A Thankful Heart...

"The unthankful heart...discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" ~Henry Ward Beecher

So many thing I'm thankful for!But let me first start by saying that none of this would be possible without the grace of God. Wanna hear about my experience at the @ttic NC?! Once again, I'm a week late, but I didn't forget about y'all!

I didn't think that I was going to be performing...so I only went to hear some great poets. Well, it certainly was a nice surprise to find out that I was and guess who was the feature poet that night?! Rebecca Dupas!! If you don't know about her, www.myspace.com/rebeccadupas check her out. The girl is SICK! But I digress...lol

I was the first poet in the line up,so I was EXTRA nervous.Thank God I had a chance to get some of my jitters out the week prior.But guess why the video was recorded this time!!*looks down at toes shamefully*...:I went to the even straight from work and forgot to pack my camera the night prior. I KNOW!What a loser! But I'm trying to get better. I did have a friend there that took some piccz for me though!

After I did my piece, I got more compliments and kudos than I did the last time. This was probably because I felt a little more comfortable and owned the stage and was confident in what I was saying. Believe it or not, the audience can sense your nervousness, you have to be mentally prepared to do poetry.It's practically a monologue.Pull your audience into what you're talking about and make them feel the way you felt when you wrote the piece.

As I took a seat at my table, along with another friend/poet, a lady came to me during intermission and said, "I loved your poem! You should really get a CD cuz I would buy it girl." I smiled, from ear to ear, and gave her an earful of thank yous. But the best compliment came from Ms. Rebecca Dupas. She came up to me and placed her hand on my back and said, "You did a great job on your piece. I loved it."....Now let's be real...my head got big for about 2.5 seconds before I quickly said a "Thank you Lord" in my head. Even when I receive a compliment like that, I have to remain humble because as I stated in the beginning, none of this would be possible without Him.

Me and poet Rebecca Dupas

I thank God for this gift and the opportunities he's given me to meet some great poets.Oh! Did I mention that we had a male feature poet too?Yes, Rebecca Dupas was the first female feature we've had at the @ttic but Soulful Jones also came!That boy RIPPED it! I had to get both of their CD's and of course, I don't regret it not one bit. With that said, I've been inspired and motivated to continue writing and letting my voice be heard. I love my gift :-). Toodles!!

Me and Soulful Jones

Wanna see more piccz?! http://www.myspace.com/unhurdchyld

You Never Know...Who Knows You

After an ABUNDANCE of procrastination, I am finally writing this blog and entire week later. I should have just done it the night that it happened. In the last entry, I mentioned that I met a guy that said he wanted to hear one of pieces and I expressed how I needed to memorize a piece soon. Well, I DID! But let me start from the beginning first.

The guy that I met at the @ttic was Cardiair Geezus, CEO of Real Life Muzic. Of course, I didn't know this at the time, and I most certainly didn't know that the next event where I'd be doing my first memorized piece was going to be one of the events he owned and was going to be attending!

I was soo nervous, but it was really nice to see a few poets there that I knew. So when they called my name, I went up on stage and did my thing. I was hoping I didn't appear too nervous and I didn't stumble over a single word. I did, however, forever about eight lines, lol. But nobody knew because the piece still flowed perfectly. The only thing that I was hoping for was that I was good enough.*sidenote* {{I had ALL intentions of recording this very first performance so I could show y'all and when I got there, apparently my camera battery was dead when I thought I was charging at home the entire time!!...UGH!!}}

After the entire event was over, I was mingling with some other poets when Cardiair came up to me(not knowing it was my first time reciting a piece) and told me that was poem was really nice and gave me some very constructive criticism. When I told him it was my first time, he was like, "Well then A+ for your performance tonight! You did a great job!".He also invited by his studio, which I will soon be checking out!

Nobody seemed to know that it was my first time unless I told them. A few other poems gave me compliments also and it made me feel so good and so much better about my work!Now I'm writing and memorizing like crazy! I'm hoping that I'll get a slot on the roster for the @ttic next week. We shall see and I'll definitely let y'all know. I already know there will be a long story behind it if I don't get a slot because I have spoken with the host and he "said" that he'd put me on the roster. Let's just say that the poetry world can sometimes resemble the music industry...lots of wannabe's that think CEO along with their name just looks nice, but aren't really willing to put in the work......but that's a whole 'nother story. Toodles!!

Me & Cardiair Geezus CEO/Producer/Songwriter/Artist/Poet

http://www.reallifemuzic.com/