Q&A with CAConrad

Collaboration is at the heart of the Roberts Institute of Art. As we continue to learn about what collaboration can be, we have asked a variety of cultural practitioners to discuss the way they live and work with others.

For the first in this series, we’ve invited poet CAConrad to answer questions about living well and sustainably together, collaboration, creativity and curiosity.

CAConrad has been working on a project where they asked thirty-three poets to respond to the topic of death. They also have a book titled Amanda Paradise coming out in September 2021.

CAConrad
May 2021

How can we live well and sustainably together?  

There are many answers to this question, but I will focus on just one: Creativity.

You do not simply ask about living sustainably but also how to live well. Every living human being is creative, and if we encourage everyone to find their inventive strengths, it is a significant step toward finding the solutions together. Imagination is necessary now more than ever.

How does collaboration play out in your work?

I work with (Soma)tic poetry rituals.

When I collaborate with visual artists, we build a ritual that we both perform, the results being my poem and their artwork. Experiential collaboration is the most exciting to me.

Do you have a dream collaborator?

YES, Jason Dodge, and we are working together! It may not happen this year because of the covid plague, but soon. We will work on a gallery space in Italy to turn it into a living (Soma)tic Poetry Ritual, one that I live inside of for a month. It would involve daily opportunities for anyone to join me in the gallery to build rituals, write together, sometimes talk or experiment in ways to breathe together.

Jason Dodge is one of my favorite living artists, not just because I love his work but also because he is a kind and beautiful soul.

How has the pandemic made you rethink what it means to live together?

Well, I am officially in my late 50s now, and the last plague I dealt with was in the 1980s and 90s when more than half of everyone I loved died of AIDS. It was horrendous, nearly unendurable, but for our attentive and loving community striving to help our lovers and friends. More than once over the past year, I have taken a deep breath here in the United States while watching people refuse to wear masks and scream about it.

Just the other day, another brand new anti-queer, anti-trans law is up for votes in Alabama. To imagine these antiquated, violent heterosexual Christians listening to the cooperation model we queers worked with during the early years of AIDS seems unlikely. Even in the middle of the chaos of this current moment, they find the time to bash queers with more laws controlling our existence and to inform us over and over again that they consider us subhuman.

My answer is, I know what we could do but doubt that we will be able to do it.

What does creativity mean to you? 

It is the 6th vital organ located in the human body. Every medical book that claims there are only 5 vital organs should be thrown into the recycling bin until they get it right.

How do you hold onto wonder and curiosity when things seem bleak? 

I have a new book coming out later this year, which makes me happy, but not as happy as I am when I am creating the work. When I am writing, it means I am living in a state of awareness, and there is no other place I would rather be.