I see you're getting the Tyrone Thompson Emerging Leader award from the City of Las Vegas this month.
"🏆 I'm honored and excited! Tyrone Thompson was a well-loved public servant. He was a Nevada assemblyman who also chaired the education committee. A community center and a school are named after him; I'm proud to have my name beside his."
You're known as a poet, but you also create visual art. How do those two forms feed into each other?
"🖌️ Funny you should ask — I’ve been fighting this! I keep the creation of poetry and art separate. But I have found that there are beautiful lessons about patience in visual art that I do not have in poetry. Visual art has made me more disciplined — completing a piece to standard is more about discipline than pure talent. The only way to get a technique down is by doing it over and over.
"Poetry is more daunting right now. I'm actually afraid to present my new writing. I feel like my voice is changing. Will people still want to hear me if I'm not funny and upbeat? I'm holding so much grief. I'm not ready to put that on display."
I've seen a lot of poetry celebrating the natural world around Las Vegas, but not as much as I'd expect about its urban life. The streets, the lights, the cacophony. Is there a challenge to writing poetry about city life?
"✍🏿 You've been looking in the wrong places! Bruce Isaacson and Rodney Lee both write about the neon lights and cacophony of the city. James Norman and Jennifer Battisti: Both have worked in service jobs in the valley and have so many stories to tell.
"I don't think city life is hard to write about — however, it may be harsh. If more poets wrote about city life in Las Vegas, they'd have to write about the homeless population and deaths and orange cones, and, externally, those subjects don't sound sexy/fun/compelling."
