Meet Kaniz Hossain | Spoken Word Artist, Self-Published Poet & Community Curator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kaniz Hossain and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kaniz, what inspires you?
I’m inspired by almost everything – from the mundane to the extraordinary, from friends my age to my nieces and nephews who are years younger than me. I think what has kept me creating for so long is always trying to look at the world as if I’m seeing it for the first time. When you cultivate that sense of curiosity in yourself, there’s no limit to the ideas or inspiration you can pull from.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My journey with art started with writing poetry during a free period in the seventh grade. It started a passion I didn’t realize I enjoyed and I remember begging my siblings to get me a journal I could keep all my poems in. After years of only sharing my words with a few close friends, I took a chance at an open mic at my college campus and fell in love with the community that creative writing brought together. While I wanted to find ways to continue pursuing my poetry, I was unsure of where to find the open mic scene, how to go about wanting to write and publish a book…all the things I felt like would make me a “real writer”. I didn’t realize at the time that writing the poems WAS the first thing that made me a “real writer”.

Things truly began kicking off at the start of the pandemic. When the world shut down and everything had to become virtual, open mics became so much more accessible to me. There were mics happening on Instagram Live, on Zoom, and it became so obvious during this time of collective isolation that people NEEDED each other. They needed the honesty, the safe spaces, the community of creatives to feel like there was a light at the other end.

So, I started joining a lot of virtual events and really building my name and my craft in that way. In a weird way, I was really lucky to be able to begin on a virtual stage. It gave me the time to build confidence in how I perform my poems, while expanding the exposure I was getting by being accessible to multiple cities at once. But I truly never imagined that performing on a virtual stage once or twice a week would snowball into the career I’m trying to build for myself today. It definitely wasn’t easy getting to this point – I had a lot of moments of self-doubt, wondering if my words were of value to anyone other than myself. But every so often, without fail, someone would reach out to me to let me know how seen they felt by one of my poems. And every time, without fail, I would feel so humbled and inspired to write the next poem.

I was constantly on the move when the world opened back up. I found events from Harlem, to Astoria, to Red Hook in Brooklyn. If there was an open mic happening, I wanted to be there. A heartwarming moment for me was going to Restless Open Mic for the first time in Queens with one of my best friends from college. I get on the mic and barely begin speaking, when one of the host excitedly asks, “Are you Khaotic?!” (Khaotic is my spoken word stage name) It was the first time I experienced the literal representation of my name being in a room before me. That my words and my stories had found their way to people who felt them enough to remember me.

Eventually, all of these meaningful moments became my motivation for writing and self publishing my poetry. In 2022, I released not one, but TWO self published projects within 8 months of each other. My chapbook, “Plucking Petals of Poetry” was a collection of 24 poems that came out in February. It served as a prequel to my full length debut collection of poetry, “Blooming Beyond the Boundaries”, a project released in October, holding 98 poems that came together to honor my identity as a Bengali American Muslim woman.

After publishing my work, the next creative challenge for me was curation. I’ve always wanted to host my own open mic series but it always seemed like such a daunting endeavor. I got a little taste of event planning when I put together my book release party, but open mics were a whole new playing field. I had to have a media team, I wanted live musicians, I wanted to feed my audience. There was just so much intentionality in how I wanted the space to come together and I knew I needed to be patient. My good friend Elmer Quintero, who is an extremely talented photographer and curator himself, runs a series called The Troublemakers Open Mic, with three other amazing creatives. He put me in contact with the venue manager for the Brooklyn Art Cave, which is where they host their monthly events. After speaking to the Alex (the manager) and sharing a little bit of my vision, I was excited to see the beginnings of my House of Khaos | Writing Workshop + Open Mic series come together. Things ended up working out so perfectly for the first event this past June, and I couldn’t be more grateful. It was also just a very busy summer for me because while I was starting my own independent series, I was also collaborating with my friend, Ebony Sojourner, on a creative summer showcase series in the LES called Cultured Coffee. We highlighted all kinds of crafts and created such a beautiful space for artists of all mediums to come together and cultivate community. So from June to August, I was producing and hosting two shows a month.

I tend to trivialize my own accomplishments in my head, but when I truly sit down to reflect, I’ve done so much in the last three years. And while I keep telling myself that I’ll take some time off to rest every now and then, I have all this passion and drive still in me to keep going. So that’s what I’ve been doing – indulging in all my new creative curiosities, like polaroids and painting and collaging, and basically anything that makes little Kaniz happy. It’s as fulfilling as it is exhausting and the one thing I want people to walk away with after hearing some of my story is the importance of having a strong village around you. The people that I’m surrounded by on a daily basis pour into me in a way that gives me the confidence to go after anything my heart reaches out for. It’s one of the most profound blessings of my life.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We have to start off with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Once we get into Manhattan, there’s a taco spot I loveee called Los Tacos No. 1. There’s a few locations, but my personal favorite is the one in Chelsea Marker. From there, it’s only right to visit some of my favorite (used) bookstores in the area. One in particular I love visiting is the Strand Bookstore in Union Square. And then as far as places to just sit and hang out…I love being close to nature however I can. Community gardens, parks near any of the city rivers – typically anywhere I can take a book, some snacks, and a good playlist.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There’s so many people that have been integral in my growth both creatively and professionally. My interest in writing started around the age of 12, but it wasn’t until I watched a spoken word video/Ted Talk by world famous poet, Sarah Kay, that a part of me felt like I could tell my stories too. Her delivery of language, her welcoming cadence, her natural humor that wove into the poetry – all of it felt like I was looking at myself 10 years down the line.

In my personal life, I always try to give my flowers to my friends. I often call them my chosen family because of how deep rooted our friendships are. My friends have been some of my biggest advocates and cheerleaders ever since I decided I wanted to delve even deeper into my writing/creative community work. Adam, Jahmadi, Jahdia, Ayesha, Nahrin, Winston, Cam, Elmer, Jaecee, Jenn, Shak, Harvey, Yentema, Kam…that’s barely scratching the surface when it comes to naming the people that have held me down.

Website: https://linktr.ee/houseofkhaos_

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awkwardly.khaotic/