L.Alien Presents: Jacqueline Suskin
**Line of work / Job title(s) (paid or unpaid) :
Poet and educator.
I grew up in the Florida Keys. I moved out of Florida after University and traveled around for a few years, living in Seattle, Northern California, and then coming down to LA to spend more time with my closest friends. They’re all artists and I wanted to see if I could make a career out of performance poetry. So, I moved to LA as a grand experiment with no expectations.
LA allowed me to develop a very strange and wonderful career as a poet. I brought my project Poem Store to the Hollywood Farmers’ Market in 2013 and told myself that I’d spend five years in the city building my career. I had no idea what would happen. I just knew I was going to have a good time and enjoy infiltrating this urban world with my rural-hippy-punk beliefs. Every door opened for me immediately and I started working amazing events all around LA. After a few years of this, after thousands of spontaneous poems, after seeing so much of the city, I realized I’d established myself as a poet and started getting books published. LA nurtured this artistic pathway.
I’m not a city person. Living in this urban setting was a sacrifice for me. I came down from the paradise of Humboldt County and every day I yearned for the forest. It was really hard to assimilate and find my place in this consumer culture. It was also really hard to consistently give my creative energy to so many people. I found the biggest strain was actually on my body. Living in LA, I’ve learned more about self-care than I ever thought I’d need to know!
I look at all of the doors that opened up for me, all of the amazing people I’ve met over the years, all of the traveling I’ve done for work, and all of it comes from the creative heart of this city. This is a place that supports artists. It nurtures a creative community. I came to LA with a loose dream of wanting to be an established poet, I gave myself a timeframe of dedication, and I’m at the five-year mark now, feeling like the city gave me everything I need to move onward with my career.
I love the creative community, the food, the access to art, and most of all the land. Everywhere I look I see a mountain, I see lush plants and wildlife. It’s such a weird combination of urbanity and wildness. That’s definitely my favorite aspect of the city. Also, in the words of my late best friend Grant Gardner, I love living in LA because of the taco trucks. Specifically, Taco Zone.
I’m currently out in Joshua Tree for a two-month, self-imposed writing retreat. I love to leave the city and give myself the time and space I need for creation without distraction. I make sure to do something like this for myself every year. I spent the week in a solid routine, waking up at 5:30am to watch the sunrise and write under a big tree. Then I write at my desk for a few hours before reading, more writing, yoga, dancing, more reading, a sunset walk and in bed early. It’s the best and I get so much done!
I just wanted to stay in the city for five years and build a career without being doubtful or faltering. It seemed really radical to give myself this framework of dedication. Whenever I’d question my path, I’d remember my promise to myself and dig my heels in even further. I wasn’t rigid about an outcome, I just made myself stay and that was quite an achievement for a nomad like me.
Honestly, my goals before moving to LA have all been met, which feels crazy to say! But this is such a specific moment in time for me. By the end of next year, I’ll have seven books published and I actually think I can leave the city. I don’t want to live here forever. I want to keep coming back and giving to this community, but I long for the trees and am now established enough that I can live anywhere.
I often struggle to find time for letter writing. I used to write so many letters, but since my career as a writer has taken off, I find that on my down time I typically want to read a book, write in my journal, or do some kind of physical activity. It’s hard for me to make time to write for other people in my time off, because that’s what I do for work.
I love to swim and dance. Moving my body is the best thing for my writing brain. I also spend a lot of time walking and connecting with friends. I really love going to the movies and to museums. But dancing is probably number one on my list of fun.
I worked an event, writing poems for Maria Shriver’s 60th birthday, and I wrote Oprah a poem. When I read it to her she wept and went around to all of the guests crying, with her hand on her heart saying, “have you all met this amazing poet?” That same evening, I typed poems at Kris Jenner’s 60th birthday party and danced beside Kanye West when I was done with my shift.
I’m an ecstatic earth worshiper, a hippy, a punk, and I rarely buy new clothing. I like vintage, I get a lot of my pieces from friends and clothing swaps. Before I moved to LA, I lived off-the-grid in a little cabin on a mountainside. I only wore overalls and boots. So, living in LA has been a fun excuse for me to dress up and get a bit fancy. I’ve been a lover of clothes my entire life and consider each outfit an extension of my mood. Mostly, I just want to be comfortable and feel cool at the same time.
Do it! This place will open up for you if you don’t grasp at it or come in with a concrete idea of what you want your creative path to look like. Let it form freely and surprise yourself with all the magic that’ll come from that type of openness.
I have a new book coming out in September with Write Bloody Publishing. Help in the Dark Season explores the pathway of human love as it begins in the dark, moves into parental hands, transfers into experiments of the heart, grows, breaks, and ultimately transforms us more than any other experience we withstand. It’s my most personal work yet and I’m really excited to offer it up.
@jsuskin
All photos by Eric Fernandez (IG: @raffiafern)