the warehouse as muse

Warehouses may not seem a likely source of inspiration, but apparently they bring out the artist in some folks. In recent profiles published in The Boston Globe, a local poet and a radio talk-show host both cited warehouses as influences on their careers.

In a December 2007 interview, Afaa Michael Weaver, author of 10 books of poetry, described how he came to write lines of poetry on the backs of tally sheets during breaks in a Baltimore warehouse, long before he began his literary career. "In the warehouse, it was thousands of boxes circling around—every day the same thing," he said. "You felt like you were being pounded into anonymity. Holding on to the poetry was a way of keeping myself alive."

A warehouse provided the opportunity for a different sort of talent to blossom in Reese Hopkins, a New Jersey native who hosts a talk show on Boston's WRKO-AM radio station. After college, Hopkins toured as a hip-hop dance and rap artist. When he needed a steadier job, he told The Globe, he took a position answering the telephone for a warehouse management company while continuing to work part-time in radio. Later, he managed a tile warehouse by day while producing shows for radio stations by night, leaving the warehouse when he landed the talk-show gig in December.