[Music]
like caterpillars blossoming into
beautiful butterflies or seeds blooming
were planted like the gestational
experience oh babe leaping at the wall
of a woman or mere clay being shaped
into stunning sculptures if the truth be
told and the truth should be told the
process of becoming happens in small
large quiet noisy peaceful chaotic
secret in public places 24 hours a day
seven days a week 365 days a year in
shadows mimicking illusions we discover
the purpose in the pain from the tears
that water invisible seeds of strength
wrapped in courage and kissed by the
lips of wisdom like traveling women glue
to horns of altars we we become as we
walk in the beauty of forgiveness we
conquer fears by discovering the freedom
and vulnerability as we heal from past
hurts and past pains and past
disappointments we embrace the truth of
our identity we no wait I I realized
that it didn’t kill me it strengthened
my core it cultivated my character it
increased the volume of my voice it
produced my stage and it gave my story
beautiful eagle wings and with my face
set like a flint it gave me courage to
leap into the direction of my destiny
that’s why where I was born lived
through an age could no longer determine
my health or my wealth my father’s
incarceration was not my destination
because those social determinants of
life had to continue with the village of
mentors that refused to let me fail in
this gift the very expression and
application of my creative imagination
took the limits off my potential so now
I overcome them by the words of my
testimony by the resilience of my spirit
and by the strength that allows my heart
to take the center stage I am no longer
just a number in their statistics I am
NOT the problem
I am the core of a solution I am a voice
to be reckoned with and I
have the right to write myself free but
that freedom don’t end with me I’m a
scribe for the whole community so if my
voice were to leave me now please sign
my opinion and don’t forgive my paper
[Music]
true story I was in my early 20s and I
was sitting on my grandmother’s bathroom
floor writing what I thought was a
suicide letter that I was leaving to my
family and friends only to realize that
sections that our letter write and that
I had the ability to write poetry and
that’s when the poet came alive in me
they tell me that film develop in dark
places well I’m 100% convinced that
people do too and everything happens in
a place so much so that when my family
needed to go to the bathroom they were
not going to do and say we gotta go and
I would say go to the other bathroom and
it would be like tamekia we ain’t
getting over the bathroom I realized two
things that night I was a poet and we
only had one bathroom but when I tell
that story I can’t help but to think
about the statistics about how eight
hundred plus thousand people died via
suicide worldwide I was the 10th leading
cause of death for adults and the second
leading cause of death for young people
ages 10 through 24 and I can’t help but
to ask myself how did I not become a
part of that number and I want to assert
that this was the reason why it was the
arts that became my voice it was the
mentors that became my influence and it
was the academia that became my
resources later on in their life I want
to talk about the arts for a minute I
had the opportunity have gone to a
performing arts high school in the arts
were consistently in my face and then I
had the opportunity of doing community
service events and I was able to
participate in different things in great
stages that way but also in church where
they would just stir up the gift
uh-huh obviously everybody’s Easter play
everybody’s Christmas playing and I
always had the opportunity to be in
front of people doing what I loved and
was passionate about I was also cut
because of the mentors my high school
teacher my 6th 7th and 8th grade high
school teacher was a wonderful mentor
she was the reason why I got into the
performing arts high school she stayed
with me and unfortunately she was killed
via domestic violence and then the world
of academia later on in life I
understood and appreciated this when I
started to realize the researchers they
were connected to things like health
equity and
behavioral health I began to realize
that we need the world of academia to
support while we take the platforms over
activist about things we need the world
of academia to support us in those
ventures metaphorically speaking to me
the process is like a puzzle you know it
has so many scattered pieces all over
the place and it’s our job to put those
pieces together but the bigger question
becomes how do you trust the process of
becoming when the pieces are so
scattered when they’re all over the
place how do you trust this process I
want to talk about three pieces of my
puzzle that was just all over the place
and I had to bring them together because
ironically enough they all work together
in one way or another the first one was
forgiveness now forgiveness is more than
saying sorry because in most cases you
won’t get an apology but you’ll still be
faced with the opportunity and I call it
opportunity not lightly but there’s an
opportunity to forgive people
forgiveness sometimes coming to form a
reconciliation where you say listen it
happened I trust you won’t do that again
I’m gonna reconcile myself back to you
but forgiveness also comes in a form of
separation where you say look it
happened and I trust you gonna do it
again
so I’m not coming back either way it’s
forgiveness right but forgiveness is
essential because forgiveness is your
peace and not just your peace in life
not just your piee
but it is your PE AC e your peace and so
I’ve come to the place where I’m not
gonna allow anybody or anything to
happen in my life to steal my PE hce cuz
I want my peak i ec e boom identity I
lost her I lost her because when I first
came to port respect you know I was like
oh I’m a poet I came up there I feel
like yes I’m gonna poet I got to give
you some drents I had a perm the next
week I lost it because I thought the
culture was one thing and I needed to
draft myself into the culture in order
to be what I was and I didn’t need to do
that I didn’t need to change who I was
at all I was good enough but I didn’t
realize that so I kept trying to be what
everybody else was and I looked at the
mirror one day and I couldn’t understand
my own reflection and that’s a horrible
piece of the puzzle to miss your own
identity so what I had to do was gather
that village those mentors
people that I talked about a little bit
earlier though stupid I was looking at
me like who you trying to be why you
trying to be it and then they didn’t
that was was nothing but Oracle
questions like they really wanted
answers so I’m like um I don’t know you
know the horrible the most horrible
person you will ever meet
is a gifted person with no
accountability with nobody can tell you
nothing you so gifted take nobody say
that until you can’t nobody check you
that’s the most horrible person you will
ever meet we all need that village of
mentors those people that would keep us
in line I remember my friend Sheila
shine we sit at the table and she was
like to me qiyam you need to quit
posting pictures and you need to produce
and I was like what but she was right
because I would make an album
photocopy of it post it on Facebook like
I don’t produce the album and be done
with it cuz it helped me it ain’t
helping nobody else though cuz I ain’t
really did nothing else with it so I had
to realize we fall in love with the
image of a thing we see other people’s
relationships and we don’t trust our
relationship as good as theirs because
their pictures look better than ours and
it’s all false it’s not even real so
then that last piece for me became love
now if you know anything about Porsche
you know that we all have a signature
piece so one day I was out and I was
doing this point and I was saying who
can start the film and eat with the end
video v that sits in the middle of and
me who can start with L and end with the
end be the ovie that sits in the middle
of in me who can’t start with L and who
can eat with the end video V that sits
in them but you won’t let nobody but you
won’t let nobody that’s all I kept
hearing in my hair while I was doing a
point had nothing to do with the point
but what was happening was I was asking
the question and I kept hearing the
answer in my head the answer was always
there it was always people around me to
love me but I didn’t love me and because
I didn’t love me I didn’t love my own
identity and I wasn’t walking in
forgiveness which is how those pieces
came together and I realized that
matters of the heart where heart matters
and when it came to relationship trust
was very essential so I had to learn how
to trust I had to learn how to forgive I
had to learn my identity and I had to
learn love and trusting the process is
not easy because somebody what
always remind you of what you did where
you came from your background your lack
of education your not pretty and the
statistics that’s around supporting
everything that they just said about you
but it don’t matter the reality of it is
I’m the author of my story and every
decision that I make determines what
that chapter looks like it’s a paradox
because the process of becoming has
everything yet it has nothing to do with
me it’s about a generation that’s still
locked in their grandmothers bathrooms
still contemplating suicide still trying
to give up and still haven’t found their
voice yet when it’s all said and done
each and every last one of us in here is
a piece to somebody’s puzzle and you’re
left with the responsibility of becoming
[Applause]
like caterpillars blossoming into
beautiful butterflies or seeds blooming
were planted like the gestational
experience oh babe leaping at the wall
of a woman or mere clay being shaped
into stunning sculptures if the truth be
told and the truth should be told the
process of becoming happens in small
large quiet noisy peaceful chaotic
secret in public places 24 hours a day
seven days a week 365 days a year in
shadows mimicking illusions we discover
the purpose in the pain from the tears
that water invisible seeds of strength
wrapped in courage and kissed by the
lips of wisdom like traveling women glue
to horns of altars we we become as we
walk in the beauty of forgiveness we
conquer fears by discovering the freedom
and vulnerability as we heal from past
hurts and past pains and past
disappointments we embrace the truth of
our identity we no wait I I realized
that it didn’t kill me it strengthened
my core it cultivated my character it
increased the volume of my voice it
produced my stage and it gave my story
beautiful eagle wings and with my face
set like a flint it gave me courage to
leap into the direction of my destiny
that’s why where I was born lived
through an age could no longer determine
my health or my wealth my father’s
incarceration was not my destination
because those social determinants of
life had to continue with the village of
mentors that refused to let me fail in
this gift the very expression and
application of my creative imagination
took the limits off my potential so now
I overcome them by the words of my
testimony by the resilience of my spirit
and by the strength that allows my heart
to take the center stage I am no longer
just a number in their statistics I am
NOT the problem
I am the core of a solution I am a voice
to be reckoned with and I
have the right to write myself free but
that freedom don’t end with me I’m a
scribe for the whole community so if my
voice were to leave me now please sign
my opinion and don’t forgive my paper
[Music]
true story I was in my early 20s and I
was sitting on my grandmother’s bathroom
floor writing what I thought was a
suicide letter that I was leaving to my
family and friends only to realize that
sections that our letter write and that
I had the ability to write poetry and
that’s when the poet came alive in me
they tell me that film develop in dark
places well I’m 100% convinced that
people do too and everything happens in
a place so much so that when my family
needed to go to the bathroom they were
not going to do and say we gotta go and
I would say go to the other bathroom and
it would be like tamekia we ain’t
getting over the bathroom I realized two
things that night I was a poet and we
only had one bathroom but when I tell
that story I can’t help but to think
about the statistics about how eight
hundred plus thousand people died via
suicide worldwide I was the 10th leading
cause of death for adults and the second
leading cause of death for young people
ages 10 through 24 and I can’t help but
to ask myself how did I not become a
part of that number and I want to assert
that this was the reason why it was the
arts that became my voice it was the
mentors that became my influence and it
was the academia that became my
resources later on in their life I want
to talk about the arts for a minute I
had the opportunity have gone to a
performing arts high school in the arts
were consistently in my face and then I
had the opportunity of doing community
service events and I was able to
participate in different things in great
stages that way but also in church where
they would just stir up the gift
uh-huh obviously everybody’s Easter play
everybody’s Christmas playing and I
always had the opportunity to be in
front of people doing what I loved and
was passionate about I was also cut
because of the mentors my high school
teacher my 6th 7th and 8th grade high
school teacher was a wonderful mentor
she was the reason why I got into the
performing arts high school she stayed
with me and unfortunately she was killed
via domestic violence and then the world
of academia later on in life I
understood and appreciated this when I
started to realize the researchers they
were connected to things like health
equity and
behavioral health I began to realize
that we need the world of academia to
support while we take the platforms over
activist about things we need the world
of academia to support us in those
ventures metaphorically speaking to me
the process is like a puzzle you know it
has so many scattered pieces all over
the place and it’s our job to put those
pieces together but the bigger question
becomes how do you trust the process of
becoming when the pieces are so
scattered when they’re all over the
place how do you trust this process I
want to talk about three pieces of my
puzzle that was just all over the place
and I had to bring them together because
ironically enough they all work together
in one way or another the first one was
forgiveness now forgiveness is more than
saying sorry because in most cases you
won’t get an apology but you’ll still be
faced with the opportunity and I call it
opportunity not lightly but there’s an
opportunity to forgive people
forgiveness sometimes coming to form a
reconciliation where you say listen it
happened I trust you won’t do that again
I’m gonna reconcile myself back to you
but forgiveness also comes in a form of
separation where you say look it
happened and I trust you gonna do it
again
so I’m not coming back either way it’s
forgiveness right but forgiveness is
essential because forgiveness is your
peace and not just your peace in life
not just your piee
but it is your PE AC e your peace and so
I’ve come to the place where I’m not
gonna allow anybody or anything to
happen in my life to steal my PE hce cuz
I want my peak i ec e boom identity I
lost her I lost her because when I first
came to port respect you know I was like
oh I’m a poet I came up there I feel
like yes I’m gonna poet I got to give
you some drents I had a perm the next
week I lost it because I thought the
culture was one thing and I needed to
draft myself into the culture in order
to be what I was and I didn’t need to do
that I didn’t need to change who I was
at all I was good enough but I didn’t
realize that so I kept trying to be what
everybody else was and I looked at the
mirror one day and I couldn’t understand
my own reflection and that’s a horrible
piece of the puzzle to miss your own
identity so what I had to do was gather
that village those mentors
people that I talked about a little bit
earlier though stupid I was looking at
me like who you trying to be why you
trying to be it and then they didn’t
that was was nothing but Oracle
questions like they really wanted
answers so I’m like um I don’t know you
know the horrible the most horrible
person you will ever meet
is a gifted person with no
accountability with nobody can tell you
nothing you so gifted take nobody say
that until you can’t nobody check you
that’s the most horrible person you will
ever meet we all need that village of
mentors those people that would keep us
in line I remember my friend Sheila
shine we sit at the table and she was
like to me qiyam you need to quit
posting pictures and you need to produce
and I was like what but she was right
because I would make an album
photocopy of it post it on Facebook like
I don’t produce the album and be done
with it cuz it helped me it ain’t
helping nobody else though cuz I ain’t
really did nothing else with it so I had
to realize we fall in love with the
image of a thing we see other people’s
relationships and we don’t trust our
relationship as good as theirs because
their pictures look better than ours and
it’s all false it’s not even real so
then that last piece for me became love
now if you know anything about Porsche
you know that we all have a signature
piece so one day I was out and I was
doing this point and I was saying who
can start the film and eat with the end
video v that sits in the middle of and
me who can start with L and end with the
end be the ovie that sits in the middle
of in me who can’t start with L and who
can eat with the end video V that sits
in them but you won’t let nobody but you
won’t let nobody that’s all I kept
hearing in my hair while I was doing a
point had nothing to do with the point
but what was happening was I was asking
the question and I kept hearing the
answer in my head the answer was always
there it was always people around me to
love me but I didn’t love me and because
I didn’t love me I didn’t love my own
identity and I wasn’t walking in
forgiveness which is how those pieces
came together and I realized that
matters of the heart where heart matters
and when it came to relationship trust
was very essential so I had to learn how
to trust I had to learn how to forgive I
had to learn my identity and I had to
learn love and trusting the process is
not easy because somebody what
always remind you of what you did where
you came from your background your lack
of education your not pretty and the
statistics that’s around supporting
everything that they just said about you
but it don’t matter the reality of it is
I’m the author of my story and every
decision that I make determines what
that chapter looks like it’s a paradox
because the process of becoming has
everything yet it has nothing to do with
me it’s about a generation that’s still
locked in their grandmothers bathrooms
still contemplating suicide still trying
to give up and still haven’t found their
voice yet when it’s all said and done
each and every last one of us in here is
a piece to somebody’s puzzle and you’re
left with the responsibility of becoming
[Applause]
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