In her new collection of poems, Mimi Tempestt wrestles with both intensely personal struggles and injustices across the globe. In one of the poems in “the delicacy of embracing spirals” she writes,
Every day i wake up & watch my old renditions steal
my heart away from my mother’s wildest dream
you keep asking me to tell my story
i’m too busy creating the world
Tempestt, who grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in Berkeley, is known for poetry that blurs convention and questions everything from gender to gentrification. We’ll talk with Tempestt about how she employs poetry to reclaim her identity and live out loud.