The State of Creativity: An Interview With Joseph Maviglia

Published via the Spadina Literary Review

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​​​​​​​March 20, 2025         

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In a Cage of Sunlight features the selected works of poet, singer-songwriter and essayist Joseph Maviglia. It covers a period of 30 years of Maviglia’s work in different genres. From his early work in poetry to his engaging and energetic style in essay and prose, this selection also

includes lyrics from his original song compositions and the details of music production and the cross-over of writing in various mediums. For fans of both music and poetry and how a writer moves between forms, this selection shows a voice expanding and experimenting with vibrancy

and an infused dynamic sense of the written, spoken, sung and performed word.

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Winter Jazz   from ‘In a Cage of Sunlight (The Works of Joseph Maviglia Selected and New)’.

‘I may as well just listen to the jazz
just listen inside the sound for something kinder than wind
knocking cats down dirty alleys.

I may as well just listen to the jazz
not pay attention to the man
sifting his hand for quarters last spent
on the juices of his head’s uneven jukebox.

I’m listening to the jazz and I’m moving up a step –
jazzing and I’m singing and my thumbs drum like a saint’s
wondering just how many fires
how many fires it takes to warm the wind
turn beggars’ hands to coin mints
make cats less nervous and keep the jukebox playing.’

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You previously spent time as a roadbuilder. How has that experience shaped you and your art?

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      Working physically was a matter of survival, making a living, and keeping me fit. I started at a young age, yet I was composing lyrics and music at an even earlier age and onwards. Many of the people I worked with have passed on, though I kept in touch as much as time allowed.

     

      A typical day was filled with muscle work. I sustained myself through the labour by recalling almost any song, poem, bit of dialogue, or music I had stacked in memory from the years previous to the tenacious and athletic demand of physical work. And of course the evenings and nights were filled with a bit of rest and a lot of dreams in between.

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That's beautiful. How has it affected your perspective on people who work more at their desks than physically? Does it ever feel like they're out of touch?

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      When I see people disconnected from the lives of those who work physically, I want to offer them a shovel or a hammer and see if they can hold it all day and season long.  I am always willing to help and teach. It’s a lot less expensive than people joining a gym!

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I believe you taught in high schools and universities from single sessions to multiple semesters. How has your mentoring approach changed to accommodate the varying lengths? Is there a method to nurturing creativity that you swear by?

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      Yes, I have taught in both high schools and universities in Canada, the United States, and in Europe.

     

      My approach depends on the length of my residency with any particular institution.  I have done everything from one day sessions to full semesters.  My approach never really changes as much as it is an issue of condensing my approach or lengthening it, given the time allowed.  As for nurturing creativity, I think it lies within most folks to have a bit of that in them, and I want them to experience that creative impulse and take it further.  Everybody likes some song or film or book or set of images via the internet and social media.  I approach the experience of mentoring by understanding it is foremost a social experience before we go to Shakespeare, Dante, Dylan (Thomas and Bob).  Having students get on their feet and perform their written work is essential. So an aspect of performance is vital to understanding the full weight of the written word.

      

      One experience I recall was in a class of grade 11 students whose teacher was disappointed with them. As an arts instructor working with writing, I was invited to the class to see if they would write something of their own.  I asked the teacher what was being read to them, and the teacher answered ‘Romeo and Juliet’. And I asked if the students liked it. The teacher told me they always were bored by the story and didn’t like writing. As the teacher was saying this, I noticed that there were pieces of graffiti art hung up around the blackboards. I asked the teacher if the students had created them, and the teacher answered yes. The idea then came to me to have them draw scenes from the play, and I would check in with them day to day.  On the last day, the students shared their art work, and I asked if they might write a few lines about the scene they drew. To my delight, they all recited narrative lines – ie:  the balcony scene,  the swordfight….etc to go with their art work, and the last one to show written work gave me a 3 minute rap adapting Shakespeare to Rap Music.  My favourite workshop by far!  I saw it as a shared creative social experience, not as a mission, and in seeing their work, it gave me insight into mentoring as much as it might have given them a creative spark.

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Can you walk us through your creative process? What are you most proud of?

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      As for a process, it isn’t as much a process as a natural state of being. What I write as a poem could be a song or even be extended to a piece of fiction or non-fiction. It depends on my impulse. What I have played with in the process of creating works are aesthetic variations and the tools used, and the structure and techniques used in any of the mediums I create in. Pride isn’t something that much comes to mind. I’m always thinking of the next line for a song or other issues that need saying.

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Your Italian-Canadian heritage seems to permeate some of your poems from a Cage of Sunlight. Do you think people have a duty to explore their own heritage, and is it indispensable to creating art?

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      People are born in different places and claim all kinds of things. A good instinct to have is to live as well as one can, and share it if possible. A friend asked me the other day if migration/immigration was the most important aspect of some artists’ work?  I answered, it is what they did and do aesthetically that was/is different and changed/changes or adds to the art they practice as a result of the movement across borders. Art is not merely a socio-historical experience. For many people the talent to write, compose or draw is innate, regardless of place of birth or cultural ancestry. Though place and birth and ancestry can inform the art. Still, maybe only moreso biographically than artistically. The skill of craft and given talent are paramount!

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What are you working on currently?

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      I am presently composing and writing new works in song, poetry and cultural essays – ie: The History of Protest in the Arts’ – on my website www.josephmaviglia.com – the ‘Critical Jack’ posts tab.

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Wonderful. Thank you for your time today, and good luck with your future endeavors.