I cosplayed as a star and discovered that I am one.
High Tea is a once-a-month, NPR Tiny Desk-inspired showcase of up-and-coming Black artists presented by The Flourish Alabama. One of The Flourish’s main missions is to help artists bloom, and through their many initiatives, events, etc. I think it’s safe to say they do just that. I’ve attended several High Tea’s in the past and would often participate in the open mic portion at the end of each showcase. This month’s High Tea was a bit different and special. It allowed me to shine and truly take up space on the stage as I was one of the featured artists (it’s giving headliner, okayy lol).
Here’s a brief recap and “behind-the-scenes” of my process leading up to the show.
Going into this performance, I knew I wanted to bring something new and different to the table. I’m mostly known for my poetry, but many people don’t know that I’ve always had a deep love for and connection with music and even wrote song lyrics growing up. It’s on my vision board/bucket list to create a poetry EP one day, so several of my artist dates while reading and completing The Artist’s Way involved me taking my songwriting ability more seriously and practicing the art of making songs. I knew this was something I wanted to debut at the show. And thanks to my good friend Eric, musically known as Daan Rana, I was able to bring this vision to life with three songs (him being featured on two).
The Mood Board - Everything always starts with a mood board. I don’t make the rules lol.
I have a mood board for pretty much everything, and this performance was no different. I described the desired look, feel, energy, vibe, mood, and essence of this performance as feminine, warm, eclectic, home-grown meets just landed from a different planet (shoutout to the down to mars girls). I wanted this performance to give "I'm not that little girl anymore." Very grown, allow me to reintroduce myself type energy. I've done the work so let me talk my ish type energy. Homecoming, coming home to self, stepping into my fullness, and heavily inspired by Yaya Bey (love her down).
Here’s how the final look came together. We’re ballin’ on a budget these days, so I wanted to try my best to use what I already owned to create a look that I resonated with. I initially planned to wear a chocolate brown dress, but after trying a few options on, I felt like this skort set from Artizia was the winner. I also got my first silk press! The weather was a hot mess (rain, wind, and everything in between), so the sleekness didn’t last, but the poofy look ended up working (at least that’s what I tell myself to keep from crying about it lmao)
My set had to be at least 15-20 minutes, so I decided to break it up into “Side A and Side B” (think OutKasts’ Speakerboxxx/The Love Below album) with Side A being the poetry part of my performance and Side B being the music/rapping (but I’m not a rapper *supa hot fire voice*) side of the performance.
I didn’t plan on performing any of my poems from memory, but I also didn’t want to read them off of my phone. Weeks before the performance I created a zine for the occasion to read my poems off of. I kinda wanted it to give off the same vibe as the cd inserts artists used in the past. I loveee how it came together! Shoutout to Canva and Mixam Printing.
& snippets from 2/3 of the songs:
^ shoutout to Kendrick Lamar for this moment lol.
It was such an amazing show, and I’m so thankful for everyone who came, everyone who was there in spirit, and all the support, love, and encouragement that surrounds me and my creative expression. I always feel at home when I’m on stage and this time was no different.
Here’s to getting out of our head and into our he(art), being bold, getting out of our comfort zone, stepping into our fullness, and not allowing our dreams and visions to collect dust in our notebooks and notes app. May this be the start of many more aligned opportunities and experiences.
^ a dad-approved performance. 👍🏽
thank you, sweet september, for showing me what I’m made of 🤎
