Meet Linda Kaye

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Linda Kaye a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Linda, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
Resilience came from having to fend for myself from a very young age. I came from a family that was not very attentive, which allowed me to develop the survival skills to live and navigate most of my childhood world.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Sometime in 2012, while still practicing social work, I was introduced to the world of open mic spoken word poetry. I was immediately smitten, and wrote my first piece 20 Years Left, which I performed at the Majestical Roof gallery at an open mic in Pasadena, Calif. I continued to jubilantly write poetry, self publishing my first chapbook in 2013, “Teetering on the Edge of the Emotional Cliff”, written to help me deal with the grief and loss of my dying Father. Then in June 2014, as a new member of the Arroyo Arts Collective (AAC) I was asked to develop and curate an event of poetry and spoken word ‘Back to the Roots, which was a Call for Poetry Submissions event. This event was part of the annual Lummis Day Festival event sponsored by the Arroyo Arts Collective, Lummis Day and the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles. The event was a tribute to the late poet and printmaker Richard Duardo that was held at the Autry’s Historic Southwest Museum.

My career as a poet and producer of art and poetry events blossomed. I have produced well over 25+ well-received poetry shows and salons since 2013 in venues all over the Northeast LA area. In 2018, at Beyond Baroque, in conjunction with Cathy Weiss’ art installation, I produced a special poetry event addressing the complex and layered meaning of “Home and Belonging”. Also with the AAC, I curated a special poetry and photography exhibit for the first outdoor art event after the pandemic “Fools For Hope” in June 2021.

My poetry events have included several summer poetry salons, in the NELA area. Locations include, the Align Gallery, 50/50 Gallery, Gold Haus Gallery and Rock Rose Gallery in Highland Park. The Manifesto Café in Hermon, Pilates and Arts studio in Echo Park, and Native Boutique and Zweet Café in Eagle Rock. And in conjunction with an AAC art event at the Neutra Institute in Silverlake, launched my last poetry book “What’s Your Hubbub”.

MY first short documentary film “BORDER POETS” was a socially and politically inspired event with poets and musicians filmed at the border wall of Tecate, Mexico on the Jacumba, Ca. side of the US. The film was co-produced by MUD productions and is available for viewing on my website. Also for viewing is my first ‘tongue-in-cheek’ Rap music video. A collaboration with fellow poet Mary Cheung, “ERACE-ISM” was inspired by the 2020 BLM movement. This video was accepted into the Ontario Museum of History & Art show “We the People” Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. February 2- April 16, 2023. So honored!!

And… February 19, 2022, I debuted a staged poetry production of “20 Years Left” at the historic Ebell Club in Highland Park! Two sold out shows with 2 standing ovations!! The film was also accepted into the Highland Park Independent Film Festival in October 2023 and was awarded an Honorable Mention!

Since January of 2020, the year of my retirement from Social Work, I began publishing poetry in the online publication THE LA ARTNEWS, where I host a monthly poetry column ‘POETS PLACE’. Everyone is invited to submit, with no experience necessary to be published.

What’s new? Well I am currently traveling in France and headed to an artist residency in the town of Nerac!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Courage, tenaciousness, and commitment. Staying focused on your craft. Completing time lines and having a well thought out plan or trajectory for your path is essential in becoming successful.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
I feel particularly challenged by the aging process. Losing stamina, and having trouble with memory is haunting. Although I am not alone on this journey, it is still debilitating and sometimes depressing. I am certainly not a fan of this part of life!

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