To Be or Not to be, asks the Poet

Some days I wake up with poems already waiting for me. Other days, I don’t feel like being a poet at all.

I just want to exist, quietly.

No metaphors. No crowd. Just breath. “To be or not to be” hits different when you’re from East L.A. It’s not just some Shakespearean quote, but a question that hums through the alleys, through our art and broken sidewalks.

To be, means to survive, to still love after everything that’s tried to silence you.

To not be… well, that’s the temptation when the world asks you to perform. But poets don’t stay quiet for long. We bleed through ink because it’s the one place we can tell the truth and still be loved for it.

And East Los Soul? That’s the space where we remind each other that we belong here. We make room for the hesitant, the bold, the broken, and the blooming.

To be or not to be… is really asking: Are you willing to become who you already are?

I’m still answering that question. Even when it hurts. Even when I doubt it. Because somewhere out there, someone needs the words that let them know they can be too.

-J