New Haven's First Poet Laureate Has Influence

Sharmont "Influence" Little was inducted as New Haven's first poet laureate during a ceremony at City Hall. Markeshia Ricks Photo.

Sharmont “Influence” Little wears a lot of hats. He’s a teaching artist, nurse and father who founded his personal brand Influence A Life LLC, a multi-purpose company that creates curriculums for social emotional learning using the foundation of poetry through writing workshops, poetry performances and philanthropic work. He also now wears a new hat – a historic first hat – as New Haven’s first poet laureate.

Little was officially inducted at City Hall Tuesday in a heartfelt ceremony in front of his friends, family and fellow poets. The poet, known as much for his spitfire spoken word as height and stature, held back his emotions as he received accolades and kind words from his brother poets and a mounted proclamation from Mayor Justin Elicker. 

The occasion of Little’s induction also was the debut for Elm City Flow, a monthly open mic event sponsored by the New Haven’s Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism that will be held at City Hall.

Fellow poet, Jason Dorsey, who performs as J-Sun, said at the induction ceremony that he remembers when Little was a kid growing up in the former Farnam Courts housing projects. He also remembered that in Little’s early career as a slam poet, he performed under the moniker “Bad Influence.” Dorsey said he watched Little perform a piece about New Haven youth that he found so inspirational that he told him he should remove bad from the name.

“Drop the bad,” Dorsey said he told Little. “Your name is just Influence.”

A Mighty Long Way

Little performing at the Amplify the Arts Festival in Hamden last October. Abiba Biao Photo.

Little’s official term as poet laureate started Jan. 1 after he was selected for the newly created role in the summer of 2023. The search for a poet laureate first started with an idea brought by IfeMichelle Gardin, the executive director of Kulturally LIT and founder of Elm City LIT Fest to New Haven’s Director of Cultural Affairs Adriane Jefferson.

They put out a call for poets to submit a piece they'd already written along with a new piece about the city. Finalists performed at the Elm City LIT Fest last summer, where Little was crowned the winner.

“My goal has always been to push the art forward,” he said. “Spoken word is one of them things where if you have something to say…you can get on stage or get in front of people and everyone's attention is yours.” 

Little has always had a way with words. His affinity for poetry started at Nathan Hale Elementary School, where he said he was inspired by his third grade English teacher Mrs. Vernon who nurtured his love for writing.

Growing up in a strict household, he said writing served as a creative outlet. He began diving deeper into the art form in sixth grade following his family’s move to Windsor, CT., but stopped during his teen years after graduating high school in 1995. He said it wasn’t until he paid a visit to his younger brother who was studying at Western Connecticut State University that he returned to his calling. 

“I’m checking in his drawers to make sure there’s no drugs, making sure he’s staying in line, and I come across a book, and I found out he’s writing poetry too,” Little said in an interview with Paul Bass on Dateline New Haven. “Then the floodgates opened and I started writing poetry.”

A Healing Power

Little at the Elm City LIT Fest where he was named New Haven's poet laureate in September 2023. Lucy Gellman Photo.

Little said he’s able to write about anything but he likes to take on subjects that challenge him. He’s been known to perform about Blackness, manhood and fatherhood. At his induction Tuesday, as his mother and wife watched, he performed a poem about his dad who passed away from cancer. He said he has a passion for spoken word poetry and finds the practice healing.

“I write almost anything– anything that's going to challenge me, [all] types of poetry, but my heart, my passion, and what drives me is spoken word,” he said. 

That healing power follows Little throughout his poetry, he said, because the more he becomes attuned to his emotions, the more the prose serves as a gateway to do a little check on himself, allowing him a chance to peer into his soul. 

“I tell everybody the poetry is for me,” he said. “It's my answers [and] my questions. It hugs my pain, my joys and everything. It just so happens to entertain other people, and that's the plus, but the poetry is for me, for my healing.”

Little at Kulturally Lit at The Bricks in Hamden in January. Markeshia Ricks Photo. 

No Crystal Stair

While spoken word has helped Little heal, being a spoken word artist hasn’t been an easy vocation. Little said it requires a certain amount of self-transparency and candidness that many may not be comfortable with. Some people want the title of being a spoken word artist, he said, without going through the work of being one. 

“There's pain in this, it becomes difficult,” he said. “You have to sit with yourself and unravel yourself and see how much of a liar you've been to yourself in everything from social to family. You have to unravel your hurt and put it on pages and relive it again to try to get through it.”

Throughout his middle and high school years, Little kept his interest in writing poetry a secret to avoid being bullied, with the practice being seen by his peers at the time as “ feminine” and “gay.” Now decades later, spoken word has been embraced in schools especially amongst colleges and universities, implementing it in their curriculum. It was these same places that Little said scorned the medium because it was seen as having “no structure,” because it is free-written and doesn’t always abide by specific patterns. 

“Now they [universities] realize we use metaphor, simile, double entendre--we use all these tools of poetry to formulate our poems,” he said. “So now some of our poems are being called some of the greatest of our time right now. It's always been that.” 

Despite this newfound attention and appreciation from media and post-secondary institutions alike, proper compensation can be a hard thing for spoken word artists to fight for, with many people underestimating the amount of time and work that goes into the creative process, especially when creating works on sensitive and triggering matters.

Little highlighted that there is a balance to writing, performance, with some venues and institutions giving spoken word attention for the wrong intentions. 

“I've always thought anytime it's allowed to walk through the door by hands that are not our own, it’s because it wants to be in a word in any way or misused. There's a monetary game behind it.”

Big Honor, Bigger Responsibility

Little holding high the proclamation of his induction as poet laureate. Markeshia Ricks Photo.

As a son of New Haven, Little said it is a “privilege” and “honor” to tour other cities and perform on behalf of his hometown. Much of his work is driven by a deep passion and respect for his family members and his immense pride in the city and as the city’s first power laureate, Mayor Justin Elicker said Tuesday that Little has taken on a “huge responsibility.” 

There’s a lot of pressure,” Elicker said in his remarks as he prepared to induct Little. “People expect you to perform and I’m not talking just about up here, but out there when you speak to our community, when you represent our values and the values of people who are often unheard.”

Friend and fellow poet, Jamal Jimerson, called Little a prolific man and urged the crowd gathered to witness the historic induction to recognize that Little exemplified homegrown, living greatness.

“This is a brother I have known who has not just written the word, he has lived it,” he said at the induction. “This man writes it and lives it; he does it for me, for you and for us.”

To Little, he said, “Tear ish up.” In other words, put on for your family and the Elm City. To, which Little effectively said, while delivering two poems to open the inaugural Elm City Flow open mic: say less.

Little credits his mother and his wife, pictured above from left to right, as being among those who keep him going. Markeshia Ricks Photo.

“My grandmother migrated here from the South. My mother is here as well. My family can hold their head high and say that their cousin, their brother, their son is the poet laureate, the first ever for this city. It’s like I became a trivia question overnight.”

But he’s clear that there’s nothing trivial about the historic honor of being the first, but not the last.

“As my dad said, when he passed away… ‘Make sure you show the world how great you are,’” he said. “So that's been my mantra the whole time, like, to everybody: Show the world your greatness.”

Markeshia Ricks contributed to this report.