In conversation with poet Quraysh Ali Lansana

by April Schweikhard

The Adult Creative Writing Contest recently wrapped up accepting submissions for its 46th annual year. Although award winners won’t be announced until the contest Awards Ceremony on Saturday, May 13, the Friends of the Tulsa City-County Libraries are excited to introduce our speaker for the ceremony, which will take place at the Central Library Aaronson Auditorium at 2:30 p.m.

This year’s speaker is Quraysh Ali Lansana, a multiple-award-winning author of nine poetry books, three textbooks, and three children’s books, editor of eight anthologies, and coauthor of a book of pedagogy. Quraysh grew up in Enid, Oklahoma, and is currently a Fellow with the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, an adjunct professor with the University of Tulsa and Oklahoma State UniversityTulsa, and a founding member of Tri-City Collective. In 2020, he co-launched the duPont-Columbia award winning radio program Focus Black Oklahoma to fill a void in mainstream media of discussing topics relevant to Black Oklahomans and other marginalized communities. You can read more about Quraysh and find his bibliography of works at https://www. qalansana.com/.

To hear from our speaker in his own words, I spoke to Quraysh via Zoom and asked him to answer a few questions. Here is a short excerpt from our conversation.

On your website, you describe yourself as poet, author, and educator. How do these three identities interact with each other?

I am a human who is committed to knowledge, information sharing, information gathering, self-expression, and providing platforms for others to express their thoughts and ideas. Certainly, as an author, that's where my poems and my books are a part of that end goal. I started writing poetry when I was 19 as a sophomore at OU. I'd always loved it, but I hadn’t started really writing it until I was a journalism student as a way to scream on a piece of paper as opposed to screaming at a human being. Shortly after I moved to Chicago after my 25th birthday, and I was writing poems and starting my career, I had a realization of my purpose—to write and to inspire. And that inspiration is most consistently manifested in the classroom because I love teaching. I realized that those two things were my life's work and why I am on the planet. Those are the reasons that those three things come together because it's really my purpose and why I'm here, particularly the idea of helping to provide platforms and opportunities for others to share their thoughts and their ideas. I believe that writing is liberatory. I think self-expression is cathartic and important because everyone has something to say.

What encouragement would you give to someone who has an interest in writing but doesn’t feel that they have anything to say?

One of the things that Ms. [Gwendolyn] Brooks was quoted as saying is that if she ever needed a poem, all she had to do was look out the window. There's always something happening outside. She believed the poet was an observer first. As her student and her last protege, I believe that observation involves listening—not just listening with your ears, listening with your heart, with your mind, sometimes with your fingers and your kneecaps. Privileging listening first and then talking second. I think that is something for young writers from which they would benefit—to listen first, to consume other artistic disciplines and others' ideas, and then, once you form your thoughts on a topic or theme, that is your work. That is the writing. It's then translating those thoughts, those emotions, and those feelings onto the page.

Many thanks to Quraysh for sharing his thoughts with the Friends. We look forward to hearing more from Quraysh on May 13! We hope you can join us.

Saturday, May 13 2:30 p.m.

Central Library

Aaronson Auditorium

Presenation of Awards and Keynote Address

Light refreshments will be served.