I took this course called Black Women’s Poetry (or something similar) and read a lot of work—Gwendolyn Brooks, Ntozake Shange, Lucille Clifton, Nikki Giovanni, etc.

Not only did I have to respond to their work in a critical fashion, but I also had to write work of my own. I did.

What came out of it was a 60 page poetry manuscript which was submitted to the Cave Canem contest. I did not win, but was invited to become a Cave Canem Fellow for a semester, which I did. During that time, I attended weekly sessions led by Willie Perdomo and through that I had fabulous discussions with other poets and met Amiri Baraka—this was in 2002 after his poem about 9/11.

Anyway, I put poetry on the back burner and went on about my business. Now, that I am moving more into “my self,” it is time for me to get back at it in a serious way.

It’s part of who I am. No use hiding.