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Tay Stafford
they/them
poet
Tay Stafford holds an Master of English at Western Washington University (WWU), in addition to a first generation graduate. It is through the art of writing that they were able to heal from childhood trauma, and gather an understanding of how the trauma they were subjected to as a child is synonymous among all black/brown people of the African Diaspora. They intend to perfect the craft.
About Their Work:
Last time Tay Stafford read at Margin Shift, I wrote this about their poetry: “Tay Stafford is becoming a deft poet of resistance: resistance to expectations for writers who are P.O.C., resistance to readers who expect poetry to be either raw or skilled, resistance even to the poet’s own understanding of what language means for identity.” Reading more of this writer’s work since then, I now see what that resistance is all about. I see now that Stafford’s page is a becoming, the making of a dire, celebratory thing that is the dragon that stalks Stafford by way of words. That dragon can only express itself by language skittling around the page like fleas in fur. Stafford’s writings call into being by any means necessary the being that dwells in Stafford, the being we all carry as “us” but can’t name or explain. Thanks goodness he has the skills to pull off the trick, skills enough to conjure being in the incense of words and produce humor, pain, frustration, exhilaration, and evanescent epiphany.
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