Interview: Writer and Small Press Publisher Mistral Khan-Becerra

One of the great pleasures of writing about the arts is meeting talented and interesting people at each event.

Many artist I've never met before.

I've been very lucky. I've met some truly inspirational people.

One of them is Mistral Khan-Becerra.

MCL:Do you write prose or just poetry?

Misty: Mostly poetry, but I've also been dabbling in prose. To be honest I've always sort of danced around prose (most of my poems are narrative based) but I've never truly gathered up the courage to sit down and really put pen to paper. There's just so much going on. I find it easy to lose myself in longer written endeavors. Many times they end up as poems any ways. But it's something I'm continually working on.

MCL: How did you get into poetry?

Misty: Well, I've always loved writing to an extent. But it was also always a sort of hidden hobby. Like, the up in front thing I loved was reading. Read, read, read, read, me with a book was a happy me. And behind the scenes was me writing: writing prose, writing poetry.

When I went to engineering camp we had to all write a summary of the lectures we'd listened to that day, and I got pulled aside by the director because he thought my ludicrous narrative based summaries were hilarious and fresh.

So to your question, I've always been interested in poetry and writing in general, but I really dug into it after I dropped out of college (I'd been going for biochemistry) and started at ECC. I had a good professor, Bill Schuh, who got me interested and also got me involved in class, pushing back. Plus I'd already gotten to a place where I felt confident in myself, so it was just a good mix overall, and I was able to grow.

MCL: Some poetry influences?

Misty: To be honest, I'm an awful writer, in the sense that I pull from form and structure more so than from a feeling. I think that's why it is so difficult for me to really get things on the page at times. But even with that knowledge about myself I rarely read poetry that isn't that of my peers (something I've been trying to change lately). But a prose writer that I was inspired by when I first started writing poems for my chapbook Could i Stay Here was Raymond Carver. My very close friend, Rachel, suggested him to me, and I just couldn't get enough of his short stories. He was also a poet but it was his short stories that truly pulled at me. And a few of my poems grew from failed short stories that I wrote in an attempt to mimic him.

But other poets that I like are Carl Dennis, Sharon Olds, and Lucille Clifton.

MCL: What is it about those poets you find interesting?

Misty: Well, Raymond Carver I love because he's able to put so much into incredibly short fiction. It's almost poetic how potent his stories are. More specifically I love how his stories have this terrible tension that comes seemingly from nowhere because of how banal every situation he presents is.

Carl Dennis I like a lot because his poetry, from what I've read, is very conversational, which is something I would love to have in my poems. And Olds and Clifton are just bad ass as hell.

MCL: Describe your poetry?

Misty: My poetry is narrative in nature, meaning it usually tells a story from beginning to end.

With my poems I mostly aim to create something that evokes both the tragic banality of life, and the sunbursts of inexplicable beauty and love. I find it easiest to do this by presenting relationships. More specifically the relationship between mother and daughter, and also the relationship between two romantic partners.

MCL: In your Biography you state, "... frequently draws on the complex relationship between Mother and Daughter". Please explain.

Misty: Yes, well, as I described in the previous question, I find that the relationship between mother and daughter to be fascinating, and a place from which I can pull a lot of material from. I'm an only child in a single parent home. Only my mom was around parent wise. Lay on top of that a very particular cultural aspect, and you get a lot of random bits and pieces that collide, explode, intermingle, marry, and do everything else. All at the same time, mind you. I guess what I'm saying is my mom and I have a very special relationship (as I'm sure most everyone has with their parents or guardian) and I attempt to mimic that in my work.

MCL:What's the Buffalo, New York scene like?

Misty: Utterly inspiring. Really though, there is insane talent in this city, and everyone I've encountered has been helpful and most of all everyone gets excited when they hear what I'm doing with Cringe-Worthy Poets and with CWP Press.

That's the best kind of support in my opinion, just genuine interest and enthusiastic involvement.

MCL:Some of your favorite venues and why?

Misty: Buffalo is full of really cool places. My favorites so far (cuz I haven't been to all) have to be El Buen Amigo, Rust Belt Books, and the Screening Room.

The first because I've been in and out of that store since I was a little baby (my family is close friends with the owner). So it's so cool to see it now, basically unchanged, still the cool little free trade place it's always been, but as a venue for poets to chare their work.

Rust Belt Books I love because, well I haven't seen any sort of featured poet events there, but Cringe Worthy runs a monthly open form poetry reading there. And the space is perfect for it: cozy, removed, and the owner is very sweet.

The Screening Room is dope cuz it's this theatre really, but it's a good place to go listen to poetry (every third Wednesday of the month). Plus they have refreshments available which is super nice.

Now I must add that one of my favorite venues for Poetry readings was Love, Light and Magic on Hertel but they've recently consolidated to an online store. So I'm very sad that we can't perform poetry there anymore, but also very happy that the owners have been able to move to the next step with their business.

And Finally!! SUGAR CITY is literally one of the coolest venues ever and it is just up the street from me. It features poets, musicians, everything. I just haven't gotten down there yet.

MCL:You are the cofounder of "Cringe Worthy Poets Collective and CWP Collective Press".

How did that start? Who else is involved?

Misty: Cringe-Worthy Poets' Collective started with five members who all met in a creative writing class at ECC taught by Bill Schuh. As we kept meeting, myself, Julio Montalvo Valentin, and Nathanael William Stolte, finally became the core members of the collective. Recently though, another poet that we met through ECC has joined our ranks and we're super happy to have RoBert Smith (not that RoBert Smith) be a fellow Cringer.

It's funny though because the Cringe Worthy Poets Collective was born out of Nathanael's persistence and his love of schmoozing. While the Press grew out of my stubbornness and social anxiety. Both Julio and Nathanael had made their own Chapbooks with the help of Mike Rio. Every time I asked about how they made their books they sort of pointed me in his direction. But making a new contact seemed super overwhelming, so I decided to just make my own, to a reasonable amount of success I might add.

So Nathanael and Julio looked at my book, and we decided then and there to perfect our craft and become a small book press. Now we have clients, ISBNs, and I can even work Photoshop now!

MCL:Do you accept unsolicited material?

Misty:Yes!! We love to hear from people. And we are open to ideas, and open to performing at your gig, making you a book, working in tandem with you on a big community event, etc!

You all can direct any of that to CWPCollective@gmail.com

MCL:What are the long-term goals of "Cringe" ... five years from now?

Misty: Well as the Collective we just hope to keep touring the country when we can and keep putting out material. We want to eventually gain more members in different parts of the country (of the world), make more chapters, and ultimately make a wide branching support system for local and not so local people to get into poetry.

For the Press I think we have the goals that any other small business has. Get. It. Off. The. Ground. And of course, to make super cool stuff and connections along the way.

MCL:Finally ... promote yourself. What's going on in 2016-2017for you?

Misty:Wow, yea lots of stuff so far. We are still taking submissions for chap books so if you're interested in that you can email us at CWPCollective@gmail.com .

We're also going to have a spot at the upcoming Zine Fair taking place at Sugar City on November 11th. So please come visit our table and buy some of our books!!

Next we are going to be starting a podcast called The Cringers Present: The Process where we'll be talking to local (and some not so local) poets about how they generally write poems and then more specifically how they wrote a poem in particular and what their artist's intent was. The first episode will be taped on November 17th and will probably air either the same day. You can check that out at www.thinktwiceradio.com

Also, I mentioned this at some point in the interview, but we host a poetry reading called Ground and Sky at Rust Belt Books on Grant Street every first Thursday of the month. There's no featured reader, no list, no podium, we all just sit in a circle and go poem for poem. It's really cool and its super low key and low pressure.

But more importantly we're starting a Ground and Sky Quarterly. Anyone can submit, the only restriction is that you can only submit a poem that has been read at Ground and Sky. Those submissions can be directed to the email I mentioned earlier.

Finally!!! Like us on Facebook!! We always have new things popping up, and our page is the easiest way for us to disseminate that info to our fellow poets and fans. Find us here at www.facebook.com/CringeWorthyPoetsCollective.

For more Information on Mistral Khan-Becerra:

www.facebook.com/CringeWorthyPoetsCollective

http://mines.podbean.com/e/episode-37-cringe-worthy-collective-8-23-16/

http://www.thinktwiceradio.com/