Today we’d like to introduce you to Andres Sanchez.
Hi Andres, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I moved to Los Angeles in March of 2014 from DC. I knew few people and began to feel down about having moved here. About a year in, I went in search of a way to find queer family and a writing community and I found both when I joined a writing group that met in El Sereno. I was living in Highland Park at the time. After years of not writing, I ventured into poetry again. It helped me get through the end of a painful relationship that I had left in DC. Slowly, I got back into writing regularly as the group met every Monday night. It became a sanctuary and the healing space that I needed. I pushed through the heartbreak and before I realized it, I was on tour sharing my poetry that began with local open mics and ended with featuring at the Sacramento Poetry Center. A few years later, I also toured with the same group reading in Las Vegas and New Orleans.
Through my roommate, Cynthia Guardado, also a poet and author of a book of poetry titled Endeavor, I found out about the Community Literature Initiative (CLI), which is an 11-month writing program for folks that want to publish their work. Their focus is primarily in supporting Black writers, but folks of color are highly encouraged to apply. At the time, I didn’t feel confident enough in my work and wanted to develop my writing to a level where it would get published. With a push from my really great friend and poet AlexPetunia, in the summer of 2018 I applied for the program and was accepted in the Fall.
I went into the program thinking that I would write a love/heartbreak story, but what developed was a manuscript about the things that I did not talk about because they felt shameful. My manuscript took a life of its own, and I eventually unpacked many years of childhood trauma as I revisited my difficult family structure, analyzed my past relationships, discussed struggles with my mental health, and told multiple coming out stories as a queer and trans person. The book is titled, This Body, and upon completion of CLI, the book was picked up for publication by World Stage Press (WSP), and it was the catalyst in the start of my healing journey. This Body has opened up many doors to speak to folks about my experience in coming out as well as the resiliency that it has taken to be better for myself on this quest to find self-love in a body that has endured so much pain. My book, This Body, is currently a best-seller on the WSP website.
I have continued to perform at local open-mics and have been featured in various mics such as The Back Door Reading Series, La Palabra, Eastside Queer Stories, Alivio, Influx Collective Reading Series, Tia Chuchas, Los Angeles Poets Society’s One Mic-One Globe, Pride Mic, Resilience for a Poetic Pandemic, and Soap Box Poets. Most recently, I have done some private talks/readings for Kappa Delta Chi Sorority Inc. and the Agape Spiritual Center. My work has been featured in LiveWire Magazine, Resurrection Magazine, and Acid Verse Journal: Queer Uprising.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has been bumpy in many ways. First, the writing has been a learning curve. The CLI program challenged me to think differently about structure, topic, tone, rhythm and the flow of poetry. While I am still striving to be more of a spoken word poet, I am very much a page poet. I can’t remember anything by memory to save my life. Maybe I’m just getting old. I don’t know.
The second part is that the topics that I discuss in my writing are not easy to digest. They can be triggering and they are not for every audience.
The third thing is finding my audience. It is clear that my audience is the LGBTQ community with an emphasis on the trans community, but often times it is difficult to reach folks to get featured in readings. Sometimes, it’s about who you know in what spaces to be able to get you in to read. It’s not like that always, but if you are seeking to feature in venues that are popular or well attended, the struggle is very different.
The last thing is that I feel like my work can be taught in academia. Mostly gender studies/poetry courses, but it’s an uphill battle with reaching folks that are open to hearing my work and it definitely takes a lot of investing one’s own funds to get books to professors that may not even read it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Aside of being a poet, I am also an instructor for the Community Literature Initiative which is the same program that I went through in order to publish my book. I teach a class on Tuesday night and it has been one of the most rewarding parts of my writing journey. I do my best to create a safe and encouraging atmosphere for my students. I want to give them the same experience that I had when I went through the program. Prior to becoming a teacher, I was a teacher’s assistant for the cohort of students that preceded mine.
CLI is my part-time job. My full-time job is working in community health. I oversee a program for master’s and bachelor’s level students that are looking for internships and coordinate monthly trainings that complement their programs at their respective universities. I also participate in career fairs and do presentations for various programs to recruit healthcare professionals to work in the healthcare field.
What set’s me apart is that I wear many hats. While I wish I could become a full-time writer, I still have to financially support myself. I enjoy what I do because I like giving back to the community and everything that I do reflects that sentiment.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I migrated to the US when I was five years old and English is my second language. I was a very shy and quiet child. I didn’t really have a lot of friends and often kept to myself. I was always artistic. I liked reading poetry and one of the first poets that I read elementary school was Shel Silverstein. I ended up tattooing a poem of his called LOVE on my arm. I also liked drawing, but I wasn’t very good at it so I often opted for writing, but I did get an “A” on my interpretation of a Georgia O’Keefe’s painting of a flower in 5th grade. Proudest moment ever.
I was an overachiever. That probably came from me being the oldest child. I was often pressured by my mom in doing well to set the example for my younger siblings so I spent like a million years in school and now own tons of debt.
Pricing:
- This Body $20-$25
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://worldstagepress.org/product/this-body/
- Instagram: @this_poet_travels
- Facebook: https://linktr.ee/this_poet_travels
- Twitter: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56653649-this-body
Image Credits:
Ernest Marin (photo on steps)
