Artist Spotlight - Clarissa Rogers
HarmoNNY is pleased to highlight Clarissa Rogers for our May Artist Spotlight. Clarissa specializes in spoken word, poetry, lyric essays, and political activism.
Clarissa has had a love for writing from a young age. She began in elementary school by writing journals and then progressed to writing poetry in high school. After moving to Philadelphia, PA, she moved from paged poetry to spoken word and has now been performing her work for over 20 years.
When first transitioning from writing poetry to sharing it on stage, Clarissa had significant stage fright to the point where she would cry until she threw up. However, her time in Philadelphia, PA and Vermont was an inspiration for her. Seeing people perform regularly opened her up to the idea that it could be fun to perform her work. Now, Clarissa loves to perform and has benefited from the belief to be open to critique. Clarissa was the winner of the 2014 Jefferson Community College North Country Writer’s Contest and this is where she came to the realization that she is more of a performer than a page poem artist.
Ms. Rogers currently resides in Cape Vincent, NY and belongs to the Cape Vincent Poets and Writers group. This is a small group of writers who reside in the Cape and meet during the good weather to share and listen to each other’s work. The group includes individuals from their teens to their 80’s with the goal of sharing feedback and creating a culture of support.
During her time in Vermont and Pennsylvania, Clarissa developed a passion for political activism and using her art to make the world a better place. One program that Clarissa is currently involved in is Poets for Political Prisoners. This is a new initiative held over Zoom that brings poets together to study the cases of political prisoners in the United States and help raise awareness and educate others through poems, songs, and spoken word. The group scheduled their first event over Zoom during April to celebrate Poetry Month.
Clarissa is also a member of the Workers Solidarity Alliance which is an organization that focuses on writing relating to working class labor issues. She is currently spearheading an initiative involving this group called The Workers Solidarity Alliance Write Nite. She shared that so many people are passionate about the desire to write, but many are not always able to dedicate the time so she came up with the idea for Write Nite. The goal of the group is to create a designated time set aside to write. The group meets once a month on Zoom and has a silent work session for an hour as a way to hold each other accountable. Clarissa wanted to support her fellow artists by “tak[ing] action to support [others] doing what [they] want to do and being who [they] want to be.”
Clarissa has found hope in the world by the support and encouragement she has received from her fellow artists. She discovered that although each of us may be different and come from various backgrounds, it is okay to be vulnerable with our art. To find out more about Clarissa, watch her full interview below.
