To create the self becomes a soft balance between what is known about the past,
what is unknown and the power to piece together our own stories...
- Allyson Jeffredo
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Hi, my name is Romaine Washington and I am a poet, writer, and educator. Born and raised in the Inland Empire Southern California, where my world was and still is rugged cacti and Santa Ana winds.
Fast forward to my freshman year in high school where the local Black newspaper published one of my poems followed by the awesome experience of being paid to have a poem in a major publication. As a teen I used writing to explore my place in the world as a Black person and to speak out about social injustice which I am still doing to this day.
From the first poem I wrote and presented in a Baptist Church on Black History Month to writing about police brutality and domestic abuse in my book Sirens in Her Belly (Jamii Publishing, 2015) I find that poetry gives me agency and a voice.
As time has gone on, I have broadened my scope to a range of topics from the name of one of my son's friends, to a tree in the park, or a cow in a field. Recently my second poetry collection Purgatory Has an Address (Bamboo Dart Press 2021) was released.
Since then I have been interviewing the elders of San Bernardino as part of The Bridges that Carried Us Over project. This has been fulfilling as a bridge to my childhood in the Inland Empire and the events and environment that inspired me to become the writer and educator I am toda
Fast forward to my freshman year in high school where the local Black newspaper published one of my poems followed by the awesome experience of being paid to have a poem in a major publication. As a teen I used writing to explore my place in the world as a Black person and to speak out about social injustice which I am still doing to this day.
From the first poem I wrote and presented in a Baptist Church on Black History Month to writing about police brutality and domestic abuse in my book Sirens in Her Belly (Jamii Publishing, 2015) I find that poetry gives me agency and a voice.
As time has gone on, I have broadened my scope to a range of topics from the name of one of my son's friends, to a tree in the park, or a cow in a field. Recently my second poetry collection Purgatory Has an Address (Bamboo Dart Press 2021) was released.
Since then I have been interviewing the elders of San Bernardino as part of The Bridges that Carried Us Over project. This has been fulfilling as a bridge to my childhood in the Inland Empire and the events and environment that inspired me to become the writer and educator I am toda
Photo credit: Cookai Free Images. Quote: Romaine Washington, Purgatory Has an Address