diVERSES reKINDLED: In Conversation With Poet Su Flatt

The connection between pain and art, especially as confessional poetry and slam have placed an emphasis on often traumatic experience, continues to cement itself

In the drive to express what hurt us is implicitly an audience

What often happens in conversation, in fact, when someone talks about a pain they are going through is the listener's desire to empathize. How that is done is often sharing similar experience

Your cat dying reminds me how my dog died. Your missed flight was my missed train. Your cancer my cancer

This conditioning, as seen in Su Flatt's discussion of art, has made the use of pain predictable, despite the push for art to disturb the comfortable. In fact, as Su raises, there can almost be a guilt for art that makes people feel good or comforts. Hurt has become synonymous with success.

People want to connect, and tapping into pain is an avenue for connection. What Su advocates for is not shying away from the hurt, but making sure that rather than putting the discomfort itself on the pedestal, focus instead on how listener and artist are bonded together, holding hands as we together traverse the rocky landscape that changed us.

Full conversation with poet Geoff Anderson and poet Su Flatt: https://youtu.be/RtT82gY3aMw