Porsha Olayiwola, the city of Boston's poet laureate, has been participating in New York City's protests against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd. WGBH's Morning Edition Host Joe Mathieu spoke with Olayiwola about the protests and what it's like to be an artist during turbulent times. The transcript below has been edited for clairty.
Joe Mathieu: Unfortunately, we're at a bit of a distance here in our virtual world, but I'm happy to see you, nonetheless. Porsha is an important local artist, a performer and a writer who does a lot of work here in Boston to help lift up young local artists. And I know you're joining us from New York where you've been in quarantine, and I've seen you on social media taking part in some of the protests there. People are feeling very intense emotions right now. Our city was already on edge over this pandemic. And Porsha, sometimes it takes the lens of an artist to help us make sense of it all.
Porsha Olayiwola: Yeah, it's been a dystopic time. A weird, dystopic time. And that's with the pandemic as well as this total protest or demand for equality for black and brown folks. So, yeah, it's a very strange time, to say the least.
Mathieu: I don't know if it's possible to put it into words in a conversation like this or if you're better off doing it through poetry — and Porsha is going to perform something for us in just a moment after we have a chance to talk — but what's it been like on the streets for you?
Olayiwola: I'll rearrange the question, if that's okay. I'm thinking more so what has it been like in my body. And that's been terrifying, filled with sorrow and filled with anger, frustration, anxiety, all of those things. It's just been a perpetual adventure, a perpetual fight to exist in a black body. And I think yesterday was the first time I had the chance and the space, my partner and I, to go to a protest. And I don't want to say it felt great, but it felt good to be in the street yelling, to be surrounded by so many folks and to be surrounded really with a lot of folks who weren't necessarily black also thinking that this is something that should be important to them so that they should be disrupting their lives and the lives of folks in the country in general. So it was nice.
Mathieu: Are you inspired as an artist, for better or worse?
Olayiwola: I think I have been. I've been talking about this with my partner, who's also a poet. But I haven't been inspired as an artist, but rather, I've been inspired by how many people have been inspired by me being an artist. I've been getting a lot of support and just messages on social media about how some of my work has been able to be the words for people right now. So that's been refreshing. As you know, as an artist, I'm like, what work am I doing? Does art change the world? So that has been comforting and inspiring and confirmation to consistently produce, you know?
Mathieu: We've had some tough days in Boston, as I'm sure you have seen as well. Protests have ended peacefully in many cases, but then there have been some terrible violent standoffs that have followed. There's still a lot of questions about who is behind them and maybe where they were from. But I'm wondering if your thoughts are with Boston in a positive way right now, if you're worried about our city?
Olayiwola: I'm worried about everywhere. I'm worried about the entire country. I'm worried about Boston, yes. One, every time I think about Boston and trying to encapsulate what it means, I really think this is a founding city of this country, you know? I think there's so many educational institutions in that area. And I don't mean to be elitist, but I do think that Boston specifically has the position to be in a leadership role. I personally moved to Boston years ago, because folks were allowed to get married who were queer. So I think that the city has the option of being a beacon. I don't know that it necessarily is, but I do have faith, right?
I think the question around violence is tricky because I think we're already living in a violent state. I've been watching live news feeds for hours. I missed the deadline for an application because I couldn't pull away from some of the things I saw happening in Boston. But when you see army tanks, that is the violence. That being in the space means that we will have to use that. You don't bring an army tank for that reason. I saw videos of quite a few police officers in the South Bay parking lot training, and I hear they were training next to a vigil or close to a vigil, which is really a peaceful thing. But then when you see this small army in a place where I grocery shop, that becomes violent. I feel like that is a violent thing, attacking my people, my folks, my neighborhood, the city and so forth.
Mathieu: I do. Porsha, you wrote a piece called " Boston Ode", which is a poem that's so inspired. A lot of people have heard it; you performed it on WGBH. I wonder if you wrote it today after all of this, if there's anything you would add, or maybe you've already been thinking about that yourself?
Olayiwola: You know, every time I think about that poem, it surprises me. It surprises me at how honest I was in the moment. I surprise myself, I guess, because every time I read it, it almost jerks into tears. So I don't think there is anything I would change. I think if folks read it and look at all of the lines, you'll see that all of the things are true and all of the things about inequality and discrimination exist and are true, and how do we move in love to fix that?
Mathieu: So much is said about Boston, for better and worse, I'm sure no one has ever been able to capture it the way that you did in that piece. And I wonder, Porsha, what you're going to perform for us today?
Olaiwola: I'm actually going to perform a piece recommended to me by my partner, and I'm performing it because somebody shared a quote from it on Twitter. And I had been, again, struggling with what the role of an artist is and where's my voice — I feel so robbed. But this person posted this, and it reminded me that I have the words and the words exist. So I'm going to just share this poem, if that's okay. It's called "Aladdin's Genie Speaks on Emancipation."
