Atlanta spoken word artist Ariana Francesca finds power in reimagining and reclaiming narratives

On the “City Lights” series “Speaking of Poetry,” Atlanta’s most prolific wordsmiths discuss the art of evoking emotions with words. This edition of “Speaking of Poetry” features spoken word artist Ariana Francesca. “My style of poetry comes from a multidisciplinary space. The intersection of poetry and stage, film, page, audio, digital experiences,”  Francesca says. “My work is musical. It’s storytelling and world-building. So much of my work, not all, is informed by narratives.”

Francesca finds her power as a poet in reclaiming the narratives of women like her: Black women, southern mothers and silenced voices. What inspires her are themes of reflecting, reimagining and reclaiming. She is most inspired by the opportunity to reclaim the narrative of where black girls go when they go missing. She’s also been working on a project to write women back into biblical stories through “persona poems.” 

In this segment, Ariana Francesca shared an excerpt from a poem she wrote called “Interview #27.”