I am more likely to get paid for my art if it's presented alongside a white artist, so the questions around value and agency arise: What choices should I make, or do I have to make, if I want to be compensated for my work? Why isn't my art valued on its own?

I used singing as a safety measure. I would pay attention to what songs the popular girls liked, learn those songs from the radio or library cassettes, and then "accidentally" sing or hum these songs in class. This would impress the girls, who would then defend me from the boys.

Generally, I start by observing the existing and popular narratives in my social spheres and media, and the pressures I face in my own life experiences. As someone who is "newly" trans, I am constantly thinking about what the dominant narratives are around transness, how my work can push against these narratives, and how it already falls into these traps.

I have been and continue to be committed to art as a tool to ignite, comfort, and discomfort.

In poetry, I didn't have to provide resolution. I could ask hard questions without feeling responsible for the answers.

I feel like I have had to catch up to the art I've made, and learn from the protagonists I have written, especially in relation to gender.

I tend to focus less on genre as a starting point and more on idea or intention and let the idea dictate genre.