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HBO sits down with Def Poet Aulelei Love . . .
HBO:
How did you get into writing poetry?
Aulelei Love:
I don't think that I've ever been good at communicating in verbal words, so I would just write them out, because it gave me the time to think about what I wanted to say in depth - rather than just fly off the handle and speak. I wanted to think about it.
HBO:
How would you describe your poetic style?
Aulelei Love:
I think I would call it more of a confession rather than poetry. What I do is I try to make myself as naked as possible in my poetry so that when I'm performing it, you can feel it. You're not feeling it because oh, she has skills. You're feeling it because I feel like that. I feel like I'm supposed to write so that I can say the words that other people can't find. So, that's my poetic style.
HBO:
Where's your favorite place to write?
Aulelei Love:
My favorite place to write...hmm...anywhere. I don't have a favorite. I don't write with pen and paper any more. I write on the computer, because I hate my handwriting now, and I'm a kid of the technology. So my favorite place to write is in front of the computer.
HBO:
Have you ever written a poem down in a strange place?
Aulelei Love:
I used to work at a grocery store, and I used to steal the paper bags and write my poetry in the lunchroom on them, just because when it hits, you just try to grab anything that you can get your hands on, and it was big enough that I could just write my heart out.
HBO:
How do you know when you've nailed a poem? How do you know when it's good, it's great, it's ready. Can you describe that feeling when you put the pen down and you know it's right?
Aulelei Love:
I read it back to myself and I have to say it out loud. And I have to say it like I mean it - because each of these words I do mean. So when I read it back to myself, if I get warm inside, if I get that tingle inside, like this is my truth... that's when I know I made it. That's when I know, I wrote that, that I didn't try to add pretense to it. I just wrote naked poetry.
HBO:
What does writing do for you? Is it a way for you to vent, to fantasize? Why do you think you write poetry?
Aulelei Love:
I write poetry because you can say your truth. You can say, 'I have fat thighs,' and it not be weird. It's something that people can connect with. You know, your truth is my truth, and you just cut out all the pretense that in real life we try to hide. In poetry when you write it, it becomes art. When you write your truth out, when you write all your dirty little confessions, when you just be yourself, and human and flawed, it's art. And that's why.
HBO:
How did you become a part of the chosen few Def Poets?
Aulelei Love:
How did I become one? I sent in a videotape and they liked it? [LAUGHS]
HBO:
Well, how does it feel to be a part of the great tradition of Def Poets?
Aulelei Love:
It is an amazing feeling. Honestly, it's like being recognized by other poets, or other people, for what you do. And I don't want to say it validates you, but it makes you feel proud that someone else outside of your family - who's always going to say they like your writing - but someone else feels you, and appreciates what you write. So it feels amazing.
HBO:
Who are some of the poets you admire?
Aulelei Love:
I was thinking about this, and I think I'll go with June Jordan and Sylvia Plath. And the reason why is because what they both wrote - it wasn't pretty. They didn't write pretty poetry, they wrote real. Sometimes it was dark, sometimes it was funky, sometimes it was just the words that other poets don't want to say. It wasn't dressing it up - it wasn't dressing up depression, it wasn't dressing up poverty -- it was just explaining it. And it became art that way. That's what I try to do, and maybe I'm copycatting them, but hey, I'm putting it into the new generation.
HBO:
Tell us a little about the piece that you read for Def Poets - what inspired it, why you decided to read that one.
Aulelei Love:
"Same Cell" is a love poem for women in prison, and the reason why I chose this poem to do is because I don't feel like these women have a voice as much. And I wanted to put in perspective that when your life is taken away, when you're put in prison and you're taken outside of life, that you have to create your own life within these walls. And sometimes love comes in the form of a woman and it's not because you're gay, it's because you need love. And I wanted to write a poem that gave that perspective, that gave words to that life, to that situation. I wanted to tell the world that it's outside of the box sometimes. It's not - she's gay, she's straight. Sometimes it's a little confusing in between. So I chose this poem because I felt like it was the voice that needed to be heard.
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