Shelley connley has always been passionate about wor and poetry she wrote her first poem in middle school and since then she has utilized poetry for self-reflection and to inspire others recently the Milwaukee Public Library System appointed her as Milwaukee's new poet laurate she joins us to discuss how she plans to use her platform to uplift others Shelly welcome to Black noval thank you first of all congratulations on being named port laurat and can you tell us what steps when in were involved in all of that and how you became Port Laur yes so what I know now uh is there were 22 applicants uh there was kind of an extensive application process where you had to outline what events you were going to do over the next two years um that has to be a total of five events and series of other questions your bio of course and and lots of questions and so from there they uh had a panel the library and they narrowed it down to I think eight people maybe from there to three people and then from there to me so and I did have to go in and do a panel interview where I had to do a poem of my own and a poem of someone else's that I enjoyed um and uh answer a bunch of questions as well at the panel and what are your plans for this role so my two key things I'm trying to really stay rooted in I I won't say trying that I am staying rooted in our community and collabor ation so for example my first project that I'll be executing in March um involves the businesses along bronzville or in bronzville along MLK um it involves the community seeing poetry when they walk by I really just want to make poetry available and accessible to all people and have it in places where it's not normally seen um so to bring awareness to it and the power of it I'm including uh several local poets in that project so their work will actually be displayed um so that's my first my first project but it's all rooted in community and collaboration I want to do some stuff with artists of different sorts um both both music visual artists uh I want to do stuff with youth as well as the elders and I really want to try to bring together I'll say it so it can happen um past poet laurates in some way whether it's a showcase whether it's whatever it is just so that we have a collaboration of our own um because I think we have a lot to offer um the world you know Milwaukee specifically maybe the Laurette that comes after me so collaboration and Community how has poetry changed over the years since you know you're a seven time uh slam Champion how has poetry uh changed over that time frame I would say the biggest difference while this sounds kind of strange is like I come from writing paper you know paper and pen writing and so that has evolved differently now where people you can just pull out your phone and write which I do um reading off the phone that's all kind of stuff that has evolved with technology as far as the actual poetry for me it's always been uh a free form of expression and so I don't necessarily feel like that piece is changed I think people are a little more um free and open to different topics that maybe weren't talked about in the past just again as the world changes and things evolve but it's always been a space of like I might say something that someone doesn't agree with but it's my poem it's my passion my feelings and you can't really debate with that so I think that part hasn't changed um but some of the topics have expanded as the world has changed how has poetry inspired you and how has it helped others I know that you've done some work um Through My Sister's Keeper if you could talk a little bit about that so how it's inspired me is I really would say I found my voice through poetry um I have always been a writer um but a private writer so that made me build my confidence um getting on the mic finally built confidence and being surrounded by other amazing poets really just um helped me find my voice and I use it now in the classroom with My Sister's Keeper we work with middle school and high school girls we use poetry and writing in every classroom and uh it's a way for them to tap into emotions that they have bottled up and that they don't realize are affecting them in their life and their choices because they think like oh it doesn't matter I've bottled it up um so we tap in and help them open up those feelings and get them out in a positive way will you give us a couple of poems absolutely I would love to awesome cross-legged I sit so close to the TV that I smell electricity my mother stands their hand on her hips veins bulging from her neck she says how many times must I tell you to back up from that TV this was a song chorus cuz of course I never listened see the closer I got the more I felt connected to my favorite characters which in 1981 meant every Saturday morning I moved to Smurf Village side by side with Smurf Fett long thick ponytails flowing down my back next to her blond Tresses in ' 881 my Saturday mornings were filled with my mama's homemade biscuits the concoctions of Papa Smurf while brainy Smurf assured me this burden of wearing glasses just meant I was smarter than the average blue skin gave this illusion that black and white were Irrelevant in ' 81 I didn't know that in the real world our skin color mattered and brown was not in season I was naive to race relations and subliminal segregation in our projects untried ears couldn't hear the screams of oppressed mothers from welfare lines seeing 81 if you were blue in the real world it wasn't cute like those little Smurfs more a metaphor for sadness Financial depression Suffocation tiring fights against European colonists it was post four little girls post four little girls being blown to shreds while praising their god post assassination of Malcolm and Martin pre Rodney King pre James Bird pre Shan Bell CN 81 while I watch cartoons and ate my mama's homemade biscuits Rick James Sayang super freaking Michael Jackson rocked with you an Alabama man was being prayed on for dinner rocking in a tree like a faulty Christmas decoration T Michael Donald was only 19 body hanging heavy like a paraplegic his leg slightly bent his neck slit his head tilted a reflection of this crooked system see in 81 we still hung America's Strange Fruit Billy Holiday turning in her grave in the 21st century our country still smudged with DNA from innocent lives gluttonous cops still drink the blood of our young like vampires and cocky El still twist the system while America turns a blind eye to this genocide from Rwanda to the Bayou to our backyards the only change is the weapon they formed against us ropes replaced by night sticks and Glocks you see I'm trying to believe God when he says they won't Prosper but that feels so hard looking at the odds