This
project was created to tell the story of Nicole Breedlove. She defines herself
as a “nerdy, masculine-identified published author and activist” and she feels
as though her story has the right to be told. She describes her life and the
various hardships of being black, female, and a lesbian, and even a combination
of the three in her poetry from Aloud.
While there is a record of these poems on paper in Aloud, her poems cannot be understood holistically because the performance
aspect of it is lost when only presented with the words. There is only one clip
of her actually performing, but it still does not do her justice because the performances
of the other two poems are missing. In a way, only the people who have seen her
perform at the Nuyorican Poets Café have truly experienced her work as a whole.
This project allows everyone to experience her story in the most complete and effortless
way possible.
Monday, December 15, 2014
General Questions
Is Nicole Breedlove a pen
name?
No. It is actually my real
name. The story from my aunt, who did some research on my family history, is
that we come from a band of Black Indians somewhere in Florida. I was never
able to confirm that but it would certainly explain my warrior spirit.
Were there any locations in New
York City that especially inspired you to write? If so, where were these places
and in what ways did they inspire you?
I was kind of a revolutionary
nomad in my younger years. I was hanging out and living in the city, Brooklyn,
Jersey, Staten Island, the Bronx and Queens. I was hanging out with friends,
drinking, writing and performing. Every one of these places inspired me,
Brooklyn especially because that’s where I grew up. BedStuy will always be home
to me. The people were so right yet so wrong. Some were broken but absolutely
survivors. Some were predators. Others were saviors. It is such a great place
to learn and explore and grow. I learned about people in Brooklyn. My family
and neighbors and friends shaped the person I am today.
Can you tell me a little bit
about the Nuyorican Poets Café and how you started performing there? How
old were you at the time? Had you performed your poetry anywhere else prior?
The Nuyorican Poets Café should
be designated as an historical institution. So many amazing writers came out of
that place. It’s located on the lower east side and the gritty, blue collar,
punk, goth, trendy mix of folks is a perfect backdrop to the array of talent
that walks in there.
When I was 17 I met this
punker named Finnegan. He was a black dude with a blonde, foot high Mohawk,
steel toed boots, a motorcycle jacket and a contagious laugh. He mentioned he
was a poet and read some of his stuff to me. I told him I write too and he said
he knew some others and why don’t we start a group. I agreed. We called
ourselves DarkStar.
We began performing at community
centers, schools, open mics etc. You name it, we performed there. We were all
young. The oldest in our group was 20. The youngest was 14. Other artists
started calling us the brats but there was no denying our talent. Pretty soon
we were making a name for ourselves and we didn’t have to beg for gigs. Folks
were coming to us and we were getting paid to do what we loved.
We were performing at the
Knitting Factory and Bob Holman approached us. He wanted us to perform at the
Nuyorican. We agreed. At that time there was an article written about us in the
Village Voice so we were hot. The night we performed was bananas. It was
amazing. To this day it is still one of the best feelings ever.
How many times did you perform
at the Nuyorican Poet Café?
I can’t even count the number
of times I performed there. I performed with the group, DarkStar. Then my
friend Malkia and I split off and started our own group, Nia Kuumba so we
started performing. I judged a few poetry slams. I entered a couple of slams. It’s
my second home.
Did you write any poetry after
the ones from Aloud? If so
is there a way I can read them or view them?
I wrote a lot after but didn’t
perform as much. After a while all the poets began to sound the same to me.
They all began to recite in the same cadence and rhyme. It was less about the
content and more about the performance. It annoyed me so much that
individuality and creativity disappeared that I just quit the scene. The work
took on a whole other meaning.
Here is a video of me
performing Front Page or Bust. This was a PBS special on the spoken word in
1991---https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7pKQ-Imco
Were there any New York poets who inspired you?
If so, then in what ways?
Pamela Sneed was this amazing poet. She was
tall, bald, gorgeous and an excellent writer. She inspired me. Sapphire was
another writer whose work touched. Listening to her work made me unashamed in
exposing my vulnerabilities.
Had Audre Lorde influenced your poetry at all?
Audre Lorde
was my mentor and more importantly, I considered her a friend. She personally
called me and my poetry partner Malkia to participate in her I Am Your Sister
conference in Boston. Her poetry was the first of its kind. She was a Black
lesbian proud of who she was. A warrior spirit like me. She told it as it was.
Where do you live currently?
I actually moved to Omaha, NE.
What do you do for a living?
I am working at a manufacturing
company in the accounting department.
What motivated you to create
the Our Sista Circle website? How has it evolved? Is the site what you
had envisioned it to be?
About seven years ago I was
single and the bar scene is not really a place to meet anyone for a serious
relationship. I started looking online. I noticed that a lot of dating sites
didn’t cater to women of color. So, I began researching dating sites.
Most of the women were white.
If there were women of color they have been inactive for months. I then
researched social networking sites and found the same thing. There was tons of
websites for women of color but you were only able to leave comments. You could
not engage in an IM or chat. Many times we are just looking for friends not
necessarily love interests. So I decided to launch OSC. The first free social
networking site for lesbians of color in 2009.
I was paying fees each month
out of pocket for the site. It became a financial burden. I reached out to the
sistas for donations but received very little. I emailed and handwrote many
LGBT organizations, companies, churches, school organizations, magazines, radio
and television shows and received a lot of rejections. I tried to get corporate
and private sponsors but no one wanted to take a chance on an unknown, unproven
site. Sadly, in March of 2014 I was forced to shut it down for lack of
resources and support.
Questions on Poems from Aloud
“An Open Letter to Myself”
Questions
What was the significance of
saying “if it must be told the D train really fucked up my lower back and if it
must be told make sure the Library of Congress is notified”? Why did you think
it needed to be told?
I am a
poor. I am a woman. I am Black. And, I’m a lesbian. Talk about being at the
bottom of every racial, socioeconomic, gender and class level. I wanted the
world to know that we exist. I wanted the world to know that my story is
important. I wanted the world to know that Nicole Breedlove will never be
silent.
It was apparent that feelings
of shame had a major role in this poem. What emotions were greater than this
shame that fueled you to write this poem?
I would say anger. I was a very
driven, angry young woman. I felt wronged by life. I didn’t ask to be gay. I
didn’t ask to be poor. I didn’t ask to be Black. I didn’t ask to be a woman but
ironically all those made me a much stronger person.
“‘There Must Be a Conspiracy’”
Questions
What was the creative process
in writing “There Must Be a Conspiracy”?
When I was in college I
joined some
of the Black empowerment groups. I attended a couple of meetings and quickly
realized that this Black group was solely focused on Black men. Black women had
no role except to support whatever decisions Black men made. We did not have a
voice. We did not have any struggles except the Black man’s struggle. We were
lost in a movement that should have addressed our issues as well but refused
to. This poem is the embodiment of that frustration.
What do you think the black
woman’s role in society is today in comparison to the black man’s role? Do you
believe these roles have changed since you first wrote this poem?
I believe in the past 25 years
more Black women are the heads of their household which means they are the only
breadwinners in their family. The Black man has taken a secondary role in the
household and that’s not a good thing. I was blessed to have married parents
that kept me on track but now, more families than ever before are headed by
Black women. Where is the Black man?! And if there are good Black men, which I
am often told when discussing this topic, then how come the good ones aren’t
mentoring the bad ones?! All it takes for evil to thrive is silence.
“Front Page or Bust” Questions
Why do you think people prefer
irrelevant stories about well known people? What led you to choose
“irrelevance” as the final word used to describe these stories?
Well I
know when I feel like my life is spiraling out of control it’s comforting to
know that even celebrities have the ability to be dysfunctional. They aren’t
perfect.
Ending the poem with the word
Irrelevant was a creative decision. Folks are dying at the hands of the police.
Folks are trying to decide between paying the light bill and buying food. But,
I need to be worried about some rich, white dude who failed his bar exam. Hold
on while I get my violin and tissue.
Why do you think that these
famous people are put on the front page of newspapers instead of the more
important stories?
Newspapers
are a business and they know celebrities, rumors and gossip sells. Would you
rather read about a rapper and the breakup with his long time girlfriend or
read about protests and boycotts?! Many have difficult lives. If they are
heading to their underpaying job they want to read fluff.
Even though the headlining
celebrity news was not as important as some of the less talked about events you
had mentioned in the poem, do you believe that news had any significance?
Should we take the title literally when you say “Front Page or Bust?” (Is it a
bust if the more concerning stories do not make it to the front page?)
Good eye! Yes, It can be taken
literally. But, it can also be taken differently. So either the paper failed to
do their job in reporting more important stories or the paper or these
celebrities aren’t important unless they make the front page.
How did you go about choosing
these references for your poem? Were the events you chose intentional or did
they just happen to be in the news when you started writing?
Everything I recited
actually happened. I was incensed that those stories were not being talked
about or discussed. When I wrote the poem those things happened months prior
without further mention but the story about the dude failing his exam was being
followed up on.
Places of Inspiration: Manhattan
.jpg)
Left: Barnard College
Top Right: Christopher Street Piers
Bottom Right: The LGBT Community Center
Places of Inspiration: Brooklyn
.jpg)
Left: Fulton St. & Nostrand Ave.
Top Right: Grand Army Plaza
Bottom Right: The Brooklyn Academy of Music
"Front Page or Bust" Performance
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7pKQ-Imco
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