On Feb. 7, the second floor of The LaB was set up with rows of chairs, ready for students to take their seats in preparation for the open mic that was about to commence. The MC for the night? Kiera “Ashlee Haze” Nelson — a poet and spoken word artist from Atlanta, Ga. by way of Chicago.
This isn’t the first open mic that Haze has guided along. In fact, she has helped many communities find and share their voices — and happens to currently be on The Curtain Call Tour. When asked about her personal connection to the atmosphere of open mics, Haze responded in an interview with The News-Letter, “Open mic was the first place where I really found belonging.”
She then discussed how in college and other academic settings, there was an overarching sense that creative output had less value. Haze said that there is this idea that we're only here for academics, so we must keep working. However, she discovered that by intentionally creating a space or time for creators to share their art, she could encourage them to express themselves.
“It's important for me to curate those spaces and for them to be as safe as reasonably possible,” Haze said. “[It’s important for them to be safe, so that] people realize, ‘Hey, you know, other people wanna hear your words. You are welcome here.’”
The night began with some readings from Haze herself, who laughed as she told the room that she often took the position of the “sacrificial poet”: The first poet to perform of the night. She then performed an introductory poem, which started out in an almost conversational tone, before leading into the more familiar and rhythmic patterns of spoken word.
“I've been writing poetry since I was 10 years old, and it has always been a way for me to process my inner world and the world around me,” she said. “And so I keep returning to poetry. It's still my art form almost 30 years later, because it is cathartic for me. It's a form of therapy; it's a form of process and release.”
In her work, Haze primarily focuses on identity and emotions.
“I'm kind of an emotional scientist,” she says. “I really love getting to the nitty gritty of emotion, our lived experiences, and also commentary about the world that we're living in — so all of those are sort of my go-to.”
Following Haze’s performance of two poems, several students took to the stage. In the two hours after 7:30 p.m., the room saw many performances, with duets, prose poems and more classical poems counting among them, delivered by both undergraduate and graduate students at Hopkins. Between student performances, Channtel “Pop Channy” — a visual artist, poet and friend of Haze — performed two of her pieces as well.
Hopkins isn’t the only school that Haze has touched down on. She’s toured many other colleges, which she says is great, since it's allowed her to meet many people from different walks of life.
“[These are] people who are honestly on their way to contribute to society in different ways. It's important to hear different schools of thought, and just encourage people to live creative lives, else they become discouraged by the image of the ‘starving artist,’” she said.
On her part, she feels that it’s her goal to demonstrate to these creatives that artistry is a profession that one can survive off of.
“I demonstrate that you can be an artist, and make a living, and build an audience and connect with people. That's why I do art — to connect with people,” she said.
But traveling to different schools isn’t the end of Haze’s journey. She’s looking for other creative endeavors to take on.
“What's next for me is I really like to do voiceover, narrating and being on film — more things that we can distribute. As much as I love touring, it can get tiring.” However, just because she’s taking a break from travelling, doesn’t mean she isn’t going to stop creating. “I'll still be recording. I'm gonna be working on my next album. Writing more. So yeah, you'll hear me on different mediums.”
To close off the interview, I asked Haze whether there is any advice she’d like to give to aspiring writers and creators.
“Listen more than you speak. Read more than you write,” she said. “I encourage people to see who's laid the foundation and then build upon it. Sometimes we don't need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to polish it, or, you know, build a new cart on that wheel.”
