Spoken Word
"Hadithi njoo! Uwongo njoo! Utamu kolea!"
Swahili for: "Let the story come, let the embellishments come, let the sweetness be great."
Burn Scars
I wrote Burn Scars shortly after shaving my hair, in a moment of quiet reckoning with childhood memories and the stories I carry in my body. I didn’t expect the poem to travel the way it has—into classrooms, into music, into other people’s interpretations. Its journey has reminded me that once something is spoken, it no longer belongs to just one voice.
Creme of Nature Commercial
Febuary 2018
This poem was commissioned by Creme of Nature (Revlon) as part of their #IamSupernatural campaign, celebrating Black beauty and natural hair. It was released in February 2018 and later featured in Essence as part of their Black History Month coverage.
Flight
This poem was written in a pen pal exhange with a fellow poet who was incarcerated at the time. This recording was made during my residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and features Jashun on drums and Marc A. Haynes on bass
Untitled
I wrote and recorded this poem during my residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.