spokenword

Unapologetically Black and Poetic

Sometimes I feel like I fall into the black female stereotype a little too often. I don’t mean to and I don’t mean not to. I’m loud, bossy, I clap my hands sometimes, (only because it’s the scarborough coming out) and I have opinions that are usually visible on my face. But, I feel that without my permission, especially in public settings, I can be placed under the loud black girl with an attitude label. I definelty won’t deny that this label exists and that there are black women who fall under it but it’s frustrating that as a whole, black females are generally represented this way. With any stereotype comes the distortion of reality and truth. Every black girl is not the same, just upon a first glance don’t assume that’s the case. This loud, speak my mind type of confidence I have is what has greatly contributed to my character and how I express my creativity and my poetry.

A friend once told me that she is always so shocked and amazed  when I perform because of how eloquent I speak. At first, I was offended, like aren’t I that articulate all the time??  I guess not, but as I began to reflect, my poetry has been that outlet where I do channel more of my serious, “intellectual” and smooth-spoken self. For the most part,  I can accredit my attitude and energy to giving my writing it’s personality, if I wasn’t as outspoken as I am in public, how could I expect to be as bold in my poetry.  When I speak, I communicate out of passion and enthusiasm, I speak to the fullness of emotions. To many it may seem ghetto or extra but I think there is a fine line that I try not to cross in terms of being disrespectful in that manner. For anybody who knows me, they know I am full of “oomph” and that translates into the liveliness I try to bring to life for myself and for others. As much as it would be ideal to distance myself from this “negative representation”, I don’t plan on it. However, I do plan to show people how unapologetically black and poetic  I am and how I won’t allow people’s perception about how black I’m being, stop me from achieving or being myself.

I hope many of you out there will find enough confidence to embrace attributes society doesn’t alway shed the best light on. Work off of your strengths and continue to work on your weaknesses, who knows how they will balance each other out! Don’t apologize for not being like everybody else, be an individual and represent yourself!

My Rise to Poetry

My Story

In the beginning there was poetry

I always wanted to write poetry, to be a poet, to perform and be apart of the spoken word community. I aspired to do all of that and in actuality set out to do nothing. For the longest time I stunted my growth in this art form. The first poem I ever wrote was for an english class in high school, it was called “Her perspective”. I knew way before that assignment that I loved poetry and had a passion for writing. As a kid I used to write stories so the thought of performing stories was an aspiration I couldn’t refuse. But I did, I’ve always gotten great feedback on the poems I’ve performed but it has never been enough. I didn’t only want to hear that I was good, I wanted to feel it for myself. I always wanted to do more with my gift and I wanted my words to get people thinking, even if they didn’t like or understand what I was saying.

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Poetry Slamming in Ottawa

A couple weeks ago I took part in a poetry slam at Capital Slam here in Canada’s capital …Ottawa! It was my second time performing at this slam or any slam in general for that matter. I saw some familiar faces and I knew the heat some of the performers were going to bring.  For those of you who don’t know much about poetry slams, or have associated  poetry events to those in films such as 22 Jump Street. A poetry slam is essentially a competition where poets get on a stage and perform their poems that are then judged. At Capital Slam there is a 3 minute time limit for poems, poems are judged by randomly selected members of the audience on a scale of 1-10 and there are 2 rounds. You can write about anything and perform however you like. I’ve been to quite a few poetry slams mostly in Toronto and I’m usually blown away by the talent and content of the poems. I would say the best poetry slam I’ve been to was for Unity Charity in Toronto a few years back. I was astonished by the age of most contestants, the delivery and style of poems , lyricism and ultimately the impact they had on me. For the longest time I’ve wanted to perform in competitions and even though I never did I thank Unity Charity for giving me a start in spoken word and  for exposing me to the culture and letting me get of taste of the community  I one day hope to be a part of. The poetry scene in Toronto is really bumping and since I’ve come to Ottawa, I’ve hoped to get connected with the poetry scene here. Unfortunately I haven’t gotten around to it and haven’t had much luck. Personally, from what I’ve seen there isn’t as large of a platform for this art form here… yet. I know there are events that take place around the city, I may be mistaken but it’s hard to find accurate information and details online regarding these events. I will continue to look around and update. If anyone out there knows of any poetry slams going on in the greater Ottawa area feel free to give me a shout!

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IYA Launch: Get Ready With Me

It’s February 29th 2016, the extra day of the year we get to take advantage of!  All around I’m hearing advice about not wasting the day and  I don’t intend to  do that at all. Today I am launching the very first series on my blog called Ignite Your Ambition and I’m releasing a poem called The Hour to begin! I think it’s a fitting title for a day like today.  To start the series off I’d like to take up some space to tell you all about how I got here and why I do what I do.

Why Ignite Your Ambition?                                                                                                                        This stemmed from a time in grade 11 when I  wanted to change my twitter name to something cooler. I loved Coldplay and because of that, I wanted to change my name to ignite your bones from the song Fix You, but that was already taken. I brainstormed for awhile and then evolved ignited ambition. Back then I always wanted to make something out of myself. I knew I had talents I could pursue, poetry being the most evident but, I had so many stalled ambitions because of my lack of will to pursue. “Ignited ambition” gave me hope to finally light the spark one day. This is where a lot of the messages in my poems come from, the idea of starting, pursuing purpose, doing what you love, not being held back, making a change and really walking into destined promises.  I want to lead by example, it’s easy for me to sit behind a screen and say all these things things but without walking on faith I won’t get anywhere and I won’t inspire anyone, without taking the leap first.

 

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