Today we’d like to introduce you to Christian Perfas.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Christian. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My entry point into spoken word could technically be traced back towards my roots in hip-hop.
Growing up in sleepy Upstate NY, I immersed myself in hip-hop culture through the internet and was always fond of rap and freestyle rap, honing the craft from the age of 12 all the way through college.
While starting my undergrad’s first hip-hop organization, I bumped elbows frequently with the collegiate poetry group, who we collaborated with frequently on many events. I found a lot of parallel traits and writing patterns inherent in both hip-hop and spoken word and found it was an easy transition to make.
2014: I graduate college and move all the way across the country to pursue a creative lifestyle in Los Angeles.
Fast forward to 2017: I finally pick up the pen and starting writing poetry (officially). My first creative space and workshop platform was Arianna Basco and Beau Sia’s open mic space, Our Mic, in DTLA. From there, I just kept growing, building, exploring, and playing with my style and creative language, eventually unfolding into the poet I am today.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Mmmm, yes – there have been (and continue to be) many obstacles to being a professional poet.
Just the term itself, “professional poet,” is fairly inflammatory, considering how niche poetry is seen by most of the world compared to other performance art forms.
I think initially there were a lot of internal struggles – struggles with self-worth, about not being “good enough immediately” (which seems to be a common struggle amongst LA artists in general, haha), and about how the work would be received.
But ultimately, I try to focus on the love of the art and the freedom of play as much as possible and that breaks down a lot of barriers for me.
Even still – its a struggle to be recognized outside of the poetry world; to be respected; to be seen as more than a hobbyist, and to be compensated for your value. But honestly, I feel like that also fuels the fire.
Personally, I’ve built a lot of who I am and what I stand for out of defying expectations and I feel like being a spoken word poet is just another example of universal alignment.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I’m a spoken word poet, actor, performer, and immersive theatre artist.
Outside of the other performance organizations I’m a part of (Story Pirates and The Poetry Brothel being the main two), I’m an independent performer that’s based in and around The Greater Los Angeles Area.
I’m largely a stage performer, but also occasional collaborator, musical artist, and artistic instructor in-training (currently developing an “improvised poetry” curriculum).
My work touches on themes such as love, vulnerability, racial dissonance, millennial culture, and genre blending. I love borrowing tropes and techniques from other art forms (such as improv and hip-hop) and finding ways to incorporate them into my poetry performances. I believe that’s what sets my style apart from other spoken word poets, as I continue to find ways to dissect, deconstruct, and analyze conventions of structure.
What were you like growing up?
I was a pretty high energy and high strung kid. “Bouncing off the walls” is what I heard parents (both mine and others) say about me a whole lot in my younger years (though I like to think I’ve held onto some of that youthful vibrancy, haha).
I think I just had an innate energy and desire to prove myself by any means necessary. Growing up in a pretty white-dominant neighborhood, I had little understanding of my inherited Filipino culture distinct from American culture, but I did quickly grasp how easy it was to be isolated or kept apart because of minor, petty differences.
So I learned a lot about people-pleasing and code-switching from an early age. Learned how to get people on my side by making them laugh… though I did spend an awful lot of time intentionally getting on friends and family’s nerves for the attention (didn’t know how to utilize that power correctly yet).
In terms of interests, I’d always been attracted to games, television, fiction, fantasy – anything that let you escape into another world. My imagination has been fueled by these pop culture constructs and I do feel like they anchor a lot of my work, based on the lessons they instilled at an early age.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @soulstuf
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/christianperfasAPS
Image Credit:
Cassandra Summer, Somlit Inthalangsay
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