“When I follow my own curiosity, it always leads me to deeper connection with myself and others who are brave enough to trust and follow their own curiosity too. That makes me feel alive, and it’s a feeling I want to touch as often as I can.” — Ariana Brown
On Wednesday, October 7, Ariana Brown will teach “How to Anchor Scenes in Poetry.” In this class, students will study scenes from novelists and poets, focusing on how each writer uses anchoring objects and strong imagery to zoom in or out of important moments to achieve their intended effects. Students will also learn the mechanics of building momentum in scenes and practice them by drafting new poems.
Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, now based in Houston. She is the author of the poetry collections We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Her academic and poetic works explore queerness, Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, girlhood, loneliness, and care. Ariana is a national collegiate poetry slam champion, winner of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant. She holds a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies from UT Austin, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She currently develops ethnic studies and ELA curriculum for high schools and colleges and teaches creative writing to teens in Houston. Ariana has been writing, performing, and teaching for over a decade.
Here’s what Ariana had to share with us:
Who are your earliest influences? What people and books made you a writer?
I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember—it was always something that called to me. In high school, I read Malcolm X’s autobiography and got curious about what his voice sounded like. So I looked up old speeches of his on YouTube. I was absolutely mesmerized by how he delivered his speeches, the energy with which he spoke his words. From there, I found spoken word poetry. It seemed like a natural continuation of my curiosity with language, courage, honesty, and power. Being onstage was the first time I felt really listened to. So I’ve been studying, writing, performing, and teaching poetry ever since.
What writing challenges have you faced? What have these challenges taught you about your process?
The hardest part about writing, for me, has been learning to find my way back to writing after difficult seasons in life. It’s easy to write when you’re part of a robust writing community, when you have support, when you can pay your bills and things are generally going well. During the pandemic shutdowns in 2020, I went through some really difficult personal things that were compounded by pandemic isolation and grief. I couldn’t focus long enough to read or write poetry. It just wouldn’t hold my attention. I felt so restricted and isolated in my day to day life, I couldn’t muster the stamina required for poetry. So I started rereading books I loved as a child—chapter books that made me laugh or feel seen or that I simply enjoyed. Several years later, I’m now writing my first young adult novel. And slowly finding my way back to poetry. I learned how much you have to allow yourself to be a human being who can’t always create. And that you have to remember how to create joy and safety in your writing process, because it won’t always be an easy thing to reach for.
From your perspective, what’s the most rewarding part about being a writer?
For me, the most rewarding part of being a writer is trusting my own curiosity and aliveness. I know myself really well, in part because I write. I have always been curious, passionate, and excited about what language can do. When I follow my own curiosity, it always leads me to deeper connection with myself and others who are brave enough to trust and follow their own curiosity too. That makes me feel alive, and it’s a feeling I want to touch as often as I can.
Who do you write for?
Myself. Like Toni Morrison said, I’m writing the books (and poems) I want to read. Like my mentor Ebony Stewart says, “Nobody built like me. I designed myself.” Only I know what I feel and what I’ve been through. I write all the things I find interesting, fun, curious, strange, disappointing, infuriating, and worth saying something about.
What do you hope writers will learn from your course?
I’ve taught versions of this course before, so I can say for certain that writers will learn how to employ specific, impactful imagery and scene setting in their poetry. They will also learn helpful craft techniques for telling stories in surprising ways in their poems. The texts I teach in this course are some of my favorite to show writers because they always geek out about them, so I’m excited for the group discussions we’ll have as we learn together.
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Thanks, Ariana!
Click here to learn more about Ariana’s upcoming class.
