Below is a transcript of our conversation with Nandi Comer, Poet Laureate of Michigan:
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. Until now, Michigan had had only one poet laureate. His name was Edgar Guest, and he died in 1959. The position was brought back in 2021, and Detroit born poet Nandy Comer has served the state since 2023. She Visited the CMU campus in November. I had the chance to get to know her when she sat down with me in studio. And I reassured her that I would not label or pigeonhole her work…
I dont (I don't) want to ever box anyone in and say well, this is a person that writes nature poems. But the things that that really set off that, (Nandi Comer: Yeah.) creative spark in you?
Nandi Comer:
I think sometimes there's a difference, sometimes between, like the thing that you're writing about, that you're journaling about. Often times, a lot of times people think that if you are a nature poet, that maybe you don't write about a brand. Or you don't write about technology. And I think that as a writer, I am (I am) exploring things all the time. Sometimes it is just journaling about the space in which I'm in. I (I) relish in my time in nature, I enjoy it. I have yet to find my voice in writing about nature, but where I have found moments that stir in me these moments of response or representation, I tend to be very driven to write the unnamed experience. It doesn't mean that the experience hasn't been there for a long time, but maybe we have not named it in a way that resonates with the community that I'm thinking of. So, if it means like, writing poems about the history of techno being very, very much deeply rooted in the stories of the people who created that sound. I know that they've not seen themselves represented in poetry in the way that they really felt was as close as possible to their experiences. So, it was very much for me as I started writing that history into these poems to hear them say that they saw themselves in those poems meant that I was able to name something that they had never seen in poetry before, and I feel like I'm doing that also with women stories, black women stories, Detroit stories. And so, it is a bit of a response, but it's also like trying to going back to that as writers name the thing that has not been articulated. We know already exists in our interiority.
DN:
As you traveled in the role that you now have as Poet Laureate of Michigan, obviously an opportunity (to) meet lots of people, go lots of places. Are there stories from people that you've met that are already finding themselves into ideas?
NC:
I will say that it takes me a while to, I might be journaling about them, but it takes me a while to get them into poem sometimes. I think that this time has been a really interesting time for me learning about the state as well. I have been a lot of places around the world, and I had also been up, you know what we call up north, you know, but I hadn't been to the U.P for example and learning from the poets and the, learning from some of the students in the U.P as far like I've (I've) only gone as far as Houghton, which is still quite a bit north, it has been something that is so remarkable for me as someone from the southern, the southernmost part of Michigan, to be able to go to the northern tip of Michigan and see the vast diversity in between all of those spaces. It has been such a learning experience for me. (Knew) I knew the words of Michigan, but I didn't know the places that the that those words were coming from. So, for me, I may not be getting them into my poems, but I'm definitely changed, forever changed, by these last two years serving the state.
DN:
For what you have brought to the appointment, the position and the representation for the arts for the state, thank you very much Nandi Comer and thank you for bringing your story and (and) the inspiration for the arts to the CMU campus and continue to spread that. I think we could all agree. It the position and the advocation is in and put in very good hands and as it's handed on, well done. Thank you very much for sitting down with us.
NC:
Thanks for having me.
