Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Florence-Susanne Reppert. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Florence-Susanne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My parents taught me a lot over the years. My mother is the entire reason I fell in love with poetry in the first place, she always encouraged me to read (except for the time she duct-taped my bookshelf backwards to the wall, the only punishment that actually was effective ha-ha!) My mother always encouraged my art, no matter what my craft of the month was. She taught me how to escape through books and music and I do it so often.
My father, on the other hand, wasn’t in tune with the arts. But he taught me some of the greatest practical life lessons that I adhere to, to this day. The most important one being that there is nothing on this earth more valuable than a job well done. Whether it was physical labor or art, don’t half-do a project. If you’re going to make something, make sure it’s done well. Every time I finish a project and sit back to admire what I’ve done, I always get a little memory of admiring the logs we stacked, or the deck we built.
3 other lessons I learned from them are,
1) never let anyone tell you your worth
2) If you’re going to cry over someone, make sure they’re worth the effort
3) There is always time for a dance party.
Florence-Susanne, 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?
Poetry has been a huge part of my life since I was a very young child, granted I mostly sat in my room writing small poems but once I got published at age 12 I had a hunger to do more. When I was in my early 20’s I started venturing out to open mics and my eyes were opened to so much talent after meeting hundreds of poets from all walks of life. After being accepted into the New Jersey poetry scene, I wanted to do something to give back to the community even if it was just in a small way. So the first thing I did was start Poetry as Promised literary magazine. The initial idea was just to have a small little magazine and publish a few writers. I delved into the flourishing poetry community on Twitter (Or X or whatever you want to call it) and ended up finding some of the most incredible writers from all over the world. What started with 14 pages, turned into 80 pages and hundreds of e-mails every submission period. I was blown away, often crying tears of joy with every person who shared their publication and gushed over the formatting. I don’t like bragging, humble or otherwise, but I am very proud with the work I put out each issue. One of the things that has enticed poets to submit to the magazine is the way I put the issue together. I value every kind of online magazine and I find a great importance in each one, but I wanted to do something different than just posting it online.
So I ran to our local art stores, and came home with Scrapbook paper, stickers, washi tape, and a metric ton of glue. Every poem is printed out, glued to a page that fits the content and decorated. It’s basically just an arts and crafts project but the way people have, in a way, gone feral over the format has warmed my heart.
Poetry tells a story, and the best way, to me, to tell that story is by adding visuals. It’s what I’m most proud of, the storytelling. I am truly grateful to everyone who has gotten published and has been vocal about their pages. There is no greater feeling than finishing a page and going “The poet is going to LOVE this”. And seeing them love it makes every hour spent hunched over my desk covered in glue and paper, one papercut away from a mental breakdown at 3am, worth it.
The second thing I did to give back to our local community was start Nowhere as Promised open mic. My partner and I had been to at least a hundred shows in our lifetime, some good, some not so good. We knew what we wanted to accomplish with our mic. 1) Providing a safe space for poets and other creatives to be vulnerable and share their work 2) Fostering a warm and welcome environment complete with delicious coffee and snacks and 3) Start a community filled with people who weren’t trying to grab for power that isn’t there. a community of people who built each other up. We were so lucky to have found Nowhere Coffee Co. Not only is the venue absolutely perfect for what the vibes we were going for, but the owners, Juan and Lauren, just so happened to be the most kind and loving people we have ever met. They aren’t just the owners of the venue, they are family.
Our first show had 5 people including my partner and I. We weren’t upset about it, we knew starting in the winter was a risk, and we knew with our first mic there wouldn’t be a lot of people. despite the small size we still had a great time! We knew eventually more people would come out, what we didn’t know at the time was how many would eventually start filling the seats (and more recently, the floors as well). Our last mic had nearly 40 people in attendance, which is huge considering the space we are in isn’t huge. We had 21 people sign up for the open mic and it was insane because Lauren and Juan let us stay an hour after we were supposed to end to ensure everyone had the time to go up! They even let us change the ending time of the event on our fliers because of how many people have been showing up. Honestly, they’re the best people in the world and we owe so much of our success to them. We are proud to know them, and every single person who comes out to the open mic. This event isn’t just mine, or my partners. It’s everyones. It belongs to every person who reads their work or just shows up watch. It’s for everyone who watches the live view of the event on Instagram. It’s not ours. It’s yours. We just set things up, but it doesn’t belong to us.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
To me the most rewarding part of any form of creation is finishing the job. Taking that step back, wiping the sweat from your brow and going “Wow…I made that”. Whether I’m writing, gluing pages for other people, or painting, there is nothing more satisfying than finishing the art and feeling proud of what I’ve created. The only thing that is better is when you put it out into the world and people react positively to it.
I just feel like the creation itself is more rewarding at the end of the day. We don’t go into art to make money (I mean, money is great so please if you can, monetarily support your local artists) but we do it for ourselves. To make art is to make life. Create for the sake of creating.
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 quickly unlearn was that not everybody has the best intentions, and despite how angry that makes you, there is no reason to feed into it. Sometimes you have the practice the art of letting go. It’s not easy, trust me I know better than most, but getting angry only ends up hurting yourself. You can be mad, but let it go. I’ve learned that as long as you know who you are, and the people you surround yourself with know who you are, then just let it roll off your shoulder. There is not a single person alive worth ruining your inner peace over. I had to learn this one the hard way. Finding peace is recognizing that not everyone is a good person, and you have to look after yourself and take care of your own heart. People are going to make their own judgements about you on their own, as I said before, you know who you are. Love yourself, don’t feed into the hate. You’ll solve a lot more problems with kindness and love than you will with vengeance and hate.
Secondly, don’t let anyone tell you your worth. Whether it’s about you, or your art, never ever let anyone tell you that you’re not good enough. You can do anything you want; art is subjective and so is the human condition. You belong anywhere you want to be, and again, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. And don’t let your mind trick you into thinking it towards yourself. You’re worth more than you think.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://poetryaspromisedsu9.wixsite.com/poetryaspromisedmaga
- Instagram: Schizo_trash_poet and Poetryaspromised
- Twitter: Schizotrashpoet and PAPS_Lit_Mag