Unchain Your Mind | Entrepreneurship Novice

Almost an entire week after the anxiety and excitement has died down, I am able to gather some of my thoughts on the Honolulu Premiere of Poetic Action. 

In a nutshell....IT WAS AWESOME!!! The turnout was great, the audience was awesome, and the poets were absolutely phenomenal! And to think, I did all of this advertising telling people, "You won't find another open mic NEARLY as good as this one is going to be on this island."  It sold well...to them. I still had my doubts. I didn't want to be the only poet for the night. I started to think about everything: What if I put too many chairs out and it's gonna look empty in here because nobody comes? What if we can't start on time? What's the plan if nobody decides to sign up and do any poetry? 

Well, people had to add chairs! The doors opened at 7pm and there were some people outside at 6:45pm. I started 15mins after the planned time because I kept trying to give people a chance to get inside, but more people just kept coming through the door! To top it off, we had JUST enough poets to be able to end the show at 10pm on the dot, as planned!!

Everyone had so many positive things to say and expressed how glad they were that I did such an event like that. They can't wait until next month and they said that they're definitely going to be spreading the word and bringing more friends out.

And to those that said they were coming out to support but couldn't make it, you missed a fantastic show! Catch us next month.

My first event as a small business owner, and it was a success! Poetic Action is here!!

LIGHTS! CAMERA! POETIC ACTION!!

Like our FB Page: http://www.facebook.com/PoeticActionLLC 

Instagram & Twitter: PoeticActionLLC

Look for some clips from the show posted there as well!

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

It's A Family Affair

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I'm a couple of days late because I'm STILL on a high! I had an awesome night on Thursday! As you all know, I'm stationed at Ft. Bragg. A friend of mine told me about a lil poetry session that would be going on here and said that she thought I should go. When I looked more into it, BETJ Lyricist Beny Blaq and Komplex were hosting the @ttic here at Ft. Bragg!

Now, if you don't what the @ttic is, it's only like one of THE largest poetry spots in D.C. Look it up if you're ever in the area. So when I got there, there was a small lil social from 7pm-8pm and I asked if they were going to have an open mic or if there were just featured poets. He told me that I could go ahead and sign my name on the list(basically, the answer was no, but he gave me a chance). I guess there was some previous sign up list before the show and I didn't know about it.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my poem memorized, but I got up there and did my poem, "Taxi Cab Girl" and the audience loved it! So of course, this is only my second time behind the mic...but it felt GREAT! Now I just can't wait to memorize my stuff. I'm working on it now! But to make a long story short, listening to all of those poets made me feel like I was at HOME. I felt like I found my family! I mean the energy in the building was just so unreal that I honestly could have cried. If you don't have a TRUE passion for something, then you wouldn't know what I'm talking about.

So during intermission, I was approached by another female, while I was leaving the restroom and she said, "You're Unhurd Chyld...Taxi Cab Girl right?" I told her, "Yes." She said, "You did an AWESOME job! I'm Prosperous Soul. I really liked your poem." I remembered her and her poem and she said that she'd talk to me after the show. I had to opportunity to meet Komplex,Beny Blaq, and a few others after the show and then Prosperous Soul and I talked for a while. She introduced me to this poet named Solow. He is also the CEO of Solow Ent. They travel all around NC and a few other places.

I had the PRIVILEGE of going out to eat with some absolutely awesome poets: Beny Blaq,Solow,Prosperous Soul, and Soul Secure. I feel like I have found a whole new family and it feels great to be welcomed with open arms. Solow is now my mentor and I can't WAIT to see where this journey is taking me. God is just so awesome. More stories of poetry slams and open mics will be coming soon! I will have this stuff memorized in NO TIME!

Me and Beny Blaq

Not A Virgin...Anymore

I wasn't too sure on what I was going to do this Sunday evening after church. This was the last day of my three day weekend and I didn't really want to spend it at home on the couch napping and later regretting not going anywhere. I hopped on the internet(where I always seem to be) and tried to tweek my new poetry page on myspace --> http://www.myspace.com/unhurdchyld <-- sorry...I digressed. LOL

So since I had poetry on my mind, I went to a website I found a couple of days ago to see if there were any open mike sessions in my area on Sundays. There was one less that 5mins. from my place. "I'll go check it out since I've never been to one." Is what I told myself.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a SINGLE soul to go with me! I wanted someone to go with me cuz I knew I wasn't going to know anyone there and what if I actually got up the guts to do one of my own poems? Who would even say that they were there to hear it? I didn't have anyone to record me either; just in case I wanted to put it on YouTube or something. People are going to get tired of me sitting on my living room floor reading from my book.LOL.

Since all of my friends were busy, I decided to go alone. I was REALLY nervous and had NO intention of getting up there. But I made sure I tucked my journal in my purse "just in case"...hehehe. It started off a little awkward to me cuz there were some really interesting people there and I heard pieces that matched the same description. But who am I to judge? I just expected more spoken word. I won't bash anyone and their feelings, interpretations, or writing styles.

A lady came and sat at the table with me and asked if I was reading. I told her no because I would be too nervous and I haven't read my poetry in front of a crowd before. "Go ahead and sign up! You're going to be nervous at first, but you'll be fine and it's fun!", is what she told me. So I put my name on the list. I was halfway down the second column on the list of people. I had time to get my nerves and things together.

As it got closer to time for me to get on the stage, my stomach began to slowly rise. It finally reached it's destination of my THROAT when the host said, "Let's welcome our virgin, Unhurd Chyld." Virgin, of course, meaning first time reader LOL. I did "I Wanna Write A Poem" (If you haven't heard it, check my YouTube but I'll be posting it on here soon.)and the people LOVED it! I was so excited to know that they laughed when I said something funny...my husband will tell you that I'm not the best when it's comes to telling jokes. I got lots of compliments when I was done.

Before I left, the lady that was sitting at my table gave me her card and told me to give her a call because she wanted me to come to her open mike. Her name is Lady S and she hosts one at a different spot on Thursday nights! I was mad excited and told her thank you and I would definitely be there.

So, my poetry cherry was popped and I feel sooo much more confident about my poetry now! I can't wait for the poetry slam on Tuesday night and another open mike on Thursday!My journey has JUST begun!