Erin Teegarden

I recently interviewed Erin Teegarden for the webzine. She leads a full life as a poet, teacher at Columbia College, and co-founder of the Reconstruction Room.
Teegarden says, “The reconstruction room reading series (we call it "rec room" for short) started in 2004, because 2 friends from grad school and I wanted to create a series that was independent of any Organization, "a place where artists were free to take risks, challenge dominant power structures, and eff with accepted modes of expression". (That's pretty much right from our mission statement.) The reading itself is what we like to call "a bi-weekly theme party". Each show presents a unique theme, and curators from the community invite performers (Rec Roomers) to define and shape this theme for an audience.”
Teegarden offers much insight to her work as well as her writing habits. She says, “I have a picture hanging in my office of myself at 8 years old. Above it is a little blurb titled "All About Me." Apparently, our teacher gave us assignments to write a little blurb about ourselves, our families, our likes, and what we wanted to be when we grew up. According to this blurb, I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.”
Look for the Teegarden interview on GirlSpeak this September.