Staceyann Chin

Staceyann Chin

Poet & Activist


The heaviest thing you will have to carry as you move forward is regret. Make sure you're not carrying too much.

Videos

By Roadtrip Nation

Staceyann Chin

Milestones

My road in life has been direct.
Her mother abandoned her family when she was born, and she says her relatives were not equipped to raise a mouthy young child.
She would always write through her angst in her journal, and she'd make up stories to take her out of reality.
She'd pretend she was Anne of Green Gables or Oliver Twist; she was inspired by stories of the down and out kids who made it.
After keeping all of her anger inside for years, she finally exploded and blurted out all of her struggles to her college roommates.
She calls that explosion a "valuable accident" because after that, she was free to use her voice, and she was able to come out as gay.
Her blatant outspokenness made her a target on campus, and when she was 22, she was sexually assaulted by a group of male students.
After the assault, she realized she couldn't live as an out lesbian in Jamaica, so she moved to the U.S.
She discovered the New York City poetry scene; getting up on that stage for the first time, she finally found the power behind her "roar."
Keep following my journey

Education

High School
Bachelor

Career

Poet & Activist

Writer. Poet. Activist. Lesbian. Feminist. Jamaican. Immigrant. Radical. Mother.

Career Roadmap

Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Writing
Politics
Learning / Being Challenged

Hurdles

Challenges I Overcame

LGBT

Interviewed By

Time to Jump

Time to Jump

The road-trippers make their way to New York City, where they interview Staceyann Chin, a spoken word poet and LGBT rights activist. Staceyann encourages the road-trippers to take risks and feed their spirits-advice the team heeds when they decide to adventurously jump in the ocean despite the pouring rain.