A Soft Woman with a Machete (with Zulynette)

In this episode, we welcome poet, performer, and writer Zulynette to discuss her journey writing and performing poetry and how rage, love, and resistance shape her work. She talks about writing and performance as community practice through workshops, curated prompts, and her storytelling space focused on grief, transformation, and healing for people of the global majority and queer people. We discuss Zulynette’s books, including her latest book, Becoming a Soft Woman with a Machete.

00:00 Welcome and Reconnect

01:17 Poetry Origins and Open Mics

04:35 Rage and Liberation Themes

07:01 Workshops and Storytelling Show

09:46 Death Grief and War Machine

12:37 Staying Grounded in Love

15:20 Upcoming Events and Hosting

16:21 Soft Woman With a Machete

20:04 Advice for Community Impact

22:11 Where to Follow and Farewell

Zulynette’s Books

Becoming a Soft Woman with a Machete

Building a Powerhouse

I Can See in the Dark

Other Books Mentioned

Falling Back in Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Where to find Zulynette

Zulynette.com

Instagram

Thank you for being part of the Liberation is Lit podcast! If you have stories to share, want to suggest topics, or just want to connect, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @liberationislit or visit our website at liberationislit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review! Remember, your voice matters, and together, through the lens of stories, we're making a difference in the world.

Transcript

0:07

Hey y'all. Welcome to the Liberation is Lit Podcast, where the power of storytelling meets the force of social change. I'm your host, Tayler Simon, and in this podcast we believe in the profound impact of stories. And I am so glad I got to connect or reconnect with poet, performer, writer Zulynette. We're gonna talk about all of the cool things that she's doing. Hey Zulynette, how are you doing? Oh hey. First of all, that was really good. That was really good. That whole intro was so smooth, but I'm well, I'm really excited to be here and excited to chat with you. Awesome. So glad we got to reconnect after meeting at what was it, the the abortion variety show is where we met, Was super cool. That was the first time I ever did some sold books at a place like that. Yes. It was a good time. It was a good night and it was a good event for a good cause. So I was happy to be a part of it and to perform that night, but also to get to meet folks like you. When folks get to put together an event like that under a certain theme of like liberation in some form or attach to liberation in some form, it's like those are the people that I want to connect with and that I want to build with. So it's good stuff. And that's why I had to have you on the podcast, so can you kick us off by telling us a little bit about yourself as a poet and a performer, and how did you get started with this? Sure. So I started writing poetry when I was probably like in middle school. It was the I am sad poems that we all know of middle school. So my first poem was like my first official poem, and I only know this because I looked back on it a couple of weeks ago, but my first official poem was in middle school, and it was I will try to smile through the pain and the rain kind of poem. And then after that it became, I became an auntie shortly after that, around the age of 10, 11. And then it was poems for the babies. But in terms of the way that I perform now and in terms of the poetry that I write now, it very much started back in, I was raised in Hartford, Connecticut. I was born in Chicago, but raised mainly in Hartford, Connecticut. And I went to this open mic. It was an intergenerational all ages open mic happening in downtown Hartford. And I say that because intergenerational events need to happen more often that are also uncensored 'cause that thing was uncensored, but. We, yeah, it was a weekly open mic. It was, I wanna say it was free when it started, and I don't even know how it is that I got to one at the beginning, but I went and I saw all these poets talking about poverty and pain and struggle and and love and joy and resistance. And what really stuck with me was how many fem presenting poets were up there and were like in their bag in terms of rage. And that for me has always been something that has been shunned or shamed out of women, out of fem presenting folks, out of anybody who identifies as femme. It's like of all the emotions that exist rage cannot be yours. And so seeing that on stage, I was up there the next week 'cause I was like, I've got some stuff to say. In terms of being an artist I've always been an artist and I come from a family of artists who will never claim the title of artists, but I have an incredibly creative family as I'm sure many of us do, particularly the women in my family. Just everything you could think of, like these quinceaneras and these sweet sixteens don't happen outta nowhere. They are coordinated. They're coordinated, directed, decorated DJ'ed all the food catered by all of these women who help put all of this magic together. And so I have always had that be a part of me. But in terms of performance, in terms of poetry, I've been performing now since, since that night, which happened back in 2000 and maybe 11 or 12. I love like how you, because the night I met you, you had your art and your poetry, and I'm starting to get, to claim the artist, the title artist too very quietly. But I love how you just seemed so free with your expression. And so I wanna ask, what are some of the topics you like to express the most in your writing or your art? I should have asked this off the top, but I'm gonna assume that I can, but is cursing aloud and oh, we love it. Beautiful. I like to talk mad shit about the government, about the systems that be about racism, about heteronormativity, about just anything that polices I mean about police. I, can talk smack about anything and everything because it's all interconnected. I, I had a very unique experience I think with my first summer job when I was maybe 15 years old, was at a research institute and they did work around public health. And so I learned that summer how to do how to do research projects in a community. They trained us in how to do research and then I learned how to train other people and how to do research in their community around topics that were relevant to them. And that was very, that was a very different experience than that lot of the other high schoolers that I was attending school with were having that summer. And that was one of the seeds that helped to radicalize me. And so in terms of my poetry, yes I have like love poems and very interpersonal poems, but a lot of my poetry is around liberation. It is around healing. It is around communal healing. It is around connection because none of this is separate to me. My romantic poems are also very connected to my let's burn this whole thing down poems, they are not separate from each other because they influence one another. And we both definitely need both in liberation Spaces, like I feel like there's a lot of burning down happening, and I'm just like, okay, we can't be left with ashes. Correct. do next? I love how love poems are very connected to. Your burning down poems and questioning the system and dismantling it as it was created to be. And wanna ask you too, how do you use either performing your poems or just sharing your poems in the written form? How do you bring community together around writing and performing? One of the things that I enjoy doing the most is getting folks together to do writing workshops where I provide folks with prompts. Sometimes it's more in depth activities of like how to edit things around, depending on what it is that people need or what it is that they desire. Some folks are like, I really wanna learn how to perform this. And some people are like, I just want to say something because I've never written freely before. So I enjoy curating spaces like that. I love to see, I love to see people reaching an aha moment. I love to see people reaching a, I've never said this before moment. And seeing them be validated by other people in the community which is not the same thing as like everybody in the room agreeing with each other. So it's, that's one of the ways that I like to bring poetry in into the room with me and offer that up as it's like my community offering. It's through performing. It's through asking myself too, when I am performing somewhere, what is it that I wanna offer to the space? What is it that needs to be said in the space? To assume that performers are always in rooms where everybody agrees with them is a false assumption and and so I need to be cognizant of that, of what rooms I'm invited into and what it is that needs to be said in that room. And another way that I invite that in is I have an annual storytelling show called A Little Bit of Death. And it happens around every November. And I invite I invite folks from the community that are, I think I'd rather use the term of the global majority than Bipoc, because also Bipoc just sounds like a robot, like a transformer. So yeah. But people of the global majority and queer people to get up on stage and to share their stories around, around grief around transformation and around healing because we don't typically have those spaces in a communal way. And this past November, I celebrated the 10 year anniversary of doing that. And it's just, it's not recorded, it's not posted anywhere. And that's very much on purpose because we already get pretty exploited. In many regards, especially with social media. And so I wanted to make a private intimate space where we come together and the audience gets to see themselves up on stage, and we all get to be in a grief, a grieving, healing space where people will automatically, you are just believed. You don't need to be convinced. And people have gotten a lot of stuff off of their chest through that process. So that's another way that I invite folks in. It's nobody is a professional storyteller. That's been part of a little bit of death, but everybody has a story and I strongly believe in that, and I strongly believe in people sharing those. I love that it's in November too because of like of the Dead, but also Scorpio and Pluto being the death planet and things like that. But astrology nerd things, It was very much in alignment with that. You're not wrong. It's very much on purpose. It's the transition from fall into winter. So before we get to winter, which is like season of like complete stillness, like this is where we are, this is where we are letting the dead thing. We are identifying what needs to go, what we need to make space for, but first some things have to die off. That is the natural process of nature. Things die. Things are born, they die. They are reborn, and so we should move more closely to how it is that nature moves. We are part of nature. We are not separate from it. I was reflecting on death in my journal the other day. Last about like the difference between natural death manufactured death How death is this? We're so afraid of death that we cause it inorganically and we, I,'cause I'm just thinking about I ran and all of that's going on and how we claim it's self-defense, but how can it be self-defense? When the call's coming from inside the house, right? Yes. Oh my God. And it's I'm old enough to know to have been around like with nine 11 when that happened and the aftermath of that and who was getting blamed for that and why. And then the year, the many years of war that came after that, but. Then again, when we think about it, since the since the idea of a United States was created, the United States has never not been at war with somebody including itself, including with black people that were abducted from another continent and brought here, or the indigenous people that were here first. There has never been a time that this country has not been at war in one way or another. Like it is just a war machine. And all of this. Let's celebrate the 250th year. I'm not celebrating the end of any colonialist project. Everything in my body. Just wanted to get up and walk away. Just now. I just Okay. No, stay. Stay in the. And then South Carolina has these like ugly license plate that was like the Revolutionary War was won here. And I'm just like, I don't want that. And it's like the standard issue one. So like people have been returning them like, can you not gimme something so ugly? So ugly in so many ways. Yeah. Yes. So as we know, this work can be used so uplifting in such a soul sucking world that we Right. What keeps you grounded in this work as a poet? Ooh. Love keeps me the most grounded, whether it is with my family, whether it is with my community and I gotta get back to that in a second, whether it is with my community or friends or my partner, it's it's like it's people because that's where magic is happening. That's where I'm like, oh this life might be worth living sometimes because look at all this beautiful stuff that's happening when we're laughing together, when we are celebrating with each other, when we are mourning and grieving together. This is beautiful. This is what it's supposed to be. It's us. It's togetherness it's challenging. It's growing. It's conflict. It's healing and repair. But that's what helps to ground me the most. And then I have the honor of being an artist. And so the work that I do is also very attached to how it is that I already ground myself, which is I'm putting paint to canvas. I am sketching something, I'm doodling something on procreate. I'm writing a note to myself. I am journaling, I am writing poems that don't make sense to anybody but me. I'm writing poems that sometimes do make sense to other people. And I get to, and on top of that, being a performer, I get to share that out. And that's a different sort of energy and connection. So for myself, it's. It's being those things and embodying those things. And then it's other people. It's always other people. I am currently reading the book. Oh, what's the author? Kai Cheng Thom Falling in Love With Being Human, Like a series of letters she wrote for all these people who've harmed her, like from like Johns when she was doing sex work to just people who are transphobic. And it is, so beautiful and is the grief in a way that just centers humanity. And it's so beautiful to just be like all of this terrible stuff happens in the world, but I still love humanity anyway. And yeah, it's, I'm like flying through it and it's so good. I just got it this weekend and usually I don't read a book right away, so I just bought it, but I bought it from a conference and I brought it with me to my next market and I was just like this and it's so good. I I made a note of it. It now. Thank you But yeah, it's beautiful. But back to you. Do you have any upcoming projects or things that you wanna share with listeners? Yes. I'm doing a lot of hosting stuff. There's this local poet named Frank Expression who does a lot of great poetry events here in Charlotte. And he really likes bringing in other poets to hosts, which I think is dope to give folks the opportunity to do that, to develop that skillset. I was doing it long before that but for the other poets. So I'll be hosting I'll be hosting some open mic, some poetry events. I'm getting the opportunity to do some author talks around my latest book called Becoming a Soft Woman With a Machete. And and getting the opportunity to perform at some really cool events that center women's mental health. Center community. And that's one of my favorite things. Dear listener, if you need to book a poet to do a workshop for you an author talk, or to perform at your amazing event, hit ya girl Girl Up. Okay, so tell us about this book though. Oh. So this book is my third baby. Becoming a Soft Woman with a Machete is an ode to my own personal healing to where it is that I am in my life right now. It also just, the title just embodies who I like, my personality, who I am, which is a soft woman with a machete. But it's different from my other two books. I, I wanna say my first book which was, building a powerhouse was very much like a, I just need to do this sort of book. A let's whatever it is that we got, whatever's in the rough draft section. Like we need to either finish it and do something with it, or we like are never, and I need to prove to myself that I can actually write a book and put it together because because I'm freaking out, man. And so building a powerhouse was very much that energy of I just need to try this because it terrifies me. And so I need to run at it because it terrifies me. And then my second book was something that I wrote after after leaving an emotionally abusive relationship. And that was a mantra that I kept telling myself while I was in that relationship, which was, I can see in the dark, I can see in the dark. And and it is a culmination of what was happening at that time. And all of them go through the timeline of my life. But that one came out at that, through that relationship, which is funny, but not funny. It's like I meant to release it the whole time I was in that relationship and I was just stuck in a lot of ways. So leaving that and then getting into a much more loving, healthier relationship with the help of therapy, which also helped me to leave relationship before. I was I had the opportunity to like, explore a softness that wasn't either available to me prior, or wasn't encouraged prior. Softness for me growing up was something that was very shamed out of me. I grew up in some very hard places and spaces, and so the expectation was like, you also need to be hard. Not just so that people don't, set their eyes on you, but it is also like a means of survival for real. And so now being in a very different space, it's like who are we without the survival mechanisms? Who am I when I'm not in survival mode? Who am I when I don't need to be defensive? And so this book, my third one, becoming a Soft Woman with Maes is very much exploring that while also still talking my shit about the government and the powers, the powers that be. Because a lot of those powers are the forces that make us feel like we have to be hard this And it's just I just Girl like. I would probably love gardening if I had more time to do it. And I wanna start a garden this year and I wanna do all of these like soft girly things, but I have to be girl boss because I have to keep a roof over my head and I hate it. I hate it so much. I was like, I started a bookstore and then I was like, now I have to be a book girl boss and I hate it. See, and then my brain starts going, yeah, we also need like good soil and clean water so that when we're gardening, our things are actually flourishing and we need, not acid rain. And then it just keeps going from there. Ugh. Yes. No. tired, centers like ruining our water. Lord. Yeah. Yeah. So my last question for you is, what advice would you offer listeners who wanna make a positive impact in their communities? Be gay and do crimes. That's the Snapple cap quote. Be gay and do crimes. No, but it's serious. No, that is serious. And also seriously, I. And also seriously I think folks have an idea have like this sort of ideal vision of what an activist looks like or what rebellion looks like. And really it's, you have to think about what it is that you can do on a local level. What you can do in your immediate community that is. That is sustainable for you and that is realistic for you, but that is also like pushing the needle towards liberation. Got that from Joel Leon. What is it that pushes the needle? So is it starting a book club? Is it going to a protest? Is it taking turns, going to a protest with your friends?'Cause you got buddy up man. Is it having a phone tree? Is it starting a community garden so that you're feeding your neighbors and not having to travel 20, 30 miles to a grocery store where the food is healthier. Is it is it helping somebody pay their rent this month? And everybody takes turns with that. There's a lot of different things that you can do that are super radical that the government definitely doesn't want you to do in order for us to take care of ourselves because we have to take care of ourselves, we are all, we've got. Yes. And. I think of Gil Scott Heron's quote, like the revolutionary, the revolution will not be televised and people make up systems. So when you start with your individual person, that's how you can change systems. Yeah, you so much for this great conversation and it was so lovely to catch up and shit and. Just do all of the things. Where can people keep up with you and your work? Yeah, so folks can keep up with me@sulynet.com. That's spelled Z-U-L-Y-N-E-T-T-E com. You can also sign up to my newsletter on there. I try to be good about that and I definitely won't spam you because sometimes I forget to have a newsletter. Other than that, you can appropriately stalk me on Instagram. My handle on there is at I Am Zulynette. And other than that, catch me out here in these poetry streets. Yes. I'm gonna have to make my way up to Charlotte. Me and my friend went back in November, no, that was January, not November, January to Archive Charlotte. Super dope coffee shop coffee with ephemera and I got a 1970s Ebony magazine. It's black owned, it's super cool. So I'm gonna have to make my way up to Charlotte and make the rounds and maybe if you have an event coming up, I can, only a short drive away. So yes. Also, we got a swap. I gotta go to you too. It can't just be over here. Yeah, A lot of cool stuff in Columbia, admittedly, but. you're there. And that's cool enough for me. True. It's a place to get something to eat. Thank you again Zulynette for being on the podcast. And thank you listeners. If you have any stories you wanna share, wanna suggest any topics or just wanna connect with us, you can find us at Instagram, Facebook. TikTok at Liberation is Lit, or our website, liberation is lit.com. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving your review. And remember, your voice matters and together through the lens of stories, we're gonna make a difference in the world. Till next time.