Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Mae Henke.
Sara Mae, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I just was born wanting to write. Before I could read I would make up stories and my mom would copy them down for me in notebooks; some I still have in the basement of my parents’ house. I got into poetry because my friend Jess Riz kept bugging me about going to a slam poetry night at the Cantab Lounge. I said “no” forever, that it wasn’t my kind of writing. And then this thing started happening where blue herons would follow me around. It sounds wild but it was always at very exact times, specifically the day after breakups. Every time I broke up with somebody, a blue heron found me. I told Jess this and she was all THATS A POEM! and so I wrote it and now here we are.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I write poems and songs. Most have to do with my family and traditions of femininity. I am really interested in how femininity has been historically silenced, and this kind of silence is both a kind of repression and a means of survival. I am working on a project right now that has to do with my namesake, my great gramma Mae, and it examines how people remember her and what this kind of remembering says about her silence.
What do you know now that you wished you had learned earlier?
It is really important that you have confidence in all the weird parts of yourself. You don’t have to be confident allllllll the time, but the special, hidden things you think nobody will like are what make the best art! That comes with a price, too. Art is selfish in a lot of ways, because it is a means of expression you may not have otherwise. It isn’t enough to create, you also have to engage in community. You have to be responsible for, accountable for your role in a community. Just because you are a brilliant writer doesn’t mean you get a pass. Think about how many people have had to fight for the space for your art to happen, and maybe go to a protest or volunteer to help your local org, or donate money, or actively participate at the event. You are a part of a community, you are the community. You just need to understand you matter and have an effect on these things, whether you want that or not.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I have a few poems published in online journals and SlamFind YouTube videos. I am proudest of my poem “In a 1926 Suburban Backyard…” because Morgan Parker picked it for the inaugural Peach Mag Bronze prize. Morgan Parker is one of my favorite poets, and this poem in particular does a lot of tricky word play I thought nobody would care about, but Morgan called the lines “delicious”. I don’t let myself feel proud of my work like that too often, but come on! Morgan Parker called it delicious!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @sara_mae9
Image Credit:
The photo of me is by Lip Manegio
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