We caught up with the brilliant and insightful JALYNN HARRIS a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
JALYNN, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Learning to write is a lifelong journey. There is no end. But there certainly is a beginning. My journey began in a book. My mother, a retired librarian, brought us to the library every day. At a young age, I browsed the stacks and picked out books to read. I loved the way words looked on the page. I loved the adventures each book took me on. I loved the binding, the cover art, the jacket copy. I loved every inch of the object and every day, returned to the library to meet more and more books.
The first book I remember writing and constructing was called, Peaches Tree’s Memories of A New Beginning. A simple 5th grade short story assignment that I made into a month-long book project. I wrote Peaches’ story every day. The book was a diary in the voice of a young Black girl who, like me, was homeschooled for much of her life but then entered public school for the first time at the end of elementary school. When I finished writing the book, I went to the Dollar Tree and bought a journal as red as a fire engine. From there I printed out every page of the story and glued them into the red journal. I carefully chose some clickArt on Word and created a cover with an image of a Black girl with her arms raised above her head positioned directly next to another Blakc girl reading a book. I taped that to the front of the diary, and voila! My first self-published book was born.
Even now, after earning a Masters in poetry and book design, I start every project in the same place: a book. I choose one as my model. My map. My guide to where I am going.
Challenges arise when I get in my own creative way. Whether it be my impatience or self-doubt. In these times, I step away from the work and reorient– why am I a writer? Why do I write? Well, The Work says, because I demand to be written!
Through this I am learning that the learning process cannot be sped up. Writing takes the entire time. I must write and rewrite. Only time and effort can teach me. Only being a friend to both will help me be a friend to myself.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a poet, book designer, and educator, born and raised in Baltimore, MD. I am also one of the youngest poets in The Best American Poetry 2022! I love poetry and believe it is for everyone. Everyone can enjoy poetry. Everyone can be healed through the logic a poem creates.
In 2019, I created SoftSavagePress, an independent publishing company promoting the literary works of Black people. Earlier that year my great aunt, Frances Gibson Curtis, locally known as one of Oxford, Maryland’s most beloved, passed away at the age of 97. I wanted to create something that honored her long life, so I decided to dedicate my first book project to her. Thus, my inaugural publication, Canary, was born. Canary is a literary magazine of Black femme expressions of joy across the African diaspora.
A year later, I finished writing my first book of poetry, Exit Thru the Afro. ‘Exit’ is a chapbook personifying the life and times of well-known and little-known Black queer and trans folks in media and history.
As an educator, I teach both at a local public school as well as online and in other capacities.
All book projects, including poetry posters I’ve designed are available at www.jalynnharris.com
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
Pay artists. As a writer (and specifically, in the world of poetry), there is this assumption that our passion for writing is enough pay. But it seems to me that poets are just like construction workers. We wake up. We consult with our tools. We build something. We hope it will be a good home, or at least, help the traffic along. And, ultimately, we expect to get paid for what we make.
Simply, if you want an artist to speak at your event, read their work, sit on a panel, make sure you also come bearing the gift of money. Because art is labor, too.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I want to unlearn the urge to be a careerist. Meaning, someone who believes that there is one path for me; one vision and, logically, one destination.
Careerism is an incredibly intoxicating (read toxic) proposition. Says, If you give to me for a long time, I will give to you, yourself on the platter of progress; the veranda of verifiability. But it is false. Full of circular reasoning. A career does not make you you. Nor does it promise stability. Instead, I can only hope that a life in American letters will allow me to exercise the artistic freakiness that consumes me daily. I give myself to the page because I am, like any spiritual weirdo, compulsed to praise because I am in awe of creation. In my case, I offer praise to the page. Still, like any spiritual weirdo, I have to be cautious of assuming a life in praise will yield a life made complete. I have to accept that I will never be complete. And I choose to love that, too.
In the arts, careerism is especially harmful–it’s distracting. It breeds unnecessary competition; it beckons the artist to prove that they are worthy of making art. But what makes an artist worthy of art is their desire to create. That is all. Simple, sneaky, slippery, snoring, snaky desire.
I want to unlearn perfectionism. In the 3rd grade I was told I had to go to see the school counselor. When I got to the office, she was in a room with a bunch of other 3rd graders. You all, she announced, are here for group therapy. Therapy? I thought, this will be a fun new class. She continued, You are all “perfectionists” and we’re going to work on your perfectionism issues. A frown spread across her face. I was shocked, I had never heard the word before. But it sounded a little like the word ‘perfect’. I liked the sound of that. I still do. I want to let that go.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jalynnharris.com
- Instagram: Jalynn_Poet
- Facebook: Jalynn Harris
- Twitter: Jalynn_DaLorde
Image Credits
Jalen Boston