Meet Poet Rashad Taji

Rashad Taji is a poet from Hartford, Connecticut. He started writing poetry as a way to express what he was feeling while growing up and seeing so much despair, destruction, and death in his neighborhood. While he is new to writing poetry he is not new to writing his words down on paper. Having spent the 90's spitting rhymes as a local rapper for an independent hip-hop label based out of Hartford, Rashad put down the microphone and but continued writing 16's that he now uses to release poetry books. 

Readers are fascinated to learn the process of writing a poem. Can you tell us about your process and how long a poem takes to compose?

For me, writing a poem is a process. There are days when I can write 3 poems, and then there are days where I sit down with my composition notebook, and nothing comes out. It's not that I'm not inspired to write, it's that there must be a feeling in order for me to put pen to paper. That feeling isn't always there when I want it, but eventually it's there when I need it. My first poetry book took me about three months to write, but six months to really go through and edit it myself, before I handed it in to the editor. 

How did you get into poetry? Was it a calling?

I started out writing poems to impress girls and then I transitioned to writing rhymes as a part of a local hip-hop label. I grew up loving the Golden Era of hip-hop where there was so much diversity in styles, but everyone was lyrical. After I stop rhyming, I never stop writing and eventually a friend of mine asked me if I had ever thought about publishing my poetry. That led to me working with KB.

Does geography or culture influence your poetry?

I would say that absolutely culture influences my poetry. I’m very interested in leaning more into the culture and places that have influenced me as a man. I grew up in Hartford, the north end, one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the city. But a short bus ride to the west end of the city and you see nothing but million-dollar homes right next to the governor's mansion. One city but two different worlds. I am very in tune with the disparity between people who look like me and those who don't. That disparity doesn't just exist in Hartford, or even Connecticut. I think that I reflect on that a lot, and since I write a lot about my personal life it is bound to reflect in my poetry.

Have you ever delved into other forms of writing?

When I was growing up, I would spend hours listening to mixtapes on my Walkman (I'm dating myself) writing rhymes, songs, short stories and thinking about how the world would look once hip-hop took over. In terms of poetry specifically, as a form, I don't have any formal training, I just write. The verse and structure is something I don't really care about. I write the words as they flow. 

What would you be doing if you were not able to write poetry?

I would probably be working in the music industry. I still occasionally write to hip-hop instrumentals, but I think being an executive is something that I would have been really good at. I look at how music is today, and there are so many things that I find repulsive. There doesn't seem to be any kind of training to get into hip-hop today, and it shows.