Meet Barbara Fant of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Barbara Fant.

Hi Barbara, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I started writing poetry as a form of prayer. My mother passed when I was fifteen, along with other traumas that happened in my life during that season. I couldn’t talk to anyone, I was angry. I wasn’t even able to talk to God. So I began writing really as a form of prayer. I would go to church, take notes on the sermons, and go back home and write them into poems. It became a way of processing for me, a way of communication. When I went to college, I was determined to find an open mic in the city. I found one and an elder, who became one of my dearest friends and mentors, Is Said, encouraged me to get onstage. I got on stage, and I haven’t left the stage since that time. I began performing with his group and in other spaces, events, and festivals all throughout the community. I later started competing in poetry slams, and that enabled me to travel to perform in national competitions. It opened up a whole new world for me.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. It has been a road riddled with trauma, pain, and disappointment. But the journey has also not been without the joy along the way. Even in the midst of grief and loss, I have learned the gift of gratitude and of holding onto my peace and joy in every way that I can.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a poet, a performer, a facilitator, and a songwriter. I specialize in writing poetry, but I have been exploring all different aspects of writing. Over the last year, I have really dived into songwriting and have been working with various artists, writing lyrics and developing melodies for them. I am most proud of my poetry collections. Last year, I was able to publish my third poetry collection with Moore Black Press and Amistad Harper Collins. The book is titled, “Joy in the Belly of a Riot.” I am really proud of this collection because I felt that I was able to bring my full self to the page. The book offers the space to explore joy, even in the midst of our deepest pain, we can still choose the gratitude, the love, the peace. My second collection of poetry, “Mouths of Garden,” was published in 2022 through Sundress Publications. I am really proud of this collection also. For me, I was able to dive into what I love most about the lineage and long line of women that I come from, face some hard truths about my past, and also talk about my hometown. I am also proud of my first poetry collection, “Paint, Inside Out,” that was published on Penmanship Books in 2010 when I received the Cora Craig Award for Young Authors. For many years, I have dedicated my work and my craft to serving vulnerable populations. Art became a tool of healing for me, writing became a way out. I have worked to share this gift of poetry with others, offering it as a tool for healing for youth and adults who are incarcerated, in recovery, and for survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking. I really believe that poetry is a tool for healing and way for people to change the world, especially as a way to change their own individual piece of the world. In 2020, I started a collective for Black female writers in the city of Columbus, Ohio that is still going. I also worked in collaboration with an organization to organize a collective of nonprofit organizations that use the arts as a tool for healing and as systems change for young people in Ohio; this collective is still going also. Planting seeds in communities that have grown roots and that I am still able to witness bloom is a real blessing to me. I am someone who has traveled as an artist and who performs, but I have also always believed that our best work is truly done in community, being rooted and grounded, and through serving those in our neighborhoods. That is what real change, transformation, and healing looks like to me.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I believe that the industry is completely changing and growing. We’ll be learning how to navigate a more digital world, that is for sure. But I also believe that because our world is so immersed in technology, that we’ll see the return to the need for humanity. I think that people will crave more in-person spaces, touch points, dinners, gardens. I believe we’ll see art more organized around meeting the needs of people, making sure that we are using our voices to help those who need to be housed, fed, and clothed. I believe we’ll return to oral storytelling, in-person open mic gatherings, writing groups, reading groups, and the use of art as a tool for these spaces. I believe it is happening, but I believe well begin to see it more.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.barbarafant.com
• Instagram: @iambarbarafant
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbara.fant.944/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-fant-mfa-8114b633/
• Twitter: @iambarbarafant
• Youtube: @iambarbarafant
• Other: https://linktr.ee/barbarafant

Image Credits
Stephanie Matthews, Darrell Peacock, Michael Perez, and Academy Museum of Motion Pictures