Portraits and Portals: El Reflection Audio Transcript

Alex
How was the process of telling Taher’s story different from your usual process – writing
process?
Var
Difficult.
El
The process was – it was a bit much of a challenge. It wasn’t as easy as any other ordinary
poem, and we had to really, you know, stick to like our story poem kind of vibe.
Alex
Did you learn anything new about poetry through this project? And what did you learn from
working with Taher and hearing his story?
Var
How to do – how to do a joint, a joint collaboration together about somebody.
El
No, I learned that, you know, being deaf and being incarcerated is a lot much more of a
challenge, even for us people with disabilities that’s physically impaired with disabilities.
Alex
What did you find the most challenging? What did you enjoy the most about working on this
project?
El
No, I enjoyed the most, mostly about the story, you know, it was a very, you know, interesting
story. And it was, it was hell, you know, something for somebody to go through that, that shit is
just, you know, tremendous, tremendous, like, it’s crazy.
Alex
Like, what was what was so challenging about writing it? I know it was difficult. You know,
obviously you have to tell someone else’s story, not yours. But why was that challenging? You
know? Because I – you know, it’s one thing to just hear someone’s story. Anyone can spit back
a story, but for you to have to interpret it.

El
It was challenging because we wanted to, you know, put the story as it was told, and as, you
know, to do that in a poem – poem formation is something that ain’t – it’s not like writing word
for word. It’s something that we have to really sit down and have to really get in deep thought,
and we was actually able to do it, but it took a little time.
Alex
Do you have suggestions for someone who wants to start writing poetry but doesn’t have any
experience?
El
I would start with, depending on the type of poem, day-to-day writing. You know, just, you
know, be yourself. You know, try to use a lot of likes, as, similes and metaphors if you can.
And being that, if you new, you just, you know, if you can’t make it rhyme, just make it as best
till you like it.
Alex
Hey, I don’t know. I mean, El you’ve been writing poems for so long, and I feel like, you know,
there’s, like, there’s a writing component, but there’s a real performance component too, you
know. And that’s like, not exactly – You even see it with like Steven, you know, being a slam
poet or a battle rap, you know, it’s like. I don’t know, I feel like performing poems and writing
poems. That’s not even the same thing, like, it’s a different skill set. And obviously, the people
who are going to see the poem on the website, you know, they’ll get a chance to listen to it,
but, yeah, is there anything you can talk about – Is anything you could tell about the poem,
especially being that, like, it’s different, because one, you’re telling someone else’s story, but
it’s a collaborative poem. You and Var are telling it together, like you hear it. It’s like, you know,
bar for bar, kind of a back and forth vibe, like, because, you know, y’all could have had a
different approach. You could have had it where you told the first half, you told the second half.
You know, obviously you chose to do it for a very – you chose to do it for a reason. Maybe it’s
because it came natural to you. Maybe, like – Did you know before you started that you were
gonna do it that way? You know, just like, you know, just kind of riff about it for like, a minute or
so. You don’t gotta drag it tho.
El
Yeah, we wanted to, we wanted to do a line for line type of poetry thing. Like a bar for bar,
similar, to like a, if it was like a Jadakiss, Styles P type of hip hop rap thing. You know, battle
rap, no persona, something to that nature. And, you know, this is is what we wanted to do. And
it came about. It worked. It took a little time. And, I mean, it’s not easy. I know, telling the story,
you know exactly, not word for word, but word for word in the word, in a poet’s word, and
actually performing it too. You know it was, it wasn’t much of a challenge. But you know just to

stay at a certain tone, and also you know not to rush. And you know that, you know, so that
was, you know, some big things, you know, I wanted to keep in mind, especially me. Because
sometimes out the way I’d be saying a lot of my poems, some people might hear me shout, or,
you know, and such. And so I had to keep a certain tone for this type of poem. And, you know,
just hearing this – just doing this experience and like, hearing what somebody could go through
that has a disability, like, that’s incarcerated. Like, you know, it sheds a more better outlook on
things about us, bringing out this poem and bringing this story to life into a poem.
Alex
Okay, and my last real question is like, you know you were contracted to write this poem. You
know the reality poets are professionals. Y’all have been professionals for, you know, almost
10 years now. You know, you release books, you go on tour, you know. And I also know – I’m
an artist. Like, when I show people my art and they start telling me things about what they do
and don’t, like, sometimes I take it personal and start to feel kind of way. What was it like
receiving feedback and being told, Hey, I like what you did, but you got to do this. You got to
do this. Like, because, you know, yeah, how was that? And I know you’ve worked with
coaches in the past, but what was that process like of like incorporating feedback?
El
You know, to, you know, to hear feedback. I mean, nobody want to hear, know that the bad
feedback, but it’s understandable. You know, we want to make sure everything is right. We
want to make sure we correct our mistakes and errors and such as best as we could. So, you
know, I love some good feedback – good feedback, bad feedback, you know. But it actually
had to – so we had to go back to the working board and the working plan and actually sit down
and add a few things that – some of the things we were going to intentionally add. You know, it
was just us, all right, you know, how we gonna, you know, bring this in, in a poem. And, you
know, we need to really speak on this, because this is very important. So a lot of things, you
know, that was – we just wanted to make sure it was right. I mean, it could be a hiccup
sometimes, you know, sometimes it’s just, like, Yo hot. You know, it kind of like, we kind of
almost not scrub the whole poem from scratch, but we got to go, you know, do with a different
few other different likings and changes.
Alex
That’s crazy, because the end version I heard it was pretty different from the other one. Like, I
noticed a few things different, and I guess, like, I was, like, almost surprised to hear it come out
the way it did.
El
Yeah, yeah, that’s yeah, so – and yeah, that was another thing. Like, you know, I try to, you
know, get a lot more focused, you know, with the ending, with closing, and how to close it, you

know. And that was – how should we, you know, close this poem. So I said, Let’s do it. And we
said, let’s do it like how we did it in the beginning, the introduction as being somewhat of the
outro. I was like, that’d be great. And I also wanted to, you know, bring that attention of, you
know, leaving with the end remarks of, like, family and the video phone and, you know, but just
the absence and the missing of family and, it just to bring that to the attention that it was like.
Alex
No, yeah, I feel like, y’all approached this, like, just like professionals. Like, line by line, you hit
every detail. They would even tell you as little as, like, a small adjustment – all that made it
through. And, yeah, you know, we can pretty much call it, but I did really like that intro, and I
kind of outro line, like we’ve been challenged to come out of our zone and tell a story. It’s not
our own form of a poem. Like, I thought I really liked – I thought that was very sticky. So when I
heard that come back at the end, it was almost like the hook to the song. I was like, I like that.
El
Right.
Alex
Yeah.
El
Yeah. It was, you know, it was like I said, we wanted to bring that story vibe and how not to
bring it, by bringing the introduction as a start, and saying, how we going to tell the story and
then ending it. And I said – but it was a little, it was somewhat difficult for the ending, but I was
like, Nah, we’re gonna just, I wanna, we’re gonna close it like how we did it in the beginning, or
some way, you know what I mean, to a point where it’s like, Yo, you good. You could feel like,
all right, this is a story vibe. Like a story vibe poem.
Alex
I got you. Anything else you want to share with them or that’s all?
El
No, I’m just, I’m just just thankful, you know, I was able to, you know, receive this opportunity.
It’s been a great experience. And, you know, it’s, you know, storytelling, know, from storytelling
into poetry. This is definitely been a great experience, and I will look forward to doing it again
sometime in the future. Thank you. Bye.