Lady Vanessa Cardona

English was not my first language but I did love creative writing. Many teachers were impressed by how I could express so much in a language that was not my native tongue. Mercedes Sosa´s songs are full of poetry, I love her way of expressing her social critic in such a poetic and still loveing way. 

I started writing poetry in high school but at the time I did not consider it poetry. I considered it a way of expressing myself. In university, I came to know what spoken word was. Coming from a theatre background I started to think of my poems as monologues. After university, I moved to Namibia and started really diving into the world of spoken word poetry. I truly believe I was birthed as a poet in Namibia. Coming back to Canada, slam poetry and its competitions, taught me to be in a consistent and disciplined in my art.  

A poet's job is to tell the truth in the most responsible way possible.  
Every poet is a prophet, like I say in one of my favourite poems. 
I believe "poets can predict the future, because we observe the past with profound detail" - Lady la Profeta. 

For me, it would be "Dear Diaspora Child", this poem resonates a lot with me. Although I was born in my motherland, leaving my birth land at 9 years old meant that there was a lot about my culture that I missed out on, did not know about, or fought really hard to remember. I think this poem speaks volumes to the experiences of many immigrant children and the nostalgia we feel when we wake up every day in a land that is not as completely familiar to our ancestors.