By Edna Horton/nw news editor
Some NW Campus students learned the importance of having a voice.
Natasha Carrizosa, poet and writer, is a single mom of African and Mexican descent. She is the author of two spoken word CDs Mejiafricana and The Dream Catcher. She spoke to students on Nov. 18 about her work and performed some of her poetry.
“My father always told me the only way you will be heard is if you open your mouth,” she said.
Carrizosa said she began writing when she was 10 years old after she read a poem by another classmate. She said she wrote a poem of her own then ran home to read it to her mother. She said her mother was cooking and told her that her father wrote poetry. Carrizosa couldn’t believe that her father, a roofer, was a poet.
“She said, ‘Your daddy wrote poems,’ and I said, ‘Daddy wrote poems?’ She told me, ‘No, not your daddy. Your real father,’” she said.
Carrizosa said a father that she never really knew, her heritage, love and her daughter are among the inspirations for her poetry.
“In middle school, I wrote, and in high school, but I hid most of it,” she said. “It wasn’t until I was in my early 20s that I went to an open mic for the first time, and then it went from there. It just felt like I finally fit somewhere.”
Carrizosa performed her poem “Mejiafricana” that is a mix of English and Spanish and that she recites when people ask her if she speaks Spanish. She also performed a poem about being a single mom and finding a way to pay bills. She told the audience that most of her poetry wasn’t that heavy, and she tackles many subjects in her poetry.
“I have many, many poems about my heart being broken by the men that I loved,” she said, “and one about a little boy that starved to death that I wrote after I saw his picture in the paper.”
Carrizosa said she is living her dream. She has performed all over the world. She has been to Paris and the Caribbean, and she will soon perform in Madrid.
Carrizosa’s speech came at the end of the Creative Voice Symposium, directed by Kim Jackson, associate professor of humanities. The word “voice” in the title is an acronym that stands for “visions that open and inspire creativity and excitement.” The symposium was a showcase for the students of Jackson’s Introduction to Humanities classes.
