It’s a form of self-care, a form of self-love and can really help you work through the difficult challenges of life. And I think that it’s something that can help you process your experiences. And of course it doesn’t replace regular therapy, but it becomes one of many tools that you can use. You know, I think that especially coming from a working-class immigrant family, where things like therapy and other mental-health resources were so out of the question, writing and art and that form of expression was really my therapy. What can someone get out of writing down their thoughts, feelings and experiences in this way? But now I think it’s time for them to feel seen through their own words.
And so I decided to put this book out because I know that so many people across the world feel so seen through my words. It was the first time I realized that, oh my God, so many of my readers are also writers, whether it be something that they just do for self-care or something that they want to pursue as a hobby or professionally. I mean some of these sessions, I’d be on Instagram Live for maybe an hour and a half and 10,000 people would be with me, steady, throughout the hour and a half. But then I started doing these writing workshops, on Instagram Live, and they were going so well. And throughout the pandemic I was using them to write my third book. And so I use these exercises to help me find inspiration. I was actually creating the writing exercises for me because I feel creatively blocked a lot. It was a book that I didn’t know I was putting together until it was kind of already done. And the worst was when people would be like, “Great job, also, were you nervous up there? Because your knees were trembling.” And I was like, all right, folks, long dresses only. I switched to wearing just long dresses, because my knees would tremble so much that you could see them shaking when I was wearing pants or when I was wearing anything short. Of course! I maybe only stopped being nervous this year. When you were first starting to get up on stage to perform your own work, were you ever nervous? And it’s been such a pleasure to now go all over the world and share this new show with people. You know, writing it is one thing and releasing my writing through a book is one thing, but the final act is the performance.
And I think for me, that is a full experience. And so I sought out as many opportunities as I could to get onstage. It made me feel confident and powerful, and I didn’t feel those ways in my regular day-to-day life. And 13 years ago is when I started performing, and I was writing poetry exclusively to perform it. That’s where I really started to explore the craft. I actually fell in love with poetry because of the stage.
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