Kelsey Bigelow 9/28/20 Kelsey Bigelow 9/28/20

Conversation With Brandon Leake, The First Poet on America’s Got Talent (AGT)

Brandon Leake made history as the first poet on America’s Got Talent (AGT), and he topped it off with a golden buzzer moment, a spot in the semi-finals, and then some. This is monumental for the poetry industry because he brought this art form to an audience that is not normally exposed to poetry. He has broken that barrier for fellow poets.

Brandon Leake made history as the first poet on America’s Got Talent (AGT), and he topped it off with a golden buzzer moment and a spot in the semi-finals. This is monumental for the poetry industry because he brought this artform to an audience that is not normally exposed to poetry. He has broken that barrier for fellow poets.

Poet Life Podcast was honored to sit down with Brandon the night before his AGT audition episode aired, so we didn’t know the outcome of the audition or season yet. Take a look at what that conversation was like, and then be sure to listen to the full podcast episode.

Let’s start at the beginning

Poet Life: When did you start writing?

Brandon Leake: So writing started for me in middle school when girls were cute. But my first artistic medium was actually drawing. I’m still a huge Dragon Ball Z fan, and so I would walk up to the Maya Angelou library, and I would get these modern comics and trace paper. I would trace the characters, and then I would start writing the stories behind the characters.

Then I stopped caring about the drawings as much and started caring more about the backstory to the characters. That was the introduction to writing for fun.

I would write all this sappy love poetry in high school. And inevitably what ended up happening was I didn’t share any of that just because I was a hooper. In the 90s and early 2000s, nuance was not a word we did well. So if people hear you write poetry, they think that’s you being soft.

I gave my entire existence to hoop, and to not see the benefits or the rewards of what I was grinding for was disheartening to me. It made me question, “Brandon, what are you working for? Is basketball the legacy you want to leave behind? Or is there something more for you?” so I did research.

And I got this vision for Called to Move an artistry collective full of all the misfits on campus who just didn’t have a place to go. So we hosted our first open mic in 2012 and had like 15 of us show up. We continued to do it, and it grew and grew. And in our final one, my senior year, we had about 300 people show up. And I was like, “Yes, this is it.”

I had a lot of personal stuff happen in 2014, and I took a year off of art completely. In 2015, I came back and went to my first national poetry slam. That’s when the dream started.

Poet Life: So prior to that, you weren’t writing slam poetry?

Brandon Leake: Not at all. I was the type of poet at the beginning that didn’t respect poetry. I just loved it. And there’s a difference between the two, because I loved the fact that it gave me a voice. I was able to share my emotions. In 2017, I really started to respect it, meaning that I studied it. I looked at it, and I examined other people’s strengths and weaknesses and figured out what my strengths and weaknesses were.

I’m not necessarily the best wordsmith. How do I improve on that? I studied battle rap. They’re super great at being able to piece metaphors together, hitting punchlines, double entendres.

Poet Life: If poets would do what you just said, study something that is similar performance art. Comedy is a performance art…Because what are they doing? They’re telling a story with jokes. A poet is telling a story with poems, you know?

Tell me what are those lights, those lit up words you have in your background

Brandon Leake: I love to surround myself with positive affirmations. So in my office currently there are five neon lights:

Dream
Believe in yourself
Do what you love
Blessed
Don’t quit your daydream

And over here I have a few others that say:

Chase your dreams
You got this
Be thankful if simply be kind
Never give up
Use please and thank you
Help others
Cherish family and friends
Do your best
Listen with your heart
Laugh often and love lots
The will of God will never take you where the Grace of that will not protect you

I believe that everybody has a calling in their life, and that calling is going to be scary. It’s going to come with risk. It’s going to be lonely, especially in the beginning. And then when it hits, it’s going to suddenly not be very lonely. It’s going to be a whole lot of applause and a whole lot of people who said they always believed in you.

You can’t get bitter. You can’t let bitterness come into your heart. It’s on you. The moment, as the victor, you need to be willing to not be a sore winner. To be able to say, “you know what, I appreciate your support now, even though I wanted it before.” But you also need to keep your boundaries. Because not everyone who claims they’re for you, is actually for you.

All things AGT

Poet Life: So, let’s jump into AGT.

Brandon Leake: I tried out for America’s Got Talent the first time in 2017. It was after I tried out for AGT, that I learned the respect thing about poetry.

They told me you have 90 seconds. I didn’t have a 90 second poem at all. And it’s not you in front of the famous people. It’s you, a camera, a talent agent, and these other nine people who were trying out with you. And it’s like thousands of people there. So you just wait there all day. And I did not have a 90 second poem.

I showed up there and said, “You, I’m going to do a poem that I know. And if they like it, they’ll probably let me finish it. If they don’t or if they’re really strict to the 90 seconds, then they’ll cut me off.”

So I showed up confident, thinking I’m about to do well and make the show. I’m like third or fourth. I’m doing my poem, and at the 90 seconds they’re like, “Thank you. Next.” And call up somebody else.

And I’m like cool. I think I did pretty well. And after everyone finishes up, they tell you, “If we’re interested we’ll send you an email. If we’re not, then try out next year. And we’d love to see you again.” And everybody’s leaving, and they actually tell one of the people in the group, “Hey, hold on. We needed to talk to you a little bit real quick.” And I was like Okay cool, maybe something went wrong with the paperwork or something like that.

Then one week, two weeks, a month, two months go by. And I’m like, “Man, maybe I gave the wrong email.” And then I ended up seeing a commercial for the show pop up, and I’m like “Oh, no. I just didn’t make the show.”

Well that’s a blow to the ego. And it’s right after this that I take the time to learn how to become a better poet. And I write my best body of work I’ve ever written, entitled Deficiencies: A Tale from My Dark Side. And I went on to tour 150 shows in 10 months, and traveled around the world.

Poet Life: What group did they put you in at the show?

Brandon Leake: In 2017, they threw me in with a bunch of singers because I was the only poet who showed up.

Poet Life: So how did that feel?

Brandon Leake: To be honest with you, it felt normal. At that time for me I had done so many shows where I was the only poet in the room. And people were always knocking it. Like saying, “Oh you do poetry. Oh. That’s cool.” And then they hear it. And then they’re like, “Bruh.”

So not having my own category didn’t bug me. What bugged me was just myself. Not being prepared.

Everything comes in time, right? It’s a timing thing. 2017 Brandon wouldn’t have been prepared for that moment the way 2020 Brandon is. I went on tour, traveled around the world, got merchandise, books, an album, figured out marketing, how to sell myself to the world, how to make money off of my art. I figured out how to put on workshops, classes, collaborate with you guys over at Poet Life Academy. Whole lot of stuff happened between 2017 and 2020.

And there’s a startling resemblance to 2017 and 2020. In 2017, I got married and took a break from poetry and traveling so I could focus on my marriage for the first year.

When I tried out for AGT in 2019, technically 2020, I said I was going to take a step back from poetry to focus on my family because I was having a daughter. And there’s a parallel between that and the lesson learned from the last three years.

I go back to AGT, try out, I have my 90 second poem memorized and rehearsed. It went through multiple drafts, edits. I took time to craft this thing to be prepared. And when I walked into that room, I knew what to expect and was able to know what to look for.

I walked in like I don’t care about these other acts. These other acts don’t dictate if I make it. What dictates if I make it is that judge. If I can get that judge, then I’ve won.

In this group, it’s me and one other poet and eight singers. And I’m the last person in my group who gets the chance to go up. And I told you, I didn’t pay attention at all to them.

Poet Life: When you saw that there was another poet. Did you all have a moment?Brandon Leake: Oh yeah. Most certainly. She was a 16-year-old girl with her mom. So I talked to her and her mom.

Her mom was like, “She’s so nervous. She doesn’t know what to do.”

And I was like, “Trust me. I tried out for this show three years ago. It was my first time ever. It’s not scary at all. Just treat it as if you’re doing a performance for a small venue.”

She was like, “Huh. Yeah. I think the most people I’ve performed in front of was like 40 people.”

So I told her, “It’s just you and 10 other people in a room. Treat it like that. That camera doesn’t even exist.”

And she was like, “Oh, so I don’t have to look at it?”

And I’m like, “No. Look around, embrace the audience. That’s what you do anyway, right? Treat this as any other show.”

But yeah, when everybody was performing, I didn’t pay attention to them. I was looking at the judge. Are they capturing his attention or captivating him? And they weren’t. He would be texting or shooting out emails, shuffling through papers. Never fully invested in what they were doing. And I was like okay, I’ve got 10 seconds to get this man’s attention. And if I don’t, then I’m going home.

I told myself, “You better damn well make this worth it. Brandon, put your best up here on this stage in front of this microphone.” This is where the respect to preparedness comes in. I knew how long my piece was. I knew how long getting to certain checkpoints in the poems were. I told myself I had 10 seconds to grab his attention. Then I told myself, “You’re going to check at 15 seconds because you have a 15-second marker.” So, I hit my 15-second marker…

Poet Life: Tell me about that. The markers...tell me about that.

Brandon Leake: It’s like in terms of slamming. You have to know how long your poem is. If you start dropping a portion of the poem, you have to have markers where you know...where you can get back to. Because I have the ability to freestyle, if I drop a piece, I can freestyle and then get myself up to a point where I’m like “Oh, I know the next marker. Get me there.” Just through the cadence of where the poem leads me. So I was like, that’s the same thing I’m going to do consistently.

Poet Life: So is this something poets need to also learn?

Brandon Leake: Well certainly. Not just your poem. On a professional poetry level, having markers throughout the course of your poem, having key words, lead you into the next stanza. It’s like developing a cadence for a particular poem. So that way, if you stride off cadence, you can get yourself back into the rhythm of it. There’s a lot of things you can do for the sake of being fully prepared.

So I hit my 15-second marker. I looked up at the judge cause I was looking at the crowd. I saw him there looking at me. Not shuffling through papers, not looking at the phone. And I finished the piece flawlessly. And then he said, “Hey guys, if we’re interested we’ll email you. If not please come back next year.” And then he says, “Hey hold up, Brandon. We wanted to talk to you.”

And like I said, in 2017 that happened with another person in my group. I knew. I was like, “I know what this is.” And then he asked me, “What else do you write about? Do you just write about this or do you have more topics?”

And I’m like, “I’ve got crap tons of poems.” And asks to hear one, even though it wasn’t 90 seconds. So I gave him a poem. And then he asked for another one, so I gave him a poem. I was trying to give him a different feel, a holistic feel of what I provide.

I ended up doing the initial poem plus three more. And he looked at me, and said, “Hmm, well if we’re interested then you’ll be hearing from us soon.”

This is one of those things where, once again, the respect of the art form kicked in, I didn't have to whip out my phone. I respected the craft enough to have enough memorized to where, if necessary, I could kick another poem.

Having those types of poems is beautiful because it gives you the flexibility to be able to respond to a crowd.

Being a poet, who’s going to go up there, I get to share my story. You learn about the other acts from the little previews that they give you beforehand. You not only get that from me, but you also learn about me from the work I put on stage.

Poet Life: Tell me about the whole documentary short that they do on you. How did that play out?

Brandon Leake: People don’t understand the labor that goes into it. I showed up to start filming at 8:0 a.m. I didn’t see the judges until 5:00 p.m. They do the B-roll stuff, but it’s also sitting down patiently waiting for your turn, and then they ask a crap ton of questions.

The interview was like two hours, and they’ll use two minutes of it. They don’t know what they’re going to use until a week before.

Poet Life: Tell me about what you had to do for your social media.

Brandon Leake: Social media was a beast to try and get prepared for this. You have to focus on what you want people to know about your brand. Inevitably, becoming an artist means that you become a brand. And that can feel dehumanizing in a big way, where it’s like man, I’m more nuanced than this, but people are going to throw you in a pocket. They are.

So, I was like, I’m not going to put anything on social media that’s off brand. I don’t usually do anything off brand, because my art is reflective of who I am as person. The brand I put up for the world to see is the family man and the artist. But you don’t even see all the family man stuff, like I don’t need you know everything that’s going on in my career. You need to know what I want you to see.

I stopped uploading videos on YouTube about three months ago, knowing that AGT was going to be happening. I’m still recording. I just need a storehouse of footage so that I can be prepared to release weekly videos for the next year. And If I slack on content even one week, my algorithm will get messed up. People will wonder what happened. I’ve got four months worth of content right now. People won’t know it; it’ll look new to them. It’s a lot of prep.

Final “pieces of gain” from Brandon Leake

Brandon Leake: Understand your value. 2017 Brandon was not as valuable as 2020 Brandon. If I walked in and demanded a thousand dollars for a show in 2017, 2020 Brandon would laugh at that right now.

You are more than just a poet. You are representative of a culture. As we go out to the world, we have to represent well. So be sure to respect this art, don’t just love it. Love fades when things don’t go your way. Learn to respect it and treat it well.

On top of that, surround yourself with people who are for you. Both in the sense that they’ll support you and people who will challenge you. You don’t need a “yes man” or a “yes woman” in your ear telling you everything you do is fire. You need that friend who’s going to tell you that poem is trash and tell you it’s just because you didn’t do a good job writing it. It’s doesn’t mean it’s not worth something. Have people in your corner who are going to help you elevate in growth.

Also, prepare as an artist and as a business person. If you’re not business-minded, go learn about it. Don’t look to hire a new manager in the beginning. Learn how to talk business jargon. Understand what a retainer is, what a down payment is. Understand the business lingo in order to book gigs. When you get big enough that you need a manager, you can tell them you know what you’re worth and you know what they’re worth because, “Guess what, I’ve already done this, and I can keep doing this. I just don’t want to. I just want to be the artist.”

Finally, know that a poet who is unknown to the vast majority of the world is going to inevitably accumulate millions of views on social media and website content.

That’s the power of what we can do.

Be sure to listen to the full interview with Brandon Leake to get all the nuggets of gold that he shared with us, and if you want a refresh of his audition episode, watch it here.

Brandon Leake is an Award Winning Spoken Word Poet, Artistic Educator, and Motivational Speaker from Stockton, Ca., and the season 15 winner of America’s Got Talent. His creative mixture of art, charisma, and passion, tailored to his own unique personal narrative has taken him across the world as a speaker and performer. Find out more about Brandon at calledtomovectm.org/brandon-leake

Kelsey Bigelow 9/21/20 Kelsey Bigelow 9/21/20

Disrupting Industries with Poetry

On the Poet Life Podcast, you hear about our mission to build the poetry industry. We’ve shared many tips for building your poetry network, strengthening your pen, and much more. But one thing we haven’t talked about yet is how poetry can work in existing industries. And that’s exactly what we talked about with Dr. Al-Aakhir Rogers: disrupting existing industries with poetry.

And that’s exactly what we talked about with Dr. Al-Aakhir Rogers: disrupting existing industries with poetry.

Why start with existing industries?

It may sound like the opposite of what we’re trying to do by building the poetry industry. But industries are built by disrupting what exists, so we should be doing the same thing with poetry.

“We’re talking about taking an industry and inserting poetry into it because otherwise you’d be working backwards,” Al-Aakhir explains. “I want to create poetry music or poetry arts or poetry engineering. You just need to create the substance in order to infuse poetry into it.”

Think about scenarios in your current situation where you can bring poetry to the workplace.

Would there be a good team building exercise, like writing a haiku about your day?
Maybe your HR team needs some help making the company culture message more engaging to new hires or for a town hall event.
Or maybe Marketing is working on an internal video that could use a touch of poetic language to liven it up.
It could be as simple as sharing or reading a poem for a team event or as a midweek pick-me-up.

What better way to warm people up to the up and coming poetry industry than in their own day-to-day interactions?

How industry disruption works

As the cliche goes, it starts with you.

As Al-Aakhir says, “You’ve got your expertise already. This is a soft entry. It’s easy disruption because you’re already in it.”

Wherever you’re currently working, you’re in an industry. And if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a poet as well. So start with you. Start with your expertise in poetry and the industry you’re working in.

For example, Al-Aakhir says, “When you have an individual who might be certified in leadership and they happen to also be a poet, you can allow that person to use poetry to tap into a different rhythmic component of the company culture. … You have someone who goes into the boardroom and can start using poetry when talking about process improvement.”

That person can be you.

But first ...

Before you dive into disrupting your industry with poetry, you have to plan first. Take the time to really think about what your audience would look like for poetry in your industry. Al-Aakhir explains that this should be treated the same as if you were bringing a new product to the market.

He says, “If you have a product you want to bring to the market, you have to do a strategic market assessment to know what your target audience is. Find out if it’s even viable in a particular area and so forth.”

Think of the possibilities that could come from this effort. This easy disruption.

“Could you imagine if you did some kind of gig where you were with the employees and tasked everyone with coming up with a corporate-related haiku?” Al-Aakhir says, “You might get a corporate haiku on the website because it came from one of their own.” He then goes on to say, “You get to pull out all of the creativity within the organization. Who knows what could happen.”

So if you take the time to think through what disrupting your industry with poetry looks like in your situation, that small step could be the step you needed towards building your poetry career and building the poetry industry.

Go on and be that easy disruption. Bring poetry to an existing industry.

Be sure to watch or listen to the full episode to hear more to the conversation between Poet Life Podcast and Dr. Al-Aakhir Rogers!

Dr. Al-Aakhir Rogers is the founder of The Rogers Connection and is a compelling speaker and motivator, a master influencer and coach, and a prominent scholar/researcher. He has spoken before audiences of over 2,000, internationally in Taiwan, S. Korea, and Israel. His influence has resulted in dozens of millennials mentored/trained along with group and one-on-one coaching with collegiate and professional athletes.

Kelsey Bigelow 9/14/20 Kelsey Bigelow 9/14/20

Building a Community Through Poetry

One thing is for sure, humans are drawn to communities that accept them as they are. What better way to do that than through poetry? Poetry is a way to tell our truths and let others know they’re in like-minded company.

What community building can do

Use that poetry as an effective way to build a strong community around you. Leah James is a pro at this. She says, “My lane is loving people. If people aren’t being touched by anything I’m saying, I might as well sit down and shut up.”

Why is community so important? What can a community do for you? Aside from that community becoming a source of love and comfort, they can become a support system. For example, Leah started a non-poetry project, and her community showed up for her.

She explains, “Me and my girl partnered together to do a clothing drive. It was a store where people came to shop and take stuff for free. And it was so cool. And just from doing poetry, people knew who I was so they came. I’m really surrounded by people who love and support me, and I really want other people to experience that as well.”

Leah’s last point is a good one. She wants “other people to experience that as well.” Which is something you can see in the way she carries herself and her brand. When you use your poetry to build community, you are allowing others to feel supported.

Leverage your poetry community and get each other paid

Often, there’s a stigma around poets making the shift from doing this for the love to also doing it for the money. Poetry, like anything else, can be more than a hobby and has monetary value. And why wouldn’t you leverage the community you’ve built to bring in money that can help get the ball rolling for you and your community?

Leah agrees: “It’s okay to get paid, you know. I host events. My friends can perform for me and I can perform for them. That’s a community thing, you know The goal is to get each other paid. You’ve got to start from somewhere. Those $50 events I did built little bricks in my foundation.”

It’s the common approach: start small and work your way up. You’ve got to start somewhere, so why not start with community events that bring you $50 or $100. Then keep building off of that and expanding your community’s reach.

What has the community done for Leah James?

We’ve talked about how to use poetry to build community and to use that community to help one another start getting paid for poetry. But what has Leah’s community done for her and her career?

In short, her community has given her confidence and a support system.

Leah says, “I’m starting to diversify my talents and not just my income. A lot of people that I’ve met through poetry are actors and are now teaching me how to get into acting. I have a guitar, and I wanted to learn to play the guitar and sing. So poetry has given me the confidence to get into other industries.”

Having the support of a poetry community behind you can boost you and your career in ways you maybe never imagined. Give it a shot!

Be sure to listen to our full conversation with Leah James on the Poet Life Podcast. You’ll learn more about her story and where she’s headed next.

Kelsey Bigelow 9/7/20 Kelsey Bigelow 9/7/20

The Importance of Healing The Poet & The Audience

“I didn’t think I could do it so I wasn’t even going to try.” That’s how 13 of Nazareth says he felt before his poetry journey took off. Looking back, he says, “I like to think life proved me wrong.” And he is beyond correct that life proved him wrong because he has successfully built his life around poetry.

13 of Nazareth sat down with us at the Poet Life Podcast to share how poetry can be healing for the poet and the audience — and how his poetry career has grown because of this exploration.

Explore what poetry means to you

“Once I felt that feeling [of performing], I was just like I need to try this more. I need to explore it more deeply.”

It’s a story we hear a lot from professional poets: that once they’ve performed, they want to do it for the rest of their lives. And his second point is a crucial one: “I need to explore it more deeply.”

Take the time to analyze what poetry and performing means to you as an artist. What is your motivation? What about you is driving this poetic need? What are your goals? What’s your niche? This kind of introspection will teach you a lot about what the poet life means for you.

Read the room

Part of being able to help reach the audience listening to your work is to know your audience. Listen to the conversations happening around you, listen to the other poets and the reactions from the audience, hear the sounds and feel the energy. Then choose which of your poems fit the space and energy. It can be intimidating to change up your plan on the fly, because there’s uncertainty in improvising the set list.

13 of Nazareth explains it well:

“I have certain material floating around in my mind, and when I get to the microphone, the energy that’s present in the room dictates what I’m going to share.”

“Sometimes that [poem] lands perfectly and other times, not so much. But the times it doesn’t land, I walk away with the assumption that there must have been someone there that needed that. It might not have been for the entire room on that night, and I’m okay with that. I’m okay with somebody not getting it.”

“That’s part of the poet’s journey, right? You gotta be okay with being misunderstood. If you walk into the room assuming everybody is going to understand everything that you’ll have to say, you’ll be in for many rude awakenings.”

Realize poetry isn’t always for you

Often, writing and performing your poetry becomes about more than just yourself. It becomes about helping others heal and feel seen.

13 of Nazareth explains, “It’s a healthy thing for your creativity to oscillate back and forth between being for you and being for others. It builds a bridge between yourself and the various audiences you find yourself in front of. Hopefully what you’ll find is more similarities than differences.”

Your poetry is coming from you but being sent to the audience and making a mark on their hearts. That’s a powerful thing, and when you recognize it, you can leave a lasting impact.

13 of Nazareth says, “My love for the art form helped me to recognize that if I can also encourage others to find what it is they enjoy, then my job is doing itself.”

Keep showing up

Showing up means quite a few different things. But the sentiment is the same. Show up consistently and put in the work. If you do that, you’ll see the results. Here’s what 13 of Nazareth means when he says to show up.

“I just show up and participate in the work. I’m hoping I can support the process. Which for me, goes back to healing. I believe that the thing you love doing will also help heal you.”

Consistency in showing up for what you love can help you be consistently happy. And on top of that, taking the time to dedicate to your poetry helps you improve and continue growing your career.

And you know what career growth means …

“As you go forward in anything, the more time you put into it, the greater level of recognition you gain within it, the more you can demand.”

Finally, showing up consistently for the long-haul will make a difference in terms of how you’re recognized across generations. 13 of Nazareth explains how he was taught this:

“Poetry’s popularity exists in the world in 10 year cycles where it’s really hot for 10 years then it kind of disappears. It’s hot for 10 more years and then disappears. And the people who become well known are the people who stuck around when no one else was paying attention. So that every time people showed up again, a generation saw them and then the children of that generation saw them and then the grandchildren. So you’ve got three generations of people who love poetry, and this person’s name was present in every generation.”

Moral of the story is: Consistently show up, do this for more than yourself, read the room, and explore what poetry and a poetry career means for you.

13ofNazareth — 13 of Nazareth is an emcee from Virginia living with epilepsy, a dry sense of humor, and peace of mind over everything. The golden thread which runs throughout his hip-hop infused poetry is drawn from the looms of various spiritual traditions to weave a tapestry of creative works geared toward the personal and collective healing process.

Kelsey Bigelow 8/24/20 Kelsey Bigelow 8/24/20

Navigating the Poetry Highway: Pointers from Christopher “Cocktails” Cornell

Christopher “Cocktails” Cornell has been in the business for a couple decades now, and he has had quite the ride. We’re grateful he hopped on the Poet Life Podcast to share his expertise and tips for other poets building their careers.

Never be the smartest in the room

Christopher never feels like he’s the smartest in the room. And he doesn’t think anyone ever should. There’s always something to learn from someone else who has a different skill set and perspective than you.

He says, “You are the sum total of the five people around you. Look at the four people around you, and you’re the fifth. If you’re the smartest one, that’s not a good thing. You’re not doing as well as you think you are.”

However, that’s not to say you shouldn’t do the work still. Christopher tells his students to “put in the work now. Because hard work beats talent with time.”

Be in a growth mindset

Maybe you’ve heard of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. Well, Christopher is an advocate for a growth mindset. He won’t argue with a fixed mindset, because there’s no changing that person’s mind. But there are people who are willing to adapt, and those are the people who will grow in their career.

When Christopher started out, no one told him he couldn’t do it. He didn’t know. He says, “Whatever you did at the time, as long as it was halfway cool, people were going to show up. So why don’t I put a lot of dope artists on? … I’m going to use my marketing power. I’m going to use my relationships, and I’m going to put together something creative and fun. And I’m going to put myself on stage … I created my own audience.”

Use your skill sets, like marketing or event planning, to create a stage for artists around you. That helps build community and a platform for the community. However, it also gives you a way to make things happen for yourself as an artist. Use that stage for your career too.

Christopher says, “Let me try to communicate, advocate for myself so I can have some type of agency and be able to control my narrative.”

Study up on poetry and business

Why do we go to trade school or college? To study our chosen fields and set ourselves up for success and growth, right? It’s the same concept for your poetry career.

Christopher recommends three books to get started:

You may wonder, why these books? These have nothing to do with poetry. Think again, friend.

Christopher makes a valid point, “You’re on stage. What are you leading people towards? Why should I look at and listen to you? Why should I invest in you? Why should I show up?”

He points out that you have to win mindsets and hearts then win people’s trust. A strong way to build that trust is through education. Knowing your stuff and applying those skills. Now people can trust you when you tell them to attend a poetry show.

Learn to code switch

Code switching is often thought of as just for multilingual speakers. But code switching applies to settings and audiences too. Think about it.

Christopher reminds us that “by day, we work at corporate. By night, we’re spoken word artists.” And we already switch from the corporate office to the dive bar poetry scene without even changing our clothes, right?

As artists on stage, we naturally have to read the room. Know our audience. We match the vibe and voice of the audience to reach them effectively.

To Christopher’s point, “I can’t be too ratchet in the hood because that’s not them. I could throw out some things to let them know I identify with the South Side of Houston. But then I got to get to work because I have a brand. So I can’t be too off the wall.”

But don’t switch who you are

A key to code switching is not changing who you are or your message. It’s about changing how you present yourself and your message. Christopher shares this example from his work with students:

“I would have them write a passion speech. … Before they read it, I tell them to step out of the room. They might come back to a kindergarten class. It could be a juvenile detention center. It could be a Make America Great Again Republican Luncheon, you know? Whatever the speech was, they had to come back in, figure out the audience, and don’t change the speech. Don’t get scared. If you’re really passionate about your words, and you’re true to your words, you will figure out how to connect with that audience and deliver that message.”

Final thoughts from Christopher “Cocktails” Cornell

You have to learn your value and take yourself seriously if you want to make poetry a career and build the poetry industry. Invest in yourself.

Christopher says it best:

“If I want a career in this, am I truly investing in myself to create a career? That career is people investing in me because I am a person of value.
My niche is poetry, but I’m a person of value.”

Let that sink in, and then go listen to or watch the full episode because there’s many more awesome pointers Christopher shared with us.

Christopher “Cocktails” Cornell is a Professional Skills Facilitator at Year Up and is the Founder of E Period LLC.
Follow Christopher on social media: @eperiodspeaks