The African American writer with a difference (interview)

NNW: Let?s begin with your short biography.

Imani Tolliver: I was born in Los Angeles, California in 1965. I was only a few days old when the Watts riots broke out and even though the police came to our door, looking for folks to arrest, my mother allowed them entry into our apartment with the warning of not waking the baby. I was suffering from colic.

You are a poet, visual artist, educator and community worker, all at the same time. How are you coping?

It?s tough. Nearly any free moment that I acquire, I tell myself that I should be writing, editing, reading or creating something. Especially lately, I am looking very closely at the way I measure my day. When time I go to bed, how early I rise, prayer, and so on. And daily, as I answer my e-mails, pay bills and accept calls at my desk, pounds of poetry await a closer reading, a finer edit, a rewrite, a submission. Actually, the poems are waiting right now.

Briefly tell us your experience in each of these fields of endeavor.

Writing came naturally to me. I wrote stories as a child, creating fantasies of places I wanted to visit, boys I had crushes on. The evolution of my stories into poetry was not difficult either. It happened naturally. When I think about it, I am still writing about love, still creating worlds of truth and beauty that I would like to share. My visual art is simply play for me. It is an exercise I commence when the words don?t come as easily as I?d wish. Often, it?s due to me having so much that I want to say and wanting to say it well, that slows me up sometimes. So painting, collage, deconstructing clothing and putting it back together again releases the judgment and anticipation. It allows me to be freer. Education and social justice are entwined. As a poet, I am writing the dreams of my world. As an educator and activist, I am creating the world of my wishes. It has been a journey of protest, recreating literary cannons, speaking loudly and clearly when my voice ? and those I represent in color, gender and political place in this world ? is not represented in arenas of power. I learned how to create my own, our own. Audre Lorde writes, ?Your silence will not protect you.? When silent, our dreams fester and burn inside of us. Our ?dreams deferred? can destroy us or can fuel us to greatness. Humble as a poem, mighty as a changed destiny for an entire people. Silence cannot save us. Speaking, using our voices will save, and recreate us, us over and over again.

When and how did you start writing?

I started writing when I was a little girl. My mother bought my journals for many, many years and still does from time to time. Not long ago, I told her that I missed her buying them. I have felt for years that she was giving me permission to speak in my own tongue, with my own truth. Even when the words did not compliment her. Truth was (and is) the important thing. And the vehicle (words) in a beautiful home (those amazing journals) honored me tremendously. I told her that it was as if she was encouraging me to speak the words that she could not. She had never articulated this aloud, but she says that it?s true. So now, she gives them to me again.

How many works have you published so far and what are their titles?

I have published several poems over the years. Many on-line. You might happen across the following titles, ?gin and juice?, ?the hardest part?, ?what love was?, and several others. I have also recorded a poetry CD, ?pink? and two chapbooks, Ghettos are not Beautiful and My Man.

Apart from poetry do you also try your hands on other genres of literature such as drama and prose?

Years ago, was very anxious to write a play. For years I tried to make sense of the dialogue, which always felt forced. The subject, although valuable, read as didactic. It wasn?t until I met August Wilson once, at a conference years ago, that I let myself off the hook. Among other questions, I asked him how to do it. How does one write a play? I shared my struggle with him and he old me this: there should be one character in the play who knows everything and that the audience is as much a part of the drama on the stage as the actors. For example, say you have a character who comes on the stage and says, ?That Joe Turner is a son of a ??, you have the audience thinking, ?Well, who is this Joe Turner and what did he do?? Later on in the play, another character may come on the stage and offer a completely different point of view. So now the audience is wondering which is right? Questioning the earlier or later opinion. The story that touches me most is how much brother August wanted to be a poet. How he dressed in warm sweaters with those leather patches on the elbows and smoked a pipe. He told me that he was a really bad poet and laughed about it. I figured, if I could be a fine a poet and a bad playwright, that?s fine because the opposite is true of August Wilson. These days, it seems as if poets are pressured into writing novels and screenplays. Decades ago, before the big information age, a poet could simply be a poet. The genre was respected as a specific, albeit elitist form. Now, I?m not agreeing with the elitist bit, because I do believe that art belongs to everyone, absolutely. So sometimes, I am resistant to inhabiting a form outside of poetry. But I must admit, from time to time I wonder about writing a memoir or creative nonfiction. Essays also. I used to teach with someone who preferred my essays and letters to my poems, so we?ll see. You never know.

Most of your poems are romantic, even those you wrote as a child. What informed this style?

I am in the business of dreaming a world, truer, more specifically made of my own wishes. Some of those wishes involve romantic love, some do not. It is important to mention that my more overtly political work doesn?t often get chosen for publication. Or, if more honest with myself and your readers, my romantic poems are fairly political. Body consciousness, interracial dating, spirituality within the love hemisphere ? all of these tropes are present in my work even with they are nestled in the body of a romantic poem.

Specifically, what inspired these poems; The Safest Place and Kind of Blue?

I wrote ?the safest place? when I was living in an apartment that I had put a great deal of energy into its interior design, the feng shui of it, in an attempt to create a peaceful and inspiring place to live and create. One day, I was sitting in my bedroom and I began looking around. I realized that I created a beautiful space, but the most important part was missing. The love part. Yes, I was living with Spirit in me, as me. Yes, there were poems and collages and paintings. Letters and pretty things. But where was my partner? Where was the lover who would bless my bed? [She] wasn?t there. Creating a safe space was really about creating a space quilted from my own fears ? the anticipation of pain. So this ?safety? was a lie. And still is. Safe for me now, is walking is resting in the heart of God, knowing that all of my needs are met and that I am blessed beyond my imagination. My blessings, all of our blessings, are bigger than what I have imagined for myself. These days, I recognize the power of letting go of striving, and tightfisted wishing. These days I am less about striving and more about being. ?kind of blue? was written about my father. It?s very narrative, so I won?t explain it. But I will say this; love, forgiveness and embracing lessons from an abusive parent is big work. Love for those who have been abusive to us is complicated. This is the message of the poem. To forgive is the gift you give yourself. Letting go of the pain you hold in your fists allows for light to live there. Every time.

You have won a number of literary awards. You have also been a featured poet across the United States. What is responsible for these successes?

My prayer when I write and read is that I connect with people in a divine way. Again, here is an example of a divinity that I didn?t expect: the divinity of connection through true stories where I used to hold shame. Toi Derricotte teaches that our beauty is where we hold shame; our beauty lives in our scar. It took me years to understand and embrace this. It always astonishes me when I read a poem that I believe is so specific to my own experience ? the images, the references ? and then people connect it the work so personally and specifically. I can only believe that people are interested in truth. In connection. There is a divinity in that. And I am thankful that there are readers and listeners who connect with me. Together, will find higher ground.

Has your being an African-American affected your writing career in any way?

A friend told me once, that I speak for a very specific audience. I love and am honored to be a part of this beautiful, complicated culture. I embrace it. I am thankful that others embrace my work that is a reflection of my own experience as an African American.

Not yet.

What?s your image of Africa like?

As complicated as borrowed language. Beautiful beyond my imagination. Brilliant, high singing. Sadder than the bluest note. Optimistic and forgiving. If God has a physical heart, I?d imagine that the continent could take its shape and scope. A large part, I?d imagine.

Who is your favourite African writer(s)? Why?

Oh, I?m still learning. The breath of my knowledge of African poets is tethered to their American experience. Recommend some. Recommend many.

What?s your advice for young writers who want to be like you?

The best advice I can give is to be more like them, not like me. I?m still getting to the center of who I am. But I will say this; be yourself. Tell your truth. Be brave with it. Speak when you are shaking. Speak while others may tell you to shut up. Never compromise your truth. Learn your craft. Believe in your voice. Read, listen, learn, play, laugh and love for real. Stand for love. Stand for your people. Stand for your ancestors. Watch the divinity of Spirit transform your life, which is only about letting go and being who you really are. And in the words of Jean Michel Basquiat, no mundane options. Ever.