Tim'm West is one of the poetic art's most brilliant hopes, an artist of magisterial authority and tremendous coloristic range. In true 21rst century fashion, this interview was conducted via IM, perhaps the first interview this author ever did in that fashion. Read on and get a glimpse into a poet's heart.

David (2:25 PM): well hello

David (2:26 PM): nice to catch you

Tim'm West (2:26 PM): hello.

Tim'm West (2:26 PM): yeah...rare.

Tim'm West (2:26 PM): LOL

David (2:32 PM): your time is limited and precious, so let's get started...........how did you get the idea for front porch to begin with?

David (2:35 PM): from what I read, front porch seems like an extension of your didactic and altruistic impulses

David (2:36 PM): a showcase for young artists

Tim'm West (2:40 PM): Well..... I'll try not to sound the same as other interviews, but in general: "the front porch grew out of having been in the Bay, where there is a great deal more diversity in the Spoken Word and Hip Hop scenes, and moving to DC, where the sexual diversity of the audiences wasn't reflected in the material presented. it was as if queer folks were afraid to speak authentically about their experiences, cowering to hetero-normative illusion. I wanted to create a space, not "gay" though gay-friendly, where people kept it real for real. No SLAMs or 10s, page poets can read off the page, vent, share material about a range of human challenges and triumphs we face, and build community from that.

Tim'm West (2:40 PM): I grew up valuing that unconditional sharing on a Arkansas Front Porch, so it was about transferring that openness to an urban, bohemian soul, poetry, and hip hop scene.

David (2:41 PM): you've decided to continue to present the front porch in DC in spite of the move to Atlanta.......are there going to be differences in flavor between the two?

Tim'm West (2:51 PM): certainly. DC is not especially an arts city, it's a political and government town. Therefore there was quite a craving for the kind of community created-- which is why it continues beyond my move to ATL. The community there will keep it going because there was no space like it. To that end, I've done Front Porch at Chicago's Spoken Word Cafe, in Oakland, in Brooklyn also; so there's a need nationally for a space free of some of the pretense and judgment of many Spoken Word scenes. Atlanta has tons of artist, but I kind of feel like the glue that's been helping to mobilize artists who've been doing work-- beyond the Pride season.

Tim'm West (2:52 PM): FP DC is monthly, FP ATL and Brooklyn, are quarterly. I'm looking for ways to better support these events. I've sacrificed a lot personally to keep them afloat, and can't afford to do that anymore.

David (2:52 PM): are there some artists that have emerged out of front porch that you'd like to mention? Some rising stars out there?

Tim'm West (3:01 PM): all are rising stars are hugely successful in their own right. Some who've resonated well with audiences and who've shown growth on the national stage since FP debuts are: Sparhla Swa (NYC), Monica McIntyre (Philly), Anam Owili-Eger (Philly), KuKu (DC), Michelle Sewell (DC), Baron (NYC), ButtaFlySoul (NYC), Love the Poet (Baltimore), Sol Edler (DC), Teri Knox (NY), but so many others.

Tim'm West (3:01 PM): most of those artists aren't SGL/gay but that's been the beauty of it.

Tim'm West (3:02 PM): It's the one space where straight and gay folks come together to celebrate good, thoughtful art

David (3:02 PM): that's astonishing and it says something about the universal power of art to create a space like that

David (3:03 PM): I know that on a personal level, it's meant a great deal to you not to be put in a "gay artist" box

David (3:05 PM): how does an artist like yourself balance the political implications of your art, being out, being poz and fighting to create and maintain space for those voices with the need to stay out of that box?

David (3:05 PM): your frustration with the "mainstream" gay community is palpable, both in personal interviews and in your art......

David (3:06 PM): so I'm curious about the mechanics of what seems like a rather difficult tightrope

Tim'm West (3:10 PM): we've come to a place in our modernity where alliances with people, solely on the bases of shared racial or sexual orientation, is empty. This isn't to suggest that i compromise my work and am not authentic, but just that I'm authentic in ways that exceed those identity categories. So there may be women who connect to my HIV struggles, because they have breast cancer. There are straight white folk who relate to my struggles as an educator. In that space of vulnerability and truthfulness, integrity shortens the distance between differences. Many who've come like that about The Front Porch, they leave unsure of how they felt about the Christian poet reading after lesbian eroticism and before the straight Hip Hop artist, but it's all of God. The Front Porch, I suppose is my ministry

Tim'm West (3:14 PM): And I think that my ability to connect people who would not otherwise have exposure to each other is a good thing. I deliberately have co-ed features for that reason. I got tired of meeting gay men who didn't know any lesbians personally (or vice versa). In some of the places where FP exists, it's quite easy ot fall into a ghettoized isolationism, where black gay men only hang and associate with other black gay men. I don't think we do a great deal of growing inside of that safety. I like how it feels to come out in presumed straight Hip Hop space and have people leave with stereotypes and ideas reconsidered or updated. Ignorance ain't bliss.

David (3:15 PM): amen....

David (3:16 PM): I know that you have taught English in schools to young people..........do you have any plans to do writing workshops as part of front porch or separately?

Tim'm West (3:19 PM): Ideally, I'd like to find a grant that would enable the work of the Front Porch to mobilize artists to educate young people in the community through art. I'd love to find some though-partners on that. While a writer, I'm not a grant writer, so there's a great deal of possibility, if I find the right connection. Still, I do a lot of educational consulting and lecturing. Recently, I was Artist in Residence at ACS International School in Cobham (London) and spent a week doing Spoken Word workshops and post-World AIDS Day discussions. I'm always looking for those opportunities, but unfortunately, the black community often expects everything for nothing. My art is my livelihood these days; and it's been quite a struggle to sustain myself: poz, uninsured, etc... when giving so much

Tim'm West (3:20 PM): and for little in return. That needs to change. There are people in the black progressive community with money, resources, etc...

David (3:21 PM): that's true.........but I think that a lot of the time the support you're talking about comes with strings attached........you'd have to be less out, less in your face. less..................you

Tim'm West (3:25 PM): indeed. and for me to be less out, less queer, less of who I am, damages the very integrity that people are drawn to with the front porch. I'm not the run of the mill SLAM poet at 35 and doing work as an OUT, black, POZ male. In a system where scores are given to performance, consider how doing work about AIDS or desire for men, are received by audiences and artists who still carry a great deal of prejudice about sexuality or HIV. The Front Porch helps to cultivate communities of people for whom that kind of work is as normal as any other. It's a pretty revolutionary concept: the idea of building capacity for tolerance and affirmation.

David (3:28 PM): your work with DDC has placed you in the position of elder statesman to many up and coming hip-hop artists.....I have run out of fingers and toes both to count the number of artists I ran into who told me "until DDC I didn't know you could be gay and rap too"...........where do you see your beloved art form going in the hands of the next generation and what are your hopes for them?

Tim'm West (3:36 PM): The legacy with DDC is among the things I'm most proud of. Especially since we shatter so many stereotypes of who black gay men can be. There is often criticism from those who equate masculity with thoughtless patriarchy, rather than a more complex possibility for masculinity without the power-mongering. DDC is among the most amazing pro-feminist, brilliant, black men I know. Given the echo of DLism and the equation of gay masculinity with DL, I think it's wonderful to have men who could pass for straight, disidentify with the closet and be an example for all those little banjee boys and others who wonder if the closet is compulsory for masculine gay men. It's also powerful that, in our masculinity, we can do songs like "Butchqueen" or a tribute to "Ebony Lane", expressing our respect for the broad continuum of queer/gay/bi/DL/trans personalities.

Tim'm West (3:38 PM): I'm sure I won't be rapping forever, but Hip Hop is as valuable to this current generation of young people, as Essex and Assoto were in the late-80s. the message is much the same, the medium has, necessarily, had to change a bit.

Tim'm West (3:38 PM): and if people read Marvin K. White, or G. Winston James because of something they heard in a DDC song, all the better

David (3:40 PM): marvelous..........thanks for your time T.

David (3:42 PM): it's been a privilege and a joy.