I want to preface this post by explaining that I struggled a bit with whether or not to share this marvelous word artist. The poet Jae Nichelle is unafraid in her use of words that I, as a white woman, have no business using (nor would I ever). Honestly, I struggled because just hearing some of her poetry made me feel like I’d wandered into a room where I had no business being. I walked away from the post a number of times, but her words really stuck with me. I kept digging it up and giving it another try. I have finally decided to be brave, but please understand I post Nichelle’s work with the utmost respect. The woman is a marvel, and it didn’t seem right to skip her just because her truths make me feel squirmy.

How’s that for an introduction? Made it all about me, didn’t I? Rats. Let me start again.

Today, we’re looking at a poet who has repeatedly knocked my socks off over the last week, and whose work I cannot ignore. This is Jae Nichelle, the inaugural poetry winner of the John Lewis Writing Award, author of many articles and several highly-acclaimed volumes of poetry, and poetry slam queen. She freely admits that her anxiety has often gotten the better of her, so her ongoing achievements are truly remarkable. When she was starting out, Nichelle thought that poets had all the answers, but it seems like gathering the courage to put her unpolished thoughts out there gave her some gifts she didn’t expect.

“I used to think that poetry was the answer to everything, and that to be a poet you had to also have those answers. But now I’m realizing that poetry asks the questions we need to be asking. It starts the conversations we’re often afraid to have. It allows you to feel. I think that’s the most important part. In so many aspects of life we are told we should not feel, only think. And that feelings are not “rational.” But we must do both to truly engage with the world. We must.

“My poetry makes me feel connected to something larger than myself. I feel like I’m in conversation with thinkers I admire, Audre Lorde, June Jordan … as well as with people, past and future, whose names I’ll never know. I feel like I am an active participant in life — thinking and feeling and acting on those thoughts and feelings.” – Jae Nichelle interview with LA Review of Books

You can follow the incandescent Jae Nichelle on her website and on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook.