Buffalo Rising Online

Celia White is a well-known Buffalo poet with one published book, six chapbooks, and for the past decade she has organized the Urban Epiphany poetry reading. She was this year's recipient of Artvoice’s Best of Buffalo Awards for Best Poet/Spoken Word Artist. Writing has always come naturally for White. “I’ve been writing since I was child--around age 11, I’d say,” says White. She has kept a journal since that age, and started writing fiction in college.

White says the journaling she has done is not so much about cataloging her own experiences, “I think for me, the process of writing it down is more important than the writing itself. That interest in the process of writing carries over to her attitude toward poetry. In her own words, “Mainly what I’m interested in is how people put their experience into words.”

White didn't start reading her poetry until 1990 in Seattle, and she doesn't agree that she is a spoken word artist. She defines herself as a poet, and say…