Interview with Darrel Alejandro Holnes

Darrel Alejandro Holnes is a poet, teacher, playwright and friend. He is the recipient of scholarships to Cave Canem and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, various awards, writing fellowships, and writer’s residencies. He and his work have appeared in the Kennedy Center College Theater Festival, TIME Magazine, Callaloo, The Caribbean Writer, and on The Best American Poetry blog as one of the Phantastique 5. I present to you a conversation with one of the most dynamic people I've had the pleasure to meet in my life - Darrel Alejandro Holnes.


With all your projects in theater, poetry, music, activism, and teaching, how've you been?

Well, Alex. I can't talk about all the projects quite yet, but I've been busy, as you can see. But considering the family I come from, you could say, I was #bornthisway I come from a long line of entrepreneurs, innovators, musicians, and educators - even a war hero. So it's all in a day's work, so to speak.

To me, it would be psychologically draining to create as much as you do. How do you balance all of your responsibilities and obligations and still find time to write the awesome poetry that you produce?

What helps me balance this all is to never think of any of my duties as "obligations", but to find the joy in each duty. I know that I'm on this earth to make my dreams come true, and that's different than believing that I'm here to see them come true. The difference is that I know my purpose is to work hard, is to do what it takes to create. If God wanted me to simply watch things happen, I would've been born into this world in a Lay-Z-Boy recliner.

I also have an amazing community, both #worldwide and in New York, who are very supportive, and keep me grounded and going.

That bit about the Lay-Z-Boy got me rolling. How has it been for you, working in the theatre and playwriting business? Is it a nice break from writing poetry, and how did working in theatre come about for you?

I remember watching my sister, Krystle, perform in regional theater as an actor and ballet dancer when we were very young, like 6 and 7. It was a thrilling experience. My mother reminds me of how surprised she was to overhear me repeating my favorite lines from the show back to my sister after we'd come home from her performances. The same with movies. Even from a very early age, I've always had quite a memory for dialogue. Perhaps I could've been an actor, but I'm happy to put this mind to use as a playwright and screenwriter. And I don't think working as a dramatist is my break from being a poet, I'm all things at all times. #cantstopwontstop

After I read the poem "Rapture" on The Prague Revue, I was wondering if you were in the thick of the Occupy Wall Street movement when it sparked protests two years ago or so. If you were, did you see some real madness out there?

Madness? Well, unfortunately, some protestors were victims of police brutality, profiling, and sexual harassment as has been widely documented in photographs in the media. So yes, there was madness. But I'd rather talk about the beauty of occupy, and the music. I witnessed true beauty when I marched with the group from Zuccotti to Times Square. The chants, rally cries, and protest songs, were the people's poetry: visceral collective expression in words and music. It was incredible. And a special treat to be a part of that while in Times Square, surrounded by all of its bombastic media, because we were louder and more effective than any of the giant billboards by which we were surrounded.
Growing up abroad, I encountered two different ideas of America - one in the history books, where America was depicted as a democratic nation of truth, justice, and equality, where men like Martin Luther King Jr., JFK, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington were Christ-like figures - the second was an America that you bought in the store and took home in a bag, an America that was Britney Spears, McDonalds, and Tommy Hilfiger. It was fascinating for me to see both illusions of America come together into something real in Times Square that day. The day we claimed Times Square as a new Zuccotti Park, it felt like we reclaimed America. Perhaps that's too grand a statement, but I'll at least add that I felt surrounded by this nation's future; a more civilly engaged, global-thinking, America.

It's very important for me to be civically engaged. I believe it's my duty as a citizen of any nation, and of the world to engage with its political system(s).  I wrote "Rapture" in the spirit of occupy, to honor the activists around me, and also the many political poets whose work inspires me to see the value of the written word in even the most challenging times. Poets like Gil Scott-Heron, June Jordan, Aime Cesaire, Pablo Neruda, Derek Walcott, Lucille Clifton, and Adam Zagajewski. There are also nods to playwrights Samuel Beckett and German writer and politician Goethe.

I had the opportunity to interview Eileen Myles, Filip Marinovich, Patricia Smith, CA Conrad, Richard Blanco (Inaugural Poet), and Stephen Boyer (editor/overseer of The Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology) among many other poets for my project "Poets on Politics" during that election year. I dedicate this poem to them too.

So, back to your book with The Phantastique 5 (Phillip B. Williams, L. Lamar Wilson, Rickey Laurentiis, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, and Saaed Jones). I have two questions for you on this topic. First, would you mind telling us a bit about that group of poets and what kind of landscape you are all exploring? Second, is your poetry going to be in conversation with the poems of the other four?

The Phantastique 5 (#P5) is a group of poets selected by Jericho Brown and named during his final post as a guest writer on The Best American Poetry blog. The book is still coming together so I won't talk too much about it, but I promise it'll be wild, and it'll be more than poetry. The book comes out on Sibling Rivalry Press in the summer of 2014. You could say the landscape we are painting is pink, red, purple, yellow, green, and the many other colors of the rainbow. And black. Yes, very black.

I can't wait to read it, along with the others. I'm sure it'll be a great read. But back to business. Music. You had said music up top. What's going on with that?

Well, few people know that I'm classically trained as a saxophonist. I haven't played in years but am delighted by the opportunity to work as a producer and songwriter with David Engelhard and Andrew Kluger on their forthcoming albums and EPs. More media will be up soon, but for now, here's a link to Kluger jamming with his band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vYRoXUhWOg

I never knew you played! I'll bring my guitar and harmonicas next time we meet up and we'll jam. It sounds like you've got a whirlwind year coming up. I can't wait to listen to the tracks and I look forward to reading your chapbook. Any shout outs or thanks to wrap this up?

My shout outs and thanks to YOU! And my fellow Phantastique 5 - Rickey Laurentiis, Saeed Jones, Phillip B. Williams, L. Lamar Wilson, and the Queen B, Jericho Brown.



Check out Darrel's new and recently published poems at...
The Paris American
The Sound of Poetry Review
The Prague Revue and
Phantom Limb Press

And be on the lookout for his poems in the forthcoming issues of Callaloo, Assaracus, and The Potomac, a Journal of Poetry and Politics.