Some may know Damien Flores as the host of KUNM’s “Spoken Word Hour” on Sunday evenings. Others have known him as a teacher and mentor over the past 15 years. As of July 7, he will now be known as Albuquerque’s 7th Poet Laureate.
KUNM spoke with Flores about what poetry means to him.
FLORES: I grew up with my grandparents. I really listened to a lot of their stories and got to live through some of the events that I wrote about in my poems. And being able to connect to older people and older generations really made me see not only the value of what they’ve gone through and from their perspectives as well, but also just the value of growing up in this city. To realize that, wow, Albuquerque is really a unique place.
KUNM: Why is poetry your preferred medium of art?
FLORES: It’s the easiest! I started off when I was in high school. And when I started, I wanted to write novels, short fiction, which was really long, like, you know, a 10th grade kid writing a 35 page short story, and that was like kind of the body of my work. And then at a certain point, I read Jimmy Santiago Baca, another Albuquerque New Mexico poet, his book “Martín and Meditations on the South Valley” and that changed my perspective of how I could write poems. And so poetry for me was a lot more freeing once I realized I didn’t have the restrictions of what I believed or what I was taught as what poetry is.
KUNM: One of your mentors that I know was Danny Solis. How does it feel now to follow in his footsteps?
FLORES: It’s a lot to follow in his footsteps. In particular, I was thinking about my community project. As part of the Poet Laureateship, applicants are required to write a proposal for how we will give back to the community. And I had Danny in mind when I wrote my proposal, and it is a series of workbooks for elementary, middle and high school students, for National Poetry Month. And so it would be a cool part anthology, part lesson plans, how to write poetry, how to write about poetry, have resources for listening, and it would feature New Mexico poets. Danny Solis’ work and legacy that he had installed in Albuquerque public schools, and really in New Mexico, he worked with so many students of all ages. And so it’s so exciting to take on Danny’s torch and kind of continue carrying it on. And you know, I’m really excited to use some of his work to help out. And I would love to do a little tribute page on some of these units in the poetry book to talk about, who are these poets that wrote these lessons? Why were they important? They did lots of good work. So that way, the students can not only enjoy the poems themselves, but also see who these people are, and be able to develop that connection.
KUNM: Why is poetry and art so important in a city like Albuquerque?
FLORES: Oh my gosh, there’s so much negativity going on in the world, and especially in our local community. I think back to all of the cool after school programs that I had been to in middle school, when I was in high school and whatnot, those programs aren’t there anymore. It’s less and less resources for young people. And so I view poetry and art as an important way to help our community in this way. Yeah, it might seem insignificant that teaching a kid poetry or teaching a kid art in any other form, but that could be something that could really help the community in a way that I can’t quite articulate. I just know in my gut that that can work, because I’ve seen it work.
KUNM: Do you have any words of wisdom to young and old aspiring poets?
FLORES: Read! I will quote Danny Solis. He said, read, read, read. Danny Solis in a workshop once told me that wanting to write poetry and become a poet is like wanting to become a guitar player but not listen to music. Like you can’t just, you know, jump in and start shredding right away, like you gotta learn, you know, you gotta start off maybe with the Corridos. He just gave like, such a cool breakdown of how we can become better poets. And his number one advice was, read see how somebody else’s craft can inspire your own.