By Shoutout LA
FROM: Shoutout LA

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bridgette Bianca and we’ve shared our conversation below.

---

Hi Bridgette, what inspires you?
As a poet and professor, I am inspired by the persistence of the people around me. I am inspired by my grandmother, a black single mother who raised her two children in South Central Los Angeles, miles away from her home after the Second Great Migration. I am inspired by my community college students, who tell me, “Miss, I’m not good at English” but sometimes ride buses for hours to get to my class (now, of course, they prop their cell phones up to Zoom while delivering food or working in a warehouse). I am inspired by my community as it fights to hold on to the little cultural capital we have while juggling low wages, high rent, and impending gentrification. I am inspired by my people, who have taken to the streets every night for the past couple of months to demand justice for our fallen. They all inform what I write and what I teach. I do this for them. Read Rest of Interview Here