“Our job is to record the human experience however beautiful, ugly, or indifferent.”
Wordsongs For Grandmas (Seven Kitchens Press, 2023)
Could you tell us a bit about your growing up and your path to becoming a writer?
When I was a little girl my mother read three books to me, Aesop’s Fables, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and Selected Poems by Nikki Giovanni. I was not influenced by literature because it shaped my very world. I wrote my first poem in the second grade as a creative writing assignment.
A question from Anna Laura Reeve: Do you understand your role in society—as a poet—to be influential, critical, observant, or something else?
Wordsworth said, “the objects of the Poet’s thoughts are everywhere; though the eyes and senses of man are, it is true, his favorite guides, yet he will follow wheresoever he can find an atmosphere of sensation in which to move his wings,” which means that the role of the poet is to be critical and observant, and something else altogether. Our job is to record the human experience however beautiful, ugly, or indifferent.
How do you contend with saturation? The day’s news, the disasters, the crazy things, the flagged articles, the flagged books, the poetry tweets, the data the data the data. What’s your strategy to navigate your way home?
I teach AP English Language, which is a course in rhetoric and that work requires access to media and current events but for my sanity, I limit myself to about an hour a week.
A question from Shome Dasgupta: How are you doing?
This is an awesome and appreciated question. I am somewhere at the end of a thirty-year career in education and about to embark on full-time writing and film and television production. I am excitedly terrified but relying on my faith in God to pursue this new path.
A question from Karisma Price: Do you have any self-care practices you include when writing about something heavy?
My poems come to me, not the other way around. I have pieces about very dark times in U.S. history and none of them came during the crises. I pray a lot and believe that I will not write the piece until I can handle it.
A question from Toni Ann Johnson: Why are you writing about what you’re writing about?
A lot of my work reflects the times but my book is a love letter to my grandmothers, who I miss dearly. I relive memories of them when I write about them but some of their pieces feature political messages from their time.
What obsessions led you to write your book?
I realized I finally had enough pieces for a chapbook!
How did you decide on the arrangement and title of your book?
I wanted my readers to begin with love and light because we rarely see them anymore and the sweetest thing I’ve ever written is “April’s Roundy.” I like to read it when I’m depressed. Everything else fell into place naturally. I’m rarely the speaker in my work so I tried to weave those pieces in and out to create a space to breathe and decompress from some of the harder pieces.
What’s the oldest poem in your book? Or can you name one piece that catalyzed or inspired the rest of the book? What do you remember about writing it?
“I Come Out de River” is the oldest piece. It is inspired by Devon Mihesuah’s The Roads of My Relations. Her novel is about one family’s travail and triumph through the Choctaw Trail of Tears.
Which poem in your book has the most meaningful back story to you? What’s the back story?
This is an impossible question! The most trivial in terms of a game of trivia poem is “One Night on San Carlos (a tribute to Hugh Masekela).” In it, I imagine the night Hugh Masekela came home with my dad after a nightclub gig. Legend has it that my mother wouldn’t let Mr. Masekela leave until he gave me a name. I enjoyed interviewing my parents about that night before I wrote the piece.
What was the final poem you wrote or significantly revised for the book, and how did that affect your sense that the book was complete?
The final poem is “History of the United States.” I wrote it during the summer of 2020, nuff said.
A question from Caroline M. Mar: What was the soundtrack of your book? Were there specific songs, musicians, or sounds that helped you access your writing?
I listen to a lot of American Indian Powwow songs when I write because I prefer to be influenced by the drum and not lyrics, and while some songs have lyrics and not vocables only, most of those lyrics are in tribal languages which do not distract me.
Is there a question you wish you would have been asked about your book? How would you answer it?
Nope.
A question from Lucien Darjeun Meadows: I’m always fascinated by ancestral lines, inheritances, and legacies. So, I would love to ask: What three (or so) authors, creatives, or works most influenced your collection? And/or, if readers are moved by your collection, who would you recommend we next seek out?
One day I will grow up and write like Nikki Giovanni and Rita Dove. I think about them often. I also think about my friend and mentor Lisa Alvarado. I teach her poem “Home” every year and every year I fan girl about having her number in my phone.
A question from Summer J. Hart: Do you work in any other artistic media? If so, how do the varied disciplines intersect, overlap, if they do at all?
I recently started a small business where I make fire polish glass beaded cowrie shell earrings. I didn’t think of my work as art until an elder and mother of an artist called me a designer. I name every pair I make, so I guess that’s an artistic overlap. I sold a pair of ‘Round the Way Rez Girl earrings today.
A question from Noreen Ocampo: What is something that fuels you as a writer, your writing practice, or just you as a human being?
The human condition never changes and although our technology advances by leaps and bounds, we continue to bless, curse, love, and hate each other. What fuels me is our consistency. We fail at treating each other right a lot. “History of the United States” is about this ferris wheel of behavior.
A question from Talia Lakshmi Kolluri: What tools do you use to remain uninhibited in your writing?
I remind myself of advice from a fellow teacher. I complained that I “suck at grammar,” and her response is, “You are a poet first. Your job is to break the rules of grammar to craft the story you want to tell.”
A question from Cathy Ulrich: What is the last dream you remember having? Do you remember the feeling your dream-self had while you were in that world?
I don’t share my dreams with strangers.
A question from Amy Barnes: What is your favorite fairy tale and how would you modernize it?
My favorite fairy tale is Little Red Riding Hood. I modernize it quite often in the classroom. Most fairy tales are cautionary to prevent children from dangers but Little Red Riding Hood is about the ills of bad parenting. Think about it; a mother sends her child alone in the woods, wearing a red cloak, carrying a basket of food. She threw her daughter to the wolves, pun intended.
A question from Monica Macansantos: Do you ever find yourself inspired or guided by your childhood in your work?
I relive my childhood and imagine alternative childhoods in my work.
A question from Monic Ductan: Who are your literary heroes? Why?
Gloria Naylor and Charles Johnson are my literary gods. Read Mama Day and Oxherding Tale. That is all.
What are you working on now?
I hope to finish the novel I promised would take me three months. That was eight years ago.
What question would you like to ask the next author featured at Speaking of Marvels?
What is your day job?
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Asani Charles, Choctaw/Chickasaw/African American, begins her days with the ringing of a school bell. She is a high school English teacher who enjoys teaching Post Modernism and Multicultural Literature. After a lifetime in their native Southern California, Asani and her family moved cross-country to Dallas, Texas, where she spends her weekends listening to American Indian radio and watching college softball. Her poetry has appeared in Yellow Medicine Review, Love You Madly; Poetry about Jazz, Indian Country Today, and the critically acclaimed Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas. She is the author of Wordsongs for Grandmas.
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