HOUSTON POET LAUREATE OUTSPOKEN BEAN'S
MESSAGE OF CLIMATE ACTION COMES TO HEALING ARTS HOUSTON
Bean will lead a breakout session focused on environmental injustices and their impacts at the conference.
For Houston-based poet and artist Outspoken Bean, being named the 2021-2023 Houston Poet Laureate represents the culmination of years of work—work that began during his time as an undergrad at Prairie View A&M University.
“I had started a college poetry slam team my junior to senior year of college at Prairie View A&M, and it was successful,” said Bean. “We went to a competition called CUPSI [College Union Poetry Slam Invitational] in 2008. It was the first time an HBCU had ever gone.”
Born in New Jersey and raised in San Antonio, Bean has been interested in the arts since a young age. He said college slam poetry experience ultimately led him to pursue poetry as a career.
“I kept finding different opportunities and I kept doing them in this world. I kept finding yeses to this world that I was intrigued by. And slowly but surely. those yeses got bigger,” Bean said.
Fresh off his participation in the Come Together Houston series, Bean will lead a breakout session at the upcoming Healing Arts Houston conference Sept. 29-Oct. 1. Hosted by the University of Houston, the conference will examine the intersection of arts and health and aims to create a “dynamic space for dialogue, learning and inspiration.”
Bean’s session, titled “Experiencing Healing through Collective Poetry,” will focus on environmental injustices and the roles they play in our daily lives.
Bean said the subject is something he’s extremely passionate about—and something that requires immediate action.
“We're in an extreme time, and people who don't want to see that either are scared or are profiting off of it,” Bean said. “There may be more reasons, but those are the reasons and the people who are profiting off of it need people to be so scared that they don't want to do anything about it."
“I'm also scared. But my scared is not ignored. My scared is, ‘Let's hold these dudes accountable for the work that they're doing.’ Me using a cardboard straw is not going to solve it. Personally, me as a society, me as the public, yeah we all contribute, but we contribute because that's what's sold to us.”
Bean said that although his artistic pursuits are extremely fulfilling, they are not without their challenges. Inspiration can be fleeting and difficult to achieve.
“A lot of times, inspiration and timing just don't link up. And when they do, you’ve got to take it, you’ve got to jump on it,” Bean said “I try to create regardless. I like to chase my inspiration rather than just wait for it. So I try to write every day, so that way, maybe later down the line, when I'm going through notes, I see something that sparks me.”
Throughout his artistic life, Bean has gleaned a wealth of knowledge about pursuing the arts as a career. He said he’s always happy to share advice with younger artists.
“You have to set your boundaries, but also your boundaries are on casters. They're on wheels. So sometimes your boundaries may change, but it has to be based on the information that you receive, that you decipher and take in,” Bean said.
Bean said a visual artist friend once offered Bean some key guidance regarding the financial aspects of pursuing a career in the arts. And it’s advice that continues to influence his approach.
“He said, ‘When people see my paintings, they’re not paying $35,000 for the painting. They’re paying for the experience for me to get to that point.’ And so that's something that I've always taken with me.”
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