Interview with Tara Betts
Photo courtesy of 2Leaf Press
By Alexis August
Editor’s Note: This interview were conducted by editor Alexis August at 2Leaf Press, a Black and Brown female-led press dedicated to highlighting sociopolitical issues with interesting and compelling literature.
Alexis August:
When did you begin writing poetry?
Tara Betts:
Actually, I started writing poems and keeping a journal in grade school. I decided I wanted to be a poet when I was about twelve or thirteen, after reading Maya Angelou.
AA: As someone of mixed descent, how has your identity affected your writing?
TB: I’m not sure if it “affected” my writing, but it made me keenly aware of race, and about the idea of intersectionality long before I had that terminology. I remember being a kid where I didn’t see books that had families that looked like mine or the people I knew and loved, and I wanted to see that and create that as a writer. I also think that there are a lot of unexplored stories and nuances that I have yet to explore because I have identified as Black. I’m proud of that and I find a lot of beauty and strength in that. However, I know that people perceive me in different ways socially, so I have sometimes said I’m a Black woman of interracial descent, since my immediate family came from a white mother and Black father. I’ve always thought that spoke to the experience of a lot of Black people in America. We have people of different cultures in our families.
AA: You worked on The Beiging of America, Black Lives Have Always Mattered, and What Does It Mean to Be White in America with 2Leaf Press. What was your experience working on these books from three different aspects of your identity? Did you find it difficult?
TB: Actually, it wasn’t difficult at all. I have more difficulty balancing all the things that I’m doing right now. I find that this work has offered an opening to talk about some challenging conversations for others, but I think it’s more important than ever to value Black life and BIPOC lives, and to question white privilege. As far as The Beiging of America, I think that book represents an intersection of those issues, as well as some of the convergences that occur when communities that have not been engaged with each other before could be in conversation and create space for people who haven’t always been included in addressing race and culture.
AA: What do you hope readers take away from Break the Habit?
TB: I hope that people see that it is not taboo or unusual to talk about divorce and grieving that lost relationship. I also wanted people to see an arc of recovery and being able to remember that there are good things in a relationship, even if it ends badly. What were the lessons there? I was also glad I got to explore spiders as a metaphor for the brutality within relationships too. It sparked an interest in entomology for me.
AA: Which performance of your poetry do you cherish the most and why? Representing Chicago at the National Poetry Slam or appearing on Def Poetry Jam?
TB: I’m not sure I’d say either one. I’ve read in a lot of places, and I’ve been lucky enough to read with poets that I admire and respect. That means a lot to me. I think being able to share the work and reach more people who willingly take the time and effort to embrace poetry as listeners and readers are a gift.
AA: How has the past year and the pandemic affected your writing?
TB: I’ve come up with many ideas for new projects, and it’s been weird because I wanted to do virtual presentations before the shelter in place began just because I’m not full-time at a university that reimburse my travel, and as we flocked to zoom, I was able to actually get more work virtually. I also think I’ve been trying to pace myself because that desire to work is rooted in the anxiety that creatives like myself feel about financial security and eliminating debt. I’m sure that’s on the minds of many right now as unemployment has reached astronomical levels. Now, I’m just making time to write a couple of days a week at least, when I’m not responding to requests or trying to just manage everyday life.
AA: Are you working on any new projects that you’re excited about?
TB: I created a new poetic form called The 4-1-1. It’s a very short poetic form inspired by lessons we glean from R&B songs. I have a short YouTube video that explains how it works and I’m reading a few. I’m also working on a few other manuscript ideas.
AA: Since it is National Poetry Month, what would you tell the reader who finds poetry too intimidating or difficult to read? What advice would you give them on how to approach poetry?
TB:Think about poetry as if someone is talking to you or trying to tell you a story. Seek out some anthologies so you can discover many new poets in one book. Focus on the lines and images that draw you into a poem. Start with poets that you relate to in some way, then fan out to work that’s a little bit more challenging. Listen to poets read their work, not just at open mics, but on Spotify, Tidal, and YouTube. The embodiment of a poem in the poet’s voice can tell you a lot about how to read a poem. Don’t be afraid to reread a poem or read it aloud to understand it better. I’ll also say that there is so much variety in poetry that there has to be someone that you will enjoy, it’s just a matter of finding them.
Tara Betts is a mixed-race award-winning poet, author and scholar of African American and white French descent. Betts is the author of Break the Habit (2016), Arc and Hue (2009) and the libretto, The Greatest: An Homage to Muhammad Ali (2010). She holds a Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University, and an MFA in creative writing from New England College. She is the co-editor of The Beiging of America, Personal Narratives about Being Mixed Race in the Twenty-First Century (2017) and has participated in a number of 2Leaf Press projects. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including POETRY, Ninth Letter, Crab Orchard Review, Essence, Nylon, American Poetry Review, Gathering Ground, Bum Rush the Page, Villanelles, both Spoken Word Revolution anthologies, The Break Beat Poets, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, and GHOST FISHING: An Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology. She was a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and is currently a professor at University of Illinois-Chicago. A Cave Canem graduate, she held residencies from the Ragdale Foundation, Centrum and Caldera, and was awarded an Illinois Arts Council Artist fellowship.
Alexis August is an editor with 2Leaf Press currently editing an upcoming series Trailblazers: Black Women Who Helped Make America Great American Firsts/American Icons. She is a recent graduate from the University of Southern California where she earned her bachelor’s in creative writing and master’s in literary editing and publishing. Her work has been featured in Talking Lit, Chatter, Scribe, and Talking Out Loud.
