This Kansas City activist fights racism with spoken word. Why he says poetry is power

Editor's Note: This interview is part of an ongoing Star series highlighting Kansas Citians from historically under-represented communities and their impact on our region. The series builds on The Star's efforts to improve coverage of local communities. Do you know someone we should interview? Share ideas with our reporter J.M. Banks.

In grade school, Glenn North discovered the freeing power of self expression through poetry. As an adult he moved to the East Coast for several years and after experiencing the poetry scenes there, he wanted to come home to Kansas City to help establish a spoken word venue for poets. Over the years, North, himself a well-known Kansas City poet, has become a mentor and trail blazer creating platforms for poets to use their words to make change.

The Kansas City Star’s culture and identity reporter, J.M. Banks, sat down with North to learn about his journey, the current state of poetry in the metro and using your art to impact social change.

Banks: What is your occupation?

North: My current job title is director of inclusive learning and creative impact at the Kansas City Museum and I’m also the poet of residence there. It will be three years next month. Most museum spaces have a record of education but we really want to make sure that all our educational programs and our public programs for that matter, are inclusive. Our tagline is, “Home of the Whole Story.” So we really wanted to do a better job than museums have historically done by amplifying the narratives of people who typically have been overlooked in the history books and in the museum space.

How long have you been writing poetry and what inspired you to do so?

My grandmother inspired me. She was an educator and I spent a lot of time with her growing up. On my 8th birthday she gave me a copy of this poem named “If” by Rudyard Kipling and challenged me to memorize it. I was not thrilled about that, but I love my grandmother, so I memorized the poem. I remember how much joy it brought her when I was reciting it. Not long after that I started writing my own poems and been writing ever since. In the fifth grade I won a contest and had a poem printed in The Kansas City Star. I remembered how much excitement I felt around seeing my name in that newspaper. I knew then I wanted to be a writer.

Can you tell me about how you got involved with the Kansas City poetry scene?

I kind of stumbled into it. I’ve always written poetry and I moved to D.C. back in ‘93. That’s where I got introduced to spoken word and got involved. I moved back to Kansas City in ‘97 and there wasn’t a whole lot of that going on. There weren’t any spoken word things at that point. I was really complaining to my friends about how much I missed D.C. and how there is not enough cultural outlets and things like that here. It’s like this light bulb came on. I had been hearing a lot of conversations around the revitalization efforts on 18th and Vine right before the Jazz Museum was built. So, I was like, OK, I’m going to start hosting an open mic like the ones I used to attend in D.C. The first time I ever got paid to perform was at the grand opening of the American Jazz Museum and they paid me $50. Then shortly after that, they started asking me to facilitate poetry writing workshops that explored the relationship between jazz and poetry.

What is the most fulfilling part of your work?

I think one of the most fulfilling things has been the impact I see poetry having in the lives of young people and helping young people find their creative voice and self-expression.

What is the most challenging aspect of your work and how did you overcome it?

Staring at the blank page and trying to figure out what it is I want to say and communicate to the world in a way that comes out in the form of a good poem. But it still is a challenge for me to push through and just keep doing it.

How do you feel about the current state of poetry in Kansas City?

I think it’s good. I think that we’ve got several different poetry venues. I think Kansas City has a thriving arts community. I started organizing open mics in ‘97 when there weren’t a lot of spoken word venues and now it’s being performed in various places all over the city. I’m oftentimes invited to do poetry at galas and different community events and things like that. The poetry community has grown considerably over the years.

What drives your work and passion?

I use poetry as a vehicle to amplify these historical black narratives. I wanted to be one of the poets that used poetry to raise awareness around social justice. God has gifted me with this talent. I can use it to raise awareness or to hopefully get people to think differently about certain situations. I think that it’s important for people to understand the facts that surround racism and white supremacy. Emotionally I feel like poetry and art can touch people and hopefully inspire them to act and to do something that’s going to help to make things better.

Can you tell me about your current community activities or initiatives that you’re working on?

The one I’m most excited about right now is the Restore the Poetics Initiative that launched at the Kansas City Museum back in February. It is about the healing component of poetry and the way the poetry can raise awareness around issues. At the museum, all of our methodology, our content, our programming is all rooted in restorative practices. These practices are all about building community, doing the work of repairing the harm that has been done in the museum space. Not to sound redundant, but it’s about being inclusive. We asked how a museum can become a change agent in the community, so we recently connected with the Center for Restorative History and began to have these conversations around restorative practices and restorative history. We are also working on bringing back a youth poetry festival.

Do you have a motto that guides you?

I do, it is a Bible verse. Ephesians 2:10 and it says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.“ The word workmanship in that verse comes from the Greek word poiema which translated is poem or masterpiece. That verse is saying we are God’s masterpiece and we were created to do good work. That’s my guiding principle.

What advice would you give to someone trying to follow in your footsteps?

I would always tell my students, to write their poetry you must read poetry. You must be a student of the craft. Another thing is It’s our responsibility, in some way, to leave the world a little bit better than we found it. So, I love art for art’s sake, but I’m much more interested in the intersection between art and activism.