I am a black poet.
One identifying quality certainly does come before the other and they fall in that order for me.
Black. Poet.
I think knowing where you stand, the place you live from is critically important in this time.
The world has devolved into a place where people find it fruitful to argue whether life, of any kind matters and black people are forced to defend their own existence. It seems conditioned in us as people and as artists to consider the "majority" perspective. That, too, is often an orchestrated narrative that dismisses free thinking and a person's unique view of the world. Cookie cutter, as my OG's would say.
As an artist I take pride in the fact that when I create I am essentially just riding an energetic wave. Letting a supernatural force carry me to wherever it needs to in order to amplify the highest truth. I always naturally come to the shore of blackness.
This idea has rested in the front of my mind as I experience a creative surge. In which, a lot of what I have written is really...Black lol. I found myself feeling like I was maybe "pigeonholing" myself or strumming the same note too much, so to speak. But why? Why would a black artist feel that way about creating black art?
The ancestor Toni Morrison came to mind during this time. In an interview with Charlie Rose (below for your viewing pleasure), she so eloquently describes why it is presumptuous to ask a black writer when they will start writing more about white people/the "larger life experience". She called it the "White Gaze" and talked about how adamantly she intended to avoid it as a centralized focus in her work.
She also delves a bit deeper into the subject in this book:
This juiced me up pretty good and I'll tell you why.
I think universal appeal is an idea that black artists have to consider more than most because the door rarely opens for you and when it does you have to be prepared to be asked to compromise your truth (even if you don't or won't) to squeeze through.
When I look at my story and the story of people that look like me I see the generations long history of it being stifled, rewritten, hidden or downright dismissed.
Someone has to tell the story truthfully, straight, raw.
This world can be hypercritical and vain. Its mask is usually one of "white" centricity and supremacy. If it doesn't see itself clearly enough in your work or doesn't like how there image is depicted in your truth it will say "you should write about everything, everyone" to be legitimized. The good 'ol passive aggressive, condescending All Lives Matter approach.
For me blackness is everything. It is that authentic place that I live from. The set of life experiences that have shaped me....beautifully. The only "everything" that will matter to me.
Now don't get me wrong. I study all colors and eras of the artform because I love it. I appreciate the greater perspective I gain on the ways art itself can impact life and shift consciousness.
I love Plath, Simic, Bukowski, Sexton, Dickinson, Milosz. These poet all have a cultural background that differs from mine and yet are some of the most remarkable artists I've ever interacted with and race is seldom thought of when reading them. They spoke from a place of such genuine truth. Their authentic truth. Because of this I was impacted immeasurably and authentically.
The skill and knowledge I acquire will be invested in honoring Black existence and experience for the same reasons....impact, genuine expression and access a deep universal thread that only appears when embracing where you stand.
I believe the Human Family stands to benefit more than it gives itself permission to realize.