Meet Kay Poema

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kay Poema. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Kay with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

I learned resilience by accepting early that I would not have a support system to fall back on. Intergenerational trauma tore holes through my family, leaving me to navigate life with the awareness that I had to stay sensitive to the lessons the world was teaching me. I realized that even beyond my family’s pain and dysfunction, there were systems in this world built to oppress me. If I wanted to do more than survive—if I wanted to truly thrive—I had to cultivate resilience on purpose. I had to become the one who saves me, because no one else was going to.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I am an educator within the CUNY system, where I support students on their academic journeys as an academic advisor and teach courses such as Writing for the Social Sciences: Issues that Impact Marginalized Communities. In my classroom, I teach students to listen deeply, ask critical questions, and advocate for those who have been silenced or oppressed. I believe in the principle of each one teach one, and I view education as a collective responsibility. I also believe that creative expression is not just art—it is a form of healing that works alongside therapeutic practices to restore, empower, and transform. I established Poetic Pathways a poetry collective in 2023 after I became the Bronx Poet Laureate, to help build community within the Bronx and aide people along their healing journeys.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Looking back, the first quality that shaped my journey was self-awareness. Understanding my own emotions, my trauma, and my patterns, and choosing growth taught me the difference between surviving and healing. My advice to someone early on is to take the time to know yourself. Reflect, journal, go to therapy if possible, and don’t run from your truth. Resilience becomes powerful when it is intentional, not just reactive.

Another major force in my journey was creativity. Poetry, digital art is how I tell my story. These weren’t hobbies for me, they were lifelines. They helped me process pain, reclaim memory, and imagine new possibilities. Creativity opened doors to classrooms, residencies, and communities. For those just starting, treat your creativity like a language and a practice. Use it to express, to heal, and to push against limitations. Work on your craft even when no one is watching. Your art will guide you toward the spaces you belong in.

Finally, the ability to build relationships and community transformed everything. Even when I didn’t have support at home, I learned to build it through teaching, advising, mentoring, and collaborating. Community amplified my voice and created opportunities I couldn’t have reached alone. For those at the beginning of their journey, don’t isolate yourself. Seek people who see you. Build relationships with mentors, peers, and collaborators. Community is not just connection, it is protection, expansion, and legacy.

If I could leave one piece of advice, it would be this: know yourself, honor your voice, and build spaces where you do not have to shrink. That is where your power will grow.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

One of the books that had a deep impact on my life was Nikki Giovanni’s Black Talk, Black Judgment. That book didn’t just give me poems. It gave me permission. Giovanni wrote with unapologetic Black voice, sharp political awareness, and emotional honesty in a way I had never seen before. She showed me that poetry could be commentary, protest, memory, love letter, and survival all at once.

Reading her work made me feel seen as a Black woman navigating rage, tenderness, history, and hope. It taught me that our language, our slang, our rhythm, our cultural truth, is literary. It belongs on the page without apology. Her fearlessness helped me find my own voice and affirmed that poetry could hold both intellect and emotion, both beauty and confrontation.

That book didn’t just influence my writing. It affirmed my existence as a Black woman.

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Kay Poema

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