Let Every Word Be A Wrench In Their Machine: Writing Prompts

on February 10, 2025February 26, 2026

Find even more activist-oriented writing prompts here.

Another new zine, another ongoing work-in-progress. I’m sharing some of my favorite writing prompts: for poets of course, but also for songwriters, emcees, and writers of all kinds.

It’s probably clear that my list favors political, movement-oriented, and activist-leaning prompts. There’s a reason for that: things are bad right now. They were bad last year, and every year before that too, but we should also be clear-eyed about the immense amount of work and struggle in front of right now. As always, art isn’t the only thing we need. As always, we do need art. Writing can help frame issues, shift narratives, and just bring people together. It won’t just happen inevitably, though; let these prompts be invitations for us all to be proactive and intentional.

Only other thing I’ll share here is that I also tend to favor “non-traditional” writing prompts. I like prompts that don’t point the way to a single poem or song, but rather to an impulse, a way of approaching our writing. These are prompts someone could use more than once, and write completely different pieces every time.

Here’s a link to a PDF for anyone who wants to print, cut, and fold the zine version (some directions here).

AND HERE’S THE FULL TEXT OF THE ZINE, PLUS SOME ADDITIONAL LINKS:

‘Bless Every Place I Have Learned to Reinvent the Way I Love Myself’ – A Fundraiser for TaneshaNicole

on July 17, 2024July 17, 2024

Join us for a poetry reading/fundraiser featuring Rudy Francisco, Rachel Wiley, Neil Hilborn, Sabrina Benaim, Zach Goldberg, Ollie Schminkey, Kyle Tran Myhre, Andrea Gibson (via video recording) and TaneshaNicole! Live via zoom, August 7, 2024, 7pm Central. Register here.

That’s quite a lineup (especially if you grew up watching Button Poetry videos), and it’s for something important:

We’re raising money for our friend TaneshaNicole, whose life was changed drastically by a serious diagnosis earlier this year. Tanesha has put so much love and energy into both our Twin Cities community and the broader poetry community; let’s give some of that love and energy back. The event itself is free, but we are asking everyone to donate what you can, and/or share the link with your network.

The line, “Bless Every Place I Have Learned to Reinvent the Way I Love Myself,” is from one of Tanesha’s poems:

New Newsletter + Three Summer Workshops

on June 8, 2024December 28, 2024

Just a quick update:

All the Threads Between Us: The Power of Poetry Clubs, Writing Circles, Open Mics, and Other Collective Efforts (Zine)

on April 18, 2024October 7, 2024

I basically decide to make a zine when I’ve had so many conversations about a topic that a shortcut would be useful. Not that the conversations aren’t fun; I just want to make sure people can share these resources/ideas beyond the conversation. The newest zine in my library is maybe a little more niche than the others—it’s a collection of resources for people who are looking to start some kind of creative-writing based group: like a high school poetry club, a writing circle, etc.

As always, there’s no one way to do that, and not everything in this zine is going to apply to every person in every situation. But my hope is that there’s something useful in there, at least as a starting point.

One brief note: This is a traditional, 8-page, “z-fold” zine. If you want to print/cut/fold some yourself, here’s a PDF (note that it’s formatted for 11×17 paper). I have a different 8-page zine that’s all about getting involved in spoken word for people who are new to it. I have also, however, combined the two 8-page zines into a single 12-page zine (cutting some of the overlapping content), that I will have with me at shows/events for the foreseeable future. If you’re a teacher, event organizer, etc. who might be interested in a bulk order, feel free to get in touch using my booking form.

As always, here’s the full text of the zine:

National Poetry Month 2024 Links

on April 14, 2024April 16, 2024

Some upcoming opportunities, food-for-thought, and resources:

1. First, to contextualize everything else here, a few thoughts on what it means to recognize National Poetry Month during a genocide. What are the role(s) of poets in times of crisis? What are some concrete, specific things we can do, in the spaces we move through, with the audiences we have access to? A few tactics and resources in the link (it goes to a nine-slide IG carousel). Related:

The piece I wrote back in November for Racket, For Artists and Musicians Who Want to Speak Out About Palestine But Aren’t Sure How
A Handful of Poems as Doorways into Dialogue About Palestine
Palestinian Poets on the Role of Literature in Fighting Genocide

2. Second: A few local appearances, online opportunities, and more coming up. So much of my work is on-the-road, at schools, colleges, and what basically amounts to “private” events. But these are ones that are more open. Details below:

When It Really Is Just the Wind, and Not a Furious Vexation

on August 30, 2023September 28, 2025

**UPDATE: Danez Smith picked this poem as the Academy of American Poets’ “Poem-A-Day” for August 6, 2024! It feels like when an offensive tackle lines up as an eligible receiver and randomly scores a touchdown.***

This past July, I got to open up for Rudy Francisco here in Minneapolis at Icehouse, and used it as an opportunity to formally “debut” a poem I’ve been working on for months, probably my favorite new thing that I’ve written since my book came out. As always, I like the share a few notes on the process.

a graphic featuring images of thorns and a flower, with the text "survival is not a fortress. it is a garden." plus a credit line: from “when it really is just the wind, and not a furious vexation” by Kyle Tran Myhre

a photo of the abandoned MPLS third precinct, with the text "survival is not a fortress. it is a garden." plus a credit line: from “when it really is just the wind, and not a furious vexation” by Kyle Tran Myhre

Tiny Desk appearance, National Poetry Month performances, new video sampler, etc.

on April 21, 2023September 19, 2023

I used to more frequently do “here’s what I’m up to” posts, but that feels like a relic of an earlier internet time. Still, there’s a lot happening, so I figured I’d share some info here so it can be in a central place rather than a bunch of random social media posts.

NPR Tiny Desk Concert as part of Fred Again’s set

Check it out! Fred sampled my poem “Love in the Time of Undeath” for the song “Kyle (I Found You)” and the result if gorgeous. It’s the first song in his set, and I even appear as a video ghost performing the poem.

While Kyle (i found you) uses a sample of my work, we did a proper collaboration for his song Berwyn (all that i got is you); my poem/voice comes in during the second half of that song.

Uhhh and hey check out this video of me up on the big screen at Lollapalooza!

All the People I Want To Say “I Told You So” to Are Dead (Video + Text)

on December 20, 2022December 20, 2022

Ugly music can be beautiful. A simple song can kindle a complex memory. A living creature gave its skin to that drum.

This is one of the first poems in NOT A LOT OF REASONS TO SING, BUT ENOUGH. Like everything in the book, it’s written in-character. I feel like I always have to add that caveat, since so much spoken word is driven by first-person, poet-as-voice-as-poet approaches (which I don’t think is a good thing or a bad thing; just one approach), and this book definitely doesn’t do that.

Kind of a table-setting piece for the book, a way to do some exposition without just a big info-dump. Beyond the narrative function of the piece, though, it’s also about the importance of… not just art and culture in general, but more specifically: spaces for art and culture to live. So much of this book goes back to the idea of the open mic, the poetry slam, the concert, the mural, the party, the dance, etc. and the role(s) that those spaces play in resisting, disrupting, and dismantling authoritarian impulses, in both the society and the individual.

Thanks again to Button Poetry for releasing all these videos. If you liked this one, the newly updated “poetry” page on this website has a list of some of my most popular pieces, followed by a list of other poems from this book.

This is also the last video of 2022. You can find a 2022 recap post featuring some “in case you missed it” highlights here. Thanks for watching/reading.

The full text:

To the Informants in the Audience Tonight (Video + Text)

on November 17, 2022December 19, 2022

Here, so many who have earned blood spill only paint. So many who have earned fire seek only respect. So many who have earned cutting the throat of the world want only to see their children grow up happy.

I’ve had an interesting month. My voting-as-one-tool-in-what-must-be-a-larger-strategy poem “To Throw a Wrench in the Blood Machine,” went viral, shared by so many people I have so much respect for, from Saul Williams, to Ani DiFranco, to Clint Smith, to Mariame Kaba and beyond. I’d also recommend my followup post, Resources for Getting Involved Beyond Election Day.

Now, we’re back to our regularly-scheduled program, and Button Poetry just released a brand new video for my poem “To the Informants in the Audience Tonight,” which you can find in my book, “Not a Lot of Reasons to Sing, but Enough.”

For those who don’t already know, the book is a sci-fi concept album of a poetry collection, taking place on another world, so there were a lot of opportunities to explore very real-world issues through a different lens. This was one of the last poems I wrote for the book, and it was difficult. This is both a very bitter, angry poem, and a kind of ridiculously hopeful poem. I like the effect of that bitterness and that hope right next to each other, dancing with one another.

Here’s the full text: