I’m
really excited to share this interview with you because it’s one I actually got
to do in person—Jeanette Powers is a poet right here in my hometown, Kansas
City. She’s become a fixture in KC’s
vibrant art and literary scene. She
wears many hats: poet, spoken word performer, mathematician, painter and
tireless promoter for the arts. She just
released her second volume of poetry, the delightfully titled Earthworms & Stars. Her first volume of poetry, Absolute Futility, came out in
2012. I can’t wait to see her new work!
Let’s
get to it:
Lauren: Tell us about your new
work. Is it very different from Absolute Futility?
Jeanette: It’s much shorter than my previous work and
there are no older poems. Everything is
new. Earthworms
& Stars is a very experimental work.
It’s all absurdity. There’s no
narrative structure. I’ve had a lot of
people congratulate me on getting a new book published, but I don’t measure
success by it. Today, success for
writers comes in many different forms.
Maybe it’s publishing a book, but it could also be five million YouTube
views.
Lauren: Earthworms & Stars is part of a poetry series. Tell us about that.
Jeanette: It’s the first
of a project called Twelve Poets in
Twelve Months to be released throughout 2015. It’s something that Jason
Ryberg, who’s also a Kansas City poet and my best friend, and I came up with
one day while we were getting drunk and hanging around the bookstore. I started going to Prospero’s [Bookstore] when
I was nineteen. We thought we’d gather
twelve poets who’ve been in the KC scene for the past twenty years and publish
them as a series. We got a grant
underwriter and raised enough money to publish the books through Spartan Press. We’ve almost got all twelve poets lined up
for the year. All the book covers will
be selfies. Their bio photos are going
to be photo booth shots. Creativity is
encouraged. But we wanted the books to
reflect the ethic.
Lauren: Do you think your love of
absurdity ties into your mathematics background?
Jeanette: Yes, I think of myself as a logician
philosopher more than anything else. I’m
a very logical person. I’ve always been
great at math, from a very early age. I
love physics even though I’m terrible at it, which is why I quit the master’s
program. Left handed absurdity is my
passion. It’s how I frame my
poetry. But if you want to read my whole
life’s work, read Absolute Futility
Lauren: When did you become a poet?
Jeanette: I began
writing seriously when I was nine. I was
terrible at it, but it was something I always wanted to do. I wanted to be an astronaut and a writer, a
mathematician and a poet.
Lauren:
What about painting?
Jeanette: That’s just a hobby.
Lauren: Are you from KC originally?
Jeanette: Yes, born and
raised in KCK. But I love the whole
city, both sides of the state line. I
think when people ask which side of the state line you’re from, they’re really
asking, ‘Are you from Johnson County?’
I’m not, I’m from the Dotte. I’m proud
to be from there. We keep it real.
Lauren: You’re on KC’s first
ever slam team. What’s that like?
Jeanette: It’s been a
whirlwind. I haven’t had time to
feel. We’ve been doing fundraising, producing,
practicing. I’ll feel afterwards. But we’re not technically the first slam
team—KC had one in 2004. They were
certified and registered and everything, but for some reason it fell
through. They ended up not going to
nationals. We are the first KC slam team
to actually compete at nationals, which will be held in Oakland, CA. So far, we’re doing great. We won both interstate competitions, one in
Nebraska and one against an Arkansas team.
Lauren: How did you get into slam
poetry?
Jeanette: Slam poetry is new for me. I only got into it in August 2014. Absolute
Futility has no slam poetry pieces; Earthworms
& Stars has four, including “Breaking Plates,” which I’ve been
performing for the KC slam team. I love
the performance aspect. I’m a total
adrenaline junkie, which is ridiculous, because I suffer from panic
disorder. I love riding the rip cord at
Worlds of Fun. I want to go bungee
jumping. I think it would be awesome to
go zip lining through the jungle. But
I’ve always performed. I think it’s just
another part of communication. Public
speaking never daunted me. I’ve always
done gallery showings, and of course, I taught.
Lauren: How has slam poetry affected
your writing?
Jeanette: With slam
poetry, I’m working to expand my subject range.
There’s a lot of political slam poetry out there, a lot of white
guilt. Of course, I have to write about
things I care about. I have feminist
poems. It’s been an interesting
discovery process. For a few months, I
wrote nothing but slam poetry, now I’m back to absurdist. “Breaking Plates” is an absurdist poem.
Lauren: Oh, I thought it was a feminist
poem!
Jeanette: A lot of people do. For me, it’s not. Remember, the refrain of the piece is, “Grandpa says,” a man. Most people need to assign some sort of
meaning. For me, that poem is about
destroying everything in your life once in a while. I think that’s how you grow. Most people aren’t willing to do it. I don’t know that many happy people.
Lauren: Who are your favorite writers?
Jeanette: My favorite
writers are Margaret Atwood, Wislawa Szymborska and Rilke. I read a lot of poetry. It inspires me and broadens my ideas. I read and watch a lot of slam poetry. I love Dominique Christina and Buddy
Wakefield. I also love Vincent van Gogh’s
letters to Theo. Reading those changed
my life, my entire ethic. I sleep with
that book by my bed.
Lauren:
What are you reading right now?
Jeanette: Right now, I’m
reading Anis Mojgani’s poetry and the Game
of Thrones series. It’s
awesome. I don’t own a TV, so pulp
fiction is my entertainment. In addition
to poetry, I read a lot of nonfiction.
I’ve started a new routine. I’m
hoping to gain more discipline. My
routine is working out and reading. I
have a bone condition. I’m unable to absorb
Vitamin D. I’ve had seventeen broken
bones and other minor traumas. There’s
no medication for it. My only treatment
option is to lift weights. So I’m doing
that. I’m also trying to read more. I take hour-long baths and read. It’s joyful.
So far, I’ve read five books in the last two months.
Lauren: The bone condition-- is that
what your tattoo means? [Jeanette has a tattoo on her upper arm, “Punished
Enough.”]
Jeanette: No, that’s
because I’m a masochist. I punish
myself. I also have a tattoo on my calf
of a shark eating its own tail. I have a
Pokemon character that my daughter designed.
There’s a bunch more, lots of ink.
Lauren: What does your writing process
look like?
Jeanette: For the first nineteen
years, I always wrote in notebooks. I
wrote so slow, there were no drafts. I
wouldn’t put a line down until I knew exactly what I wanted to say. Now I just write my ideas in a notebook
first—flooding the page with ideas. I
rip them out, type them up on the computer and arrange them. Then I print them and start to memorize.
Since
slam poetry and spoken word performances are better memorized, it has really
changed the way I write. Something may
sound great on the page, but that doesn’t mean it works in a performance. So I alter it to facilitate memorization and
performance—I give myself triggers to remember the next line. Sometimes, a poem will change on-stage just
for one night, for that particular audience.
The poems are never finished.
Lauren: You’ve been writing since you
were nine. How do you feel your work has
changed over the years?
Jeanette: It’s definitely evolved. It’s less autobiographical, less
obscure. For the most part, my poems are
shorter now. My poetry is more
deliberate. I feel like I actually have
something to say. I didn’t start going
to readings until I was eighteen. I had
years of writing under my belt, but I didn’t understand that I wasn’t
communicating anything. It wasn’t until
I went to a reading and heard real poets that realized how much I sucked. I wrote a poem called, “Little Jenny Sue,”
which was advice to my younger self.
I’ve changed a lot since then. I
attained some self-recognition.
Lauren: What would you say are the recurring
themes in your work?
Jeanette: Mythology,
persona poems, absurdity. No love poems.
Lauren: When you’re not writing and
performing, you work at the Uptown Arts Bar.
What do you do there?
Jeanette: I’m the general manager and booking
agent. I’ve been there since October
2013. I’m a total workaholic.
Lauren: Besides the slam team, what
other projects do you have going on?
Jeanette: I’m the
producer at Poetic Underground. I’ve
been doing that since July 2013.
Basically, I help hold it all together, all the behind-the-scenes stuff,
bringing big acts to KC.
Lauren: I feel like most artists have
to have a lot of jobs. What else have
you done?
Jeanette: I’ve been a server, a tutor, a
bartender. I also taught grad level
physics at KU.
Lauren: Quite a range.
Jeanette: Again, I’m a
workaholic. It’s a coping
mechanism. In some ways, it’s no
different than drinking. It’s a negative
obsession.
Lauren: What are your plans now?
Jeanette: A dream I have right now is to bring big-name
poets to Kansas City. We’re bringing
Pages Matam in this month. I hope one
day to bring in someone like Margaret Atwood.
But next year, I probably won’t try to get on the slam team. I need to take some time off for my own
mental well-being. I’m setting
boundaries—not to limit myself, but to see what all I can be.
Thanks, Jeanette! Best of luck with the new work and the slam
competition!
As always, please feel free to leave
questions/comments below.
Jeanette Powers Bio
Jeanette Powers is a poet painter who fancies herself immune to the drudgeries of adult life. She can be found living as performance art in Kansas City. She wears broken shoes and collects questionable artifacts from the city life around her. Her resume may be quite astonishing, math and physics degrees, poetry lecturer and performer, numerous art openings, broke her arm while dancing, winner of the Curator's Award at the Fermi Lab's ART Gallery in 2010, winner of the medal for the Best Mathematician in her graduating class in college and notorious bed hopper; but that is all less interesting than spending the evening with her.
To
purchase Absolute Futility, click here.
Friend
Jeanette Powers on Facebook (she pretty much accepts all friend requests)
Twitter:
@poundkc, #Showmeshowup
