Traci Currie

For poet and spoken word artist, Traci Currie, writing started in the sixth grade with her first journal project as a means to express herself. Writing, also encouraged by her father, became a natural outlet for a child who was an avid reader needing something to do after she finished reading a story. Today, Currie has about 56 journals, dating back to her childhood in Wilmington, Delaware living with her Jamaican parents.

Currie writes for pretty much the same reason that Toni Morrison wrote The Bluest Eye. To express something that hasn’t been told yet. She feels she is still trying to figure out how to express herself, trying to craft her style of writing, and still trying to figure out her story.

But, she doesn’t write just for herself. She also writes to make a difference in people’s lives, with the idea that her writing just might actually help someone. Her goal is to be as powerful in both mediums that she operates, the public persona of the spoken word artist, and the private poet persona. She also, in her words just wants to be good at something.

Currie's pursuit to be good at something led her to obtain graduate degrees in film and media with the desire to mix different forms of communication as a way of reaching the masses.

Her short stories and poetry are rich with references to her Jamaican-American upbringing, and her experiences as an adult. Her literary work is both fictional and non-fiction.

Currie lives in Flint, Michigan, where she currently teaches an array of communication courses at the University of Michigan-Flint.