Empowerment

 

 

Growing up I used spoken word as an outlet. I was always the shy girl. Expressing myself to my friends or family was never going to happen. When I became angry or related to the anger of our environment I began to create images others could visually connect to through my poems as a way to uplift. I’m all for empowerment!  One day my cousin asked me to read aloud one of my spoken word pieces. Boy was I trembling! When reciting a poem emotions overcome you and the listeners. By the end of my poem I was forcing the words off my tongue. After my last word my cousin embraced me. He started planning my future (lol). This was a woosah moment. He planned to bring me to open mic events and introduce me to poets he knew. My sister stopped the cheer and jokingly frowned, “You didn’t write that.” I could tell she believed what she had just said because I never expressed myself to anyone. My journal of poems was my diary. I’ve never been your typical girl. I used my real diary for a few days then, I drew dinosaurs. I started writing poems when I was in maybe the third grade.  I started creating images in my poem when I was a teenager because I visualized my struggles in my poem. I visualized our struggles in my poems to release the anger I once felt.