Unchain Your Mind | You Don't Know My Name

It was 2004 and the night of my HS Senior Prom. My friends and I were sitting in a breakfast restaurant when I recognized a guy from my church sitting in a booth with two other guys. I we his unexpected compliment, I didn't know what to say. 

So his friend tells me, "Sing something then." 
"Right here?" I asked.
"Yes."
"I can't sing in this restaurant full of people! It'll be too loud and my friend are right over there. I'm too embarrassed." I shyly replied.
The guy looked disappointed and told me, "Remember this: You never know who you're standing in front of. When someone asks you to sing, SING. You could miss a lot of opportunities trying to avoid embarrassment."

That guy, and his friend, worked closely with Kirk Franklin...

10yrs later, I was still kicking myself and wondering, "What if...". I have known several people to go on to have extremely successful musical careers (particularly in the Gospel industry) and I am more than overjoyed for them. I recognize my gift of poetry and rejoice in others' musical success unashamed. Which brings me to main topic:

I've wanted to address this subject for a while now but was unsure of how to approach it for fear of losing people that I genuinely care deeply about. I chose to write this, because I don't think those feelings are reciprocated. This is not to hurt any feelings but hopefully it will help someone understand a little better.

Dear Celebrity Buddy (since we're clearly not friends):

You don't know my name. We used to be friends. I understand that we grow older and "life happens". You don't get to talk to people as much as you used to because you're busy trying to make your dreams come true and pay bills simultaneously. If you're lucky, your dreams are paying the bills. 

I'm proud to say that I know you, but afraid of being called a 'name dropper'. Your success does not equate to my preferential treatment and I've never expected, nor desired, that.  I just want to support you. When I sporadically text you to say, "I'm just checking on you", there is no hidden agenda. I don't want anything from you but a reply. We have always sporadically chatted, but it never changed the dynamics of our relationship until someone **ahem** changed. I don't want to 'come up' by holding on to your coattail. I don't want to talk to you every day. What I do want, is to support you without being viewed as a fan. To benevolently love you without being questioned. To communicate with you as a person and not an artist. Remember that I know YOU and not the concept of you that so many others idolize. Don't always dismiss the ones that were around before {{they}} knew your name...

I still love you, buddy...

Signed,
A loving supporter

You can't take everybody with you; but there are some that you should keep in your corner. Just because they don't always talk to you, doesn't mean that they don't talk {pray} for you.

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

My Affair/Threesome

I'm sitting at home in my bed figuratively dying from literal boredom! Y'all like that lil sentence huh? Don't steal it. hehehe. I spent last night going through my FOUR different books of poems that I've written and I was trying to decide which ones I want to record and post videos of. Well, none of them seem good enough, so I guess I'll just have to write more! BUT that doesn't mean I don't have a video for you right now! This is my first spoken word video and the poem is currently untitled...I'm still waiting for something to come to me through osmosis or something! Some of you may have already seen it on youtube and some haven't. I hope that you like it!

I'm SUPER excited about all of the feedback I've been receiving and it makes this journey I'm taking soo much easier with the support of my husband! Speaking of my husband, I spoke with him last night and he told me that if we ever had a threesome, it would be me, him, and the pen. I never sleep alone.My notebook keeps me warm at night. There are so many things running through my head to write about that I can't seem to get it all out in enough time! I'm so excited about this journey God is taking me on and I hope that my poetry will help, inspire, and touch someone else out there. Much love and God Bless! Toodles!!