After Luis Tubens, 35, of Chicago held a poetry workshop at the Oak Park Public Library, he was asked to be the library’s first artist-in-residence. The residency began in January and lasts three months; Tubens gets a monthly stipend for his work. On Feb. 14, Tubens answered a few questions for the Oak Leaves.
Q: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?
A: I’ve been writing poetry on a more serious level for the last 10 years. I’ve performed at a number of venues. Right now, I’m with a band called ESSO Afrojam Funkbeat. I was a member of Mental Graffiti in the National Poetry Slam; I was part of the team that represented Chicago in 2014. I worked for a Cook County commissioner for four years. A lot of my social/political metaphors in my poetry come from working there.
Q: What drew you to poetry?
A: I’ve always been interested in the arts. I found myself writing based on my experiences. I found issues that spoke to me through poetry. Music’s always been part of my life, but I’ve never been a musician. The opportunity arose to work with the band. We found that we were a good blend, a good mix. It’s basically poetry over music, both English and Spanish.
Q: What does the residency entail?
A: One focus is for me to produce my own work based on my experiences. The second is to provide youth workshops, specifically at the library. I do tween workshops almost every Thursday from 5-7 p.m. And every last Wednesday of the month, we have open mic. And the third is offsite workshops. We’ve got one at the Oak Park Arms March 2. I’ve worked with more tweens, mostly seventh- and eighth-graders, and it’s an interesting dynamic. It’s kind of drop in. It allows me to figure out how I can captivate them. They like to have rap battles, but I structure it very poetically.
Q: What’s surprised you during the residency?
A: I am pretty surprised, and I guess happy that the library is such a center for youth. It’s kind of like this place where there’s nowhere else really to go right after school, so they come here and the library works to recognize, how can we be a resource? I want to give them a shout out for really working toward that.
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Caitlin Mullen is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.