Member Spotlight: Tara Bracco

Why is writing important to you and why do you think it’s an important medium for the world? The writing group I’ve been running for 20 years in NYC is a poetry and activism project that uses poetic storytelling to advance social change. I’ve seen first-hand how working in community with other writers can lead to positive change.

What are your tried and tested remedies to cure writer’s block? Walking, along the river. In 2016, I produced a spoken word show called Take Your Time about how our overworked culture and lack of leisure time affect us. The book Work to Live informed parts of the show and states: “Most of the time the creative part of the brain, the right side, is drowned out by the noise of the logical, ego-fixated left side, particularly when we’re under stress. But a time-out on foot can change all that. The act of motion keeps the dominant left side of the brain busy, freeing the right brain to roam.”

What is your favorite time to write? I tend to write late at night. After my day job, I’ll take a break for a couple hours and sometimes I’ll start writing work at 9 or 10 pm.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received and would like to impart to other writers? I don’t have one piece of advice. I’ve kept a quote book over the years, and sometimes I’ll revisit the quotes I loved the most to remind myself that whatever I’m feeling as I move through the writing journey is part of the process and I’m not alone in those experiences.

What excites you most about being a writer in today’s age? The power writing has to build connection, understanding, and social change.

Tara Bracco’s Poetic People Power: Three Spoken Word Shows for Social Change is out now with Cornerstone Press.