Congratulations are in order for OPEEP Education Program Senior Specialist Babette Cieskowski, who was recently presented with an Individual Excellence Award for her poetry!
The Ohio Arts Council Award Program recognizes outstanding accomplishments by artists in a variety of disciplines. Babette is sharing about what inspires her poetry, who has influenced her and the role it plays in her OPEEP position.
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How did you first begin exploring and writing poetry?
My interest in poetry began through music. I’ve always gravitated towards lyrics and the sound of human voices, and I’ve kept hand-written journals since I was old enough to read and write. I remember writing out my favorite lyrics, trying to figure out how they worked and what they meant. I was also very fortunate to have caring and thoughtful teachers both in school and in my family. My high school English teacher Mr. David Wood inspired me to pursue an English degree, and the poet Susan Mitchell encouraged me to take my writing seriously. My Opa was an art teacher, a storyteller, and a tender, loving person. He will always be my first teacher, and I will cherish the knowledge he passed down to me for the rest of my life.
Who are the artists (writers, singers, etc) who have most influenced your work?
Prince, Whitney Houston, Nina Simone, Donny Hathaway, Elliott Smith, Annie Lennox, Sinead O’Connor, Björk, R.E.M., Tracy Chapman, Simon & Garfunkel, Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Joan Armatrading, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Fiona Apple & Sade have influenced who I am as a poet and a human being. Without music, I would not be the poet I am today.
Lucille Clifton, Ai, Vievee Francis, Essex Hemphill, Sharon Olds, Ocean Vuong, Claudia Rankine, Danez Smith, Yusef Komunyakaa, Hanif Abdurraqib, Patricia Smith, Jericho Brown, Donika Kelly, Ross Gay, Carl Phillips, Terrance Hayes, Kaveh Akbar, Tracy K. Smith, and Henri Cole are poets I love dearly and return to often (often enough to have their poems tattooed. I’m all in!). Both lists are constantly growing and transforming.
How has your background or personal experience shaped your poetic themes?
My identity is intimately linked to my writing. I am a mixed-race, queer person who exists in multiple liminal spaces in terms of race and sexual identity; poetry allows me to name and shape the anxiety that comes with existing in a nebulous middle ground. I feel a kinship with confessional poets, although that term is complicated and tenuous to me (women are often deemed confessional poets while men are seen as something more serious). I was raised in the Catholic church, so I’ve always wondered: what’s more serious than a confession? Although I am not a religious person in the slightest, my poetry is interested in themes of worship, praise, and obsession (often paired with queerness, sex, and more sex). I’m most comfortable writing from the first-person perspective, and the gap between poet and speaker is very thin (although this may get me in trouble with my family and my loved ones, but it's a risk worth taking when you’re indebted to the truth).
What role does poetry play in your work with OPEEP and vice versa?
This is a difficult question to answer! Poetry is a part of everything I do because it’s the primary way I navigate the world. To me, being a poet means paying close attention to the things around me, slowing the pace and rate of information we’re trained (from a young age) to keep up with, and to create space for human connection and care. Poetry is an act of attention and refusal—refusing the myth of profit and productivity (as best we can!) while being trapped in a bleak, terrifying, capitalist world that thrives on violence and destruction. Poetry says: but what about the ocean? What’s buried underneath? What else can you notice, witness, and love in our gorgeous, complex, decaying world? I love poetry because it reminds me to slow down, to witness, and to continue loving and caring for myself and my community (despite, despite, despite…). It’s a constant challenge to be present in a body in time & space, but it’s a lifelong practice I am dedicated to pursuing.