Spotlight: Tatiana Ivy Moise

Conversation with Tatiana Ivy Moise

Q: What does your creative process look like when approaching a piece? What part of the process comes first?

A: In the last few years I’ve noticed a shift in my approach to the creative process— mostly because I feel like I haven’t been intentionally approaching it at all! I’m definitely trying to work on carving out time to create, but in the meantime I’ve noticed that my pieces have been sprouting from the most randomly internal reactions to things. My most recent work has very much been just written records of my internal dialogue at the moment I feel compelled to write it down. Then I’ve just tossed the current time or date at the top as a title and the rest of the piece builds around it… It’s like the times and dates have their own energies that combine with how I’m feeling that day or what I was doing when I stopped to write it down, and before I know it, there’s a piece forming in front of me! Because of this, a lot of my recent writing has read like spoken word poetry— which I love.

Q: Is there a place—whether physical, cultural or otherwise—where you think of your writing/art as coming from?

A: My writing comes from the pain I’ve felt, the stories I’ve heard, the loves I’ve loved, and lost, and from all the lives I’ve lived before the moment I happened to capture it in words.

Q: What is your relationship to canon, legacy, and lineage? How do you think your work is informed by previous generations or predecessors, if at all?

A: I read something recently that said something along the lines of: “you are the product of hundreds of people, spanning generations, who loved someone who looked just like you.”  That resonated with me deeply— it reminds me of just how inherently connected we are, through love, to people who didn’t even know they were playing a role in creating us when they were busy living their own beautiful lives. I feel the same way about the art we create. There’s no way we get to experiencing this life without carrying with us the stories and feelings of those who created us. Especially for marginalized communities, pain and trauma has been proven to be intergenerational… but if that’s true, we should also believe the same is possible about joy, and love, and hope. From all these deeply-innate and even ancestral emotions, our art is able to materialize.

Q: What is a piece of work or another creative who you find yourself returning to when you feel lost? Who is another writer or artist you wish to celebrate?

A: Lia James is one of my favorite writers, whose words inspire me constantly. Reading her work is such a thrilling experience— every line always surprises me with the kinds of emotion she is able to both express and evoke. Lia is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of talent, who I just so happens to be another Wellesley alum, whom I just so happen to be best friends with! I’m insanely grateful to have that kind of brain, heart and soul so close to mine. She’s undoubtedly helped me improve my writing over the years as well— so humbling.

Artist’s work

please learn from this
by: tatiana ivy

i can tell you from experience 
some people don’t like hearing this
because all it makes them really feel is
pain,

but i promise you it’s for the best:
you absolutely cannot spend the rest
of your life with this weight on your chest
in vain

if the one you love does not love you,
do not close your eyes to what is true
please remember no matter what you do,
save yourself 
from putting someone else 
at the top of your list
you are so gifted in many ways

god i pray
please free me from the one 
i often confuse with the sun

because although i find both to be radiant and bright,
both are blinding me and are absent from all of the nights
i spend thinking and crying over someone who might
one day see that this whole time i was the one fighting for them
against everyone who didn’t see what i did
having to bend
but not break, because this wasn’t a mistake
even in the wake
of all the newfound information 
i wish i could return

i wish i could return

i wish i could return
my six-feet-under deep love
so please learn,
please learn 
from this