Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Leanne Grabel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Leanne thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I was a very shy child and young woman. I am not sure I ever was able to stand in front of a class and give a presentation, when I was a girl, without sputtering into embarrassed giggling that disallowed me even continuing. I was afraid to speak out in college, also, although this is where I realized writing was something that came relatively easily and was the perfect vehicle for expression for someone whose “tongue had been taken by the cat.”

Then, when I was in my early 20s, I decided to buck up and be brave. When I went to my first poetry open-mic at age 24, I was so moved by the poets who were absolutely dancing to their words–their very revealing, emotional, glorious words–that I faced my fears. Within three months, I put my name on the reader list. The first time I read, the paper was absolutely burping in the breeze created by my shaking hands. But as I shared my very revealing, emotional, and hopefully, glorious words, I soon relaxed. I felt like this was absolutely the greatest thing I had ever done. I felt calm.

A few years later, when I was about to turn 30, I went back to school to become a high school teacher in the public schools. I thought that this would be another effective way to slay my timidity. A high school teacher has to perform every day in front of dozens of judgy teens. Of course, my early teaching career ended quickly when my administrator called me out for assigning inappropriate essay topics. Frankly, I thought I was just asking the students to write the truth. Anyway, I resigned. And I did not return to public school teaching for 25 years.

Now it has been nearly 50 years (shocking!!) since I stood at my first microphone to share the intimate details of my life–guts, heart, soul. I’ve collaborated with many other artists–dancers, musicians, visual artists. I also use an electronic keyboard to back myself up. And astonishingly, this has become my happy place–at a mic in front of an audience.

I still am a nervous wreck before I perform, even 50 years in. But when I see those audience faces enraptured by my performances–when they laugh and cry and want to stick around afterward to share words of hearty acceptance and encouragement, well, it’s the best. I remember my mother saw one of my multi-media performances just before she passed away 10 years ago. She absolutely could not believe I was up there in front of a crowd speaking out, dancing, singing.

So I took the risk, conquered my shyness, and devoted my life to performance poetry. And did I mention, I went to college on a math scholarship?? Quite a dramatic leap from one side of the brain to the other, right?

Leanne, 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 can keep this very short. Everything I have written–from poems to essays to full-length memoirs, graphic memoirs, graphic poetry, as well as one-woman shows and multi-media shows–has explored a difficult, albeit universal, human struggle. I have explored motherhood and the struggles a writer goes through, needing solitude to write but having small children who demand constant attention. I have explored chronic depression, anger, rape, teaching locked-up teenage girls who have lived the most horrendous lives of abuse, politics and now aging. And as we move into this next horrendous period in America, I am drawing and writing about American society.

When I teach my flash memoir classes, I get my students to just tell the truth. No secrets. And to be concise, carefully choosing the least amount of words to express themselves. I consider flash memoir to be prose poetry, really. No blathering. I truly think “flash” writing is the perfect genre for now as people’s attention spans grow shorter and shorter. I was so surprised to read recently that many kids show up at college without ever having read a complete book. What??!!

There is nothing more relieving and satisfying than telling one’s stories and being completely honest in so doing. We are all bozos on this bus. Not sure who said that, but really. What is there to hide?

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Well, I’ve already written about this above, but I am just here to tell the truth. And in so doing, I hope to allow others to do the same. There is so much lying these days, yikes. I recall a quote by the writer Robert Stone who said that he wrote to make “others less lonely.” I love that. I also add humor to everything I write, no matter how serious the topic. (In another life, I would have pursued comedy.)

When I wrote my two books on rape, the most gratifying piece was doing a reading and then having mostly women come up afterwards to tell me that my sharing of my trauma gave them the strength to start sharing their trauma. We have to get these “bad” things off of us and out of our body. That is my theory. And that is what has made me more and more resilient.

Plus, turning trauma into art allows a person to step back and not suffocate in horrible memories. Do you know what I mean? We need to take that step back so as not to drown. And art is creation. Perfect. Art completely flips the switch.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I know that some people think I share too much. TMI. And truthfully, I don’t think there is such a thing as TMI. I mean, from whom are we hiding?

Perhaps I have a lack-of-boundaries problem, but as I’ve said above, who are we fooling when we try to hide the truth? All you have to do is look at a hider’s face to know she is hiding something.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://leannegrabel.com
• Instagram: @poetryleanne
• Facebook: Leanne Grabel

Image Credits

Leanne Grabel
Steve Sander