Seeing that last week I reviewed Jade Homa's poetry, it only made sense that I should interview her so the world can get to know her better. After all, artists are more than just their art, even if that's what they're known for. This week will be part 1 of the interview, focusing on Jade herself, while next week the focus will be on Jade's new literary magazine, blue.
Jade introduces herself as "an intersectional feminist and sapphic poet," going on to say, "I write poetry about girls and politics and the ocean. Being gay is definitely the most important aspect of myself because it's such large part of my personality and life experiences; I honestly would strip away my identity as a woman before my identity in being gay. "
Jade started writing poetry at age fifteen, "as an extent of fan fiction." She "picked it up again when I was 17, right after I had been dumped by my best friend over text message in an airport. I was so mad, I had to get all of that feeling out somehow." When asked why she didn't choose another art form to express herself with, Jade said, "I love all art; I sing, I act, I draw/paint, and I used to dance. Poetry is just the only thing I've ever been noticed for. It's definitely my favorite avenue of art because it centers around feelings more than the other outlets, at least for me."
As someone who writes poetry as well, I can agree with that last point; poetry centers around feelings more than writing fiction or any other form of art I've tried, and I feel as though that's why some people find poetry so terrifying.
My real curiosity with Homa, however, regards why she's an Instagram poet. Upon being asked, she said that this is from the process of elimination in regards to other platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, and Pinterest. Instagram itself has a list of both pros and cons, with a pro being all of the fellow poets and a con being the algorithm that loves to make random posts fail for no good reason.
Jade also shares a touching story of her time on Instagram that I would be doing a real disservice if I cut short or summarized: "I made up an Instagram because I was bored, but only began fully using it when Trista Mateer revived her account. I was an avid fan of Trista's and actively reblogged her on tumblr (where she has over 40k followers). After a few conversations in the comments of her posts, she requested to follow me on my private, and we became close friends. Months later, I actually ended up meeting her at BookCon, and it was everything. I eventually changed my account to public and began posting poetry fairly regularly. I still have no idea how most people found me, but I'm forever grateful."
Homa and Mateer are pictured together in this article's cover photo. We'll be back next week to talk more about Jade and her literary endeavors.
