Today we’d like to introduce you to Alayna Tucker.
Alayna, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I never saw myself as a writer. Growing up I was always headed toward a career in art, possibly as an illustrator, though even back then I wasn’t completely sold on the idea. I was even enrolled in SCAD but after an intense art portfolio class in my Senior year of high school, I realized that art was just a hobby for me. It’s strange, most of my career after deciding not to go to art school has relied heavily on writing, and yet I still didn’t make the connection that writing was my true passion. I wrote a food blog for a number of years. I self-published a cookbook, called The Japanese Pantry — yet not because I wanted to write but because I wanted to teach myself photography!
After my daughter was born, I was feeling really lost. I loved being her mother but I hated the isolation of motherhood and the feeling that at the end of the day I had given all of myself and there was nothing left for me. My husband saw how badly I needed something to do that was just mine and encouraged me to participate in a monthly writing club he’d heard about called The Five-Hundred. I received my first prompt, wrote a 500-word story, submitted it, and was hooked! I loved being able to write something purely for my own enjoyment, having an outlet to share some of the ideas in my head that didn’t relate to motherhood, and connecting with other creative people really pulled me out of the deep rut that I was in.
After that I got lucky. A producer for NPR happened to find some of my writing online and invited me to record some of it for City Lights with Lois Reitzes. And then I got invited to perform in a few local literary shows all around the same time and that’s when things really took off. I ended up performing in fourteen shows that first year. I found a community of people through the Atlanta literary performance scene that I dearly love and an outlet for my creativity that I desperately needed.
I knew I wanted to host a show of my own but I never really got any of my ideas off the ground. And then I was given an incredible gift — One of the original hosts of Bleux Stockings Society, Amy Tecosky, needed to leave the show to focus on her growing business and asked me to step in as co-producer. Now, along with the other half of Bleux Stockings —the unfathomably talented Rita Leslie— I’m producing and hosting the very show that I got my start performing in. I really feel like the universe has been writing my life with some heavy-handed foreshadowing and now all of the plot points are finally coming together and things are starting to make sense!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My biggest struggle has always been my own self-doubt.
I still have a hard time calling myself an author. I’ve always felt that authors write novels, not cookbooks — but denying myself that label downplays the hard work I did to write that book. I’m an author of my blog. I’m an author of my fiction stories. I’m an author of my articles and copywriting work. I’m an author of my Facebook posts, even!
Sometimes labels can be limiting, but with this one, calling myself an author goes along with believing in my abilities as a writer. It’s how I tell myself I’m good enough. It’s how I can let myself say “thank you” when someone gives me a compliment instead of deflecting.
I am an author. I am a good writer. I am a good performer and producer. I am making good art and I deserve to be proud of myself.
Please tell us about Bleux Stockings Society.
The Bleux Stockings Society is a reading series showcasing some of Atlanta’s best-marginalized voices including, but not limited to: women, female-identifying persons, non-binary persons, trans persons, women of color, and members of all facets of the queer community. While cisgendered men cannot perform in our show, we do hold bi-monthly “open” shows which allow men into our space as members of the audience. All other shows are considered “closed” shows, where we respectfully ask men not to attend to create a rare piece of safe space for women to open up about issues that they may not feel as comfortable sharing with men present. We don’t do this to be exclusionary or out of a dislike for men, but rather out of a desire to empower women to open up as fully as possible without any of the subconscious filtering they may have been conditioned to do when men are watching.
We’re in our third year now, but I’ve only recently switched from being a performer to being a producer. The original founders, Amy Tecosky and Ellaree Yeagley, have created a really beautiful thing that means so much to the community and I intend to take good care of it. But Rita and I do have plans for how to take Bleux Stockings farther — to help more people find their voice and to support Atlanta women in all of their creative endeavors. I’m proud of every single person who gets on that stage and bares their soul.
(Please note that the use of “women” here is meant to encompass all female-identifying persons and that “men” is used to refer to cisgendered men. Though non-binary persons are not directly referenced alongside women, know that you are a valuable part of our community and we see you.)
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
I don’t know what my favorite memory from childhood is but I have a memory that I think about often now because it’s the first clue I have that I would one day become a writer.
When I was in kindergarten, I wrote a poem about a unicorn. I don’t have it anymore and I don’t remember all of it, but I do remember that I compared a unicorn’s horn to “a bird taking off to fly.” My teacher was so impressed that she showed the principal. One day, I was called to the principal’s office over the loudspeaker and I was terrified that I had done something wrong. Instead, the principal had me read her my poem (my first performance!) and told me that if I kept writing her good poetry that I could keep getting out of class for a few minutes to come read it to her. I did, and eventually, she signed me up for a poetry competition and I placed third in the state.
I don’t know why it took so long to consider writing such an integral part of my identity. It’s always been there — I just had to dig it up, dust it off, and put it back up on the shelf where it belongs.
Pricing:
- The Bleux Stockings Society: show entry is $10 and proceeds go to a different charity every month
Contact Info:
- Email: bleuxstockings@gmail.com
- Instagram: bleuxstockingssociety
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bleuxstockingssociety/?ref=bookmarks
Image Credit:
Wes Cummings, Haylee Ann, Amy Tecosky
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