![]() I wanted to make sure I was writing poems that people could relate to regardless of their cultural background, but I was also leaving out key parts of who I am. I think at one point in time I was concerned with not alienating my audience. Even in I’ll Fly Away, there is more about my Blackness, which I am also exploring for my next book, which I’m working on now. As I realized that about my work, I started to explore more of my Blackness and political beliefs the past couple years. I felt like my poems were reflecting my Blackness, but they were also about very universal experiences, which made my Blackness almost easy to ignore. They saw me as a creator and a poet, but they didn’t really see me as a Black man. I even had a few arguments with some followers because I think at times they started to see me as colorless. For the most part people were supportive, but I also lost followers because there were people who weren’t used to me expressing my political beliefs. That sparked me writing “My Honest Poem” and “Seventeen.” I started talking about myself a lot more and then a couple years ago, around the time when the Black Lives Matter Movement was picking up steam, I started speaking more about my political beliefs on social media. I didn’t talk about myself, but I didn’t realize that at the time. He told me he knew about my political beliefs, but he didn’t know anything about my story. Then one of my friends said, “If I didn’t know you and I came to see you perform all the time, I wouldn’t know anything about you.” I asked him what he meant by that. A lot of my work was very political initially. Very shortly after that I was writing a lot about my Blackness. Rudy Francisco: My first poem was about love. ![]() Did you start out covering that breadth of subject matter or do you feel like being more renowned you have more of a voice to speak and more of a platform? Are there topics you can broach now that you have an audience and status that you could not address when you were less established? Your work addresses love, mental health, growth, race, gender, needed social change. You’ve traveled internationally, performed on Jimmy Fallon, and also published books. Shannon Brady: You have had a prestigious career as a spoken-word poet. In March we connected through a series of emails and then set up a Zoom to chat about the intersection of his writing, performing, politics, and publishing. Rudy was the first spoken word poet to perform on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Francisco is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Helium (Button Poetry, 2017) and I’ll Fly Away (Button Poetry, 2020). He uses personal narratives to discuss the politics of race, class, gender and religion while simultaneously pinpointing and reinforcing the interconnected nature of human existence. As an artist, Rudy Francisco is an amalgamation of social critique, introspection, honesty and humor. At the age of 21, Rudy completed his B.A in Psychology and decided to continue his education by pursuing a M.A in Organizational Studies. He was born, raised and still resides in San Diego, California. Rudy Francisco is one of the most recognizable names in Spoken Word Poetry.
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