Listening to Our Stories
“Now more than ever,” says poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, “literature matters.”
That piece of wisdom may seem likely to fall on deaf ears of the average high school student, but 21 students from the Alternative Learning Center (ALC) in St. Cloud became active listeners at the recent pre-conference workshop led by award-winning poet Jimmy Santiago Baca.
As part of St. Cloud State University’s (SCSU) Survive and Thrive conference, ALC students benefited from Baca’s experience, compassion and advice. Held off campus in a room of their own, the pre-conference workshop allowed students to hear Baca and his collaborator, Denise VanBriggle, read from their original work and talk about the writing process.
Baca acknowledged that others don’t necessarily expect alternative students to succeed. But he warned them not to let those voices hold them back or define their dreams.
“You should be entitled to get the best education in the world,” he told the students. “I don’t see a person in this room who can’t be a leader.”
Baca understands well how environment and circumstances beyond a child’s control can shape the future. Abandoned by his parents, raised by his grandparents for a time and then sent to an orphanage, Baca ran away at the age of 13. By the time he was18, he was arrested on federal drug charges and spent the next several years in prison, much of that time in solitary confinement.
Prison is where learned to read and write. Prison is also were he found his passion for poetry.
Local SCSU writing professor (and conference organizer) Rex Vedeer encouraged Baca long distance through his letters.
“You can be a poet, Jimmy,” Baca remembers Vedeer telling him. “You are that good.”
In addition to writing literature, Baca now spends much of his time traveling and conducting writing workshops dedicated to at-risk youth and other marginalized adults.
At the Survive and Thrive workshop, Baca let the ALC students know he understands just how tough life can get.
“Environment has power over your behavior,” he said. “When you walk out that front door in the morning, everyone is leaving some kind of prison. [But] you train yourself to be the kind of leader who tears that prison down.”
Baca challenged the students, “Why don’t you write your own stories? Write from your perspective . . . from your spiritual heart. That’s when people will listen.”
All 21 students wrote. They wrote non-stop. Some poetically, some stream-of-consciousness, others in complete narrative. Even more courageous, most of them shared out loud what they had written.
Jose Villalobos began, “I’m waiting for Thanksgiving, but this is unlikely.”
His memory told a very different story from that of the traditional happy family seated around a dining table feasting on roasted turkey. And in the workshop, the room held its breath listening.
Assistant Principal Al Johnson was wowed. “They were some of the most courageous people I’ve ever met,” he said. “They just put their pain out there for everyone to hear.”
Johnson also believes that Baca deserves a huge amount of credit for reaching them. “He has a unique way of pulling out sensibilities and emotions. It was almost as if he was building a relationship with them in that short amount of time.”
In parting, Baca challenged the students to keep writing and going to school.
“If you were born, you deserve to be known,” he assured them. “Use education as a way of furthering your dream. Go to writers’ workshops. Go to poetry readings.”
“Don’t be shy,” he urged them. “This is your society. Go out there and make it yours.”
Jimmy Santiago Baca is the author of memoirs, essays, fiction and poetry. He is the recipient of numerous honors including the Pushcart Prize, the American Book Award, the International Hispanic Heritage Award and the International Award. He is the founder of Cedar Tree Poetics , a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of improving the human condition through knowledge, compassion and literacy.