Adonis Richards became the City of Schenectady’s first ever poet laureate after last week’s City Council meeting. The 31-year-old is the author of three poetry collections and a Program Coordinator at Union College’s Office of Intercultural Affairs. He will serve as poet laureate for two years. I spoke to Richards about his inspiration, origins and vision for the new role.
I was influenced a lot by my late grandmother, Leslie Kenny, who was an English teacher at Scotia Glenville High School, and so I learned a lot about literature through her. A lot of my favorite books are "To Kill a Mockingbird," "A Tale of Two Cities." I really just follow the net footsteps of storytelling, creative writing, and started writing poetry in college. My first poem was written at a hip hop showcase that I co-founded with an old friend, Samuel Lucas, when we were in undergrad, and our first time performed was at my senior year for the hip hop showcase. I performed a poem. It was in honor of a old friend that passed away, and ever since then, started in 2016 I'm almost 10 years in now I have three poetry books. Have a writing business, creative writing business, and now I'm here.
Yeah, so yeah, you do have three poetry collections. Where do you find your inspiration for your poetry?
I think a lot of it has to do with my passion for giving other folks an opportunity to share their voice. A lot of all three of my books are self published, so it comes from, like I said, sharing voice, but giving people the opportunity to find something tangible for them to create, write and express themselves. A lot of my slogan for lucid, lucid aka lucid voices is hear us loud and clear. So I like to give a voice to those that are quote, unquote voiceless, but allow those that feel underrepresented, that feel like they're afraid, to share a tangible visual of creative writing and poetry. So and a lot of inspiration is social justice. Passions; I'm a video gamer, songwriting, things like that. I put all that together. Like one of my poems is a poem, is a Pokémon poem, because I'm a Pokémon fan. So yeah, that's where I get my inspiration from.
Talk a little bit about your Pokémon poem?
Um, well, it came off of the Pokémon theme song. I want to be the best that no one ever was. And then it goes into a twist. It goes, I want to be the very best that no one ever was, that's until my father left me. That's until I walked outside. So it just dives into me growing up as a child, having a passion for being myself and understanding that, you know, growing up in an inner city, a lot of those things die down or are pushed down because of the outside influences that you have, but also just growing up, trying to be yourself, but also balancing influences from your friends, your peers, the world. So it has a lot of teaching folks self love, appreciating yourself, following your passions. I've been a Pokémon fan since I first discovered the very first episode, and I'm still a Pokémon fan, and I put that into my writing, just being passionate about being yourself and being authentic with yourself and focusing on who you can be, you know. So that's where my Pokémon poem comes from.
And, so, where did you grow up?
I grew up in Schenectady, New York, so just a little bit of my story. Born and raised in Schenectady, I went to college in Potsdam for about six and a half years, got both my bachelor's and my master's, and I came back in 2019 and I've been here ever since. So I was born in Schenectady.
So, you are Schenectady's first poet laureate. Why did you apply for the role?
I saw an opportunity to enhance things that I already do on a broader scale, but also saw an opportunity to make history. In 364 years of Schenectady being established before, when it first started as a Dutch colony, there's never been a poet laureate, and for me, being a bard, being a poet laureate, is important and integral to a city with such a rich history, but also something that you know inspires others. And for me, why I applied it was more so of this is a great opportunity to put on a larger platform things that I do as a poet, as a creator, and like I said, to inspire other people to become poets and creators and do it on such a scale, I have a lot of ideas and plans for different local organizations, in the entire city of Schenectady. So that's what inspired me.
So, being the first ever, you have this opportunity to set some precedents about how this position will be run in the future. What kinds of precedents are you looking to set, and how do you envision kind of making this role your own?
A lot of the precedents I want to set is establishing a connection with with the city, being able to build space for folks to write, to create, to express themselves in healthy ways and restorative ways, to develop SEL, and also just develop more writers, more storytellers. So like a lot of the things I want to do is I want to do a rotating program where one day I'm at one organization, the next day I'm at another, so that my face is visible, visible and every, every entity in Schenectady is able to experience this form of storytelling, this form of poetry writing, this form of poetry reading, um, performance poetry. Another thing I'm looking at is potentially a Poetry Festival in April, because April is National Poetry Month. So I want to do something around that. Also national reading month is the month before. Literacy Month is in September. So, I want to do programs and events surrounded around those months, but also just rotating events that are more so of building blocks into bigger events. I think when you're creating building blocks, it's easier to have a building a bigger event, because you've created a foundation for folks to follow along.
Right, so, speaking of those events, as a poet laureate, you have to facilitate four literary events and four educational programs. Do you have an idea of what your first event is going to be?
Yep. So um, it's not necessarily set in stone, but my first event, um, don't even necessarily have a date, but it is a bit more so of working with zine making, Blackout, poetry, creative writing. It could be with my current position at Union, or it can be at a couple different local organizations that I'm working with now, something small, just to get the idea and the grassroots started. So I'm talking to different organizations at this moment in time, just getting the building blocks together. So my first event, most likely will be something grounded, something intimate, in certain respects, just to allow folks to see and be have a visual of what a poet laureate would do. So right now I'm already the ball is already rolling, and I'm trying to get something done at my at my current position at Ian, where I do a creative writing workshop, slash open mic, with students at this moment in time. So I don't have a solid entity for I don't have anything solid for an event, but I have an idea of events, of an event that I want to do. So that answers your question,
Do you have a specific type of poetry that you prefer to write?
I'm not doing a rondo redouble. I'll tell people that all the time, when I was, when I was applying for when I was in class for this, this poetry group called the honey drippers, we had to do a rondo redouble. And it is a very dynamic and hard poem. I say that because it's it was very hard. But for me, a free verse is something I always do. Um, I'm big on sonnets. Uh, haikus is something I've gotten passionate, got a passion for, because it's short, sweet to the point, and it's very cryptic. Um, but I wouldn't say I have a specific type of form of poetry, especially, especially because there's over 200 forms of poetry at this moment in time.
So yeah, and then, so before you came today, I asked you to bring some verse along with you to read. Would you mind reading some for us now?
Yeah, sure. I'm gonna read my favorite poem. So this poem is called shattered glass. I will start with the the last. I will do the last part as I attempt to reconstruct my reflection, I fall apart with the past and return with every face staring back like they disdain what they see. Like the pain I feel in my hands doesn't amount to the pain I feel when I finally see me, like the hatred I harbor from my own image, a projection of who I think I am, when in reality, I'm far from this monster I see. No one ever told me I'd feel so much agony. No one told me how hard it was to face vulnerability. Yet still I keep going, and I feel these emotions, no matter the moment. For the man I become out of the darkness I've tried to harness, will look back at the younger mes with open arms, finally understanding who I am. I'm a wordsmith. Writing saved me from this feeling that I was worthless. I'm a poet, and I love these words that I spill onto the sheets. I'm a poet, and I'm sensitive about my words sincerely.
All right, thanks for coming out. Adonis. I appreciate it.
Thank you.
