Verses for the voiceless: poet Jasmine Mans visits Chapman

Mans read passages from her book “Black Girl, Call Home” over Zoom to an enamored audience of students and faculty, answering questions about identity, writer’s block and social commentary. Photo collage by DANIEL PEARSON, Photo Editor

For Jasmine Mans, there’s inspiration to be found in the mundane. 

“Today is boring, but it will only be today now,” the acclaimed poet told The Panther during a Q&A at “An Afternoon of Spoken Word Poetry,” a virtual event co-hosted by Chapman’s Africana Studies program and Tabula Poetica.

At the Feb. 24 event, Angelica Allen, director of the Africana Studies minor program and co-organizer of the event, introduced Mans with a long list of accolades, including opening for the book launch of “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” and Mans’ newest book, “Black Girl, Call Home,” being named “one of Oprah’s most anticipated LGBTQ books.” 

Some students in attendance were enrolled in Allen’s course, Black Feminisms (AFST 320), where “Black Girl, Call Home” is a required text.

In an email statement to The Panther, Allen explained the importance of Mans’ virtual visit, noting that many Black female writers or Black feminists contributed to the poetry scene throughout history. 

“The medium of spoken word … provides a more accessible and alternative understanding of Black Feminist theory while still offering a clear position of Black women's distinct positions,” Allen wrote.

Anna Leahy, the director of Tabula Poetica — a Chapman initiative to celebrate and support the art of poetry, told The Panther it was Allen’s idea to create the event and tie it into her ongoing class.

“I'm very excited to be working with (Allen) and that Tabula Poetica has this chance to begin a collaboration with the Africana Studies program that I hope will be ongoing,” Leahy wrote in an email statement.

Mans read poems from the book to students and faculty alike, often stopping to lend commentary on the background of a poem. Parenthood, human rights issues and the implications of fame were among the plethora of topics covered in Mans’ readings, which often referenced historical events or her own personal experiences.

“(It’s) a book that took a lot of time and thought and emotion to write, and … I wrote (the book) to be a utility for folks,” Mans told her audience.

Halfway through the event, Mans recited her poem “The Little Mermaid,” with verses like, “When they tell / the Black girl / she can’t play mermaid / ask them, / what their people know / about holding their breath / underwater.” 

She paused briefly to elaborate on the poem’s backstory, citing the concept of sea animals regularly losing their offspring — often to the point of not realizing they had lost a child — as an inspiration for the piece.

“It’s part of the way of life underwater, and it made me think about that (parallel) with women of color and loss,” said Mans, who studied Afro-American studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mans told The Panther during the event’s Q&A section that she finds inspiration to write after stumbling upon a revelation by happenstance. The idea to create a poem centered around sea life, for instance, Mans credited to the multiple Netflix documentaries she binged on the same topic.

“(Inspiration is) like food: you might have a taste for something, but then if you walk outside, you might smell something and develop a taste for something else,” Mans said. “The question becomes, ‘How do we allow ourselves moments where we can pull inspiration out of the mundane?’”

Sometimes, Mans’ emphasis on everyday occurrences in her work is utilized to illustrate more tragic themes — like the maintained pertinence of systemic racism and the needless suffering of individuals from marginalized communities. .

“I started writing about Black boys a lot early in my career,” the poet said. “I saw a lot of Black boys from my neighborhood die, and their faces would go on the cover of the local newspaper that we saw every single day.”

Mans’ poem “Black Son,” which was also read at the event, tied into those experiences; one repeated line in the piece quotes the phrase, “I am just afraid to raise a Black son.”

Other pieces struck a more celebratory tone. One, titled “Dear First Lady,” was written by Mans in college with the hope of one day reciting it to former first lady Michelle Obama. 

“Thank you for being a brown girl’s dream come true,” Mans wrote.

Other writings shared at the virtual event dealt with “obsession,” as Mans told her audience. For her, these moments of adoration manifested in poems about the life of Whitney Houston, who she admired for her “great poise and grace.” 

Many questions at the Q&A discussed Mans’ approach to poetry and writing. Addressing one student’s question about vulnerability, Mans said that, despite her reading to the audience that day, she still encounters a fear of sharing her thoughts with the world.

“I don't want anybody to feel as if I stepped out of (my) vulnerability and became ‘brave,’” Mans said. “You're going to get punished for it, that you told all of your secrets, that people know how broken you are, how ugly you are, how mad you are as a Black woman and the secrets that you didn't even tell your parents.”

At the event, Mans’ writings were hardly met with punishment. Instead, students and faculty alike responded to her poetry with an abundance of questions and — sometimes tearful — applause.