Leslé Honoré leads a very busy but very purposeful life.
The “Blaxican” poet and activist uses her poetry and personal life to help youth amplify their voices through the arts. She is dedicated to assisting marginalized communities to stand in the gaps that social, economic, and racial inequalities create. Her community leadership is woven into her artistic work.
Born and raised in Gardena, California, Leslé studied English Literature and Spanish at Xavier University in Louisiana before moving to Chicago in 1999. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, WBEZ (NPR), Good Morning America, Night Line, WTTW, and ABC7 Chicago, among others. She’s been a featured speaker at numerous events such as Obama Foundation convenings and events, the City of Chicago’s 19th Amendment Commemoration, and TEDx Talks at Grand Boulevard 2020.
As Co-Chair of Elevated Chicago, Leslé works on Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) for the south and west sides. She infuses her expertise in poetry and art into youth engagement and her leadership style into governance and programming. She is also CEO of Urban Gateways, working on the shared mission to inspire creativity and impact social change.
N’DIGO recently sat down with the Renaissance woman to discuss her early writing influences, the various community-focused projects in the works, which Star Trek character she has a crush on, and which character she models her leadership after.
N’DIGO: What are three words you’d use to describe yourself?
Leslé Honoré: Passionate. Charismatic. Generous (I asked my kids. Bonus word: Hilarious)
Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?
It is the only thing I have ever wanted to be. I have had no other singular dream that has lasted this long. I wrote and performed my first poem at six years old.
Who were some of your writing influences?
Lucille Clifton
Toi Derricotte
My Father Louis Honore Sr.
Please tell us about Urban Gateways and some of your duties as CEO.
Urban Gateways is Chicago’s oldest nonprofit that focuses on performing arts access for youth. We believe that every person in Chicago, regardless of what ZIP Code they live in, and especially those historically marginalized and oppressed, has the right to access all that experiencing and creating art gives us, which is our humanity in its best versions. Art is what connects us regardless of social economics, ethnicity, religion, race, gender, and orientation. Art is the human thread that weaves into the tapestry of all of our collective history. It is the language of our soul. Urban Gateways bridges our Teaching Artists and the communities that need their talent, passion, and dedication. My job is to bring our mission to every corner of this city and beyond.
Can you shed some light on your work as Co-Chair of Elevated Chicago?
Elevated Chicago is a multi-sector collaborative promoting equitable development of public spaces, vacant land, and buildings around Chicago’s public transit infrastructure. 90% of the city’s development around transit hubs has happened on the north or northwest sides. We see communities like Lincoln Park that have access to buses and trains and retail and housing centrally located near transit. Their streets are walkable, and there are green spaces and public art. The people who live in those communities feel proud to be there and feel worthy of all of what they have access to. Meanwhile, the south and west sides have not been invested in the same ways around transit. We have vacant land and sidewalks that aren’t maintained. That means people have to walk into the streets to get to their bus or to their train station, which is very dangerous. We don’t have green spaces where anyone can hang out and be and just feel centered. We don’t have public art or retail corridors. We have disinvestment, which leads to gentrification and displacement.
So Elevated Chicago works with and in the community with philanthropy and challenges and supports local government to help Chicago grow in ways that are just and create a legacy of institutionalized equity for generations to come. We have passed zoning ordinances incentivizing developers to invest on the south and west sides for affordable housing. Personally, Elevated Chicago was the first place where I was able to seamlessly merge my passion and talent for writing with my passion and talent for community advocacy. They were the first organization to commission a poem to open a symposium. They were the first organization that deliberately wove art into spaces where we typically don’t see them, like a board meeting, a leadership council meeting with commissioners from the city, our annual reports, and meetings with funders and partners. Elevated taught me that I don’t have to sacrifice the art part of me to do the leadership part of me. Elevated taught me that my greatest strength is bringing all of myself into the spaces that I advocate for and, in that way, creating space for others to do the same. Serving on its steering committee for the past five years and having recently been re-elected as co-chair for a second term has been the most influential decision of my professional life. I owe them, as well as the Steering Committee and Staff, more than I could ever give back.
Talk to us about your appointment by Mayor Johnson to the city’s Arts and Culture team as well as the Chicago’s Women’s Council.
The appointment as co-chair of Mayor Johnson’s arts and cultural transition team, along with Monica Trinidad and Abby Pucker, was an honor that I could have never anticipated. Leading the work of 25 subcommittee members from all sectors of arts, organizations, and individual artists in Chicago was a lot of work and a lot of joy. We were focused on ensuring that the recommendations that we gave to Mayor Johnson’s administration were ones that had equity, inclusivity, and radical celebration and acknowledgment of how the arts in Chicago are not just created downtown, but in every one of our 77 neighborhoods. The arts in Chicago are how the city heals, so they should be funded, supported, and protected.
The appointment to Chicago’s women’s council with leaders and heroes that I am proud to call friends and admire, like Jaquie Algee from SEIU and Megan Jeyifo, ED at the Chicago Abortion Fund, is humbling. I am eager to see the great work we will be able to do together with the other amazing appointees.
Having to juggle your work and various projects and real life and everything else, how do you maintain your mental health and/or self-care?
I wish I could say that I do it gracefully and effortlessly. However, I am fully human and struggle with putting myself on the top of my own list. I struggle with the concept of balancing a life. I work towards a harmonious one, where sometimes some instruments are louder than others, but they create a symphony. I should get more massages, take more vacations, and date more often, but sometimes that seems like a lofty goal. I am very lucky to have a chosen family of women who support each other fiercely, hold each other accountable lovingly, and celebrate each other’s wins with reckless abandon. They are my rocks, and I strive to be theirs.
Can you name three of your favorite books that mean the most to you?
This is a horrible question *laughs* It’s like asking if I have a favorite child. I have been an avid reader over my lifetime of 48 years. It’s just impossible to name three, but I’ll try.
– Octavia Butler, “The Parable of the Sower“. This needs no explanation.
– Isabelle Allende, “The House of Spirits“. We are represented by the same agent, Johanna Castillo; I still weep when I think about how 15-year-old me would lose her mind if she knew this future fact when she read this book for the first time.
– The “Harry Potter” series. We are not going to talk about (author) JK Rawlings. Sometimes, people with ugly souls that lack integrity can create beautiful things. She is one of said people….on a long list of them.
What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?
I am a nerd. All things Star Trek (I still have serious crushes on Lieutenant Worf and model my leadership after Captain Sisko), Star Wars, The Hobbit, and Harry Potter.
Best advice to aspiring writers?
Write. Like a line from Hamilton (because I’m also a theater nerd) ‘write like you are running out of time. Birth it all. You can edit later. But when it moves you. Whispers to you. Demands that you write be obedient.’
Favorite quote or affirmation?
“You a paper chaser/ You got the block on fire/ Remaining a G/ Until the moment you expire/ You know what it is to make nothing outta something/ You handle your biz and don’t be crying and suffering” – Juvenile
Also, “All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change. God is change. Shape God.” – Octavia Butler
What’s next for Leslé Honoré? (Goals? Projects? Dreams?)
Next up are my children’s books published by Little Brown Publishing. “Brown Girl, Brown Girl” based on my poem that went supernova viral in 2020, is now a beautiful children’s book illustrated by award-winning illustrator Cozbi Cabrera. It will be released in the Fall of 2024, followed by “My Brown Boy,” illustrated by NYT bestselling illustrator Keturah Bobo in 2025. You will see me weeping in Target in the book section sooner than later. I also have dreams of breakfasts at Kasama, dinners at Virtue, and flights to sandy beaches and warm oceans.
For more information on Leslé Honoré, please her website, Leslehonore.com and connect with her on social media at @leslehonre.
