Poetz Portal is a local poetry collective dedicated to liberating consciousness, spreading awareness and forming a sacred space in which to share the art form.
Founded in 2023, the group works to make inroads in the creative community by hosting readings, workshops and poetry circles.
Its latest project is a collaboration with the Allen County Parks on a series of nature-based events at Fox Island, called Poetry in the Park.
In honor of National Poetry month, WBOI’s Julia Meek discusses the emerging collective’s mission and the power of the spoken word with two of its 6 founding members, Tehilayah Ysryal and Jessica Lynn.
Learn more about the group and connect at the Poetz Portal Facebook page.
Julia Meek: Jessica Lynn, Tehilayah, Ysrael, welcome.
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Hi.
Jessica Lynn: Hi.
Julia Meek: So, you're a new poet's movement on our local art scene. Congratulations. In a spoken word, how did poetry bring the six of you together?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: So, poetry brought us together from actually, our different backgrounds and cultures. We all started writing poetry when we were young, right? (all chuckle)
Julia Meek: There's a good beginning!
Tehilayah Ysrayl: And we came together at this poetry creative circle, and we all just kind of came committed. And this poetry circle started pretty large. After time, it kind of just dwindled, and it left us...
Julia Meek: The collective?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: The collective. (all chuckle) And so now we are here. Now we are Poetz Portal.
Julia Meek: What a great situation to be in, what a great portal that you've created for yourself, Tehilayah. Now your core mission is liberating consciousness, a lot of healing going on there, too, I know, and also galvanizing a human shift through the power of poetry. So, what does that mean to you the poet, Jessica, what human shift Are you looking to excite and set off there?
Jessica Lynn: So, we believe as a collective that there may be a poet within everyone and each of us. And so, we like to say, liberate through pain to page and portal to the poet within.
Julia Meek: Good thoughts and the homing in and setting things off. Does it feel like that to you with this work that you're doing, that you have sparked something, that kind of a feel?
Jessica Lynn: Yes, I believe so, especially from the feedback from the community. Yes.
Julia Meek: Great. That's one good indication. Now the portal you poets collectively represent. Let's talk about how this works, structurally. You're doing events, you're sharing a lot of things. What have you been able to build, cobble up, start in these last couple of years?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Okay, so, last year we did have two events where we started. They were called Beyond Us, and then, Beyond Us 2.0. We also then collaborated with the Unitarian Church for Poets, for Palestine.
We also worked with our Fort Wayne Poet Laureate, Chris Crisler. That was a workshop that we had. Just kind of encouraged us to step outside of our boxes, encouraged us to, you know, dive into different types of poetry. For instance, like me, I don't like haikus, but he encouraged me to do so, right? (all chuckle)
Tehilayah Ysrayl: And so, this year, we're working, of course, to build more relationships, and we're also getting ready to start a poet's circle ourselves, so to bring more poets in.
Jessica Lynn: Yes.
Julia Meek: Then you've got it going on in all kinds of ways. That's wonderful. And okay, another core member, Ketu Oladuwa, a spoken word legend himself is your mentor and spirit guide. That's besides being a collective member. What has he taught you about spreading the word and everything that goes with it?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Ketu, I always hear him tell me, stop thinking. You're thinking too much, right? And one of the things that he's taught us is that we need to feel, feel the words, feel everything, and then once we feel, then we can write.
He's also taught us that there's a responsibility to our community to make sure that we speak up for them, when those can't speak up for themselves. We're entering an era right now, politically that is just changing everything.
So, the poet has to be brave, and that's one of the things that we are when we get on the mic, we're brave.
Julia Meek: And when you get in and speak from the portal, do you feel that collective power and energy and spirit?
Jessica Lynn: Oh, absolutely, yes, absolutely. When we're speaking from the Spirit, one thing that we do that's special about our collective is that we always call in the ancestors before we start. And Ketu has taught us a lot about that as well.
Julia Meek: He has his whole elder movement going, which I believe you've even taken part in helping with that?
Jessica Lynn: Yes. The octogenarian tour? Yes.
Julia Meek: You've brought up a wonderful point. What do you feel that you learn from your ancestors, from the generations, from the octogenarians, from your elders. What can be learned and shared?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: I think we learn courage. Our elders and our ancestors, they had the bravery that we desire to have. I think that they were in a time that, yes, they were being kind of quieted, for lack of a better word.
But even in that, they spoke very loud with their words. For instance, Maya Angelou, she's one of my favorite poets, and she, for a long time as a child, didn't speak. And then to turn around and become a poet who spoke powerful words is an amazing thing.
Julia Meek: And to share that is wonderful and thank you for that. Poetry is a popular art form, as we're speaking of. At its heart, it is private and personal. now back to the collective aspect. How do you all, as a group, make it communal, you know, open it to the world and encourage others?
Jessica Lynn: Well, right now, we are working on doing the poetry circles. We view those as sacred space, inviting the community in, and those will also involve the libations and calling in the ancestors.
Julia Meek: Great! Rituals and traditions like that are certainly important art form themselves and an integral part of poetry, some would say. How is that working or feeling for you?
Jessica Lynn: It feels wonderful. Poetry is a ritual, you know, and poetry isn't just a form of writing. Like Ketu would say, he poets. So, it's a way of being. It's a way of being in the world, to poet. So we're bringing that into a ritual to our community.
Julia Meek: And meanwhile, our county parks are exemplary, and Fox Island is an absolute gem. You are working with their environmental educator, Evo Webb, that's your newest project. So, what did you evolve there for your Poetz Portal?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Yes, we are working with Eva Webb, with Fox island on four events, one event has already been concluded and passed, to bring people back into nature. Also provide a way of healing and for people to understand that nature itself is healing.
It's song when you come out and you just listen and you're quiet. It's Poetry in the Park, that's one of the things that we are partnering with Eva on. Eva has also created like a poetry walk, where you can go and you can walk and you can, certain sections of the walk, you actually see poetry hanging from the trees.
And there's different poets who've actually submitted their poetry to be hung at Fox island. So that's an amazing thing too, from other local artists.
Julia Meek: And this is in addition to these presentations that you are doing there on the seasonal changes throughout this year. Now, Eva has quite a monthly itinerary going at Fox Island already. What do you feel that this adds to the education and outreach mix there?
Jessica Lynn: It's important to note that we are doing the poetry in the park during these solstices and equinoxes. That's important that we gather and poet on those days.
The equinox is a time of balance and rebirth, which fosters reflection and balance internally as well as externally. And then for the solstices, it's more of an extreme between light and dark.
Julia Meek: As the solstices are.
Jessica Lynn: That's right, yeah.
Julia Meek: That's another direct natural connection, put to verse, if you will, and then shared with the community. The hanging words, the poet. What kind of an impact does that give you all, just being there, in your element with visual representation of what you're all about?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: I think it's beautiful. I think being able to have the community come out and walk and take time to pause and then be able to read the poetry that's there, listen to the sounds.
Not all of the poetry is centered around nature, but it is centered around that rebirth and that healing, and maybe in that moment, that's something that someone needed. You never know when what you're doing for someone in community with just that type of a thing.
Julia Meek: What's going on in their life and what you have just added to it. Yes, wonderful point. And now that this first, it was an equinox event, is under your belt. How was it received? Who all did you see there?
Jessica Lynn: We saw family members. We saw members from the community, and we also saw other poets and artists there. I think what we did was we provided a shift, an internal shift for the people that came. And then if they went along and did the poetry walk afterwards, it was like a whole experience.
Julia Meek: That would be the shift that you do set people into. You try to move the hearts of these people. Is that a fair way to say it? And what did you as a collective take away from your debut. More importantly, what are you going to develop and improve and expand on for the next three earnings of the season?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: What we took away from it was people needed this. People needed a moment to be back in balance and say, okay, I want to be rebirthed in this moment.
At each one of our events, we always do some type of participation from our audience. And in this, our last event, we actually asked people to write down a word that you want to burn, and then at the end of the event, we had them write down a word that you want to grow.
And to see the differences between the two. What we did after that is we had them, put them on a canvas, and afterwards it became this beautiful, artistic expression of what happened at the event. We also provided them seeds so that they can take seeds home.
Julia Meek: Literal seeds.
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Literal seeds, so that they can go home and bury them. They were wildflowers. We want them to not only internalize that healing but see it on a physical.
Julia Meek: The Fox Island itself is recovering from the horrid derecho hit back in '22. That's almost a metaphor for the healing that you all would like to affect. How does that resonate with your portal collectively, as well as in your individual work?
Jessica Lynn: Yeah, I think that speaks to the fact that transformation and healing isn't always just on a personal level. It's collective. So, what you see, the balance and the shift that takes place again on the internal, is also part of the collective, so within, or, as within, so without.
Julia Meek: And do you all feel it when one is affected by something like that?
Jessica Lynn: Absolutely, the energy? The energy, yes.
Julia Meek: Speaking of your individual work, a collective member's grunt work is seemingly never done, teaching, sharing, recruiting. How does it all fit within your own work, including making your own poetry?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: I think that it's, oh, my goodness. It's amazing with all the work that we put into it, because we all have a place and a role and resources that we bring to it. We also have our own work that we're doing and we're writing and we're meditating on those things.
And what we do is we do have creative meetings, still. We still bring those to the table with one another, and we share that with one another, and we're vulnerable with one another. We're ready for the feedback, right?
And I think that that's one of the things that as a collective, we have allowed that vulnerability to keep us whole as a collective, and that's what we do.
Jessica Lynn: Yes. So, essentially, we are holding each other accountable for the work and then...
Tehilayah Ysrayl: The work! (chuckles)
Jessica Lynn: We need to make time to tend to our poetry, as well as the work in the collective.
Julia Meek: I am kind of curious, especially if you don't get to do all the poetry you would like to do, because you are busy doing all the rest of it. When you do get back to it, when you do get to create, to write? Do you find that it has been working inside your head, even though you've not been able to be at it?
Jessica Lynn: Oh, yeah.
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Oh, most definitely. There are seasons when, as a poet, your pen is dry. (all chuckle) It does not work. Your pencil, you can't sharpen it enough.
But when you sit down, and you finally get out of that season of just not being able to write, and you sit down, all of these things come out of you. And when all of these things come out of you, it becomes a beautiful work.
And then you're just so excited to share. You're just like, when is the next meeting? I'm texting my group, I'm texting my collective, I'm, I'm back guys, you know? (all chuckle)
And I think that's the wonderful thing when it comes to poetry, and when you're not able to actually write, and then you get it all back.
Jessica Lynn: Yeah, there's an integration period, you know? There's a time when seeds have been planted, and it takes time to integrate. And sometimes there's silence.
But if you check our notes apps on our phone, I leave a notepad in the car, so it's whenever the moment strikes, you have a chance to write something down.
Julia Meek: So, going forward, there's no doubt about the power of the spoken word. You folks are re-proving that, should further proof be needed. What are some other ways you intend, or could think of, to spread that good word and grow the love for poetry?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: I think one of the things that we can do is actually provide workshops for the community, ask them to come in, to give them a free space to write.
Some people don't understand that writing is sometimes healing and teaching people that that's okay, that what you write in your notebook, that's your truth, and nobody can take that away from you.
And that's one of the things that I think that is truly important when it comes to building that community relationship. Because I think it's a community relationship to let them know that it's okay to write this down, everything that you're feeling, everything that you're thinking, that's poetry, when you let it go.
Jessica Lynn: Also, we would like to create an online space, maybe for people who aren't able to come in person to the workshops, and developing a website, and on there, we'll have a portal, so stay tuned for that. It'll be online.
Julia Meek: Very good idea. Has it ever occurred to you how blessed you are to have, maybe a blessing and a curse, but ultimately a blessing for sharing your spoken word, to have the electronic communications and and all the social media that goes with it?
Jessica Lynn: Yes, it's definitely a blessing, yeah, because you can create community online as well as in person.
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Yeah, most definitely. I think that it is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you have, you know, at your fingertips, you have community, but you also have the widespread community where you can't reach everybody, but you want to, and it's, you know, it's there, but it's the blessing that you can.
As poets, we want to do everything that we can, especially with this collective, to reach this community.
Julia Meek: At this time. It's wonderful that you are striving for that. And last question, it is Poetry Month. That's your art and passion. And you wouldn't have to work as hard as you do to share this movement. You could just do your own poetry if you wanted to. So bottom line, what does all of this do for the two of you and all of those poets in that portal that you've created, to be spearheading this movement?
Jessica Lynn: Well, I think that the strength of the collective is the individual, and the strength of the individual is the collective. So, it brings a holistic force that can go out into the community and into our personal lives and help us engage and amplify our expression and creativity.
Julia Meek: Tehilayah?
Tehilayah Ysrayl: It is National Poetry Month, (lightly chuckles) of course. Our collective, as Jessica Lynn said, it is strengthened by the individual and the individual by the collective.
And I think that because we know that, and we really have internalized that, we lean on one another in this time. And even when it's hard, because poetry is just out there, everywhere right now.
And I think that sometimes as poets, we feel the pressure to say, okay, I gotta do this right now. I need to do this right now. And we don't have to. We can lean on one another and be vulnerable with one another, even if you're a poet, your poem is five words. It's still a poem, even if it's one.
Julia Meek: Jessica Lynn and Tehilayah Ysrael, along with Brian Utesch, Riley, McPheters, Breanna Johnson and Ketu Oladuwa, are founding members of Poetz Portal. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Thank you for doing this hard work. Blessings on the journey.
Tehilayah Ysrayl: Peace and blessings.
Jessica Lynn: Bye. Thank you.
