She is open, engaging and provokes reflection in her writing and
in the empathy which emanates from her deep felt convictions. Her name is Carla
Cristopher, although poets know her as “The Priestess.” Carla is Poet Laureate
for York Pennsylvania and nominated for the Torch of Global Enlightenment Awards.
Poetry flows from her being as in these lines from “I will come for you:”
“In dreaming landscape
built and colored with impossibility,
in waking fantasy
thrumming with anticipated escape,
there find me…”
Upon hearing her recite some of her poem, we invited Carla to chat about her vision of art, politics and life.
Upon hearing her recite some of her poem, we invited Carla to chat about her vision of art, politics and life.
--How did poetry come
into your life?
--I wrote my first poem for the Reflections contest at my
elementary school in central Michigan. The moon was God's teardrop falling into
the ocean. I loved to read and I loved words from early on because I had a
mother who was the same way. Once I started writing poetry and music and
stories, I just never stopped. It was fantasy, possibility and a whole other
way of looking at the world. I liked how the world looked through the lense of
what could be.
--Poetry is a
wonderful means of expression. What is it for you?
--Poetry began as a way to self-discovery. To develop my own
possibilities. It then became a way to work through and to understand my
feelings and emotions and to process experiences. I then began to work through
other's experiences and the connections I felt with family, friends and those
who I met. Stories that I heard. Now, I write almost entirely social justice
poetry. I write to move, I write to move people. To preserve the history of
experience and emotion. To use the power of words to help other people know
they are not alone and that their experiences and stories have value.
--What are the main
issues which appear in your poetry?
--The main issues that I write about are the ones that have
become horrifyingly common in my audiences and that have provoked the most
powerful and moving responses from audience members. Domestic violence, sexual
assault, racial justice, self-acceptance, equality, the healing powers of love
and nature. I write the stories of people.
--Being named poet
laureate certainly must have come as a gratifying surprise.
--I was incredibly honored to be named Poet Laureate. The
process in York is quite exhaustive. You already have to be teaching, running
at least one venue, be published, teach a sample lesson, write customized
poetry and perform a mini-show as well as complete an interview before a panel
of local art community authorities and even the mayor. The night of my final
interview I was so nervous I almost didn’t go. That’s what I love about York,
though. It’s a large enough city to have culture, diversity and possibility but
it is a small enough town to give opportunity and the ability to make change
that would not otherwise be possible.
--How do you go about
writing? Are you method oriented, as Edgar A. Poe was or are you more
spontaneous?
--When I write deliberately
and personally, I prefer a long chunk of time and a peaceful, quiet place. I
put on some music with a slower, melodic pace. Jazz, folk, trance, classical...
Then I pull out ideas that I wrote spontaneously on napkins, in my phone etc
and develop them, play with them and let them come. Other times I will write
straight into my cell phone, or on a notebook page, my cell phone, or on a
notebook page or into my computer while at a poetry reading or a concert or
even at a red light. When it flows, it flows. I used to be much more at the
mercy of inspiration, although I have always written well in workshops and
writing classes when I could be surrounded by other creatives and reading the
great work of other poets. Then I learned about the Beat poets and spent six
months only performing poetry that I had written on the spot, about that moment
and informed by that moment. The discipline of writing on the spot, of using my
environment for inspiration, ensured that I almost never suffer from writer's
block! It was a poetic life, a changing experiment.
--Would you say that there
is a particular poetic sense for the Afro-American poets?
--Every African-American poet is of course different, but in
general, the African-American community of artists has made a point to be
informed by emotion and by current events and sensibilities as much as by form
and tradition. There is a spontaneous, creative and responsive nature to
African-American poetry and minority based on art in general that comes from a
legacy of survival and triumph that is ever present, even in our poems of love
and nature.
-- Do the rhythms of soul, jazz and expressions of Afro-American
culture influence your writing?
--In terms of rhythm, I am more informed by the
classical and traditional music I grew up singing as a choral performer or
moving to as a dancer. I have also always been fascinated by the passionate
pulse of the music and movement of Indian, Middle Eastern and North and West
African music and percussion. The poets of the Harlem Renaissance are of writing.
The mythology and the spirituality of different cultures are also a frequent
themes and sources of inspiration. The ideas of struggle, caring, community,
passion, spontaneity, responsiveness and triumph that are the result of my
moving through the world as an African-American however, are very much a part
of my writing. It just might be expressed differently from how the same reality
inspires other artists of color from different regions or tastes.
--Recent
events seem to indicate that the poison of racism continues? What do you think?
--Not only does the poison of racism, classism, sexism, ageism
and other prejudice still exist, but as the divide between those in power and
those who are the victims of institutionalized inequality grows, hopelessness
will continue to corrode and rage will continue to erupt within our
communities. Poets and artists will continue to be the recorders of these
emotions and the heralds who call to action those needing inspiration to fight
back, to fight against.
Contacts: Email: poetrywarrior@gmail.com
Carla has been featured on several recordings and
in multiple anthologies and publications including Pennessence, Sylvan, The
York Dispatch, The York Daily Record, The Hanover Sun and Central PA
Magazine. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry;
Song (Columbia University Press, 2000), Baby, Read Me Something with
Rhythm (PoemSugar Press, 2011) and Out Loud (PoemSugar Press, 2015)
and released a full-length CD of poetry; We Be Poeting and the ep Of
Water Born with the spoken word ensemble, Poetic Voices, on SoulThief
Records (2015). Carla has won numerous awards for her work, including multiple
citations from the National Federation of Poetry Societies and the Pennsylvania
Poetry Society in 2011 and a 1st Place and the Grand Prize 1st Place in the
Pennsylvania Poetry Society 2014 competition.
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