Q&A - 01 - Wakaya
(Preferred) Name: Wakaya Wells
Age: 30
Pronouns: They/Them
Identity(ies): Choctaw, Two-Spirit, White, Middle Class, Mentally ill
City: Minneapolis
Practice/Occupation: Writer
Wakaya, 2023
Who are you?
I’m a hattak iklvna, half man half woman, just trying to do right in this world. My name means “to rise up” and was given to me by my mom and my sister as a gift, that I always rise up to tell it and that I rise up to face it, whatever is in front of me and maybe even what’s behind. I come from the Choctaw people on my Mama’s side and colonizing Texans on my Daddy’s side. My cousins think I’m a preacher cause I uplift people, but I left the church almost a decade ago.
I’m sort of an atheist who is still looking for ceremony and ways to engage with the sacred. I’m a poet, it’s the primary lens that I look through. I’m always trying to process, decipher, make meaning, harness power, pace myself, and balance what’s most important and what needs to be written down.
What brought you to your current practice?
I’ve been writing since middle school and it’s always been about healing. Back then, it was to process growing up Queer in a southern baptist church. I didn’t know what else to do and didn’t have anyone to talk to, so I started writing poetry in a purple math notebook. It’s always been about trying to make sense of what’s happened to me and people close to me.
As I got older and went through school, I had more words I could use — concepts and history — to make sense of just how white supremacy has fucked everything up. I started writing fiction and nonfiction because I wanted to challenge myself, and felt like stories in my life needed to be longer than a page. In the last few years, I’ve felt even more moved to share my work with others and get it out into the world.
How do you define home?
I’ve been struggling with how I define home the last few years. I grew up in the Choctaw Nation and that was always such a strong foundational part of my life — I’d always called it home. But since moving away and starting a family, I’ve been thinking more about what home is to me.
Where do I want to grow from? What do I want to uplift me? Where do I want my roots to dig down into? And since coming out as Two-Spirit, using they/them pronouns, growing my hair out, and pretty much any other sort of gender exploration I’ve had - I have realized Oklahoma cannot sustain me. The education, the laws, and many of the people don’t see my humanity. It’s not safe for me there.
So I’ve been living as a guest on Klamath Modoc lands in Oregon, and now living as a guest on Dakota land here in Minneapolis with my Lakota wife and son. I will grow from here now and try my best to be kind to others, give compassion, hold space for those struggling, and play my role in this world as an artist.
What makes you feel powerful?
Vulnerability. When I’m in touch with my body, know what I’m feeling and have the opportunity to speak it out loud. I feel powerful when others are listening. What also makes me feel powerful lately is dressing femme and just walking down a city street.
A lot of things enter my mind, but I feel like a bad bitch and someone not to be messed with.
How do you balance life and work?
It’s a constant push and pull to have balance in this world when things are so off-kilter. Sometimes I feel like it’s out of my control, and I’m just doggie paddling in the waves. But I try to maintain weekly therapy and weekly writing time. I try not to bring work home with me meaning not checking my email, but also not letting work thoughts enter my head when I’m at home with my family.
I write as a practice, but parts of it can be more work-centered or on the business side of writing and art — so I think I need to shift my energy around that too. Too often, those thoughts enter my home space when I need to be a partner and parent. I was raised by a Choctaw mother who prided herself on her own labor, so it’s often hard for me to detach myself from producing something (which I would like to have a healthier relationship with).
What are you currently working on/experimenting with?
This first half of the year I’ve been working on a poetry collection. I’m not exactly school-taught in poetry, most of my work is narrative poetry. I used to do spoken word too. I’ve worked with an editor recently and that’s challenged me to think more critically about line breaks and enjambments, even punctuation.
After the first round of edits, I went and looked at my work in progress and had a realization that I don’t really use punctuation, which I guess readers care about or something. So I guess you could say I’m now experimenting with punctuation. I also believe writing is living and that it’s often hard to distinguish between the two.
So I’m experimenting with parenting, trying to figure out what it means to be a Two-Spirit parent to a son that doesn’t even know what a boy or girl is. I’m working on being a better partner and roommate, how to share labor more equitably.
