"I started to write early. Like the action of writing came early to me. Because I used to take an 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper ­ this is like second grade ­ and write a zigzag scribble from the left margin to the right margin all the way down the page. And then I would do that on a few pages, so I had a handful. And then I would go through it and be amazed, you know, like damn, look at all the stuff that I wrote. So the action came early. The conviction came about ninth grade. I had a racist encounter in a school that I went to. Which turned into a fight, and then I met somebody who turned into my first mentor, who told me 'there's other ways to do it.' So I saw him read poems one day, and then I was like, alright, that must be one way to do it."

"Usually when I think of that question [what audience do you try to speak to?], it's like a kid that goes to the library ­ you know, East Harlem, the Bronx ­ and LA or wherever, and he or she takes the book out the shelf and is transformed, and they're never the same. So at the gut, that's probably my aim. After that, everything else will take care of itself I guess. I teach two workshops for youth, teenageers, in Bushwick Brooklyn, and the Bronx, West Tremont. And then I teach for the Cavecanum?? Foundation in New York City at Poet's House."

"I think I started coming out of that [writing about identity and anger] a little bit. That's where I started, and now more it's about journey, and human relationships, and disillusionment, and self destruction, and recovery from that. So I think that I slowly moved out of the whole identity thing and created a different context for it. [We need] to continue to preserve the tradition, and continue to break ground at the same time.

Photo by Franisco Villaflor