INTERVIEWS

Oregon Public Broadcasting – Portland Poet Anis Mojgani Challenges Grief And Greek Gods
Livewire Episode 383
Livewire Episode 311
Divedapper
Good Good Good – Finding Your Way Back To Being Human
1001 Journal
The Archive Project: Verselandia 2017
That Creative Life
Quiddity
The Pantograph Punch – In Conversation with Ken Arkind
Glassworks
Winter Tangerine – 5 Minutes
Fear No Lit
Daily Texan
Paper Darts
Commonline Journal
Spokane 7

•••

 F.A.Q.

Why do you write?

I write because:

–I have the creative need to. 

–It helps me make better sense of the worlds inside and outside of me.

–I want to attempt to use words beautifully.

–I love stories and my imagination desires to tell them.

Is there any reason you were interested in art?

I’ve always just been drawn to it. Growing up it’s what I enjoyed and what I was good at, and what made the most sense to me.

What is your advice to young artists?
Work, work, work—don’t be afraid to make things that are unsuccessful or “bad.” Observe everything around you and store up its inspirations, so you don’t have to wait for inspiration to arrive—it’s simply and hopefully always present. Learn from others. Learn by copying. Learn always by doing. Introduce yourself to your voice at the right time. Be honest with yourself. For the times you can’t or don’t know how to do this, have someone or someones that can, and listen to them. You don’t have to let the audience dictate what you create, but you do need to have an audience who will receive what you create. This is good and a wealth of a classroom. Give. Follow your heart and that which will make it happy. Don’t be afraid—be fearless in risk-taking. Don’t be afraid to go the movies by yourself or eat in public alone. Ride your bicycle with a helmet. Don’t be a dick.

Who are your biggest inspirations, and why?

So many but here’s a few.

Frank Stanford for his rawness and beauty and imaginative originality. I love how backwoods and mythological it feels. 

Lucille Clifton for how direct and seemingly simple she writes, while still speaking volumes.

Richard Brautigan for his whimsy and surreal playfulness, his imagination. his simplicity.

Bukowski because he’s unapologetic, honest, real, and finds beauty.

The beat generation, especially Gregory Corso and Kerouac, for how they approached the work and their lives, with freedom and without apology.

Anne Sexton. Because she’s simply amazing. Amazing.

Jack Gilbert. He writes differently about the same things, and writes the same as everyone else about different things. I don’t know–it’s like he’s using the same language as we’re all familiar with but in his hands a word has five extra sides than we thought it did. His work is simple and beautiful.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird because it keeps my childhood present.

Scott McCloud is a comic book artist who wrote an amazing book called Understanding Comics that I think anyone who is an artist should read. What he writes about is applicable to every and all art forms. He takes the ideas and processes of storytelling (which I believe all art making essentially is–communicating an idea or “story”) and breaks its elements down, on historical, emotional, psychological, and aesthetic levels.

"Shake the Dust", and "Closer" are two or your most acclaimed and inspiring performances, do these poems have specific significance to you? Individually, what inspired you to write them?

On one level, they don’t have any more or less significance to me than any other poem of mine. However, they do speak in a pretty direct way, reflecting the ideas and philosophies I have about people and the life we have been entrusted with. And for whatever reason they are two pieces that connect with a number of people. and because of that, because of the bit of goodness and joy that I can hopefully leave people with as a result of those two pieces, then that’s the significance they hold for me–that they are of service to some people. That’s nice.

In regards to the inspiration for them, I couldn’t say really. “Shake the Dust” was written sometime between 1998 and 2000, so I can’t remember, it was just another poem that I was writing. Most of my work isn’t the result of direct inspiration and ideas, but rather simply writing, seeing what happens, and then shaping it. The spark from it may have come from a section of the Baha’i writings that mention shaking the dust from one’s feet when one leaves a town, but it was so long ago I couldn’t say for certain. As I said, most of my work comes from sitting down and writing as opposed to locking in on a singular idea at the start, and “Come Closer” is no different. I want to say that elements of it came from wanting to convey to others that they are of worth. The idea of someone living their whole life without a single person revealing to them how beautiful they actually are, but again it was just another poem I was working on, so I can’t speak directly to it’s specific process.

How has your cultural background, upbringing influenced your performances of poetry and slams?

There is strong oral traditions in both the Persian and the African-American cultures, so perhaps there are things inherent in my cultural history that are inherent  in me. More tangibly though, a lot of my upbringing has infused my work. I was raised by parents that thankfully recognized the importance of art and thus it was something present in the rearing of us, and any endeavor by us with creativity was heavily supported. I was raised a Baha’i and so much of this has infused my work over the years. The Baha’i Faith is one that rests upon the principle of unity amongst the races and religions. The writings teach of the inherent nobility of man, of our worth and the power inside all of us, at times latent. This is amazing to me, and more amazing that too many people in the world are told the exact opposite! This idea of how great and special we actually are, as well as how much more alike we are than different–is important to me as a person and much of these ideas find their way into my work.

You received a bachelor's degree in fine arts of comic books at the Savannah College of Art and Design; what inspired you to pursue a career in performance in contrast to design?

I wasn’t necessarily seeking a career in it, nor was it something that was on the other side of the fence or something completely different. I know it seems like it is, but ultimately I see art as art and the making of it as the making of it–it just has different tools that are more or less appropriate for what one is trying to communicate. The whole time I was in college studying comics I was writing poems. Time that I wasn’t performing poems, I was painting. It wasn’t a separation. The things inside of me just took shape in different ways.

That being said, when I was done with my BFA, I was pretty burnt out on the idea of comics. I started graduate work in performing because I was able to work for the school in exchange for my MFA and because these studies were turning on a different part of my creative brain. My creativity was being activated in new ways that were exciting to learn and study. When I was done with school simply put I was still interested in continuing this. I was inspired by the thought of being a part of NY’s spoken word community, so I moved to there and jumped in. 

Do you have any mantras you live your life by?

“Noble have I created thee” –Baha’u’allah