Yesterday marked ten full years of me performing poetry out and about (I’ve been writing longer than that). It’s a little crazy to believe. In that span of time, I’ve performed in a good number of states, cities, and venues. I’ve had the honor of sharing the stage with some phenomenally talented individuals and performing in front of hundreds of people I’ll probably never see again.
Going back to the first time I performed out is pretty interesting to me. I was in high school and had a years-long crush on this girl. I wrote a poem for her (which later became the 2nd half of my Love’s Theme piece) and asked if she wanted to hit up this open-mic with me. My plan was to surprise her by doing the poem and that she’d be so overcome that we’d embark on this perfect relationship. Friends, it NEVER works out that way, for future reference. Banish those thoughts now.
Anyway, she never came out to the open-mic, but I signed up anyway. Ten years ago at Barnes & Noble in Chattanooga (back when it was still in the same complex as Circuit City), Jenny Sadre-Orafi hosted a poetry open-mic. After I performed there the first time, I was hooked. It truly was like a completely different world had opened up to me.
I’ve been blessed from that date on. A decade after that night, I’ve had so many wonderful and personally affirming things happen to me. Hopefully, I’ll be further blessed with ten more. Let’s see what happens.
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