39: Natalie Patterson on Telling the Truth and a Love Language Project

‘When we're talking about diversity, it's not a box to check. It is a reality that should be deeply felt and held and valued by all of us.’ This is a quote by Ava DuVernay that rings true in many ways throughout our conversation with today’s guest, Natalie Paterson. 

Natalie is a spoken word artist, educator, and activist and in today’s show, we talk to her about her relationship with poetry and how she is using it as a tool to build a more transparent, vulnerable, and equitable world. 

We begin with the story of Natalie’s childhood, where she remembers moving from Kokomo, Indiana to LA with her mother after her father fell into addiction. Natalie talks about having an early interest in the dynamics between people and shares how the effacement around her mother and father’s relationship gave her a tendency to want to get to the bottom of things and state them as they are. 

From there, we get into Natalie’s experiences at school and college, years where she discovered the magic of poetry, began obsessively writing poems of her own, and also got involved in activism against racism. Natalie goes onto describe the live poetry events she began attending, communities she became apart of, and her first, terrifying experiences of performing live. 

We then hear about the early career Natalie began to build for herself, first as a slam poet, and then later as a teacher and activist. In today's conversation, we also take a deep dive into Natalie’s process, hearing the philosophy about how she sees herself as an artist as well as the goals behind her work. 

In addition, we explore issues of combatting racism and other violent societal norms, and how Natalie has done this at various stages in her life, including through her mural initiative, A Love Language Project, which was responsible for painting the above Ava DuVernay quote on a vegan cafe in Los Angeles. Tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

• A recording of two poems exploring dating and body positivity by Natalie.
• The story of why Natalie’s mom left her father and moved from Kokomo to LA.
• How her parents’ dynamic and growing up with no father affected Natalie.
• The habit of directness Natalie developed as a result of her childhood experiences.
• Why Natalie’s childhood wasn’t that fun and she was more interested in people than toys.
• Natalie’s childhood perceptions about people, adulthood, marriage, and her future self.
• How Natalie experienced being Black and used her identity as a light-skinned Black person in high school.
• The experiences Natalie had of hearing poetry that made her fall in love with it.
• How Natalie regularly visited Da Poetry Lounge and began working on her own poems.
• Natalie’s memory of how terrified she was when she read her first poem on stage.
• Struggling with what it means to be a true poet and some of Natalie’s idols at the time.
• How Natalie took a year off college to pursue poetry and joined the LA Slam Team.
• How Natalie fell into teaching after experiencing the dishonest sides of the poetry scene.

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