanding it and knowing it by heart, the closer we are to actually getting to the core of the poem and being able to emote that in a performance.
Sometimes people say poetry is therapeutic. And while it can be, I don't think it's therapy.
Saliby: To me, poetry can be quite intimidating. And then I also think about this added element of performing on stage by yourself or maybe just with one other person. What is kind of the mental space you have to be in to share that part of yourself and kind of this very complicated art form?
Olayiwola: Yeah, I mean, I think you have to be, you know, sometimes people say poetry is therapeutic. And while it can be, I don't think it's therapy, you know what I mean.
And so when, if we're writing about things that are centered around past traumas, I think it's extremely important to be healed or to be in a place where you actually can bring forth this to an audience, and I think once we're there and it can exist off the page and onto the stage, then for me, it becomes an out-of-body experience. It becomes me opening myself into a whole new world that allows for so many other things and so many possibilities of understanding myself.
Saliby: Do you have a bit of a poem you'd be willing to share with us today?
Olayiwola: Sure thing, it's a longer poem. So I'm gonna start towards the end of the poem. The poem is an ars poetica, which is to say it is a poem about poems, a poem about writing.
It starts with thinking about if I were ever writing a poem, all I could write about is Gaza or all of the other things around politics that are happening in our world today as opposed to writing a beautiful metaphor of a poem, so to speak, and again, I'm starting at the end, which is:
Excerpt from "Ars Poetica"
but instead it's about the deluge. instead its
about the crisis of housing and the crisis
of the police, and the health crisis. oh my
i want to write something beautiful,
something devastatingly breathtaking,
like maybe about the time my
mother met my lover’s mother—my two
mothers—and they smiled, held hands
and gossiped in the corner of the room
like they were building a new world without
worry, cheesing like two pig-tailed school girls
on the playground, up to the best kind of good.
Saliby: Thank you. How do you think about creating art, creating beautiful things in kind of a time where there's not a lot of beautiful things in the world?
That's how I've been kind of approaching the time that we're in, not shying away from it, actually electing to engage with it deeply and on an intimate level, but then also figuring out ways to turn it into something else.
Olayiwola: Yeah, I think about it in a number of ways, right? I think it is Toni Cade Bambara who says the job of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible. For me, that means that I'm not necessarily shying away from the dark and the terrible but figuring out ways to use it to illuminate or to ignite folks. And sometimes I'm often really just trying to create the world I want to see, right?
That's what Toni Morrison said, if there's something that doesn't exist, we must create it, right? And so, that's how I've been kind of approaching the time that we're in, not shying away from it, actually electing to engage with it deeply and on an intimate level, but then also figuring out ways to turn it into something else, to turn it into a blossom, whether that be by igniting the people or building a new world.
Saliby: Porsha Olayiwola is a writer and performer, as well as the outgoing poet laureate for the city of Boston. She's also MSU's Womxn of Color Initiatives' artist-in-residence this year. Thank you for joining us.
Olayiwola: Thank you so much for having me.
