Chicago poet Toiné Houston explores true love in her piece, "You Ever?"
The spoken word piece, set to music, is featured on Toiné's Love States EP. In a statement, the track was explained in full:
"Today’s world of dating is a melting pot of emotion and adjustment; in a city so full of young souls eager to fall in love, trials, turns and tribulations are sure to arise before finding one’s soulmate. In the new “You Ever?” visuals, Toiné Houston explores her city and her heart to find the connection she’s been yearning for. As a woman not interested in fabricating her reality, Toiné speaks true sentiment and emotion into this record, provoking our deepest feelings and memories of loves past.
The poet uses her words, set to music, to ask raw and honest questions about love, to invoke thoughts and emotions from listeners themselves.
On Friday, August 21, 2015, Just Mike (the poet) hosted the Washington, D.C. stop of The Love and Poetry Tour featuring Vision, Jamarr Hall, and other poets!
I really wasn't going to even write a post about the event, simply because I just wanted to just soak everything in and truly enjoy myself. I keep telling myself I need to actually enjoy more of life's moments, instead of wanting to capture them all for the blog or social media. However, the more clips I recorded on my phone (I couldn't help it!), the more I wanted to share with you guys!
I'm big on poetry, and big on using writing as self-expression in general. I watch spoken word a lot on YouTube and follow some amazing poets and writers online, Mike included. I've purchased a few of his books a while back, and HAD to see him in person on this tour! I'm glad I did. I was surrounded by amazing people with great vibes, all enjoying great words and music. I'll definitely be supporting the other poets, as well as checking out other open mic and poetry events.
Check out some video below!
Just Mike and I
Vision and I
My fellow Moonz are so talented and inspirational, I promise you! Check out this new project from poet Jah' Bless entitled Balladry!
Combining his love of music with his great poetry, Jah' Bless came up with a great project in Balladry, choosing the name because the project is spoken word set to music, with each piece having something moving to say. "My inspiration behind this project was purely based on the need to escape a fear I had," he said. "I wanted to do this project to challenge myself in a way I haven't before." The poet already had material prepared, but the recording process was new to him. However, he was able to get all the instrumentals together and figure out recording over them himself.
Check out a few tracks below!
His favorite track (and one of mine too!) is "The Children," which uses singer Jaheim's song "Fabulous." Jah' Bless said, "It's a beautiful song and the poem just fits," he said. "My future career will be a counselor or mentor anyway. I plan on helping our youth, hopefully saving as many of them as I can."
Overall, the poet hopes that listeners take in the positive and impacting messages, and apply it towards their own lives. "I did it for the poets all around the world, as well [as] the individuals...that aspire for dreams that people mock and say can't be reality," Jah' said. "Be expecting to hear more from Jah' Bless because this is just the beginning."
You can hear the project in full on SoundCloud. You can also follow Jah' Bless on Twitter and Instagram. Proud of you Roddo!
Keeping these spotlights coming! As always, if you are or represent an upcoming artist, designer, producer, etc., and are interested in a feature on The Spotlight, please read our Features/Submissions page for more details!
Today, I’m happy to feature one of my fellow Moonz (aka strong supporters of Wale and each other!), poet Christian Richardson! Christian started writing poetry in his senior year of high school back in 2007, with his first poem being a love poem to a girl he was “foolishly in love with,” he joked. “We were not communicating at the time, so I wrote her a letter instead.” Poetry soon became a way for him to truly open up about his feelings and emotions about his life circumstances.
The poet honestly stated that his upbringing made him resentful and angry, and he internalized a lot of his emotions. However, writing gave him an outlet. “I didn’t really know how to express myself any other way,” Christian admitted. “I couldn’t articulate my emotions clearly and lucid so I indulged myself a lot more in to writing my emotions down instead of talking about them.” I personally know that feeling so well! Regardless of what you write about, many writers, or at least the ones I know, often struggle to express themselves verbally, and can sometimes hold their emotions in. However, writing is always a freeing release. I know that for myself. Christian personally uses those emotions in his performances.
Christian knew that poetry was something that he wanted to seriously pursue once he graduated from college. In school, he continued to write constantly, but was focused more on graduating as well as fraternity life, which kept him away from pursuing a career as a poet full time. Though even now he has a 9 to 5, he spends the rest of his time writing and practicing for performances, with the goal of eventually becoming a full-time traveling poet and motivational speaker.
Inspired by friends in the poetry scene Greg Long (aka Tripp Fontane) and Amber Steele (aka Poetic Am), Christian uses his gift for writing and spoken word in a powerful way! Two outstanding pieces he shared with me are “Venting” and “Black Man, White Cop,” which you can view below!
“Venting” showcases Christian speaking about his own personal issues as well as his issues with society. “I talked a lot about insecurities, my dissatisfaction with the amount of debt people accumulate after college and how sometimes we buy in to that ‘American fantasy,’ (I can’t even call it American dream) that things are all gravy if we get a degree,” he said. He says in first line, “I find comfort in low fat yogurts, and 50 calorie pita chips” which he said was basically a stab at society’s constant push for perfection. “We are never skinny enough, or have enough muscle to be that ideal person people want and accept. And it definitely gets deeper throughout.”
In the second piece, “Black Man, White Cop,” Christian took on the role of current cases of police brutality and racism with black men including Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. “Those particular cases and verdicts actually made me feel something,” he disclosed. “When I heard the verdict of Eric Garner case, I’ll never forget, I was in my car sitting in Chipotle parking lot and I just broke into tears. Like any of those cases that could have been me. And I really questioned my value to the world as a Black male today.”
In the future, Christian would like to travel around the world and perform his poetry. “I don’t even want to be rich for real, just enough to maintain and do what I love,” he said. “See the world, gain perspective, write and perform the rest of my life away. That’s all I really want for real.”
You can connect with this amazing and humble poet on Twitter and Instagram,” and see more of his work on YouTube!
