Life & Work with Alex Petunia

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Petunia.

Alex, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m a Chicago-born, LA-based nurse-poet. As a kid, I was always close to the pen and paper crafting scary stories, drawing and journaling to stay whole while growing up in a home with domestic violence. After helping my mom raise my siblings, I became a nurse so I could continue to be a resource for others. I didn’t start taking my creativity seriously until my 30s when I joined a femme / nonbinary writing group that met weekly. As a burnt-out nurse, poetry became a return to myself. Poetry invited me to peel back the layers and more deeply understand who I am as a mixed-race, queer person. The more I wrote and connected with who I was, the more I got the courage to share my words aloud at mics and readings. I soon traveled across California and later through the southwest to New Orleans sharing poetry and inviting others to write with me and my community. I later found myself in an all-femme queer rock band playing drums and writing songs. I even teleported once as a hippo in a spaceship. I’ve always been an oddball making whatever adventure ahead as much fun as possible.

In 2019, I enrolled in the Community Literature Initiative (CLI) Poetry Publishing class to write my first poetry collection. Pandemic hit during my second semester but my classmates and I kept each other accountable to our book dreams. My first poetry book Tending My Wild was published by World Stage Press in 2021. Since my book release, I’ve shared my word power wherever I can from the Sims Library of Poetry in Los Angeles to the Nuyorican Cafe in New York and all the way to the Spoken Word Paris mic. As a 2022 Hollywood Fringe Scholarship winner, I hit the stage with the Infinite Poets to co-produce and act in a post-apocalyptic, immersive poetry show called Terraforming Marginalized Voices. I enjoy offering poetry to my community with pop-up poetry-on-demand events alongside other Los Angeles writers. I curated the Sacred Heart Poetry Wall, a wonderful creative collaboration that showcases 34 writers at Holy Grounds Coffee & Tea in El Sereno. I am in my second year teaching with CLI supporting other blooming writers. I also offer a free monthly writing workshop called Meditation Monday with the Los Angeles Poets Society. Once I said “yes” to my pen, I couldn’t resist the momentum to keep writing and creating experiences that you can’t find anywhere else. Sometimes you just have to show up, own your “weirdness” and show the world all the ways we can smile together. I don’t know when to rest but I can’t say I regret it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I’m grateful to the bumpy but beautiful road trip of life so far. It’s challenging being pulled in many directions as both a nurse and a poet trying to balance how to serve community but also stay whole. The healthcare system is a mess. Student debt is real. Imposter syndrome is super draining. The way the world wants me to hate myself and others different from me is also a constant battle. Fear of my own creative potency has been fueled by self doubt and anxiety. Sometimes I am afraid to share what I write because I think it’s irrelevant and no one will want to read/hear it. I thought that because I’m not from the literary academia scene or even a spoken word champion, I wouldn’t be able to write a book. If it wasn’t for community showing me to prioritize myself and my words, there would be no way I could have finished a book in the middle of pandemic. Sometimes I forget to refill my cup after putting my heart into my patients’ care. Once poetry became a regular part of my being, I realized I needed to carve out time to replenish. What gets me through these challenges is pajamas, puppies, poetry, and plants. Yeah, I wear scrubs at work, but why get fancy? I prefer the comfort of curling up in pajamas, blankets and tea with a good book and my poetry journal. My furry friends are always there to make me laugh and slow down for a belly rub. I’ll often read aloud to my plants, python and puppies or play in the dirt with the bees and ants in my garden. My cat keeps me curious as we often bird watch in the morning. I love writing but also sharing and hearing folks at open mics wherever I’m traveling. There are so many mics sharing positive vibrations that keep me believing in the power of the pen.
I also keep pushing forward with therapy, alone time with trees, and reflecting on how far I’ve come as a nurse and as a writer. I’m still working on the art of solid boundaries, saying “no” to others to say “yes” to my writing and my self care. I often have to schedule in meetings with myself to envision what is needed for the day, the week, the month. It’s so important to check in with self in order to stay grounded with what my body, mind and spirit need to keep the ink fresh.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Tending My Wild is my living dream. My poetry collection is all of me. Me, the survivor of a domestic violence home. Me, the mixed-race kid who met her father at age 10. Me, the burnt-out nurse navigating the broken healthcare system in pandemic. Me, the queer self understanding my own fluidity as I define it. All these complex parts of me root in nature to find the courage to live beyond labels and envision something bigger together. My mission with my writing is to build bridges through shared storytelling so that we can overcome the divisions and self-hate that exist in this now. This book is my invitation to be honest with self about how beautifully imperfect and powerful we are when we breathe ourselves back to that inner strength that got us here, right where we need to be. I offer affirmations with each section of my book so that readers can carry those words with them as they read. There’s even cutout pages in the back of the book so readers can take the affirmations with them or even gift them to others. Terraforming Marginalized Voices was an epic show to work on with the Infinite Poets. As 2022 Hollywood Fringe Scholarship winners, we took poetry to the stage in a way that we hadn’t ever seen before. We wrote a script that immersed the audience into a post-apocalyptic world where technology rules life and limits our pathways toward humanity. We included original poetry from each performer to highlight the various experiences of human existence. We invited the audience to create a brave, new world with us by choosing the ending of the show. Every show was its own kind of special, but remarkably all paths led toward one humanity because that’s what the audiences wanted. I’m so honored to have been a part of this show and to have collaborated with such powerhouse poets who made the show possible.

The Sacred Heart Poetry Wall is a living work of love located at Holy Grounds Coffee & Tea in the El Sereno neighborhood. I was given an opportunity to create a poetry wall at my community coffee spot. I couldn’t help but invite writing friends into this adventure with me. 34 poets contributed poems and artwork related to the open theme “sacred heart”. What resulted was an interwoven tapestry of heartstories pulsing in poetic verse on one wall together. Poems threaded through topics ranging from sensual connection to heartache to healing. I’m so grateful to each poet who contributed to this empowering wall. The wall also showcases a QR code that links community to each poet so readers can continue following their work. When I’m waiting for my coffee, I often see folks waiting for their drinks, eyes connecting with the poems on the wall. I’ll ask what they think about the wall and it’s always a tender response of awe. The Sacred Heart Poetry Wall stays up until the end of March.

I don’t know what sets me apart from others or what I specialize in. I just know that writing is a pathway toward a shared human experience. My purpose as a nurse and as a poet is to simply spread kindness wherever however I can. If you engage with my poetry, the collaborations I’m a part of or are even my patient one day, my hope is that you leave the experience feeling awestruck by your own precious heart.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I always remember being a wild heart in nature. I’d crawl on all fours with my dog roaming hiking trails and marvel at sunsets on the lake, always the last one out of the water. My neighbors and I would race scooters down our favorite hill no matter how many scraped knees we’d get. I’d spin cartwheels in the grass and munch on sunflower seeds while shooting hoops. My mom and I would plant petunias outside my windows. This was always something special to me, something that lets us feel happiness no matter the pain inside the home. There’s just something about allowing our hands to be in the dirt and our bodies arms wide, weightless in the water and our hearts glowing with the sun while the trees smile with us.

Pricing:

• Tending My Wild $20.00 https://worldstagepress.org/product/tending-my-wild/

Contact Info:

• Website: https://worldstagepress.org/product/tending-my-wild/
• Instagram: thepoeticpetunia
• Facebook: facebook.com/poeticpetunia
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Poeticpetunia

Image Credits
Roberto Hernandez Brian Fox Bernadette Trubatisky