WEBVTT - Channelling Through Poetry 0:00:05.921 --> 0:00:07.281 Apoge Production. 0:00:10.961 --> 0:00:13.921 I'm Mickey Fisher, and welcome to the Village Crazy Lady. 0:00:14.321 --> 0:00:17.401 People are talking to me and they are not physically 0:00:17.481 --> 0:00:21.200 in this room, so just strap in for that. Can't 0:00:21.201 --> 0:00:23.921 call me crazy, so I said it first. Whoever's trying 0:00:23.921 --> 0:00:26.121 to come through, whatever messages need to come through, like, 0:00:26.241 --> 0:00:26.761 just bring it on. 0:00:26.841 --> 0:00:28.001 Let's do it. 0:00:28.201 --> 0:00:35.720 Crazy Crazy Crazy, The Village Crazy Lady Podcast. Hello, gorgeous legends, 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:39.401 and welcome to another episode of the Village Crazy Lady 0:00:40.120 --> 0:00:42.800 this week. I don't know if i'd call Hooter a 0:00:42.921 --> 0:00:45.961 Village Crazy Lady. I just feel like she's I would 0:00:46.001 --> 0:00:48.720 just say who to refers to herself as who to 0:00:48.801 --> 0:00:52.241 the Goddess, and I just think that there's no better 0:00:52.321 --> 0:00:56.881 way to describe Hooter. I met her at a march 0:00:57.001 --> 0:01:01.681 that I helped organize and EMC and someone sent me 0:01:02.241 --> 0:01:06.801 a video that she'd done online of her slam poetry 0:01:07.321 --> 0:01:11.081 and it was about domestic violence, and it just had 0:01:11.081 --> 0:01:15.281 me in a puddle of tears, and I just went, 0:01:15.441 --> 0:01:17.641 we need we need her, we need to get her. 0:01:17.681 --> 0:01:20.921 I want to meet her. And so ever since then, 0:01:20.920 --> 0:01:25.201 and I watched Hohoda perform at the march, and I'm 0:01:25.241 --> 0:01:28.720 pretty sure she literally said before she got up like 0:01:28.801 --> 0:01:32.640 that she was just it was improvised, like it was 0:01:32.721 --> 0:01:35.600 just literally words from her soul. And then I watched 0:01:35.601 --> 0:01:40.240 her march in the street just literally just words coming 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:43.161 out of her that just will like mad Well that 0:01:43.161 --> 0:01:46.001 it's poetry. It was magic. And ever since then I said, 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:48.041 who do I need to get you on and I 0:01:48.081 --> 0:01:51.001 need to hear your story and like just learn about 0:01:51.001 --> 0:01:55.881 this trust that you have within yourself, in this connection 0:01:56.201 --> 0:02:02.001 that you have to language and anyway, so hoodah, thank 0:02:02.041 --> 0:02:03.361 you so much for joining me. 0:02:05.361 --> 0:02:06.841 Having it's a pleasure to be here. 0:02:07.361 --> 0:02:11.241 I'm so excited to just even hear your story. Like 0:02:12.041 --> 0:02:14.761 I don't think I've really met that many people who 0:02:14.881 --> 0:02:20.601 are slam poets. And you're like you're a phenomenal in 0:02:20.641 --> 0:02:26.081 your field, You've won awards, you you know, are the 0:02:26.321 --> 0:02:33.000 Australian Slam champion, so you obviously have been doing this 0:02:33.041 --> 0:02:33.641 for a while. 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:38.241 I'm guessing, yeah, I think I'm actually about to hit 0:02:39.001 --> 0:02:41.601 my ten yure mork in poetry. 0:02:41.881 --> 0:02:45.721 Wow, So I want to hear your story, Like how 0:02:45.761 --> 0:02:48.440 did you get into it? Have you always just been 0:02:48.561 --> 0:02:54.761 really connected to words and their magic? Like what is 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:55.361 it for you? 0:02:56.841 --> 0:02:59.561 There is there is like the long story, and then 0:02:59.601 --> 0:03:02.280 there's like the short, Like when I was like twenty 0:03:02.321 --> 0:03:04.161 one and the first time I touched the mic and 0:03:04.201 --> 0:03:06.641 I was a poet. But like I think for me, 0:03:07.321 --> 0:03:11.601 my fascination with language started off as a child that 0:03:11.881 --> 0:03:15.801 also had no formal training, like no formal education, so 0:03:15.921 --> 0:03:19.961 like being like in Cairo, never going to school, I 0:03:20.041 --> 0:03:22.881 was like, the only thing I could really master was 0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:26.881 like my verbal communication with people, right, So I became 0:03:26.921 --> 0:03:31.281 fascinated with body language, with people's tone, and how do 0:03:31.361 --> 0:03:34.321 I get myself to be so very clearly understood, Like 0:03:34.441 --> 0:03:37.841 my fascination with art and poetry started as I really 0:03:37.921 --> 0:03:42.521 don't like the outcomes of being misunderstood. Wow, so I'm 0:03:42.521 --> 0:03:45.481 going to master communication because I lived in a very 0:03:46.441 --> 0:03:50.761 very chaotic space in which feelings were always elevated due 0:03:50.761 --> 0:03:54.321 to the circumstances, which meant people were yelling out their 0:03:54.321 --> 0:03:58.041 reality and there was very little space for comprehension, right, 0:03:58.121 --> 0:04:00.401 because everybody just wanted to be heard and wanted to 0:04:00.401 --> 0:04:04.801 be to have their humanity validated. Right, So it started 0:04:04.801 --> 0:04:07.521 this fascination of like how can I improve my communication 0:04:07.601 --> 0:04:10.321 with my mother? How can I improve my communication with 0:04:10.361 --> 0:04:12.561 the people around me, and how do I get that? 0:04:12.641 --> 0:04:15.681 Knowing that I can't read or write right so, and 0:04:15.721 --> 0:04:19.241 then coming into a school system a like ten eleven 0:04:19.321 --> 0:04:22.961 where I don't have like for example, at twenty nine 0:04:23.041 --> 0:04:26.401 right now, I still can't spell. I have no conception 0:04:26.801 --> 0:04:29.761 of like the English language, like in terms of like 0:04:29.841 --> 0:04:34.601 writing and reading. I'm very verbally articulate. My vocab is high, 0:04:34.921 --> 0:04:38.880 but like writing was always very difficult for me because 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:41.880 I was illiterate for a long period of my life. 0:04:42.001 --> 0:04:45.681 So language for me was about pew to peer communication 0:04:45.921 --> 0:04:49.760 and then connection and then community collectivism. And I knew 0:04:49.761 --> 0:04:52.321 that like at some point, like my grandmother when I 0:04:52.361 --> 0:04:55.161 was very little, had faith that I was going to 0:04:55.161 --> 0:04:59.241 be somebody really special and always valued education, and she 0:04:59.401 --> 0:05:03.241 was like her voice should not be silenced. She let 0:05:03.281 --> 0:05:05.281 me be as loud as I wanted to be and 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.001 to take up as much room as I wanted to be, 0:05:07.081 --> 0:05:09.440 so losing her, I felt like I had to re 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:13.561 remind myself of why she had provided that much space 0:05:13.601 --> 0:05:16.440 for me to be that loud, right, Because contrary to believe, 0:05:16.521 --> 0:05:20.241 women are not supposed to be loud and audacious and spoken. 0:05:20.841 --> 0:05:22.321 So there was a lot of it that was like 0:05:22.761 --> 0:05:25.521 breaking the status quo and norm because I just didn't 0:05:25.561 --> 0:05:29.121 know what other way to connect with people. It was 0:05:29.161 --> 0:05:30.641 like I don't go to school, so I can't make 0:05:30.681 --> 0:05:33.801 friends that way, right, Like I'm a foreigner, different country 0:05:33.801 --> 0:05:35.640 that's not my own, so I can't connect with people 0:05:35.681 --> 0:05:37.640 that way. So I had to come up with a 0:05:37.641 --> 0:05:41.361 way to connect. So it was humor a good communication 0:05:41.481 --> 0:05:44.001 and eloquence was my skill set. That's what I could 0:05:44.041 --> 0:05:47.801 do very very well. So there's that route of like 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:51.200 you know, growing and a people. It's a patriarchal family 0:05:51.521 --> 0:05:53.321 where my grandmother was the leader of the household and 0:05:53.481 --> 0:05:57.601 coming into a patriarchal system where people just wouldn't let 0:05:57.601 --> 0:05:59.721 me talk or kind of almost made it a joke 0:05:59.841 --> 0:06:01.760 out of it, like oh, you're so loud, And I 0:06:01.801 --> 0:06:04.641 was like, Okay, my mom is loud, my auntie's loud, 0:06:04.721 --> 0:06:10.001 my mother loud. What your point? You're just stating observations? 0:06:10.081 --> 0:06:13.041 Why does that sound like the butt of the I 0:06:13.041 --> 0:06:16.281 don't get it, you know what I mean? So so 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.361 there's there's there's that like element of culture and like 0:06:19.361 --> 0:06:21.681 like you know, my grandm would be like an elder, 0:06:21.761 --> 0:06:23.921 and then having people in my family that are like 0:06:24.241 --> 0:06:27.841 eldest that whole linguistics in like lineage, and then my 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.001 grandmother who was basically like the town nurse. So my 0:06:31.161 --> 0:06:35.481 lineage comes from like audacious, out like outrageous women who 0:06:35.561 --> 0:06:37.520 just do whatever the hell they want to do. So like, 0:06:37.601 --> 0:06:39.841 and then I come into a world which like that's 0:06:39.921 --> 0:06:43.001 not the prox that's not the rule. So poetry allowed 0:06:43.041 --> 0:06:45.721 me to exist in the reality that I know is 0:06:45.801 --> 0:06:48.681 common to me, which is like existing within my power 0:06:48.721 --> 0:06:50.721 and being as loud as I want to be. And 0:06:50.761 --> 0:06:53.401 then it was then it was a provided audience. And 0:06:53.401 --> 0:06:56.001 then there's like the other answer is like I was 0:06:56.041 --> 0:06:58.841 a master of ceremony at college and like I was 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.401 always very well spoken, and then I met Anissa n Dala, 0:07:01.401 --> 0:07:04.760 who's an incredible comedian now also poet. Yeah, and she 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.121 just like she was the first person to label what 0:07:07.161 --> 0:07:10.041 I did poetry. She was like, oh, you're a poet, 0:07:10.081 --> 0:07:12.001 and I was like, I don't know about that. I 0:07:12.001 --> 0:07:14.481 think I'm well spoken, but I don't know about that. 0:07:14.601 --> 0:07:17.081 And she was my first she was the first person 0:07:17.121 --> 0:07:21.281 to give it a name. Wow. And then that started 0:07:21.321 --> 0:07:23.961 like an era of like three years of like freestyle 0:07:24.001 --> 0:07:27.641 improvised open minds that then turned into paid gigs and 0:07:27.681 --> 0:07:30.681 then it was like it was an interesting journey and 0:07:30.921 --> 0:07:33.641 I could ramble on forever. But like, I then had 0:07:33.641 --> 0:07:35.561 a show I think at BMAC, which is so funny 0:07:35.601 --> 0:07:37.761 that I'm having this podcast interview with you today because 0:07:37.761 --> 0:07:39.401 I'm going back to be back for a show today. 0:07:39.961 --> 0:07:43.321 And at that same place I met probably was one 0:07:43.321 --> 0:07:46.841 of the most leading public speakers like and she is 0:07:46.881 --> 0:07:49.961 an African woman. And after I got off stage from performing, 0:07:50.121 --> 0:07:52.521 she asked me a question. She goes, you do this 0:07:52.561 --> 0:07:56.441 beautiful thing and you call it poetry, but like, why 0:07:56.521 --> 0:07:59.241 is it that you speak? Why do you feel the 0:07:59.321 --> 0:08:01.721 need to do this right? And she's like, I think 0:08:01.761 --> 0:08:04.801 that's an important question while you hold this much power 0:08:04.801 --> 0:08:07.041 for you answer. And I don't think she knows how 0:08:07.121 --> 0:08:10.601 monumental that question was for me, because it changed the 0:08:10.641 --> 0:08:14.121 whole leaf of my career of like, I love this thing. 0:08:14.161 --> 0:08:16.361 I love being able to connect and tell stories and 0:08:16.401 --> 0:08:18.961 like them language to accommodate for whatever I wanted it 0:08:19.041 --> 0:08:21.841 to be. And then there's this powerful elder who is 0:08:21.881 --> 0:08:26.001 like dressing African attire, who was a great public speaker 0:08:26.041 --> 0:08:28.721 and a great Worthmit that kind of took me back 0:08:28.761 --> 0:08:31.881 to my root, and she almost like put the word 0:08:31.921 --> 0:08:36.041 poet to the side and then was like, let's actually 0:08:36.041 --> 0:08:38.881 look at it outside of the framing that the world 0:08:38.961 --> 0:08:41.561 needs it to have for it to be comprehendible. What 0:08:41.721 --> 0:08:45.121 is it that you're doing. So there are a multitude 0:08:45.161 --> 0:08:49.441 of reasons. There's a multitude of origin stories and the 0:08:49.481 --> 0:08:55.121 evolution of my poetry. So yeah, there's so many stories 0:08:55.161 --> 0:08:57.441 I can tell into how I fell into where I 0:08:57.481 --> 0:09:00.161 fell because I used to say I'm the accidental poet. 0:09:00.521 --> 0:09:03.241 There was no like I have a vision board that 0:09:03.361 --> 0:09:05.801 like you know eleven, I used to love reading books 0:09:05.921 --> 0:09:08.041 and like and then I kind of became a poet 0:09:08.081 --> 0:09:11.401 because I love like some famous author, Like none of 0:09:11.441 --> 0:09:14.321 those things are my story. I hate reading books. I 0:09:14.361 --> 0:09:16.841 have ADHD. It takes a lot for me to like 0:09:16.921 --> 0:09:19.161 a book, like a lot, because I can't focus for 0:09:19.241 --> 0:09:23.721 that long. Yeah, I can't spell, like, none of those 0:09:23.721 --> 0:09:26.401 things of my reality. I'm not a literature head that 0:09:26.521 --> 0:09:29.641 can quote like a list of poets. This is my 0:09:29.761 --> 0:09:32.441 poetry is a conversation with my soul that I turned 0:09:32.481 --> 0:09:33.881 strangers into an audience for. 0:09:34.201 --> 0:09:42.401 Oh, I don't want to talk, to be honest, I'm 0:09:42.441 --> 0:09:46.801 not even be kindding, I have cried your camera's not on, 0:09:46.921 --> 0:09:51.361 but I've cried like three times already. I'm not a crier. 0:09:51.881 --> 0:09:56.001 When you mentioned your grandma tears, when you mentioned that 0:09:56.121 --> 0:10:02.161 beautiful woman who like asked you why you're speaking tears 0:10:02.881 --> 0:10:07.361 because that's like and the fact that you can't, like 0:10:07.441 --> 0:10:12.281 you struggle to spell tears because it really and and 0:10:12.321 --> 0:10:15.121 it makes so much sense to me why I've and 0:10:15.201 --> 0:10:17.401 like why so many people are so drawn to you, 0:10:17.441 --> 0:10:22.561 but especially I guess as someone who I like to 0:10:22.881 --> 0:10:25.961 think of, I've always sort of myself as a communicator 0:10:26.041 --> 0:10:28.881 as well. You know, I think everyone has their different 0:10:28.961 --> 0:10:32.721 gifts and their different abilities and like to like to me, 0:10:33.001 --> 0:10:35.921 I look at you, and you're a communicator, you know 0:10:36.001 --> 0:10:37.881 how to sort of like what you were saying about, 0:10:37.921 --> 0:10:40.841 how you connect with how you can take what's in 0:10:40.881 --> 0:10:46.921 your soul and sort of channel that into evoking something 0:10:48.401 --> 0:10:52.121 from within the strangers in the room, Like it's such 0:10:52.281 --> 0:10:57.281 it's like working on an energetic plane. Is that what 0:10:57.321 --> 0:10:59.841 it feels like? Do you feel like it's almost like 0:11:00.441 --> 0:11:02.601 because I mean I asked you even before we jumped on, 0:11:02.641 --> 0:11:04.561 I said, you know, would you say that you're a 0:11:04.561 --> 0:11:07.441 spiritual person and you and you said that you you 0:11:07.521 --> 0:11:10.241 do think like you do feel like a spiritual person. 0:11:10.001 --> 0:11:10.801 Like, what does that? 0:11:11.281 --> 0:11:14.521 What does it feel like? 0:11:14.521 --> 0:11:18.201 Like? This is I think an interesting concept as you 0:11:18.321 --> 0:11:21.641 evolve in a a in a career path that was 0:11:21.681 --> 0:11:25.681 intrinsically about self knowledge. Yeah, is that you have to 0:11:25.721 --> 0:11:28.281 go back to basis. So when people ask where the 0:11:28.321 --> 0:11:31.401 poem comes from, it comes from like an in deep, 0:11:31.961 --> 0:11:36.241 deep intrinsic place of like, I have to be within 0:11:36.321 --> 0:11:40.641 my own body to such a profound level to give 0:11:40.681 --> 0:11:43.241 you what I'm giving you, right, I have to be 0:11:43.321 --> 0:11:46.801 aligned with myself and in the room. So when I 0:11:46.881 --> 0:11:48.921 when I walk into a room with like three hundred 0:11:48.921 --> 0:11:52.681 people to do an improvised poem, I have to meditate 0:11:52.761 --> 0:11:55.321 in that room in my own way that's not obvious 0:11:55.561 --> 0:11:58.361 and not jarring to also the people because at the 0:11:58.401 --> 0:12:01.521 moment it's obvious, people then change how they move around 0:12:01.521 --> 0:12:03.281 the room, so I can't get a sense of what's 0:12:03.321 --> 0:12:07.241 actually happening, right, Like, so I have to be in 0:12:07.321 --> 0:12:10.881 that space meditate. First of we'll pay my acknowledgment to 0:12:10.921 --> 0:12:14.641 the ancestral and the thousands of years that are already here. 0:12:14.801 --> 0:12:19.001 So there's already souls and spirits and stories and moments 0:12:19.001 --> 0:12:21.041 that have happened here that will continue to happen with 0:12:21.241 --> 0:12:24.201 or without me. So I have to acknowledge those people, 0:12:24.801 --> 0:12:27.001 and then I have to then go into my own 0:12:27.041 --> 0:12:30.441 self and be like, what at this point will fulfill 0:12:30.561 --> 0:12:33.241 me and enable me to connect with a stranger at 0:12:33.281 --> 0:12:37.921 the same time. Wow, And that's a lot of work. 0:12:38.001 --> 0:12:40.721 I think I'm spiritual in the sentence of I have 0:12:40.761 --> 0:12:42.641 to believe in a higher power to be able to 0:12:42.681 --> 0:12:46.441 deliver something of such high frequency. Yeah, And I don't 0:12:46.441 --> 0:12:50.321 say that as ego, like I don't think I'm that special, 0:12:50.801 --> 0:12:53.921 but I do think I have something, yeah, that can 0:12:54.001 --> 0:12:57.561 resonate with people beyond my own comprehension sometimes because sometimes 0:12:57.561 --> 0:12:59.521 I don't know where the poem comes from. 0:12:59.921 --> 0:13:04.601 That was my next question, because that's so interesting to me. 0:13:04.761 --> 0:13:10.321 Is this difference between like when you like, I'm even 0:13:10.321 --> 0:13:11.121 trying to think the words. 0:13:11.161 --> 0:13:17.801 So obviously I'm not a poet. The words are flowing 0:13:17.881 --> 0:13:23.361 from my core, but like I can imagine that there 0:13:23.361 --> 0:13:26.401 would be there would be words that come out from 0:13:26.441 --> 0:13:30.241 like stories or like do you ever feel like sometimes 0:13:30.281 --> 0:13:31.441 the poems are like. 0:13:31.801 --> 0:13:36.121 Healing for you versus like times where it's like I 0:13:36.161 --> 0:13:38.401 actually have no idea where this is coming from. 0:13:39.241 --> 0:13:44.601 Oh absolutely, So often like there there are streams of 0:13:44.681 --> 0:13:47.681 poems that come from my own thoughts, like when people 0:13:47.761 --> 0:13:49.281 ask me, like, oh, how do you want to write 0:13:49.321 --> 0:13:51.281 a poem? I want to write a poem when there's 0:13:51.281 --> 0:13:54.001 an urgency to it, when there's a thought that becomes 0:13:54.001 --> 0:13:57.521 a hyper fixation. Yeah, right, Like in the ten years 0:13:57.521 --> 0:14:00.241 of me doing powetry, I've never felt compelled to write 0:14:00.401 --> 0:14:02.921 I hate them. I think they're annoying. I don't want 0:14:02.961 --> 0:14:05.561 to write them, and I never knew where it was 0:14:05.721 --> 0:14:09.641 until this year. I had to reevaluate my relationship with 0:14:09.681 --> 0:14:12.921 intimacy and love as I am now getting older and 0:14:12.961 --> 0:14:16.241 restructuring my relationship with my mother, right, because she's my 0:14:16.321 --> 0:14:20.841 first introduction to love, right, not romantic, but as almost 0:14:20.881 --> 0:14:23.401 like a dedication and a sense of loyalty to loving 0:14:23.441 --> 0:14:25.681 her and her loving me back and not being the 0:14:25.721 --> 0:14:29.161 center of my epi world. Right. So it's like my 0:14:29.361 --> 0:14:32.681 poems sometimes start for my own age, like I have 0:14:32.801 --> 0:14:35.321 something to say and I need to unpack this in 0:14:35.361 --> 0:14:38.241 a way that makes sense to me, So poetry makes 0:14:38.281 --> 0:14:41.721 sense to me, and like and then other times I'll 0:14:41.761 --> 0:14:44.321 meet people and it will like. For example, I think 0:14:44.361 --> 0:14:46.801 one of my favorite moments on stage, I have a 0:14:46.841 --> 0:14:50.641 collection of them, was I went to Byron Byron Writer's Festival, 0:14:51.361 --> 0:14:54.241 and I had just come off like being on regional 0:14:54.241 --> 0:14:56.681 tour on this bus, and I was supposed to, like 0:14:56.681 --> 0:14:58.401 I got in changed and I was supposed to be 0:14:58.441 --> 0:15:00.841 in front of like a couple hundred high school students 0:15:00.841 --> 0:15:03.681 in this festival. I'm not ready. I'm never like, I 0:15:03.681 --> 0:15:06.161 don't know what the word ready means in poetry. So like, 0:15:06.241 --> 0:15:07.721 let's put that to the side, because I have no 0:15:07.801 --> 0:15:10.521 relationship with the wed Ring, right, I'm just I'm on 0:15:10.641 --> 0:15:14.121 go or I'm not on go. It's one of the two, right, Yeah, 0:15:14.241 --> 0:15:16.801 And maybe that's ready in its own way. But I 0:15:16.841 --> 0:15:19.161 got on stage and that day I had been like 0:15:19.201 --> 0:15:22.201 my grandmothers a reoccurring theme. So she's definitely a familiar 0:15:22.241 --> 0:15:25.721 story to tell. I don't ever tell the same story 0:15:25.761 --> 0:15:27.921 about her, who I don't tell the story the same 0:15:28.001 --> 0:15:31.201 way about her twice? Right, there are different things that 0:15:31.561 --> 0:15:34.481 from my relationship with her, and I was I remember 0:15:34.561 --> 0:15:37.681 like being on stage and speaking, and it's very rare 0:15:37.681 --> 0:15:39.881 for me to cry on stage. It is like, very 0:15:40.281 --> 0:15:43.121 very rare, Like I can be lost within my own body, 0:15:43.641 --> 0:15:47.041 but crying tends to come after, like when I'm reflecting 0:15:47.481 --> 0:15:50.361 on the poem on my own. So I'm on stage 0:15:50.361 --> 0:15:52.761 and I'm speaking about my grandmother and I just like 0:15:53.761 --> 0:15:56.801 I feel myself because like getting lost in the poem, 0:15:57.121 --> 0:15:59.321 and I look up and I know I want to cry. 0:15:59.361 --> 0:16:01.281 And I look up and there's this like beautiful black 0:16:01.321 --> 0:16:06.281 girl in front audience and she's bawling like tears that 0:16:06.481 --> 0:16:09.921 she is balling her and I'm just like, at this moment, 0:16:10.321 --> 0:16:13.841 everybody in that space stopped existing and I felt like 0:16:13.921 --> 0:16:17.401 me and her were having a conversation, right, And I 0:16:17.481 --> 0:16:19.801 got up and I got off stage, and I was 0:16:20.161 --> 0:16:21.361 I had to do an interview, so I was like 0:16:21.441 --> 0:16:22.961 ducking out. So I was like, hey, thank you guys 0:16:23.001 --> 0:16:26.001 so much. I'm hugging people, like all these kids, and 0:16:26.041 --> 0:16:29.841 I stop, and she's crying and she's literally like holds 0:16:29.841 --> 0:16:32.241 my hand and she's she's still balling, and I'm just 0:16:32.281 --> 0:16:33.961 like she's like, I really want to be a poet, 0:16:34.001 --> 0:16:35.881 like I really want to write. And I was like, 0:16:36.121 --> 0:16:39.361 just decide, make a decision that this is who you 0:16:39.441 --> 0:16:42.081 are and this is your reality. Just make that decision. 0:16:42.281 --> 0:16:43.761 And the next time, I want to see you. I 0:16:43.801 --> 0:16:46.041 want you to have decided. Don't know her name. We 0:16:46.081 --> 0:16:47.961 spoke for like a few seconds that I had left. 0:16:48.521 --> 0:16:52.321 Right the next day, I'm still in Byron, I'm eating sushi. 0:16:52.361 --> 0:16:54.201 I'm getting ready to go on stage in like an hour, 0:16:54.321 --> 0:16:56.201 and all I see is this like figure of her 0:16:56.281 --> 0:16:58.761 walking up to me. And she's walking up just holding 0:16:58.801 --> 0:17:01.041 a trophy. And mind you, I don't I wear glasses, 0:17:01.081 --> 0:17:03.241 so I can't see her well. So she walks up 0:17:03.241 --> 0:17:04.600 to me and she's like, oh my god, I won 0:17:04.681 --> 0:17:07.601 this big the you And she's like I just competed 0:17:07.681 --> 0:17:08.761 my first slam and I. 0:17:08.761 --> 0:17:10.480 Want, Oh your kidding? 0:17:11.120 --> 0:17:16.321 And she she's like, I decided and that was it. 0:17:17.041 --> 0:17:18.001 Oh my god. 0:17:18.360 --> 0:17:21.360 And her mom was like she thought. She was like 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:23.441 to me, this is the You're the first black woman 0:17:23.481 --> 0:17:26.840 I've ever seen on stage be this vulnerable, and it 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:30.400 made me feel like I could do that too. That 0:17:30.681 --> 0:17:34.841 single handedly one of my favorite moments. That pivotally changed 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.521 why I do what I do to that death because 0:17:37.561 --> 0:17:41.680 I don't know where that and I don't know like 0:17:41.761 --> 0:17:44.720 maybe that poem was said like that before. Because I disconnect, 0:17:44.761 --> 0:17:47.440 I'm in my own body that the words aren't really 0:17:47.481 --> 0:17:51.240 like so precise, and they're not all my poems are perfect. 0:17:51.321 --> 0:17:53.761 They're clumsy, and I don't always use the right word. 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.001 But I'm in my body so much that I feel 0:17:57.001 --> 0:18:00.561 like that girl changed my life in that moment and 0:18:00.681 --> 0:18:04.920 reminded me of why being within my own poem is 0:18:05.201 --> 0:18:08.441 so crucial for me, you know. So it's like when 0:18:08.441 --> 0:18:11.400 people ask where it comes from, sometimes it is a 0:18:11.441 --> 0:18:14.080 stranger in the audience who just needed me to say 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:15.840 what I needed to say, and at that moment, I 0:18:15.921 --> 0:18:18.321 felt them in a way that I have no words for, 0:18:19.281 --> 0:18:23.241 Like I have no Like I've told stories of people 0:18:23.281 --> 0:18:25.480 that passed away and somebody was like, yo, I just 0:18:25.561 --> 0:18:27.920 came from a funeral, and you just shook my world. 0:18:29.001 --> 0:18:33.240 Like so there's no like I want to give you 0:18:33.281 --> 0:18:35.521 a linear answer of like this is where it comes. 0:18:35.521 --> 0:18:39.441 I don't know. Sometimes it's people, sometimes it's me, other 0:18:39.521 --> 0:18:42.321 times it's nowhere. And sometimes the poems make no sense, 0:18:42.761 --> 0:18:44.960 and then I try the same subject again and it 0:18:45.001 --> 0:18:46.201 makes all the sense in. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:50.680 The Worldea, you've made me cry, like another one hundred times. 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:59.241 I I sorry, do not apologize that story. I again, 0:18:59.441 --> 0:19:01.000 you can't see my I don't know if you can 0:19:01.041 --> 0:19:06.480 see my video, but I had like down my face. 0:19:06.961 --> 0:19:10.761 I had to pull my fucking self together because that 0:19:11.721 --> 0:19:15.240 like the thing that is just so beautiful and the 0:19:15.281 --> 0:19:18.001 thing that I've I mean, so many things. One I 0:19:18.321 --> 0:19:21.920 really want to talk about the you being in your body. 0:19:21.961 --> 0:19:25.721 How you keep talking about how like this this connection 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:31.280 to yourself and your body is so important, because I 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.761 feel that that is something that a lot of people 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:39.561 are really missing within ourselves. Is this kind of like 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.721 we're so disconnected from ourselves, so disconnected from our body. 0:19:42.761 --> 0:19:46.440 We have such a distrust in our body and in ourself, 0:19:46.921 --> 0:19:50.360 and like you just talking about that so much is 0:19:50.561 --> 0:19:55.641 just such a just really reiterates that. The other thing 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:58.400 that I find so beautiful is I often say to 0:19:58.481 --> 0:20:02.880 people a healer isn't just someone who you know does 0:20:02.961 --> 0:20:07.881 reiki or as a doctor, is chipractor or whatever, because 0:20:07.921 --> 0:20:12.401 like we are all healers, and we all have this 0:20:12.521 --> 0:20:18.481 ability to connect and to channel and to understand our 0:20:18.561 --> 0:20:22.321 own energy and the energy of others and how that 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:25.321 sort of and how we kind of connect through that 0:20:25.441 --> 0:20:29.601 and kind of understand the ripple effect of each connection 0:20:29.801 --> 0:20:33.521 that we have. And for some of us we can 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.921 kind of understand it a little bit more like we're 0:20:36.921 --> 0:20:39.801 a bit more connected to what it all means, and like, 0:20:39.961 --> 0:20:43.561 as you say, like within those moments where you can 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:46.961 like really just feel that sort of that connection within 0:20:47.001 --> 0:20:49.080 yourself and then the connection of people that are in 0:20:49.120 --> 0:20:54.001 the room, and then you know, like and you're like 0:20:54.201 --> 0:20:56.241 with what you're doing, Like you're getting up on stage 0:20:56.281 --> 0:20:58.360 and these words are just flowing out of you and 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:01.161 you're just like what someone like me would call that's 0:21:01.201 --> 0:21:04.080 what I call channeling when I do it, when I 0:21:04.201 --> 0:21:08.161 feel like I'm the channeling you know, from a higher 0:21:08.521 --> 0:21:12.321 version of myself for like well really myself or you know, 0:21:12.481 --> 0:21:16.521 different beings or whoever. It is where you really have 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:21.001 to just trust yourself and trust like what's coming out 0:21:21.041 --> 0:21:25.041 of you. And it's just I think like for people 0:21:25.041 --> 0:21:28.441 who are listening, because often people go, yeah, but it's 0:21:28.481 --> 0:21:30.561 not for me, I can't do it. I love like 0:21:30.761 --> 0:21:33.241 the idea of you know, being that connected and being 0:21:33.281 --> 0:21:34.920 able to do this and being able to do that. 0:21:35.001 --> 0:21:38.801 But you know, I'm a graphic designer or I do this, 0:21:38.961 --> 0:21:42.400 or but I think like at our core we can 0:21:42.561 --> 0:21:46.721 all do this and this whole like what you're doing 0:21:46.801 --> 0:21:50.561 where you're able to just like really anchor into yourself 0:21:50.801 --> 0:21:56.121 and then understand what the world is needing from you 0:21:56.201 --> 0:21:59.801 and what you were needing from you in those moments, 0:22:00.441 --> 0:22:03.841 I think is so powerful, and that concept I think 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:08.760 can be can be taken and used by everyone in 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:10.481 whatever it is that they're doing. 0:22:12.201 --> 0:22:17.520