Meet Scottt Raven | Stay At Poem Dad

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

Hi Scottt, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I’ve oscillated between the arts and athletics from the time I could walk run and pun, rhyme and climb. My dad was a physical education teacher and my mother taught ELL and English. I found myself dancing down a b-ball court, cartwheeling across home plate, mugging to an invisible camera after a goal. After an injury to my left knee dunking a basketball (it went in), I realized my body might not always be there for me, so I started to drift more towards reading, writing and building the muscles of my mind. I somehow convinced my soccer team to try out for the Shakespeare play at my high-school. I still love sports and writing about sports, but the sensitivity and sensibility I seem to possess seems to be more well-suited for the stage. After I lost my mother in my teens, I had no choice but to express my inner life, outwardly, grinding my grief into restorative verse, channeling the pain into performance. The arts and poetry in particular allow me to bring my family onto the stage and into my work wherever it takes me, blending imagination and emotion into everything I do. I was encouraged by teachers and coaches, directors and peers along the way to stay at poems, work hard and never stop the wordplay.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Iamb a poet. Poet am I. Human. kind, who tries to combine elements of stand-up comedy, improvisation, theater and hip-hop into my day to day, words and wordplay.

After running a poetry open mic in college, one of the readers who became a teacher, asked me and the other host(s) to perform for his English Class. Following a few successful showcases and trade-shows, balancing a flexible food-service job with building a business, classrooms eventually became auditoriums, auditoriums became Broadway size theaters and we were able to take our experiences around the world into nearly every state and 10 countries for audiences of all ages and demographics. It’s never been about the size of the venue or crowd, but connecting with people from all over with something we wrote and rehearsed, that we get to share live – together. After decades of travel, sometimes with long periods away from home, I’ve recently switched from rockstar road warrior to the rocking chair, happily entertaining and educating an audience of one as I spend most days as a STAY AT POEM DAD with my young son.

I still write a lot about my own experiences and adventures, but my favorite thing to do is craft commissioned performance pieces for other individuals or companies in celebration or commemoration of something larger than me. I thrive on contriving new versions of classic poems, writing sonnets or Sconnettts set to song and exploring the silly and the serious, sometimes in a single solitary verse. The stage is the socket that plugs me in, harnessing the frenetic energies and anxieties I tend to emit hourly. Ask yourself where is that place for you? For me, it is writing that centers the seesaw of life’s ups and downs and it is important I do a bit of it every day. Sometimes home is the poem. Try and find a community of like or as-minded simile slinging stalwarts, otherwise…create your own.

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?
Rise and Rhyme! Grab a huevos rancheros at Sergio’s, whole wheat everything at Bagel Emporium or Ernie’s Acai come breakfast time. Or sleep in to brunch at Cafe Versailles for some stuffed green plantains, calamari or conch fritters. Vitamin Seize the day at the Last Carrot, slice and dice at Harry’s Pizzeria or iron-man-up with some mamey at one of the many Palacios de Jugos.

It’s all relative, but take an Orange Theory class in CG with Anna, Timberly, Rachel, Fatima or Natasha. Or go outside for an early weekend rise to Cocoplum run with the Big Soul Movement, then bike or walk the Rickenbacker bridge to Virginia Key or head to the Village Green in Key Biscayne to write beneath the Kapok Tree. Stay on track with the South Beach Running Club Monday Nights or join me and my little one at Douglas or Coral Gate Park. Zip line and slide at Salvadore or take a swim and then seesaw at Shenandoah. Hit up any of the many libraries, in particular the Main one, for some Poetry and Jazz, dance like nobody’s watching wherever you are right now in this moment or take a nap. You deserve it.

Chill at the Frost, catch up with some cats outside the Kaseya, than ironically cool off with the Heat, especially when the Knicks are in town.

Find time to stop by Books & Books in Coconut Grove to high five Elizabeth, Katherine or Victor or the one in Coral Gables, the latter hosting it’s monthly Palms and Poetry 3rd Mondays, the former housing the work of many amazing authors with a litany of luminescent literary events. Cop a copy of STAY AT POEM DAD, steady yourself with STILL or indulge in some RELICS OF THE HEART. Stop by a writing-workshop with the Miami Poetry Club 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at the LAB in Wynwood, rip something you wrote at Thank You Miami on Flagler Wednesday Nights or come to one of my new parent writing workshops launching next fall.

Catch a kid’s show at the Miracle Theater on the mile, pony up for a play at the Arsht or stop drop and freestyle, letting your imagination take you wherever you want to go.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
From the MP’s of NYC to the MPC (Mayhem Poets to the Miami Poetry Club) I shout out Mrs. B. for encouraging me to read my first poem to my 5th grade class, Miss Glick, Mrs. Hamlet and Mr. Martinak for the gas, fueling my creative engine to act. Anselm, RAV, VM and Kyle Rapps for believing in my spoken word and work when I first got my start. That special blend of my most practical pals and those creative crop of friends til the end, along with anyone whoever broke my heart. Then there’s Seuss, Silverstein, Saul, Dali- Vonnegut, Palahniuk, MZD, Lorrie Moore, Tom Robbins, Weird AL, classic films and TV.
Aside from poetry theater and flicks I thank the English alphabet for only being 26. Shout out my parents, my cousins and my wife and son from A to BZ for always believing in me. Dad for the patience to write for 8 hours straight and wait in lines. Stay at home mothers, fathers and creators of all kinds. The pens for the ink, pencils for the lead. Those I’ve yet to read and have read.

Website: https://scotttraven.com

Instagram: @scotttraven

Other: https://TheMayhemPoets.com

Image Credits
@Tovaphotography at Salvadore Park with Bonzai
@MrPhotographyguy with Mayhem Poets