Working With Purpose
What does “working with purpose” mean?
I suppose the answer to that is another question: what are your responsibilities to what you love? I asked several emerging poets what they thought a poet’s responsibility was and have collected their answers for your reading pleasure. What I found is that every answer, as is usually the case, can be implemented in every art form, perhaps even in other career paths.
“Nate Marshall” taken by Fatimah Asgar
Nate Marshall, award-winning poet and M.C.: “A poet has to write something beautiful and useful. They should strive to make something that contributes to people’s lives[…] I think it depends on the poet and then poem but I guess I use that word because I have this strong feeling that a poet should make something that is more than just aesthetically beautiful.”
“Tarfia Faizullah” by Jamaal May
Tarfia Faizullah, visiting professor at University of Michigan Ann Arbor and author of the award-winning book Seam: “To render the conversation between the interior and the external world with curiosity and imagination, vision and vulnerability.”
“Danez Smith” taken by Chantar Photography
Danez Smith, award-winning poet, editor, and educator: I” believe the poet is responsible for helping us give a language, a body to what we most can’t articulate, be it lost, rage, joy, desire, whatever. There are times when I think poets are responsible to wade in a moment or in a emotion and slowly strain what is most distilled and human, but there are other times when I think it is the poet’s duty to be immediate, to bring what is most human and visceral to the page, to the air, to the public. Through that, we can help people process & proclaim what they don’t have the words more. It’s our duty not to just transcribe history, whether personal or communal, through reflection, but to write it down as it’s still writing itself. [Meaning] That we don’t always have the liberty of a draft, that we can’t focus always on the publication or on making it perfect, but we gotta get it out there sometimes, we have to be that music that keeps the pulse of movements and moments, not unlike what’s happening in Ferguson, alive.”
My question to you:
Why do you do what you love? What does working with a purpose mean to you?
Phillip
Glappitnova unites influencers and talent from different industries through storytelling, performances, classes, and events for one crazy 8 day experience in Chicago.The opinions expressed here by Glappitnova.com contributors are their own, not those of Glappitnova.com.
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