An Interview with Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson

Hi Vocab, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. We’re thrilled to recognize you at this year’s Inkstravaganza and eager to learn more about your journey. Can you tell us when you first knew you wanted to be a writer, and when you felt like you had truly arrived as one?

My earliest memory of writing was at age six, and I have always loved poetry. I’ve always been excited by poetry. I remember being in middle school and elementary school, and when the literary magazine would come up, I would always submit poetry to it and be super excited anytime my work was accepted. I remember the sense of pride and a feeling of accomplishment, seeing my work in print. When I was 13, a friend of mine was murdered, and I wrote a poem for her memorial service. That was the first time I ever publicly spoke poetry, and feeling like the words that I said were meaningful to her family was extremely important to me. I was trying to pay tribute to Prussia and commemorate her importance in my life. And at a very young age, at that time, I felt like I wanted to help people heal by helping them process their grief by writing for them. After I wrote her poem, I wrote a poem for another young lady that passed away named Shannon, and people started coming up to me in school asking me to write poetry for them. For their crushes, for their tough moments, or their emotional whatever. When I was in middle school, kids were pretty emotional. That’s when I realized the power of writing.

Do you think speaking, like at your friend’s memorial service, led you to do slam poetry because you could see how you were impacting people face to face?

It definitely allowed me to do public speaking. I grew up in a church where I was very active in doing artistic expression. And so seeing what poetry could do was directly correlated to those moments of speaking at these memorial services for these young ladies that passed away. That’s when I knew I wanted to do public speaking. Still, as far as slam, I fell in love with slam the first time I saw Anthony Flores and Amalia Ortiz. I was in my very early 20s, and I saw them slam in 2004. By the time 2005 came, I made a team sport of slam.

Do you have a favorite piece that you’ve written?

I feel like I used to know the answer to that question. And then recently, for this show that I just finished, The Seasoned Woman, I wrote some stuff that I was extremely proud of.

Do you have specific elements that are really important to your writing and revision process?

So a lot of people here that know me know that I have this editing checklist. And that I don’t necessarily pull it out and refer to it. But thinking about some of the things that I have on there, like imagery, is important. I like to wordplay, and I love extended metaphors. When I’m revising, I look for places to add sensory details.

In earlier interviews, I know you talked about how some of your songs came from your poems, and then you added music to them. How do those processes overlap? Does creating a poem usually translate to music, or do you start thinking it will be a song? 

Well, most of the pieces that I write, I know they are spoken word. Most of the poems–not every poem–but most of the poems I write are meant to be said out loud and to be heard, not just seen. So, I think about the way the words sound when grouped together. I think about alliteration, not just in the sense of what’s at the beginning of a word, but even the vowel sounds and consonant sounds in the middle of a word. I love to rhyme. Rhyming, for me, began as a tool to help me with memorization, I think, and then it became something that was a reflection of the musicality of my work. I love to think of my work in terms of how it would sound if put to music for the music of the words themselves as I’m speaking. I’d like for my words to have a pleasant and palatable sound. I want people to enjoy the hearing just as much as the reading. That’s such an important detail to me. And yeah, the fluidity of being versatile with the rhythm and the cadences that I create when I write. 

How does your community in San Antonio show up in your work?

You know, sometimes I challenge myself to go a little bilingual. In some of the commissioned work that I have, I was asked to write San Antonio-centric things that, you know, our city can relate to. When I was younger, I wasn’t conscious of the fact that I was putting things in my work that were regional moments or more homegrown. But then I realized when those things were pointed out that those influences do exist… I am writing things where I might talk about the people here, my life experiences, and the landscape. I’ve been working with Visit San Antonio for the past few years, the tourism department of San Antonio. They’ve asked me about my narrative and what resonates with my experience of living in San Antonio. So, I had to look back through my work to see which aspects captured the essence of life in San Antonio.

I feel like you often collaborate with other artists. How important is collaboration to you in creating art?

So, that’s one of the things I hang my hat on–collaboration–because I feel like other people can bring out the best parts of me. Some of my strongest work is work that I’ve done with other people because they stretch me to get out of my comfort zone. For instance, working with Levana on The Seasoned Woman, you know, she’s a Middle Eastern opera singer, and some of her points of view got me to expand my gaze. You know, it’s one thing to watch the news and have visceral reactions to what’s happening, but it’s another thing to pick up a pen and say, I’m going to write about these visceral reactions that I’m having and put context to them to understand what’s the history behind the decisions that politicians are making, or that if there’s something going on here-hotbed topics–people committing certain crimes or doing certain things, it’s like watching what led to this.

For instance, I used to work in a juvenile detention center, and there was a distinct difference in the behavior and crimes that kids were arrested for before versus post-pandemic. Before, there weren’t as many violence-based offenses. Once the pandemic happened, violent offenses spiked. It was kids in anguish and desperation. The crimes they committed were fueled by the mental anguish and desperation they felt, being impacted financially and economically. And so this is the same thing with all of society; the things that are going on in the world impact people’s behaviors and finances and everything. It’s all tied together.

Do you think some of your work is influenced by working in the juvenile detention center? Did you come up with ideas from when you worked there?

So interestingly, I only have one work poem, because I could only bring myself to write one work poem. I have a song that I wrote with that poem.

Is there a piece of writing you think everyone should read? 

You know, I love some of the more classic American literature just as much as I love slam poetry and spoken word artists. So anything from hearing and also reading Maya Angelou to listening to jazz. There’s a lot of fundamental things in jazz and poetry that correlate. For instance, this idea of structure and form and then breaking free from structure and form and allowing room for the improvisational. Understanding the breath that needs to happen in a body of work. It’s just, no one wants to read a paragraph of words, you know. And sometimes it’s funny because a lot of times I write my poetry in paragraph form, but I realize people’s eyes, as well as their ears, as well as their spirit, need a break in your work, so I’m finding places to have shorter phrases and longer phrases. I think those are really important tools. And I feel like jazz embodies some of those ideas of: here’s a stint of somebody riffing and then leaving space for something else. 

Do you have a mantra?

I give myself permission to be creative, is my mantra.

And I’ve had my students recite that mantra when I start class.

Also, for fun, do you have a song, a film, or a series that you like–that’s on repeat right now?

Yussef Dayes. This is a drummer. And I feel like if you’re a poet, you should pay attention to drummers. Because it’s all beats and patterns, which are just like iambic pentameter and stuff like that, right? So that’s Yussef Dayes. He’s somebody that I’ve been really vibing to lately.

I love people who were once upon a time my students, so I will put one of my student’s names, and then I will put the name of a woman I’ve known since I was 13 years old. When we were teenagers, she was my best friend. When we were around 14-15 years old, we made a promise to each other that we would pursue careers in poetry and that we would make a name for ourselves in poetry, and we both did that. She’s a great poet, and so am I. So these are two women, last name Brown, both of them no relation to each other. And they’re both amazing poets. 

Ariana Brown, Amena Brown.

You have a full-time job but also an arts career. Do you have any advice for people who are, let’s say, working nine to five and are also trying to juggle similar responsibilities?

Take naps. I love a good nap. Yeah, it’s a funny thing to say. But I mean, sometimes you’re stressing yourself to meet a deadline, and you just need to take a nap, and when you wake up, everything that needs to happen for you mentally to process will be there. There are times I am stressing myself trying to write a poem, and I’m like, you know what, Andrea, take a nap, and trust yourself. When you wake up, your mind will be refreshed enough for you to be creative. And every single time, when I wake up, the words will come to me.

What would you say to the next generation of artists or creatives?

Please go outside and live, and when you come home, or when you have moments, reflect in writing or verbally; you could verbalize it… you could always pull out your phone. But live life so that you can have experiences to draw from. Some people, they spend so much time at home stressing out, trying to write the next thing. But I’m like, have you gone outside to live your life though? Have you made friends with somebody? Have you had a random conversation with somebody?

Sometimes, my best poems come from making the decision to talk to a stranger or a friend. The other day I was waiting on my order at a restaurant. And I just felt compelled to turn to the woman to my right and ask her a question, to start a conversation with her, and after we left there, I told her my full name she told me her name. We talked about it, and you know, she went and found me on Facebook and started messaging me, and we’ve been talking ever since. And I know something really good is gonna come from this conversation. She is an elderly Caucasian woman named Barbara, and yeah, she’s got to be probably in her mid to late 60s- early 70s. And I feel like she’s going to be my new home girl.

That’s great advice.

You were the San Antonio Poet Laureate, which is really cool. Congrats on that. You did a Black Lives Matter mural, and you led a COVID safety campaign. Was it challenging to be a community advocate with everything else happening in the world? And then, is there anything you take away from that?

Absolutely. Because I feel like I didn’t emotionally process some of the things that were happening until two to three years after the fact. Something that I–when I have the ability to tell people, I tell them this story. So, while I was creating the COVID safety campaign, I contracted COVID-19 because somebody brought COVID to the set, and we were shooting the music video that I created. And so when I had to unveil the song, and debut it at the city council, I was in zoom with COVID, like barely sitting up in my chair. So sick because I had that first year COVID, and it was way worse than it is now. And then the day that I went to see if I could test negative—I was like, okay, my symptoms are starting to chill out, so maybe I’m better now—the day that I went to test, I was on Fox News, like in my car on Zoom. They were interviewing me asking, “So has anybody in your family been affected by COVID?” I was like, “Actually, I have COVID right now, and I’m about to test to see if I’m negative.” They were like, “Oh my god, I had no idea.” But it was one of those crazy ironic things that happened, and it was a very challenging season of my life, like being Poet Laureate.

From 2020 to 2023, the first year and a half, it was all crisis response. I felt like something was always going crazy and haywire. And somebody was calling me up, “Hey, can you write a poem about this?” I’d go to perform somewhere and there would be no audience. I was just looking at a camera crew with masks on and I felt so disconnected sometimes.

How did you foster connection during the pandemic? I read about your “My Tongue Is” social media campaign. Was it things like that that kept everyone together? 

Yeah, absolutely. So I partnered with the San Antonio Museum of Art, and we did this take-action campaign where we made little toolkits of postcards and stuff– letter writing things. And so I was like, Hey, here’s the thing, write letters to your council people, to city government officials, take action, this is something you can do. If you want to speak out against the things that you’re seeing, if you want things to get better. We had stations where people could come in and pick up these toolkits. 

I just kept finding initiatives; I helped create a grassroots organization where people came together to help grassroots organizations and nonprofits fight against social injustices. And I saw a lot of those and I was doing workshops on Zoom, partnering with the Universalist Church of all people–I never thought I would partner with the Universalist Church–but I was partnering with people like that. I was doing so, so many things. I found new things to do to try to strengthen the connection because there was so much emptiness in my heart. ‘Cause I’m like, we going to party, we’re about to go outside. I didn’t even have my investiture service with the mayor until two and a half years into my time as Poet Laureate; everybody else got theirs the first month they were Poet Laureate, so it was wild.

In another interview, you said that trying to force writing doesn’t really work for you. Would you say your best work comes from a moment of inspiration? How do you balance that –creativity and discipline? 

A lot of times, I fall back on my spirituality.  When I can’t write, when I feel like I’m stuck, I pray and answers come to me. I mean, there are moments when I’m like, Okay, you gotta write, you gotta write right now. And in those moments, I allow myself a couple of minutes to veg out, space out, be quiet with my thoughts, and really think about what I want to say. Sometimes I call up a friend and I’m like, I’m stuck, help! I’m not gonna lie. I don’t have a set method of how I do it every time.

Sometimes I’ll write an entire poem in one sitting and very quickly and go back for at least two sessions of editing any piece that I do. And some poems start with music, someone will float me a beat. A producer will email me a beat, and I will vibe to it for a while. Ask the people, hey, what does this beat make you think of, ask myself what does this beat make you think of. I’ll talk to the producer, what kind of song do you want to hear from me? On some levels, I’m very much a people pleaser. So, I like to get feedback from people about what they think of my process and what I’m doing. And that kind of fuels me to continue.

If you could have dinner with anyone living or past, who would it be? 

I’ll go spiritual and say Jesus, or Maya Angelou.

Is there anything you wanted to mention that I didn’t ask you or you didn’t get a chance to talk about?

One thing that I always tell everybody, everybody that I ever teach. My advice–never throw anything away. Everything you have, everything you write, can be revised. It can be saved for later till it’s relevant and resonates with you. Everything you write, whether it’s crap to you or brilliant to you. Don’t throw it away. You can build on it; you can just take one idea from it. There’s something, there’s gold, there’s gold in it all.

So you were Poet Laureate, and now you’re going to be the Inkstravaganza nominee. What should we keep an eye out for next? 

Definitely, I’m trying to tour The Seasoned Woman. The next show we do will be in Tampa. And we’ve been talking about some other cities in the United States to get that show going. I definitely want to work on some new music, and I’m putting out a book for The Seasoned Woman next year. I’ve been talking to a publisher. They’ve sent me a sample contract. I haven’t officially signed the dotted line, but it’s probably going to happen with Gnashing Teeth Publishing, they’ll be the publisher for my book.