Tilting Towards Joy: A Conversation with Colorado Springs Poet Laureate, Ashley Cornelius

Welcome to Conversations With Poets at the Colorado Poetry Calendar.

We continue our series in conversation with Pikes Peak Poet Laureate Ashley Cornelius.

I conducted this interview with Pikes Peak Poet Laureate Ashley Cornelius between Friday, April 3rd to Friday, May 1, 2026, via Instagram Messenger. In our talk, Ashley and I considered the JOY permeating her work, the origin story of Destination Rest, and how holding all of our identities in various worlds is necessary, more than possible, and powerfully healing beyond our imagining.

For more information about Ashley’s work, and to get in touch, you can visit her webpage. You can also view more information on her Instagram, including frequent affirmations, and happenings in Colorado and beyond at @accpoetrynow. If you would like to read some of Ashley’s work, we have included some pages after our interview.

About Ashley Cornelius

Ashley Cornelius is the author of the poetry collection, Translations from the Soul (Journey Institute Press, 2024). Ashley is a Black queer woman, award-winning spoken word poet, and transformative storyteller whose work amplifies identity, social change, and joy. As the first Black Poet Laureate of the Pikes Peak Region, she has redefined poetry as a tool for healing, activism, and radical self-expression. She brings a unique background as a Licensed Professional Counselor with a Master’s in International Disaster Psychology, having spent seven years in healthcare settings pioneering poetry therapy for adolescent psychiatry and staff resilience. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post, the Colorado Sun, the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tedx, and the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. Ashley was awarded the Poet and Author Fellowship at the Martha's Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing and with the Chateau d'Orqueaux Arts and Writers residency. Ashley has opened up for former U.S. Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, and performed for the Grandmother of Juneteenth, Opal Lee. Based in Colorado Springs, Ashley is rooted in community and arts work, creating events like Destination Rest, the Pikes Peak Poetry Summit, and monthly open mics as the co-director of Black-led poetry movement, Poetry719. Ashley creates spaces where words become bridges, inviting connection, liberation, and joy.

TLC: One of the things I love about your work is the absolute and adamant JOY that comes through, honed out of your many experiences, and which is decidedly focused on empowerment. Has your poetry always been focused in this way? What informs your way of poetry making, or what changed to make you focus in this direction?

Ashley: I think my poetry has always tilted towards Joy, especially as the battle cry at the end of my pieces. One of my friends once told me that they love that my Poetry is just a love letter to all of my identities and as an intersectional person, my identities often come with pain and grief and anger, and I love being able to express that with the arc of joy existing throughout all that I am.

Sometimes we can focus on the hard parts, and I want people to know that two things can be true at once, the things are hard and we navigate and survive. I love who I am and the deep joy I get from living authentically as I am. I really love thinking about Poetry as empowerment and activism, and that in the same way that I am navigating life experiences I want my Poetry to also feel that tension and to have Joy win out in the end.

Sometimes that is a very overt message and sometimes that’s in the subtext. Becoming a full-time artist allowed me more access to that Joy in my writing.

After leaving my job at a hospital system and shifting away from direct Therapy, I deliberately named that I wanted to choose Joy over suffering, and that shift allowed me to explore and experience more joy in my life and in my writing. I also believe that Joy is not the absence of suffering or pain but is a reflection of our ability to get through it, and I consider myself a joyous Poet, even when I’m writing about depression, or critiquing the government, or addressing oppression. For me poetry is a conversation with yourself, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how joy and rest has become more present especially after becoming a full-time artist! I think it’s beautiful when people can embody their art and I feel like I am a walking advertisement of my Poetry and thus I hope to spread and inspire joy, rest and revolution in my work and as a community leader, friend, partner, and person.

TLC: Speaking of rest, can you talk a bit about Destination Rest? I am curious about its lasting ripples, and also about the collaborative poetry facet of the event series. Have there been any surprises that surpassed your vision of the series? If so, have those surprises inspired new work and projects? Has it helped Destination Rest to evolve? Is it still evolving?

Ashley: Destination Rest is one of my favorite projects. It was born out of inspiration of The Nap Ministry and Trisha Hersey’s work which I was introduced to maybe 10 years ago. I always had this idea of doing a community nap, and I applied for an Arts in Society Grant, and was awarded funding to create a rest event that was focused on the arts and rest as a social justice issue.

Destination Rest is a free community nap that blends herbalism, sound baths, and poetry. The events are pop-ups and usually take place in an art gallery space, though I have done them in gyms, conference rooms, and even a museum. We work with a local herbalist to create a custom blend of tea to help people settle in when they arrive.

Participants get a yoga mat and blanket and find a spot in the space. I ask everyone to write an affirmation about themselves, but then I take and create an affirmation poem as a lullaby during the rest participant sleep for about 30 to 45 minutes with a sound bath, and then we invite them to write about their rest journey or if we’re in an art space find a piece of art that represents their rest journey. There are door prizes of self-care activities like a one-hour massage from a local massage therapist and weighted stuffed animals. When an event is fully funded, I also pay participants between $5 to $20 just for resting, creating a new relationship with rest as necessary.

It has been really incredible to see how much people need to rest and that collective dreaming is powerful.

It has really shifted my writing more towards addressing rest and joy! And I want to infiltrate new unique spaces like doing the event in a car dealership, in a sports stadium, or places where people wouldn’t normally rest. Strong community partners and enthusiasm from community members has helped it evolve as well as honest feedback about how to make it even more supportive and nourishing.

Something really beautiful that came out of destination Rest was creating these affirmation poems which happened after each event and allowed me to sharpen my skills, creating poetry in the moment, but also having an artistic time capsule for the unique moments for each event.

TLC: Can you speak more about the clear visioning that creates modes of deep connection, understanding, and inspiration in regard to the poems you share on and off the page?. When I hear and read your work, the personal and political are also deeply relatable in ways that feel beautifully optimistic and, not just inspired or encouraging, but in ways that opens up a door and communicates, “Step through and see what all is possible!” In fact, I think that you may be obliterating the door and/or showing that it is not an obstruction at all. Poems in your book Translations from the Soul, for example, are accompanied by their present historical contexts, a framing from your mental health study and practice, and storytelling that does not fall into the trappings of relating trauma porn or navel gazing. These works never feel one directional, consistently acknowledge growth and are also deeply personal. Are there specific decisions or guidelines you have made in this regard?

Ashley: Yeah, I really think that my Poetry is an ode all of my identities in the way in which they exist in the world. That’s partly why I named my book Translations from the Soul because it was way for me to use Poetry to express my human experience, which happens to be political, and authentic, and irreverent, and beautiful, and I think what I try to communicate in my work is to make it accessible first and foremost, and sometimes Poetry can go over people‘s head so how can I explain things or use Poetry to bring people in versus push them away.