We were lucky to catch up with Andrea Thompson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve enjoyed reading, hearing and writing poetry for as long as I can remember. I think I ‘became’ a poet as a child, when I realized that the art form was not only beautiful to experience as audience, but that writing and sharing poetry was also a powerful way to process emotions.

Even though my path as a poet was clear to me at an early age, it took a long time for me to settle into it as a vocation. This seems to be pretty common for many creatives. We know at a young age what we want to be when we grown up, but shy away from it, reverting to a “more practical” plan B, because our more heart-felt plan A seems too unrealistic.

That was the path for me as an artist. I spent a long time working in the area of social services, and later arts administration before I finally made the decision to make my creative work a priority.

Since that time, I’ve continued to do other work to help support myself. I work as a freelance editor and I facilitate creative writing workshops in a variety of community settings, as well as through the University of Toronto, where I teach their first credit course in Spoken Word Poetry.

But all these “side hustle” gigs have one thing in common: they all help develop my life as a creator and feed my desire to share the power of this art form with others. Now, the love of poetry comes first.

Andrea, 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?

In 1996 I was featured in the award-winning documentary, Slamnation as a member of Canada’s first national slam poetry team, in 2006 I was host of the critically acclaimed Bravo TV series Heart of a Poet, and recently I was featured on Yes TV, Global TV Toronto and QR 107 FM Calgary for my latest spoken word album exploring the intersection of Black history and faith, The Good Word.

 Over the years, I’ve received a few awards and honours for my work. In  2009, I received the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word’s Poet of Honour. In 2005 my spoken word album, One, was nominated for a Canadian Urban Music Award, in 2019 my album, Soulorations, led to a League of Canadian Poet’s Golden Beret Award, in 2021 I was the recipient of the Pavlick Poetry Prize, and in 2022, my poetry collection, A Selected History of Soul Speak was shortlisted for the Robert Kroetsch Award for Innovative poetry, and longlisted for the Pat Lowther and Raymond Souster awards

 I also have a real passion for using poetry and performance as a tool for emotional wellness and to help develop self-esteem. Since the lat 90s I’ve taught spoken word and poetry to vulnerable and disenfranchised folks of all ages the country, working with organizations like the Canadian Centre for Mental Health, the Hospital for Sick Children’s eating disorder and substance abuse programs.

 As an educator, I’ve written academic essays on the art of spoken word, and have taught at Brock University, OCAD University, and recently taught and designed the first spoken word course through the University of Toronto’s Department of English & Drama.

 I’ve also written a novel, called Over Our Heads, and have recently begun creating electronic music and videopoems to accompany my work with a YouTube collection called Complex, which explores issues around mental health.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Poetry has been at the centre of my life for as long as I can remember. My first experiences of poetry were with my grandparents, who raised me after my mother died of an overdose when I was six years old. My grandparents’ house was full of books, and poetry was elevated as the most noble and soulful of art-forms. While both my grandparents were avid readers, it was my grandmother – with her penchant for bursting into verse, who ignited my love for the sound of poetry spoken aloud. As a young brown-skinned girl growing up in a white family, in a predominately white neighborhood, poetry became my refuge when I felt alone or misunderstood or unable to process my grief or the shadow of PTSD that haunted me from neglect in infancy.

As I grew older, poetry became a tool for empowerment – a way to overcome the frustration I felt at my inability to speak up for myself. As a young woman becoming aware of issues of social justice around me, poetry became a way to write truth to power as well. I began to write about racism, sexism and other forms of cultural oppression. All the while, writing continued to be a tool for self-soothing, a self-prescribed medicine to help me cope with feelings of chronic depression, anxiety and low self-esteem.

I found my way to the stage by accident. It was the early 90s. I had just moved to Vancouver, and volunteered to host a radio show as a way to occupy my spare time and make friends. I was terrified of being on air, so volunteered to report on poetry event around town. A woman who hosted a reading series would ask me each week if I wanted to share, and each week I’d say no. Eventually her persistence wore me down and I got up on the open stage and read my work. I mumbled and shook and did everything you shouldn’t do in a poetry performance, but afterwards I was elated. Not only had I defeated my fear of speaking up, but to my astonishment others seemed to be able to relate to the thoughts and feelings I had expressed.

When I began my career as a spoken word artist in my late 20s, I was fascinated by the possibilities the form allowed. I began teaching and working with literary organizations to support myself, while exploring the seemingly endless ways I could combine music, theatre and visual art with spoken word. Being on stage gave me a new way to relate to the world and gave me tools to overcome my feelings and inability to connect with others.

As I began to approach middle age, teaching began to occupy more of my time and attention. I loved watching students go through the process of finding their voice. I knew that if I could find a way to share my words with the world – anyone could. Over the years I have taught in a multitude of environments, from grass-roots organizations to universities. But my passion has always been for helping those who feel marginalized and silenced. It’s an honour to be able to watch people use language to develop a sense of connectedness and self-confidence.

I’ve devoted most of my life energy to the art of poetry, and in return it has inspired, nurtured, nourished and sustained me. Some time in my thirties I told my Grandfather that I was going to be a poet when I grew up. Though I said it in jest, he knew me well enough to know I was serious. “It won’t be easy”, he said. My grandparents have since gone to spirit, but I still have the poetry books I inherited from them, and the framed copy of Robert Frost’s, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, that sat on my bedside table as a child.

As I look ahead to the years to come, I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I devoted it to a more lucrative occupation. Making enough to sustain myself has often been a challenge. I have lived below the poverty line for many years and am still paying off the student loan that help me obtain my Master of Fine Arts.

My grandfather was right, it hasn’t always been easy to follow this path. But like ee cummings said in his 1955 essay, “A Poet’s Advice to Students”: It’s the most wonderful life on earth. Or so I feel.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Over the years, my focus as an artist has always been on spirituality, human rights and mental health. As a woman of colour, I’ve spent much time reflecting on the ways my race and gender show up in my relationship with the world and this has been reflected in some of the writing projects I’ve been involved in.

Through my work co-editing the anthology, Other Tongues: Mixed-Race Women Speak Out, I had the opportunity to reflect on not only my own experiences as a woman who identifies simultaneously as both Black and Mixed-race, but the collection also gave me the chance to help get the stories of other women out into the world.

With my most recent poetry book, A Selected History of Soul Speak, I shared work that reflected on my journey as a spoken word artist – from the shy, grief-ridden child with selective mutism, to a seemingly fearless spoken word artist with a passion for inspiring others. The collection also focuses on my passion for sharing the influence that Black literary history has had on the art of spoken word – from the slave songs of the old south, through the Harlem Renaissance of the 20s and Black Arts Movement of the 60s up to today. I love being able to share the path that leads from these early influences, right up to the slam poetry and hip-hop music of today. Everything in Black culture is interconnected in a way that I find fascinating.

With my latest album, The Good Word, I look at this historical interconnectedness again, but through the lens of faith, showing how Christianity has served as the backbone of Black culture in both North America and even in parts of Africa, all the way back to antiquity. The music on the album is brilliant, composed by my long-time collaborator, hip-hop recording artist, Evren OZ, it draws on gospel, jazz and blues to create a contemporary backdrop for poems that explore figures from Black history as diverse as Harriet Tubman, Mahalia Jackson, Martin Luther King, and my own ancestor, Cornelius Thompson who escaped slavery in the tobacco fields of the US to find freedom in Southern Ontario.

With my most recent project, Complex, I was able to blend my passion for mental health with elements of faith in a multi-media collection of video poems set to music that explore issues such as depression, narcissistic abuse and Complex PTSD. This project – recently released via my YouTube channel on National CPTSD awareness day on September 2nd, 2023 – is by far my most vulnerable work to date, but at the same time the most cathartic. In a way, creating that project took me back to my roots and my central mission as an artist: using poetry as a tool to both heal myself and to facilitate the healing of others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.andreathompson.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreathompsonpoet
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andreathompsonpoet

Image Credits
1. At the mic: Brenda Clews 2. Selfie 3. BIA Photography 4. Black & White, Terry Quinn 5. Soulorations (album cover) painting by Ilene Sova