Jesus Govea
Jesus Govea is currently a rising junior at Columbia College Chicago who is majoring in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry. He represented Columbia College Chicago at their annual CityWide Poetry Festival. He has been published in Poetry magazine and has appeared in Slam Your Poetry by Miles Mercill and Narcisa Nozica. He currently lives in River Forest, Illinois and enjoys his fair share of world literature novels.
The impact of poetry and the spoken word club
I can talk about what Spoken Word has done for me in a variety of cliches that would have barred me from taking part of the club to begin with. Although, these cliches, as bland and unmoving as they may be, work because in all their simplicity there is truth. It is like the air we breathe. We do not go around exclaiming to the world how much we appreciate the air in which gives us life. We only take it in with no second thought. Nothing extra, nothing more. An inhale that grants the body purpose. Spoken Word is an inhale for me. Since the moment I became engaged with its community and its atmosphere I was granted the privilege of purpose. I was able to take in an energy that is found in no other place in the world. This energy, this breath of air had taken over my body in its entirety. I began to look at the world with a sense of engagement. I observed my movements and the movements of others with a nuanced connectivity that I’d never seen before. Poetry had become the sole source of my interpretation of everything I knew and that included how I viewed myself. I began to see myself renewed, a version of myself that had words to proclaim with no hindrance. There was a fraternity of those like myself who indulged in my writing no matter the variation. Spoken Word has enabled me to achieve much more than what I deserve and continues to do so. There is no Jesus Govea without it. So what if it is as cliche as the air I breathe. The one thing about breathing is that we don’t really notice it until we aren’t. I hope the future generations can come across spoken word someday and maybe realize that they too may not have been breathing their whole lives either .
Top favorite poets or lyricists
Yusef Komunyakaa, Ilya Kaminsky, Pablo Neruda, Alejandoro Sanz, Agustin Lara, Kendrick Lamar
Connect with Jesus IG
Writing Prompts
Write about a time you felt trapped (mentally or physically)
Write about a time you felt hate toward yourself OR a time you felt love toward yourself
Write about a time someone or something helped you discover love