The Round at Fremont Abbey!

I believe in, generally, taking creative risks and saying yes, so when I got invited to recite some poems over musical accompaniment in an old Lutheran abbey with purple lights and a fog machine, I had to do it. "The Round" is a really interesting event here in Seattle, which normally takes place in person, where a musician, a visual artist, and a poet are mashed together in one show, performing with and around each other in a round, as it were. My surprise creative partners were the visual artist GRACIA and musician Miguel Escobar.

I was nervous about this, I'm not going to lie! A lot of firsts for me: my first time reciting my work from memory, my first time being professionally videoed, my first time reading over live music. The musician was lovely, but it was definitely a challenge to recite while he was playing very loud guitar. I definitely could not hear myself, and sometimes the mood of the music was so different than the mood of my poem that I worried the end result was going to be a disaster, but I think it turned out OK, in the end! Regardless, I'm proud of myself for doing it and grateful to be invited to take part in these sorts of adventures. If you'd like to watch the video, in which I perform four poems ("The Mentor," "Strawberries," "How Judas Died," and "Anniversary"), you can do so here.