We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alex Petunia. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alex below.
Alex, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
At first I thought I should have taken my creativity more seriously sooner. I always enjoyed writing as a kid but put it aside to focus on my nursing career. Being a nurse has taught me how to invite healing with my hands and kindness with my presence, and how to use my voice to advocate for my team and my patients. Yet, nursing was challenging and burning me out. My healing hands revisited the pen. Writing became my self care for staying centered and hopeful. I never thought I’d be a published writer. I started to take poetry more seriously the more I wrote and performed at open mics. In 2019, I enrolled in the Community Literature Initiative (CLI) Poetry Publishing Program where I got feedback as I created my first poetry manuscript. In the second semester, COVID hit. Our pens became our means for processing the rapidly changing world around us. Were it not for community and my pen keeping my spirit nourished, I would not have survived the pandemic as a healthcare worker. I would not have finished my book either, but I did. My first poetry collection “Tending My Wild” came out in 2021 through World Stage Press. Pandemic didn’t take away my dream.
Someone at a virtual mic once called me the “Nurse Poet”, a title I cherish with sincere gratitude and deep respect. I wondered, “What could a lil nurse like me do for my community outside of my clinical skills?” The Sims Library of Poetry approached me to host a virtual reading in honor of healthcare workers. It was truly a full circle moment for me to host such a moving event where healthcare workers heard poems of gratitude directly from community. For this reason, I know my writing journey started right when it was supposed to.
I am thrilled to support my community both as a nurse and as a writer. As a writer, my pen invited me to cross a threshold into a deeper understanding of my soul purpose. I keep writing so my soul can breathe. With each breath, I try to be the best Nurse Poet I can be and inspire hope and healing wherever my pen takes me.
Alex, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am an imperfect human who once thought perfection was the dream. As a writer, I’ve learned that I am a multitude of identities and “imperfections” to be celebrated. My first poetry collection “Tending My Wild” explores my journey from overcoming domestic violence as a kid to becoming a nurse battling burnout to simply staying whole in a world that challenges who I want to be. I am queer. I am multiracial. I am a survivor. I am a love warrior. I’m an animal lover with two playful pups, a curious kitty, and a snuggly python. When I’m not in scrubs or on the mic, you might find me with binoculars birdwatching, enjoying deep dish pizza, eating my feelings with chips after a long work day, writing poems for trees, or diving into the ocean at sunset. I am grateful for how my pen has empowered me to celebrate all these parts of me. I hope my writing can spark the creative courage in others to celebrate themselves, too. In addition to my first poetry book, I am grateful for opportunities to build kinship through creative collaborations. While we had to isolate during the pandemic, I collaborated with the Los Angeles Poet Society to start the virtual poetry mic One Mic One Globe and the monthly writing series Meditation Monday. Our goal was to foster brave expression and connection to overcome the isolation. I am very grateful to continue facilitating Meditation Mondays. This virtual community space occurs on the second Monday of each month. We breathe, journal, write poetry, share if it feels right, and close with affirmations to keep us committed to our writing goals. It’s been a tender community space and a unique experience every month. I also co-facilitate Writers in the Wild with the Los Angeles Poet Society where we hike an area of LA and write with nature. I’m grateful to be able to explore and connect with writers and our planet in these ways.
What I’m most proud of is that I didn’t give up on my vision and that I let my pen be my guide. I’m proud that I’ve kept shapeshifting into who I want to be and grateful for the loving writing community that has joined me along many pen adventures. Some of these adventures include braving open mics and stages across the U.S. and even Paris. I am honored to be a part of the Infinite Poets collective, which performed at the LA Hollywood Fringe Festival as 2022 scholarship recipients and at the 2023 NYC Poetry Fest. I have put on poetry writing workshops at schools and have been deeply moved by the powerful expression of our youth. I curated the Sacred Heart Poetry Wall at Holy Grounds Coffee & Tea where I coordinated with 33 wonderful poets to build a poetry art installation for the cafe patrons. I love tabling events where I can bring smiles to strangers by typing up one-of-a-kind poems for them with my little pink typewriter Ponderosa P. My typewriter and I recently brought smiles to the WYCA community in San Pedro at their Wellness Fair. As a survivor of domestic violence, it was an honor to share poetry alongside many community organizations that were bringing important resources for health and wellness into one space for those who needed it.
My hope is that wherever I poet, my wild heart can connect with the heartbeat in others to ignite the creative power in us all. My writing strives to awaken others to our interconnected purpose so that we can nurture a brighter future for each other and our planet.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
A lesson I had to unlearn was that in order to live out my dreams, I cannot be everything to everyone. I am someone who is easily distracted by lengthy to-do lists and often put others’ needs before mine. I set an intention to create a poetry collection that might inspire others, but, first, I had to be the biggest motivator for myself. I knew that no one could write my story like me and I owed it to myself to finish what I had started. As I wrote “Tending My Wild”, I was writing about my trauma. At times I was in a vulnerable head space raw with memories. I grew up witnessing my mother experiencing domestic violence. I became the protector of my siblings. I learned to stay quiet and stay small so as not to cause an eruption in our home. I was a pillar for my mom when we finally escaped the abuse. Writing this book became a way for me to be unafraid to relive the painful memories of the past, recognize my resilience, and find strength in sharing how far I’ve come.
As I worked on this book, I had to be fully present with myself and my pen. My book happened because I stayed firm in the boundaries needed to commit to the hours/months/years that it took to write it. I had to face all the ways I self sabotage and unlearn those patterns. I had to say “no” to what was not serving my writing goals. This meant I could no longer stay quiet and stay small. I had to advocate for myself when I needed uninterrupted creative space. Sometimes “No” meant running away to the woods to finish my manuscript and saying “yes” to the space that was necessary for me to process and heal. I had to be bold with my voice. I had to brave the mic aloud with my story. I dove into all of this with curiosity, self-compassion, determination and patience. I stayed in tune with my writing needs through regular practices like journaling, reading, drumming, attending workshops, exploring writing residencies and sitting in stillness with nature. Carving out the time and asserting my boundaries are still practices I’m working on, but I’m so glad I found a way to honor my needs and accomplish this book dream.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Fund artists and arts programming in communities. Make learning the arts accessible for all. Creatives are change makers and culture bearers. A poet may share the right words that can build bridges and create solutions. A poet may even offer the words that save a life. If society invested more into the arts, we would then recognize the everlasting impact of artists in shaping our future. When it comes to funding, there is no one formula for all artists to follow. Some creatives have found a pathway where their art can sustain them. I am a working artist. Most creatives I know are working multiple jobs to support themselves and their families. I have performed my poetry for free in many spaces alongside other wonderful performers. I am also grateful for the paid opportunities as well. My poetry isn’t my main source of income and that may change one day. For now, I rely on work outside of my writing to support myself. It’s a hard balance to put a price on my poetry when so much of it comes from my heart, but it’s important to know our worth as creatives and advocate for ourselves. There are spaces when sharing a poem is an energy exchange and it is a beautiful experience regardless of pay. But poets cannot poet for free all the time. Poets deserve to thrive, too.
When an artist names a price, there is a reason for that price. If we paid creatives for all the time, skill, supplies and energy put into creating even just one poem, one song, one painting, I wonder what kind of world it would be. We may never know everything it took to create the art that moves us. It is so important to consider what it takes to survive these days and honor the artist’s needs.
One day, I envision a world where the “starving artist” concept no longer exists. I see that future being a vibrant place of honest expression, collective envisioning, and so much wonder. I know there are resources out there that can make this possible. I envision society valuing and supporting creatives for their passions because it is the artist who keeps us believing in our own dreams. It is the artist who grounds us. It is the artist who shifts perspectives and awakens change. Funding the arts means investing in a future where we all thrive together.
Contact Info:
- Website: linktr.ee/Poeticpetunia
- Instagram: @thepoeticpetunia
- Other: Buy “Tending My Wild”: https://www.worldstagepress.org/product/tending-my-wild/ For booking, email: [email protected]
Image Credits
Roberto Hernandez Brian Fox Bernadette Trubatisky