It’s National Poetry Month, and while you can find a variety of workshops and open mics in April, poets call Chicago home all year round.
Mayda del Valle is a poet, artist, and educator born and raised on the South Side. She is also Chicago’s poet laureate who began her two-year tenure in January.
We talked to del Valle to learn more about how her upbringing in Chicago impacts her work and what makes Chicago’s poetry scene special.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
How does your South Side experience inspire your work?
“My earliest experiences as an artist happened in the house I'm in right now, and down the street from here. Even while I was living away from home, when I left for school, and as my career took me to NYC and LA, I always returned to many of the same themes, moments, and memories. I was gone for so long, but was always coming back, physically and metaphorically. It's just cooked into me! … I think a lot about that young woman who was running up and down 63rd St in the 90's and the things she was looking for. The way she wanted to see herself reflected in something. So I think I write for her a lot of the time.”
What sets Chicago's poetry scene apart?
“I think there's a sense of community and a commitment to activism here in Chicago that you don't find in many other places. There's an underlying sense here that poetry is meant to be written and shared for a greater good, and people who do this work either know each other or know of each other, because of the level of commitment to building a better world that poetry asks of us. It's an art form that demands truth from the audience as well as the writer, and I think Chicago's scene exemplifies that in a way you don't find in many places. … It's done from a place of love for people, for the city, and from a place of "passing it on" and contributing to the lineage of poetry as a truth-telling tool. I love that.”
What is your favorite poem about Chicago, and why?
“I have to go with ‘Chicago’ by Carl Sandburg. It's just amazing to think it was written in 1914, and it remains one of the best portraits of Chicago. It's beautiful to think that what made the city so special and real back then still stands today. It's unapologetically rough, raw, never pretentious, and always defiant.”
For more poetry events and to learn more about Chicago’s poet laureate program, check out the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE).
