brooklyn baggett is our May 2024 Tiny Spoon Resident! You can sign-up for her workshop here.
We interviewed brooklyn about her creative visions, inspirations, and writing tips!
Tiny Spoon: What kindles your creativity?
brooklyn baggett: It depends on the period of my life, I suppose. Once, it was documentaries. I could not get enough. Another time, it was unresolved trauma. I found creativity in transition and recovery from drug addiction. Most recently, it has been Athens, Greece. It has possessed me. I go as often as I can. But one thing that has never failed is community– the energy I draw from being with other creatives. There’s nothing like it.
TS: Are there any artists/ heroines/ idols/ friends that you look up to?
bb: There are probably too many to name. Over the last five years, the biggest poetic influences for me have probably been Selah Saterstrom, Victoria Chang, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Meg Day, Anne Carson, Sylvia Plath, and Louise Glück. There have been several artists who’ve provided inspiration and identification: Molly Rapp, Lauren E. Simonutti, and John Santerineross to name a few. But I’ve been collecting idols since I was a child across a motley crew of disciplines, many of them, however, are people close to me. My life is big today, and I can say with certainty I have profound gratitude and respect for those closest to me.
TS: Are there any natural entities that move your work?
bb: The moon. Deep forests. Open expanses such as flat fields or tall hay fields, endless roads in the southwest. I spent a lot of time photographing expanses during my photographer days; anything reminiscent of the farmland in MS where I grew up. And most assuredly water– particularly Tulip Creek. Even if I try to stray away from water, it always pulls me back. I’m helpless.
TS: We love insight into the creative process. Could you share what it is like for you?
bb: It’s changed a lot over the years. I wish I could say I’m the type of writer who produces every day or on some set schedule, but I’m not. I have great respect and envy of writers who can do that. The only exception was during my MFA program. It’s common for me to write in flurries. The ideas and words start pressing, and I sit and write, and write more. The easiest way for me to submerge in that energy is to change my physical location, whether in a residency like Sundress Academy for the Arts or going to Athens, Greece– a city that has stolen my heart and mind.
TS: Do you have any current or future projects that you are working on that you would like to share?
bb: I’m working on several things at the moment. A short collection inspired by my stays in Athens- grappling with being an American tourist in a place that is politically motivated and still a community culture in so many ways. I’m also working on a full-length collection, which explores the liminal trans experience beyond the conversation of gender; how it colors all aspect of life. In particular, this collection seeks to answer questions related to my Southern upbringing and heritage and how my transness has changed that. What makes one a MS native? Can anyone take that? If they take the land, can you keep the tie? Can I still be Southern even if I’m no longer welcome? Finally, I’m completing a play that takes a single poem and demonstrates the depth by creating a full-length story around it, highlighting the equality of our human shortcomings through a lens of polyamory.
TS: What book, artwork, music, etc., would you recommend to others?
bb: Music and books have been essentially a religion for me since I was six. So, the list is long. But I believe everyone should read The Price of the Ticket by James Baldwin, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Wild Iris by Louis Glück, and Ariel by Sylvia Plath. Beyond those, I highly recommend anything by Selah Saterstrom, Nox by Anne Carson, anything by Grace Paley, Troubling the Line, and Victoria Chang. I can’t even with music; I wouldn’t know where to begin.
TS: Is there anything else you would like others to know about you, your creations, or beyond?
bb: For about 5 or 6 years, I set writing aside and focused all my efforts on photography. Autodidactic, I never went anywhere without my camera. It was such an important time for me as an artist, and, fortunately, I found a modest amount of success within the art world. I strongly believe it was the foundation on which I would later find mixed media/tactile poetry as a powerful outlet.
TS: Where can people learn more about what you do?
bb: Website: https://ebrooklynbaggett.com
My instagram: @raisingbrooklyn
