Interview with Nathan Say

WG: Nathan, you are about to release your CD The Other Side of Rain, based on your work in Spoken Word poetry. How did you get involved with Spoken Word?

NS: Completely by accident. I moved from Hawaii to San Diego last June to live the life of a writer. I'd been writing "more traditional poetry" since 2006. After I'd been here for about six months, I had a bulk of new material that I wanted to read at an open mic to get reaction. (I'm a huge believer that drafts of work need to go to a community to see if they are ready.) I googled "San Diego Poetry Open Mics" and went to the first one I found, and it was through going there that I discovered that my lengthier prose pieces would work better in the realm of Spoken Word (or Performance Poetry as I prefer to call it). Performance Poetry also spoke to my heart more effectively than traditional poetry had in the past, although working in both, I have to say that there are quite a few similarities between the two than there are differences, and most Performance Poets don't even make a distinction between the two.

WG: What are some of those similarities? Are there poems that you think work as performance pieces that don't work on the printed page?

NS: I think the answer to that question largely depends on an individual writer's sense of poetics and aesthetics. For me, my primary concern when I'm working with a new piece is: "what's the message I'm trying to convey?" And then, "what's the best form I can use to convey the message?" There are fundamental principles of poetry that I think are vitally important: A good performance poet still needs to be well read in the classical poetic cannon, and I also think it lends itself well to be able to know about traditional forms of poetry and be able to write them. I'm largely self taught, save for one creative writing class as an undergraduate, but I made sure that I was able to write in those traditional forms as well, and I read as much poetry as I write. A good performance piece takes the next step and thought is placed into how the poem sounds as it comes out of the poet's mouth... So thought is placed into emotion and again, how the poet wants to make the audience feel at the end of the piece.

I think poems that are traditionally structured in length (Sonnets, Sestinas, Pantoums) are more difficult to work as a performance piece, but I also think it depends on the poet because I can think of three poets off the top o f my head that have poems that are structured in form that are brilliant performance pieces.

WG: In a lot of ways what you describe is similar to what poet Jim Ferris describes in his attempt to formulate an aesthetic and theoretical groundwork for crip or disabilities poetry. I'm wondering how you feel Spoken Word poetry fits into the overall concept of a disabilities poetry. What can it contribute?

NS: I think the disability community is just coming to a point where we as members are able to tell our stories (thanks largely in part to Social Media and the internet) and I think Spoken Word is a good vehicle to tell our stories in a very powerful way. I think a good effective spoken word piece tells a powerful unflinching story.

WG: So for you spoken word is essentially storytelling?

NS: No--Spoken Word Poetry is not essentially storytelling. Spoken Word poetry IS Poetry-- Poetry that demands that greater attention be placed on how it is performed. Often, Spoken Word Poetry is performed on a stage before it is seen on paper. There is an equal amount of attention given to the crafting of the writing and the crafting of the performance, so as much as literary poetry tells a story, so does spoken word. As much as literary poetry takes a snapshot of nature, or a moment in time, or describes the the most beautiful object or the ugliest object, spoken word does all these things. And if spoken word is done well, it has the potential to draw an entirely different audience to poetry than a traditional literary poetry reading does.

WG: Let's talk a bit about your upcoming CD. What is it like? What was it like to make it?

NS: As far as the creative process of the album is concerned, as I became immersed in Spoken Word rather quickly, I knew that if I wanted to give my perspective of disability a voice, I had to record an album-- an album is to Spoken Word as a book of poetry is to a literary poet-- and so with that, I went in search of producers in the community that I respected and admired. I had heard the work of Aaron Evans, who is probably one of the top 10 independent hip-hop producers in the nation as well as a major proponent and activist towards the legalization of medical marijuana, what it would take to put a spoken word album out. He was very gracious enough to record my album for me for free-- something to this day, I am still stunned by. He had a portable studio that we were able to set up in my bedroom, and we recorded the 10 tracks over two sessions. Like a musical artist records tracks over and over again to get the best vocal quality, so does a spoken word artist-- each word is practiced for vocal quality, inflections, intonations etc, so in some respects this was a very painstaking process for him and me. After I was recorded, he then went home and mixed the tracks together so the best vocal quality from each take could be blended together. This took many hours.

We are now at a vital step in the process. In order for the CD to hit the hands of the people, we need to raise $1500 to press (copy) the album. We launched a KickStarter Campaign at Noon Pacific Time on Tuesday, February 21 which will run approximately until the 2nd week in April.

WG: Who are some of the poets whose work has influenced your own? Do you feel more of an influence from one community or another -disability poetry, spoken word, etc.

NS: Anne Sexton, Rachel McKibbens, Tshaka Campbell (UK), Camille Dungy (who critiqued a draft of one of my very early pieces)., and Jericho Brown. I would certainly feel there has been less of an influence from disability poetry and more from the spoken word community, but also three of the poets listed above are not spoken word poets. I have very far reaching and eclectic tastes.

WG: What was your earliest introduction to disability poetry and how did that influence your work?

NS: My first exposure to disability poetry would have to be Jim Ferris' The Hospital Poems. It was the first time I had seen my similar experiences written on a page. Growing up, I was taught not to have feelings about a lot of things, and so a lot of things I had experienced at the hands of the medical community, I simply didn't know how to explain or express them at all. So Ferris' work was definitely the first part of a journey for me.

WG: What advice would you give a writer with a disability who wanted to learn to write and perform spoken word poetry?

NS: Again-- Spoken Word Poetry IS poetry, the emphasis is placed, however, on the performance of the piece in addition to the writing of it. So as I mentioned before, a solid foundation in the writing and craft of poetry is essential. You should be grounded in a wide variety of poets from the traditional literary cannon as well as have a foundation in modern poetry. Certainly having a solid understanding of form wouldn't hurt either. Before moving into spoken word and adding the additional aspect of performance into my work, I had been writing steadily for five years. Writing, Workshopping, taking classes- honing my craft. To prepare your work for the stage, its important when your drafting a poem you determine who your audience is and what the point of your poem is. If you don't have a point, and you don't know your audience, you've lost them when you get on stage. You HAVE to be able to connect with them when you're doing spoken word. You have to have a cadence that allows your audience to see the emotions behind the work.

WG: Well, good luck with your CD, Nathan, and thank you for taking the time for the interview.