Many of your poems are call and response with one another how would you say Gawd and little g gods answer the loom of capital G God? The latter two appear in more human-like capacities, suffering from the same obsolescence and hard times as us, and capital G God is accompanied by a dread and shame throughout the poems. SR: The title comes into play with the many iterations of god, from expected capital G God, to a myriad of little g gods, to Gawd with their afro. Their positioning tells me something about the relationship between people or objects. I can only assume they show up so much in this work because hands are so prominent in my life. In performance poetry, I gesture with my hands and the audience may snap or shake their hands in praise. In love, we give our hands to each other. Simultaneously, those same hands can be used to destroy, to hit, and to withhold. We put our hands together to pray and clap, we use our hands to make offerings, and we lay hands on people to lift them up.
I was like “Man, what’s up with me and hands?” I think it came out naturally in this project because of the religious aspect and how prominent hands are in ritual and tradition. Jae Nichelle: I love this question because it’s something I only realized I did when I put the entire book together and read it back. Could you talk a bit about the prominence of hands in your work, especially as it applies to spoken word? Superstition Review: The motif of hands and their capacity to hurt and heal runs throughout this collection.
It was an utmost pleasure to see how these poems built upon one another and showed an opening window of the capability of joy through the everyday tragedies of violence and rejection.” In this interview, Jae Nichelle talks about putting together this anthology, staying creative in hard times, and the role of audience in both spoken word and written poetry. Her Gawd is a love letter to what community should and could be, and their presence is achingly human throughout her poems. Of the process, they said, “Jae Nichelle draws readers and listeners alike into God Themselves with her impressive form and poetic negotiation with religion and community. This interview was conducted via e-mail by Interview Editor Rich Duhamell. “Ends with a Smile,” an Interview with Jae Nichelle
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