It should not be possible for an L.A. Dodgers fan to be friendly with anyone from Houston, Texas who cheers for their home team, the Astros, but Jennifer Baptiste is not the type of person that anyone would dislike. She’s got that soft and gentle librarian voice—which comes in handy working as a librarian, but which she also uses when creating videos for her various social media channels.

Books are all around her. Or, rather, she surrounds herself with books. Not only in her day job but when she goes out to various bookstores to attend readings and support other writers. So, naturally, she is also working on creating her own books of poetry, as well as children’s books.

I’ve seen her in attendance at various local poetry readings and book festivals all over Los Ángeles and have—most recently—seen her promote her own literary events and features. This year, I was finally able to add her to a line-up when I was invited to curate the release-party for the latest issue of Acid Verse journal. Only recently I’ve learned how multi-talented she is (voice artist, graphic designer, writer, zine-maker), and how she can use her gentle voice to curse—if needed. Her many talents and her ability to maintain so many relationships with writers from The Valley to Long Beach are what inspired me to ask her for an interview. If you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her, let me introduce you…

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Nikolai Garcia: The last time I saw you was at a record store in Boyle Heights where we celebrated the most recent issue of Acid Verse—which had a musical theme. What role does music play in your poetic craft? Does it inspire you? Is there usually music in the background when you are writing?

Jennifer Baptiste: I really liked the Acid Verse record shop event. Thanks for hosting. It was nice seeing familiar faces, browsing records, and listening to local poets. I see music as a calming supplement to my poetry writing process. Most of my poems are written in silence at 4 AM when I wake up and get a sudden burst of creative thoughts. Eventually I go back to sleep only to wake up and revise the poems later with music in the background. I typically play instrumental versions of my favorite pop songs or calming solfeggio frequency playlists.

NG: Can you tell me why you choose to write poems? I ask because I know you are a person of many talents and have other creative outlets, so I wonder what poetry does for you that other artistic endeavors don’t.

JB: Poetry gives me the opportunity to have fun expressing my thoughts in rhythmic and melodic ways on or off the page. I wrote poems in private journals as a young girl where I played with words and rhyme. I took poetry coursework as an English minor at university where I experimented with various poetic forms, patterns, and stanzas. Now I share poetry at the occasional open mic and test delivery, tone or inflection.

NG: Can you tell me how you went from practicing your craft in private to sharing your work at open mics? Is sharing in front of others something that comes easy to you?

JB: I transitioned to open mic poetry in 2021 when I chose to take a break from picture book writing submissions to submit poetry to a local zine called Drifter zine.

My poem got selected and they ended up having a release party which included an open mic. From there I got invited to another event to be a featured reader. I was receiving a lot of support to share my poetry and this gave me the courage to start looking up open mics to visit about once a month in the Los Ángeles area.

Public speaking is really easy for me due to the fact that I have a lot of professional experience as a presenter and emcee. Although, sharing my personal poetry is a bit scary because it exposes my authentic personal experiences to people I may or may not know very well.

NG: It’s awesome to me that we can go from sending out a simple submission online and then suddenly become a part of a larger poetry community. I’m assuming that you continue to be part of this community because you see, feel, and/or experience nice things. Can you tell me about some of these good experiences?

JB: Yeah, for sure. I continue to take part in the L.Á. poetry scene because I have made friends in the community that encourage me to create, feel safe, and inspire me to be a better writer. When I had writers block a fellow poet went to workshops and did prompts with me. When I wanted a buddy to go to open mics with, a friend committed to attending with me. And when I wanted to promote other writers by organizing open mics, a friend was willing to partner with me.

The L.Á. poetry scene is also a great networking environment. I get helpful advice on submissions, receive invites to be a featured poetry reader, and have been given the pleasure of exploring new neighborhood literary spaces in L.Á. County. Open mics were my first introductions to areas like Compton, Long Beach, Boyle Heights, and parts of the San Fernando Valley.

NG: That’s beautiful to hear! I’m glad you mentioned promoting other writers. Tell me about this Summer Reading Series you started. How did it come about? And how is collaborating with another person on a project like this? Can you also speak on what you have learned about organizing events.

JB: It’s called the Mobile Data Mag Open Mic + Feature Summer Series which celebrates poetry and prose at The Pop-Hop Books Co-op in the Highland Park neighborhood. Each month there are featured poetry readers and public participants sharing their art.

It all started when I went to the Pop-Hop bookstore to drop off some of my line art stationery for consignment. I spoke with Jonathan, an employee, who was passionate about keeping the space alive with programs for creatives. I mentioned that I was interested in coordinating a poetry open mic for the community and would ask other poets if they’d be interested in doing it too.

So, I reached out to Jesse Tovar, fellow poet and creator of Mobile Data Mag. I asked if he would be interested in doing a summer open mic series for his digital publication featuring the authors at a cool location with me as co-organizer and co-host. He agreed and the rest is history.

Collaborating with Jesse from Mobile Data Mag and Jonathan from Pop-Hop has been awesome and easy. We’re friendly, organized, professional, respectful, and great communicators. All the qualities you need for success in putting on an awesome event.

I’ve learned that when organizing events for poets in community spaces you need genuine connections, solid preplanning and consistent communication. The venue, poets, and event format were confirmed months in advance with follow up communication and personalized promotional media as time progressed to ensure success.

NG: I was at one of your events at the Pop-Hop and had a good time. I wanted to ask, since you’ve been to many open mics all over Los Ángeles, if—when creating your event—were you tying to recreate a similar open mic that you had attended, or were trying to build something entirely different?

Also, how has it been working with someone else on this? I imagine you and Jesse Tovar are both very different people and have different ideas. Has it been easy collaborating with someone? What made you reach out to Jesse in particular?

JB: I didn’t really have any preconceived ideas of what I wanted the open mic to be. I just wanted to share poets, have an indoor venue with intrigue, and build community. The outline is simple. We have open mic participants, promotional poems read from Mobile Data Mag, and featured poets perform.

We’ve done two of the events so far and each one has built upon the other with new ideas. I know the third installment will be even better than the last.

Collaborating with someone else on a project is great when you have the same values. Jesse Tovar and I are from different cultures, but we’re not different from each other in our work ethic and passion for literature. I’ve worked with him on a smaller scale as a writer, featured poet, and through casual interactions at literary events over the years.

Our interactions have always been consistent, respectful, professional and supportive so this partnership for the Mobile Data Mag open mic summer series runs smoothly.

NG: Tell me about some of your other literary projects. I know you have a storytelling event coming up, and something with L.A. Poet Society. What can you share? (Edit: These events have already passed)

JB: Sure! Storytime is one of my first literary loves as a librarian, so I’m excited to be giving a reading at The Libros Lincoln Heights bookstore this weekend. I’ll be sharing diverse picture books and a sample take away craft activity for the kids that attend.

Completing my first of three poetry zines for printing has been a milestone in the making as well. It is called, Unlocking The Secret To Loneliness: A Moving Exposition of Love. This zine covers the romance genre and is compiled of five poems that I’ve read at open mics in the past. I’m excited to share it at upcoming events and local bookshops.

I am also currently hosting the Los Angeles Poet Society’s Voices of Color IG Live, a monthly interview series where I chat with writers of color about their creative works. It’s been amazing to hear people’s life stories and learn how it correlates to their writing process.

Aside from that, I am always pursuing traditional publication through writing submissions in poetry and children’s literature.

NG: A final question for you: Before seeing you at the record store, I randomly ran into you at a Chris Estrada comedy show, so I wanted to ask you what part does humor play in poetry?

JB: It was a nice surprise seeing you at the comedy show. This question is interesting. I’ve only used humor once or twice in my poems and people really get a kick out of it at open mics. One poem called, “F*%k Boy In L.A.” is a piece I wrote about some of my quirky dating experiences that took place in Los Ángeles. The title alone makes people laugh out loud every time. It’s also a poem that will be in my upcoming romance poetry zine that I mentioned earlier. I could share some phrases from the text, but people will just have to buy it when it comes out, so they can read and laugh for themselves. Aside from myself, I love when other writers use humor because it makes a poem more engaging for the reader. I would definitely recommend, Rose Mask, a poetry book by Jared Joseph who does a great job of using satirical comedy in writing.

Keep up with all of Jennifer’s events, poems, and creative endeavors on her website: www.jenniferbaptiste.com You can follow her on Twittter and Instagram: @WheresMsB; on TikTok: @WheresMsB_Official; and you can also reach her through email: jbaptiste@jenniferbaptiste.com