1. People fight for the marginalized in different ways. Some do it in political ways, others do it in a technological way, but you do it in a poetic way. Why have you chosen to use poetry as a weapon to fight for the disenfranchised?
I think I use language to challenge the status quo place upon myself, my loved ones, and the communities I come from: urban, black and brown, woman, immigrant, queer. So often history has shaped the story of those communities in order to make it seem like those folks never resisted, like they didn't struggle for their rights and social change. And it's important for me to feel like I'm telling my own story before someone else tries to write it for me. The incredible writer Zora Neale Hurston has the quote, “If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” I don't consider myself the spokesperson of any community, I tell my story best I can and I'm thankful when people see themselves in it and feel reflected, mostly I'm just trying to ensure that all the things that have hurt me are named, that my pain isn't silenced, that no words are put in my mouth by anyone other than me. Poetry is the best weapon for me to do that because it forces me to be vulnerable and to give voice to things that are often easier kept inside.