April 17, 2024 • 48 mins
In this episode of the Brothers In Company Podcast presents Creators Conversation, join host Chris "C-Lyric" Wynn and his special guest, revered poet and educator, Joey Tucker "Mr. Enlightenment" for a fascinating, deep-dive conversation into the poetry community of Charleston, South Carolina.
Joey’s poetic journey began with a personal love for rap and hip-hop, eventually blooming into a passion for penning his own verses. This passion, spurred by a hint of adversity, led to several published works including famed poetry books 'Flicker,' and 'Wallets and Purses.' Get an inside look at his lustrous journey in the realm of poetry and his high-energy performances across South Carolina and Georgia.
Witness a captivating discussion on the anxiety and exhilaration of performing in front of a live audience. Delve deep into the thoughts, dreams, and challenges faced by these stalwarts of the poetry world. Discover the motivation behind Joey’s love for micro poetry and the genesis of his book, 'Flickr.' Challenge your notions of success and failure seeing their take on online criticism and the competitive poetry-slamming scene.
Explore the inspiring world of slam poetry with remarkable slam poet, Mr. Enlightenment. Learn about his unique poetry selection process, how he harnesses audience energy, and his path to popularity at big slam events like Southern Fry. This insightful foray also reveals valuable advice for aspiring poets on learning from others, the power of memorizing poems, handling failure and fear, and the behind the scenes of preparing for poetry events.
End your journey with Joey's captivating reading of his poem, "Let There Be Light." Immerse yourself in this potent episode that is sure to fills your heart with emotions, and leave you profoundly inspired.
For more information about Mr. Enlightenment and his poetry performances, check him out at https://passdalight.com/.
- Follow Mr. Enlightenment on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kilowattpoet/
- Follow Mr. Enlightenment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/passdalight
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Brothers in Company Podcast.
Music.
Hello, hello, hello, everyone, and good evening.
And welcome to another episode of this segment of Content Creators from the
(00:24):
Brothers in Company Podcast, podcast, where we showcase artists,
poets, business professionals, doctors,
and much more here in Charleston, South Carolina and beyond.
My name is Chris C. Laird Gwynn. I'm one half of Brothers in Company podcast tonight.
It is Tuesday, April the 16th, 2024.
(00:45):
And tonight, tonight, I have a special guest and a great friend of mine and
fellow poet but in the Charleston community.
And his name is Mr. Joey Tucker, better known as Mr. D. Enlightenment.
He was born in a small town in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Grew up listening to his favorite hip hop artists, often writing raps of his own.
(01:10):
His hip hop roots are evident in the poetry community.
What rolled in Presbyterian College, Mr.
Enlightenment took a creative writing poetry class. It was at that time he put
together his own collection of poems.
After graduating, he wrote from time to time, but nothing serious.
A breakup sparked his creativity once again.
(01:33):
In 2009, he released his first chapbook, Wallets and Purses,
released it. and also along with light and a poet's playground.
In 2023, he released his poetry book called Flicker.
He also released two poetry CDs, Worth the Wait and Watts in 2015 and Summer Solitus in 2017.
(02:03):
Mr. D. Lightman's name is a play on words streaming from his job as an educator.
Also, he wanted to shine on stage while delivering his work.
Mr. Lightman has performed at various venues in South Carolina and Georgia.
And also, also, he has performed at my book release party last year for Colors
(02:25):
in 2023, along with other great fellow poets.
It was a great success and turnout. And Free First was definitely,
definitely in the building to show me so much love.
And he is one of them. All right, guys. I am so honored to have this man on this episode.
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, show your love for the one and only Mr.
(02:49):
Joy Tucker, better known as Mr. The Enlightenment.
What's going on? How y'all doing out there?
Good, good, good. I'm so glad and honored to have you on our show today, man.
How you feeling? man that's good man trying
to uh wrap up this school year and
just promote myself and just you
(03:09):
know interact with fellow artists and
just you know try to make my mark out here that's what's up that's what's up
you are most definitely making a mark in these streets as a poet man you are
so well known man well can you tell me about yourself and who is joy tucker
or better known as Mr. De-Alignment?
(03:31):
Man, I'm just a nationalist, sports fan, elementary school teacher,
just a social butterfly.
You know, if I'm not doing some poetry, I'm out and about, just hanging out
with friends, you know, just enjoying life, man.
(03:51):
That is great, man. Oh, I about to ask, who is your favorite team?
Team either football NFL I
am a Las Vegas Raiders fan that's what
well I'm a Carolina Panthers fan you know my
whole family loves the Panthers you know
(04:11):
I can get down with that yeah because we collect our
we collect their merch and you know just everything they beg on the Carolina
Panthers you know we're trying to win we're trying to win a win a Super Bowl
so everybody everybody got the same goal right we've been close but you know
we just got to do better up and up and down man,
(04:35):
absolutely absolutely so can you tell me how long have you been performing and writing poetry,
so my first open mic like i know i was doing i was posting posting poems on social media stuff just.
I wrote, like I said, I was in college, put together some poems for a class.
(04:57):
And, you know, along the way, me and a friend of mine, we're,
you know, just writing stuff and sharing it between each other.
You know, I was starting to post stuff online and getting pretty good feedback,
just interacting on Facebook.
And I met this guy who was also a poet.
You know, he wanted to get he almost doing what Marcus is doing now in Charleston.
(05:21):
He was doing that just all around it wasn't like locally based he was out of philadelphia,
well he had a he had a i think went to
college in in the georgia in college in
georgia or in the south for sure and he ended up in philadelphia but he had
a passion for poetry you know he offered me a chance to kind of put together
(05:44):
unofficial you know it wasn't nothing with a barcode it was just you know put
together some paper staple it together and just Just, you know, just grab fruits,
getting your eye, getting your work out there to the few supporters that you
had at the time and just build from there.
So I did my first open mic in 2010.
(06:04):
Wow. That's awesome. That's awesome. I mean, I had my spurts and I pretty much continued it.
You know, I had my more productive years in poetry, but I never stopped doing it. Absolutely.
You don't ever stop doing poetry, man. Well, I started doing poetry.
It started back in high school. I used to like write songs.
(06:26):
I'm like, I'm big into hip hop and R&B. And, you know, and I was like writing and singing in chorus.
And then I was like, oh, my songs can be turned into poetry.
And then, like you said, I started writing poetry more. Or I went to Trident
Tech in the early 2000s and I took like a creative writing class and I created
(06:47):
my first chapbook and it was like an awesome experience.
I'm like, oh, my God, I can write and I've been getting like good grades on it.
Yeah, man, it's been awesome. And I also like started going to free verse as
well after, you know, dealing with different situations during during and after COVID.
Just try to, you know, better myself as a person.
(07:07):
And, you know, it's been very great. Like, I really love performing and going
to open mics just to get inspired by a lot of people. So most definitely.
Yeah. So in your bio, I want to ask, like you stated that hip hop has influenced your art of poetry.
Tree um can you tell me some of your favorite hip-hop artists
that has inspired your work and how they impacted your
(07:30):
life well i grew up in south carolina but i
listened to a lot of up north uh hip-hop you
know because new york kind of the mecca hip-hop and well
yeah especially when i was younger we weren't you
know the southern rappers weren't getting that much uh
publicity so you know know we all were just new
york new york is what we kind of were influenced by
(07:52):
and you know i was a big wu-tang fan
growing up and jay-z is my favorite rapper
of all time so just i guess if
you listen to it enough i was just able to you know put words together like
i could i could just be creative and put a simile together that would just be
(08:12):
clever and you know kind of have a a little bit of humor with it too so i don't
know if i kind of credit you know if you listen to.
Lyricists i think you start to become a lyricist i think if
whatever you kind of subliminally listen to
or are you exposed to you kind of pick
it up i must definitely tell you i i
(08:33):
love um new york hip-hop as well i do like west coast
hip-hop south hip-hop i like the old school hip-hop like you know kid and play
like house party movies and that's when i got really inspired to you know you
know listening to hip-hop and then also going to parties as well so most definitely
most definitely new york is in the house that's what's all started.
(08:54):
So like i would look i would look at a
rap city the basement you know that kind
of kept me in the loop about what was going on
and you know when videos were like you
know we kind of depended on videos to kind of see the artists now social media
but you know i had to you had to wait to see your favorite artist and you had
(09:16):
to watch videos and you came out with an album you didn't get to see the behind
the scenes in the studio you just had to wait for that that release date,
oh yeah absolutely man i missed the old
bt days man like you know like you said like rap city
and doing those cyphers or freestyle battles and
stuff i truly missed that it was the good
(09:36):
old times i wish we could go back in time and you know relive those moments
you know but you know again social media has really kind of taken over and just
changed everything from hip-hop like i still collect cds to this day like i
don't like like streaming and download to my phone because you You know,
I still like, you know, collecting and looking at booklets and stuff and how
(09:59):
to produce what producers is on album and the lyrics and stuff, you know what I mean?
You bought that CD, you like, you open it up and read the inside while you're
listening to it. Absolutely.
And I still do. And I have like a bunch of CDs in my room.
So is this a full stack of CDs, movies as well, video games as well. ourselves.
(10:25):
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, we met at open mic nights at free verse
events, you know, created by, you know, Mr.
Marcus Amaker, who was our first poet laureate of Charleston.
Shout out to Mr. Marcus Amaker, you know, and then going to these events,
you know, he want us to perform in a safe space without any judgment.
(10:46):
What can you tell me? What great advice has mr marcus
amaker given to you that impacted your life as
a poet or any advice that he has given you oh
he just he's very positive like
he'll never be critical of your work and i kind
of take that same approach you know you want to be positive about an upcoming
(11:09):
artist or a new poet it you want to you know never kind of shut people down
you know especially if they feel.
Like they want to share their work with you because i
guess if you're a veteran of that field you know
they want that mentorship so he
was always the the positive guy and
(11:32):
you know in in warm inviting like
he you know he had events and he invited me
out and he gave me opportunities opportunities to do my poetry with
them so you know I just kind of take the
same approach like I'm trying to share opportunities
if I have them and you know just not tear anybody down just you know keep doing
(11:55):
what you're doing and you know poetry is unique and that it's so many different
styles and we're all you know we're all adding something important to in the community.
Absolutely, man. I can tell you definitely, Mr. Marcus Amaker,
he is such a positive, like you said, he is a positive, positive poet here in
(12:17):
the community of Charleston.
Like I call him my big brother poetry because I learned so much from this man.
Like he actually helped me with the formatting for my book.
And I've been like going back and forth with him. like you
know i wanted to be perfect and he was very patient of
you know helping me edit and having my book formatted correctly
when i was having difficulties like trying to upload my
(12:40):
manuscript online so he definitely was very patient
yeah i will also say like he gave
me also advice as well he told me like when you
release your book release your projects do it
when on your time don't do it when you know people
try to rush you and try to you know try to speed you
up just do it in your on time when you're ready because i
(13:01):
want to make sure my poem was ready and perfect and
just you know ready for the world to
be taken so most definitely marcus emmerker he's he's such a wonderful mentor
to everybody here in the community so everybody could definitely learn from
this man so shout out to him yeah man he's like he's basically making mr poetry
(13:22):
for sure like Like when you say poetry in Charleston,
he's one of the names that pops up. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Well, you do know that poetry is a great way to express yourself,
like letting out all of your emotions, whether it's being happy, sad and so on.
What has poetry meant to you in your life that helped you overcome obstacles in your life?
(13:48):
Oh, I definitely it definitely gives me a chance to kind of vent.
I don't outwardly share my
thoughts as much i'm pretty i keep it
pretty positive but everybody goes through these moments when
when things aren't you know always going so well so writing is always an outlet
it's just been a thing that i've been doing and a great way to meet more people
(14:15):
and And just a conversation spark between artists.
You know, I like to, you know, go to the open mics and workshops and just,
you know, kind of share ideas with people and kind of see how somebody else
might interpret something.
So just those conversations and, you know, allow me to be creative and kind of push the envelope.
(14:42):
I love how poetry is kind of like, it allows you to be free.
Like, I'm not the most...
Vocal person you know i'm not the center of
attention type of guy but i feel like when poetry allowed me
to kind of get my voice and kind of command the audience even though i'm not
always like that i kind of like play the background but when you're on stage
(15:04):
and it's it's almost like you can have that that that other alter ego like it's
a little more stand out than my normal self,
I can definitely relate to, you know, being on stage and bringing out your alter
ego because I'm kind of different from, you know, my personal life.
(15:25):
I'm like more reserved, laid back. And then when you perform,
you become this person that, you know, motivating and so encouraging.
So I definitely love it. It just brings out my, take me out my shell when I
perform. form. So most definitely.
And I would say like, for me, when I write my poetry, I kind of write from personal
life experiences, wherever I'm dealing with, you know, depression,
(15:47):
happiness, and joy, I kind of write that down rather than just bashing somebody on social media.
I'd rather just like write it down, go in the corner and just express myself,
you know, just, it helps me, it helps me definitely better death,
you know, get myself better in life. So most definitely I can related to that.
I'll ask you a question. So in your poetry performances, you are,
(16:11):
you are the man at crowd participations in your poetry performances.
Like, you know, you feed off the people's energy and you just motivate everybody.
Like you always do that lights on, lights off.
I just like that. So that's one of my favorite parts in your poetry,
you know, lights on, lights off.
So do you think it's like important, very important to incorporate crowd participation
(16:33):
and portrait pieces to make the audience feel one with your work?
I think it can help definitely it kind of breaks the ice with you too that's
kind of kind of get get the nerves out because as much as you perform you're
still going to be a little nervous when you still go up there for the first
time you know that night or that evening whenever,
so it gets the and sometimes the crowd
(16:56):
not always into it you know they might they might
not know who you are you know
at that point they might they might came to see another
poet they didn't come to to see you or that kind
of like sparks their attention you know the
way you present your work so i think it definitely can
help absolutely i kind of agree with that
(17:19):
man like i'll say when i go to my performances
like i think my first open mic
was a couple years ago at the common house i can
remember it it was like nighttime and marcus was hosting it
my lips first chat like my lips was
like i was shaky dicky man i was like i was
doing ums and ahs and just i was
(17:40):
so nervous but after a while you just get better and
better like i definitely love the crowd participation like especially um i'm
learning from dl like he he's good at you know just crowd participation like
you know he's been like shout out some words shout out some words like different
subjects and then he create poems like off the bat like that on the spot Yeah, yeah.
(18:02):
I'm not ready to freestyle a poem like that yet.
Well, I did it before. It's not bad at all.
For my performance next month for the Charleston Arts Fest, I'm probably going
to do some freestyling. So it is fun.
I might just wrap off your stickers and your T-shirts and just create a poem.
(18:26):
And, you know, everyone love it.
Hey, man, like I said, man, there's always different ways to go about it. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Because I'd be thinking like poetry, like you just had to rhyme and your poems
got to make sense to the people.
And, you know, but like you said, like poetry comes in so many art forms and
(18:46):
different shades, you know, like poetry, just everything.
So there's no right or wrong when you write and perform. So most definitely.
Yeah. Yeah. So I see that you put out your own poetry book called Flickr that
I have, man. I definitely loved it.
And I do love the picture illustrations with your poems.
(19:08):
I'm definitely very proud of your publication, man. So I'm very proud.
Thank you. Thank you for putting it out.
Can you tell the people checking it out?
Of course. Of course, man. Shout out to your peoples that definitely help put your poems together.
Ever and you know the whole publication everything can you
tell the people what your poetry book flicker is
(19:28):
about and what has inspired you to creating it so uh
kind of what sparked it is when i was just posting
on social media and i was you know you get a certain amount of space and when
i was tweeting tweeting that is prime you know you only had 140 characters so
i started I started doing like haiku and then kind of transforming into my own
(19:53):
version of poetry where,
you know, it wasn't exactly counting syllables,
but I would have a central thought and I would kind of try to pack it in,
in a certain amount of lines.
And then I kind of stumbled upon this genre online called micro poetry.
So I started becoming pretty good at, you know, saying a lot when those small amount of lines.
(20:19):
And I just, you know, kept putting, you know, coming up with poems and and writing down on paper.
And I was just, you know, having something to post.
You know, I would post a poem every few days or every day and it started becoming
something I do on Instagram and Twitter and getting good feedback.
And it was a quick hitter.
(20:39):
So, you know, somebody is scrolling. rolling they don't
have the time or maybe they
don't plan on stopping and reading
an entire longer poem so they can you know
on your timeline they'll see those three or four lines and like
oh that's pretty clever oh I like that you know then they might share it or
they might retweet it they might you know like it so I started like kind of
(21:04):
developing a knack for that so I just had a bunch of short poems that i just
compiled in a document and.
I've also seen where people would put a picture to go along with it.
So I was like, all right, well, I reached out to some art, you know,
art teacher friends of mine or just artist friends of mine and said, hey, I got some poems.
(21:25):
Can you draw, you know, a little sketch to go along with it?
So, you know, I sent them some poems and, you know, I kind of gave them a little
direction or I also let I want them to be free with it.
You know, like whatever you come up with something, you know, I can kind of.
Yeah, I like it or I don't. so i feel
like it was another way to add to
(21:47):
the poetry so you can put a little picture there to
go along with it so i decided to put it out
and just go with it man and it makes sense because you know it was all i was
thinking light you know all i got a lot of light theme poetry and just promotion
so i'm thinking like it's a quick it's a quick poem so it's like a flicker of
(22:09):
light Right. Right. Absolutely.
I definitely love the illustration, man. I'm with the same way with my poetry
book that came out last year. Colors can overcome levels of real stages.
And I talked to one of my great designers, Mr. Chris Kendall,
who created my graphics. graphics.
And I told him I want, I want to have my pictures as the, you know,
(22:31):
the backdrop, you know, as defining my emotions with the red that represents redemption,
black color represents, you know, darkness, dark, dark days, like them dark times.
And then the gold color represents, you know, the good and inspiration in my
life. So he definitely executed that.
And the pictures go along with my poetry and it definitely flowed very well. So I'd.
(22:55):
Definitely appreciate the illustrations your illustrations and the
people that behind it man it's amazing
love absolutely so
i would ask you like you know in the author's world
you know like book reviews from online can either
make you or break you like i don't know
if you deal with it have you deal with any good or
(23:17):
bad reviews about your book and if so um do
you feel book reviews can make a poet better or
can it make you intimidating uh that's
something i always kind of struggle with like criticism so
i mean a good review can.
Be a good thing and then a bad
(23:37):
review can also take away from it so i don't
want to force it but you know i do
kind of like hey if you like the poem can you write
a little bit about it just because a review
can definitely help you know the next person decide if
they want to read it or they want to buy it but i
guess it's all all kind of criticism if it's
(23:59):
from a positive place like you know
some people just like tearing you down just because you know
if it's not for you it's not for you so why put
all the effort into writing a negative review so
if somebody asks you to write to review i think
they respect your opinion enough and like maybe it wasn't for you but you can
(24:22):
kind of pick out some positive things about it so i feel like there's a there's
a way to give some criticisms or you know what you could do better but that's a slippery slope so.
I haven't had any well lately
i guess there's always somebody on social media that you know they don't understand
(24:44):
your poem or they didn't understand one of my poems or you know i don't mind
clarifying like i actually like when people ask me like you know what did you
mean by that or if they say some kind of smart remark you know maybe a good
conversation can come from it,
so i think it's all about how you approach somebody with it and how it's done
(25:04):
and i agree with you also with you know people's opinions and reviews like when
i put out my book on amazon i I was so nervous, too.
Like, I was like, I was waiting on somebody to, you know, say something bad
and tear me down to shreds. But, you know, so far, everyone has been loving
it, you know. Yeah, because you got to go.
(25:25):
I mean, you got to go out. I mean, a bad review.
Okay. If it's food, something.
I feel like you took a chance. You always going to take a chance.
I'll take a chance on a movie. You know, maybe I'm not familiar with the actress.
I'll take a chance on it. So for me to go on and write a bad review and try
(25:47):
to make the, you know, there's a way to do it.
I feel like you got to go out your way to be negative about somebody's art.
It was like, okay, it wasn't for me. I bought it. It wasn't my cup of tea.
I feel like to write a negative review about
it it's kind of like unnecessary man now
(26:08):
if somebody came to me and had i feel like yeah i can do a positive review but
i don't know it's just not me i'm not the type of person to go online and write
a negative review about somebody's art you know if it wasn't for me it wasn't
for me i mean there's some people that they do that that's what So they do,
you know, you get, you get more attractions and some being negative about something
(26:32):
than being positive about it.
But I guess if you want to, I, I haven't, I'm very strategic about who I do
ask my, you know, who I want to ask about, you know, the work.
Cause somebody be careful what you get, careful what you ask for.
Cause you know, it can't make a difference.
Especially if you're going to a new name, you decide to pay somebody.
(26:56):
That's a stranger that does review, you know, you're taking a chance that it might not be that great.
So I guess I'm all, I'm trying to be as organic as possible, man. So, you know,
Hopefully it lands in the hands of somebody that appreciated it and then they
want to, you know, share the good things about it. Right. Absolutely.
(27:18):
I'm the same way, too, man. Like, I don't take it as a, you know,
a bad experience, like, you know, good or bad.
But with reviews for me, I feel like it betters me as a poet.
If something is bad, I can do better on the next poem and the next book that
I put out. I feel as this person says it.
(27:38):
I'm not going to change my whole style of poetry because one person said it wasn't good.
That's my art. That's like if I'm a painter or a sculptor and somebody doesn't
like my painting, I'm not changing my whole style because of you.
So you take it with a grain of salt, I think.
Now, maybe they could say, maybe your illustration could have been done differently
(28:02):
or maybe your, you know, your layout on the page.
Okay, I can understand that. But if you didn't like my poem,
I'm not changing the way I write.
Like, it's a hard thing as an artist.
You're writing it for yourself most of the time.
Sometimes you're writing it for the audience. So I don't want to get caught
(28:23):
up in trying to please the audience so much.
At the end of the day, if you think your poem is good, you need to put it out there.
Because somebody is going to connect with it. And there's some people that it's not for everybody.
So I'm not the type of person, yeah, I'm going to take your criticism if it's something that I can...
(28:46):
I don't know if it's something that could help me as a writer,
but I can't take the I didn't like it. OK, you didn't like it.
What? I'm not going to change the way I write for a negative opinion of it. So that's just me.
I don't think any artist should change, you know, their core values to appease
(29:08):
the audience, because at the end of the day, you should write for yourself.
Like we're not no we're not drake out here we're not trying to sell a million copies so,
you're writing from a place like it's your story i'm telling my story i can't
let nobody tell me that i'm not telling my story correctly like oh that's that's
(29:30):
not that's not gonna i'm not gonna change my style because the one person doesn't
like it because like you said you like Like,
you got your favorite artist, and you all about that favorite artist.
And there's some people who don't like that favorite artist.
I don't think the artist gets in trouble when they start changing themselves,
(29:51):
for the audience to get more people supporting them.
You kind of lose, like, what are you doing it for? I like the art at its purest form.
You know, everybody wants the applause. everybody wants
to sell a bunch of copies but at
the end of the day out you put it out like you
(30:14):
were proud of something you put out like this was something that
i thought was good and at the end of the day i
think that's all we need i agree with you man like
you know i wouldn't want to change my poetry for anybody because
everybody's story is so unique different because
you don't know what that person go through the next person go through so
why why would we change it so exactly
(30:37):
we don't want we don't we don't want everybody's porn
to be the sound of saying like i love those free verse open
mics like it's so many different styles go to the open mic there's so many different
styles and all of this good like there's no i love poetry because there's no
one way to do it you can't tell me i'm doing it wrong you can't tell me i'm
(30:57):
writing poetry wrong now there is a technical aspect which i'm not the most technical poet.
I'm sure there's line breaks. You got to do a line break here.
I'm not so technical with that, but end of the day, there's no wrong way to
do it. You can't do it wrong.
Not at all. Not at all. We are unique and different, especially with the slams.
(31:22):
I went to a slam last year. I participated in it, but I feel no one is different
than the other person. And, you know, everybody is so unique at their own style. Like, no.
Yeah, and that's a big thing. Man, I've never been a slam person because I don't
want, and people get caught up.
I'm not going to be correlating my poem to a score. I just never want to get caught up in that.
(31:47):
I've been online. I know I follow a lot of poets online, and there's a lot of
controversy about slam poetry right now, and it's the competitive nature,
and it's like they're kind of ruining the.
Uh the whole essence of what yeah yeah okay
i get it trying to be the best that's cool trying to
be the best it's cool but land has never been
(32:10):
my thing so i've always stayed away from slam like nope i'm not getting into
a slam like i'm not doing it this is i'm gonna deliver my poem the way i want
to and i'm like i don't get caught up in slam that's not that's not my that's
not my style right i agree it's not for me either but you know it was a experience that.
(32:31):
I mean, yeah, I can't knock it.
There's a lot of really good slam poets out there.
And I've been to some slams.
I've been to a popular slam that's called Southern Fry.
And I heard about it, and I decided to go one year. And it was good,
like some really good poem.
And I commend you for that.
(32:52):
And there's a way to do it, too. And it's like, again, what we just talked about.
You're you're writing you're going into
these slams with certain poems that you're
not going to resonate with the people so it's
almost like you're writing to win so i don't know that's not my thing like i
(33:14):
you do have to kind of i did learn it i don't know how you feel about it but
if you thought that what's what what's the thought process you go to when you're
like all right what what poem am I going to read?
Like, what poem am I going to choose? Like, we had, the last time I saw you
out at the Free Verse one, you could only do one poem.
(33:36):
All right, so what do you, what goes through your mind when you're like,
I only got one poem to kind of,
get the crowd, get the crowd's attention. I got one poem. So what goes through
your mind when you're trying to decide which poem I want to do?
How do you decide what poems you're going to do?
Man, for me, I just go how, what the energy feels like. I just go with the flow.
(34:02):
Like a lot of people like reading about love and happiness and joy,
but you know, I just, I decided, you know, I'm just going to write something
that's dark and just to get them on their toes so they can relate.
I think one of them was about like a
abuse relationship I've been in and you know it
was just about I'm no longer a victim and it kind of resonate with the audience
(34:23):
I just I just go with the flow of you know how the audience is feeling you know
I try not to like read the same exact kind of not the same exact but the same
exact theme that everyone else is reading I want to just do something all right
you gotta shake it up you gotta shake it up sometimes you know.
But yeah, most definitely, you know, that's, that's what, that's my,
my, you know, thought process of, you know, just going there.
(34:45):
Cause when I'd be going to, you know, free verse, like, you know,
the poetry events, I've been thinking it's like therapy, you know,
cause you'd be seeing how the seats, how the seating areas is seated.
It felt like, you know, going to therapy and, you know, to always this therapist
and, you know, they just listen to your work and it is such a good feeling,
(35:06):
man. And like, it's not intimidating at all, you know, and I just love it.
Absolutely. So I want to ask you, like, for anyone that's listening out there,
like what type of advice would you like to give anyone that wants to start a
journey as a poet and what can they learn from it?
But I would say just kind of be a sponge,
(35:32):
you know, when you start to go out and hearing poets and kind of take little
pieces from other people. Oh, I like the way she does that.
I like the way he does that. that so you know
try to you don't want to you still want to be original but you can still take
pieces of your favorite poets and kind of build your own style from that that's
(35:56):
what's up okay so it's uh since it's national poetry month i hate to put you on the spot.
But you always deliver your poetry as always man so is there a poem in your
heart that you would would like to share with any with all the listeners and
fans out there that's kind of,
(36:19):
it's only right that i do my introduction poem i like to start off every show
with this poem you know if i got multiple poems to share i'd like to start off
the night with this one because,
you know this is where it started i think this is one of my first poems that i wrote to,
share out with people,
This poem is called Let There Be Light. I remember when mom used to call me
(36:42):
home before the streetlights came on.
Now I feel at home on stage when the lights are on. Senior year,
undergrad, that's when the light came on.
Time to illuminate. I write like I'm afraid of the dark. My pen is a light bulb,
a match waiting for that spark.
When I start to shine, I don't plan on flickering. My brain is a generator,
(37:02):
ready to kick in like an NFL punter.
Try to take my shine i got enough radiance to
go around i'll even pass it out like free samples like
the first attempt for neanderthals trying to create fire you probably fizz out
before you replicate me when someone closes the gap it's time to increase the
voltage become more ultraviolet for every sunrise or the sunset but not if i
(37:24):
can help it prepare for my summer solstice let there be light lights out.
Man did you just say with closing the gap your brain is you know generated oh my god.
That's what's up that's why I had you at my book release party like you you
(37:47):
deliver man appreciate that you are welcome man,
I wish you could do another poem but you know kind
of running out of time but uh i'm most definitely
going to check out at more open mic events man you're you're
a crowd pleaser as always hey man like i said it didn't always start like this
(38:08):
because i like i said i had to go through my moments where i was the nervous
person the person with the paper you know i just kind of i decided to like make it my goal.
No, I do read off paper. It depends on what kind of setting.
You know, if I'm doing a poetry reading, an extended amount,
(38:28):
I'm definitely going to do some from memory, but I might pull out a couple poems
that I want to read to the crowd.
But if I'm out and about, I'm only doing one or two, I'm definitely trying to go from memory.
Like, that's what I like. I think I can.
I'm not good about reading from the paper and looking up. up and it loses some
(38:52):
of that, you know, the energy.
It loses some energy to me because I got to worry about where I'm at on the paper.
So I like to do it from memory and that way I can just, you know,
I like to move with the poem and I want to be looking at, I want to be walking
around a little bit, sometimes I don't want to be in one spot.
On that one line, I'm looking at this person, I'm looking over here.
(39:14):
You can pause, you can add that, you know,
know you can the way you can enunciate certain words like when you got it from
memory i feel like you can do so much more with it absolutely absolutely i agree
with you man like i think like doing performing poetry out of memory is it feels
so real it feels so fluid like you just.
(39:35):
It just feels a lot better man you know i tried like
you know i still do read off paper looking at the
audience look down look at the audience it's helpful
for most people but you know i felt like you know having
a memory is you know a lot better it took
me about uh almost a month to memorize um a poem because
i had to keep repeating words repeating it's a
(39:56):
hard part like that i still for me i gotta actually i'm gonna i want to actually
memorize a new poem and it's just it's it's tough man i realize i just gotta
you just gotta make yourself i've started to record myself and then play it
back over and over. Oh, yeah. I've been doing that, too.
(40:16):
That's how I remember. I remember. If I actually put my mind to it, you give me a week.
And that's that's with other stuff going on like give
me a week and then i can i'll have
that poem pretty memorized but the bad part
is if i don't do poems for a while i'll still forget some of it but then you
(40:38):
go back through it then it comes back kind of quickly but i gotta start it's
a it's a certain poem or two and that's in my catalog that i think would be
good when i do a show and i was I want to add it.
You know, I want to give somebody another poem.
I don't want them to be like, oh, I heard that already. Oh, I already heard that from you.
(40:58):
I want to be able to give you at least one new poem that you didn't hear the last show.
Even if my catalog is big enough that I can kind of switch them out,
I want you to feel like you heard a different poem than the last time.
Or maybe it was a different order.
Or I took a poem out and then I put another poem in. So I feel like especially
(41:20):
if you're somebody that goes to all of my shows or to a lot of my shows,
I want you to feel like, oh, I didn't hear that one. I didn't remember that.
I don't remember that one for last time.
So that's that's my goal. Absolutely. Absolutely, man.
Where can where can people find you at? I know you got upcoming events coming up.
Can you share that with any listeners? listeners list out there what you got
(41:43):
going on first of all you can find me on instagram,
at kilowatt poet facebook mr
enlightenment i dabble a little bit on tiktok at kilowatt poet i got a poetry
show coming up in may may 17th is a friday here in charleston area mount pleasant
(42:06):
to be exact at a place called Harb Call Brewery.
It's in Mount Pleasant. So it's a,
seven to nine on a friday so like
about a month out you know uh so
it'll be me and a couple other my poet
colleagues coming to share some
(42:26):
poetry to the people absolutely absolutely man and i've been very honored to
being a part of your delight show um last year so most definitely i definitely
appreciate you having me on man along with the other fellow poets man it's been
so much fun man And just share the stage with you.
And it's been great, man. I definitely appreciate it.
(42:48):
Most definitely come out to the live show, everybody. It's amazing.
Like, most definitely. You will get inspired.
Dang. I would like to thank you so much, man.
Joy, for definitely being on this segment of Content Creators by the Brothers Company Podcast.
It was a great show. I felt so inspired by your words of encouragement and motivation of your poetry.
(43:12):
Man you are truly truly a gift
from god man in this community and i know
the sky is the limit for you man just keep going uh
just keep doing what you do beth man i just
definitely love your work man is there
anything else you would like to say in the segment
of content creators that you haven't really or any advice
(43:34):
you know i appreciate the opportunity
man i like what what y'all doing like i said i didn't know how long
y'all have been doing a podcast and it's pretty pretty impressive
man just to because a lot of people do a podcast they
do it for a little while they stop you know you
gotta put a lot it's a lot of dedication whatever you decide to
do you that's why i say low motion better than no motion you know i had my moments
(44:01):
where i didn't do poetry as much but i literally even if i wasn't sharing it
i was writing it from time to of time or I was watching a video. So.
Keep going whatever it is keep going don't stop
it's gonna get hard you're gonna feel like you
know you're not making much progress but you
(44:21):
definitely are you you definitely got
more if you look back at it your journey
you farther along than you were when
you started absolutely man i definitely appreciate that
man because i tell everybody like if you have a goal
dream an aspiration in life just go for it
you know don't hold yourself back you know i'm working on
(44:42):
that man because i'm trying to
deal with the the fear of failure and
you're gonna have to take your losses too man but i'm
not a fan of it was nobody here to take
that risk you know some people some people like taking the risk man i'm a calculated
guy man i'm gonna i'm gonna take my baby steps i don't really go out there and
(45:05):
i haven't taken that i hadn't left yet like i'm I'm taking my baby steps,
right? I ain't take that junk yet.
So I'm going to have to do it at some point. But I right.
Sir, failure is not an option with you, sir. You always succeeding.
You always doing great things.
So I don't see failure in your eyes when you perform and seeing you about with,
(45:27):
you know, as an educator or anything, man.
Like, seriously, you is doing it. You is doing it.
Always our own worst critic, too. So that's the thing, man. man.
Hey, I'm glad I'm making it look like I got it together, but at the end,
you're dealing with your stuff and you want to be, like I said,
(45:48):
you want to be a perfectionist, but you got to put it out there.
How are people going to feel about it? Are they going to like it?
Are people going to show up at the show?
I mean, that's kind of nerve wracking, man. When you're putting together your
own show and you're putting yourself out there, are people going to show up, man?
So that's what that's what you gotta deal with
absolutely man most definitely i definitely appreciate man well thank you so
(46:14):
much man for definitely being on this episode man and hope to see you doing
big things man i'll be looking for you all right man shout out to the enlightened
man you are now enlightened that's out.
All right, guys, you have heard it here. Mr.
Lightman has given us his encouraging words, his story, and his inspirations
(46:36):
within his life and his heart, man. He's such an amazing dude, man.
Just to wrap up, my name is Chris C. Larrick Wynn of the Bravo's Company Podcast
presents Content Creators.
You can definitely follow Content Creators, Bravo's Company Podcast Podcasts
at Facebook, Twitter, IG, TikTok, and on our website at,
(47:00):
brothersandcompanypodcast.com, where you can see the latest episodes,
including this one here with Mr. Enlightenment on the website.
We do have bios of me and Derek, one half of Brothers and Company Podcast there,
pictures, and along with our merch store right here.
All right. Yeah, you got it all.
Baited, no Charleston right here. and
(47:23):
you can definitely purchase shirts hoodies coffee mugs
and more definitely on our website so definitely definitely check
out our merch store guys and again we
always say this on our show i mean derek
we are free 99 guys you
ain't gotta take out no loan no mortgage no payments to
watch us man like why why pay for
(47:45):
you know content you know it's all
free so most definitely check us out guys
i need to subscribe to y'all i needed to subscribe to
you on um youtube man oh absolutely absolutely
most definitely i can definitely share that link with you after the show is
wrapped and i could definitely you know share that with you all right okay man
(48:06):
guys thank you so much for tuning in you guys have a good night peace and one
love this is the brothers in company podcast.
This is the Brothers in Company Podcast.
Music.
Hello, hello, hello, everyone, and good evening.
And welcome to another episode of this segment of Content Creators from the
(00:24):
Brothers in Company Podcast, podcast, where we showcase artists,
poets, business professionals, doctors,
and much more here in Charleston, South Carolina and beyond.
My name is Chris C. Laird Gwynn. I'm one half of Brothers in Company podcast tonight.
It is Tuesday, April the 16th, 2024.
(00:45):
And tonight, tonight, I have a special guest and a great friend of mine and
fellow poet but in the Charleston community.
And his name is Mr. Joey Tucker, better known as Mr. D. Enlightenment.
He was born in a small town in Walterboro, South Carolina.
Grew up listening to his favorite hip hop artists, often writing raps of his own.
(01:10):
His hip hop roots are evident in the poetry community.
What rolled in Presbyterian College, Mr.
Enlightenment took a creative writing poetry class. It was at that time he put
together his own collection of poems.
After graduating, he wrote from time to time, but nothing serious.
A breakup sparked his creativity once again.
(01:33):
In 2009, he released his first chapbook, Wallets and Purses,
released it. and also along with light and a poet's playground.
In 2023, he released his poetry book called Flicker.
He also released two poetry CDs, Worth the Wait and Watts in 2015 and Summer Solitus in 2017.
(02:03):
Mr. D. Lightman's name is a play on words streaming from his job as an educator.
Also, he wanted to shine on stage while delivering his work.
Mr. Lightman has performed at various venues in South Carolina and Georgia.
And also, also, he has performed at my book release party last year for Colors
(02:25):
in 2023, along with other great fellow poets.
It was a great success and turnout. And Free First was definitely,
definitely in the building to show me so much love.
And he is one of them. All right, guys. I am so honored to have this man on this episode.
Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, show your love for the one and only Mr.
(02:49):
Joy Tucker, better known as Mr. The Enlightenment.
What's going on? How y'all doing out there?
Good, good, good. I'm so glad and honored to have you on our show today, man.
How you feeling? man that's good man trying
to uh wrap up this school year and
just promote myself and just you
(03:09):
know interact with fellow artists and
just you know try to make my mark out here that's what's up that's what's up
you are most definitely making a mark in these streets as a poet man you are
so well known man well can you tell me about yourself and who is joy tucker
or better known as Mr. De-Alignment?
(03:31):
Man, I'm just a nationalist, sports fan, elementary school teacher,
just a social butterfly.
You know, if I'm not doing some poetry, I'm out and about, just hanging out
with friends, you know, just enjoying life, man.
(03:51):
That is great, man. Oh, I about to ask, who is your favorite team?
Team either football NFL I
am a Las Vegas Raiders fan that's what
well I'm a Carolina Panthers fan you know my
whole family loves the Panthers you know
(04:11):
I can get down with that yeah because we collect our
we collect their merch and you know just everything they beg on the Carolina
Panthers you know we're trying to win we're trying to win a win a Super Bowl
so everybody everybody got the same goal right we've been close but you know
we just got to do better up and up and down man,
(04:35):
absolutely absolutely so can you tell me how long have you been performing and writing poetry,
so my first open mic like i know i was doing i was posting posting poems on social media stuff just.
I wrote, like I said, I was in college, put together some poems for a class.
(04:57):
And, you know, along the way, me and a friend of mine, we're,
you know, just writing stuff and sharing it between each other.
You know, I was starting to post stuff online and getting pretty good feedback,
just interacting on Facebook.
And I met this guy who was also a poet.
You know, he wanted to get he almost doing what Marcus is doing now in Charleston.
(05:21):
He was doing that just all around it wasn't like locally based he was out of philadelphia,
well he had a he had a i think went to
college in in the georgia in college in
georgia or in the south for sure and he ended up in philadelphia but he had
a passion for poetry you know he offered me a chance to kind of put together
(05:44):
unofficial you know it wasn't nothing with a barcode it was just you know put
together some paper staple it together and just Just, you know, just grab fruits,
getting your eye, getting your work out there to the few supporters that you
had at the time and just build from there.
So I did my first open mic in 2010.
(06:04):
Wow. That's awesome. That's awesome. I mean, I had my spurts and I pretty much continued it.
You know, I had my more productive years in poetry, but I never stopped doing it. Absolutely.
You don't ever stop doing poetry, man. Well, I started doing poetry.
It started back in high school. I used to like write songs.
(06:26):
I'm like, I'm big into hip hop and R&B. And, you know, and I was like writing and singing in chorus.
And then I was like, oh, my songs can be turned into poetry.
And then, like you said, I started writing poetry more. Or I went to Trident
Tech in the early 2000s and I took like a creative writing class and I created
(06:47):
my first chapbook and it was like an awesome experience.
I'm like, oh, my God, I can write and I've been getting like good grades on it.
Yeah, man, it's been awesome. And I also like started going to free verse as
well after, you know, dealing with different situations during during and after COVID.
Just try to, you know, better myself as a person.
(07:07):
And, you know, it's been very great. Like, I really love performing and going
to open mics just to get inspired by a lot of people. So most definitely.
Yeah. So in your bio, I want to ask, like you stated that hip hop has influenced your art of poetry.
Tree um can you tell me some of your favorite hip-hop artists
that has inspired your work and how they impacted your
(07:30):
life well i grew up in south carolina but i
listened to a lot of up north uh hip-hop you
know because new york kind of the mecca hip-hop and well
yeah especially when i was younger we weren't you
know the southern rappers weren't getting that much uh
publicity so you know know we all were just new
york new york is what we kind of were influenced by
(07:52):
and you know i was a big wu-tang fan
growing up and jay-z is my favorite rapper
of all time so just i guess if
you listen to it enough i was just able to you know put words together like
i could i could just be creative and put a simile together that would just be
(08:12):
clever and you know kind of have a a little bit of humor with it too so i don't
know if i kind of credit you know if you listen to.
Lyricists i think you start to become a lyricist i think if
whatever you kind of subliminally listen to
or are you exposed to you kind of pick
it up i must definitely tell you i i
(08:33):
love um new york hip-hop as well i do like west coast
hip-hop south hip-hop i like the old school hip-hop like you know kid and play
like house party movies and that's when i got really inspired to you know you
know listening to hip-hop and then also going to parties as well so most definitely
most definitely new york is in the house that's what's all started.
(08:54):
So like i would look i would look at a
rap city the basement you know that kind
of kept me in the loop about what was going on
and you know when videos were like you
know we kind of depended on videos to kind of see the artists now social media
but you know i had to you had to wait to see your favorite artist and you had
(09:16):
to watch videos and you came out with an album you didn't get to see the behind
the scenes in the studio you just had to wait for that that release date,
oh yeah absolutely man i missed the old
bt days man like you know like you said like rap city
and doing those cyphers or freestyle battles and
stuff i truly missed that it was the good
(09:36):
old times i wish we could go back in time and you know relive those moments
you know but you know again social media has really kind of taken over and just
changed everything from hip-hop like i still collect cds to this day like i
don't like like streaming and download to my phone because you You know,
I still like, you know, collecting and looking at booklets and stuff and how
(09:59):
to produce what producers is on album and the lyrics and stuff, you know what I mean?
You bought that CD, you like, you open it up and read the inside while you're
listening to it. Absolutely.
And I still do. And I have like a bunch of CDs in my room.
So is this a full stack of CDs, movies as well, video games as well. ourselves.
(10:25):
Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, we met at open mic nights at free verse
events, you know, created by, you know, Mr.
Marcus Amaker, who was our first poet laureate of Charleston.
Shout out to Mr. Marcus Amaker, you know, and then going to these events,
you know, he want us to perform in a safe space without any judgment.
(10:46):
What can you tell me? What great advice has mr marcus
amaker given to you that impacted your life as
a poet or any advice that he has given you oh
he just he's very positive like
he'll never be critical of your work and i kind
of take that same approach you know you want to be positive about an upcoming
(11:09):
artist or a new poet it you want to you know never kind of shut people down
you know especially if they feel.
Like they want to share their work with you because i
guess if you're a veteran of that field you know
they want that mentorship so he
was always the the positive guy and
(11:32):
you know in in warm inviting like
he you know he had events and he invited me
out and he gave me opportunities opportunities to do my poetry with
them so you know I just kind of take the
same approach like I'm trying to share opportunities
if I have them and you know just not tear anybody down just you know keep doing
(11:55):
what you're doing and you know poetry is unique and that it's so many different
styles and we're all you know we're all adding something important to in the community.
Absolutely, man. I can tell you definitely, Mr. Marcus Amaker,
he is such a positive, like you said, he is a positive, positive poet here in
(12:17):
the community of Charleston.
Like I call him my big brother poetry because I learned so much from this man.
Like he actually helped me with the formatting for my book.
And I've been like going back and forth with him. like you
know i wanted to be perfect and he was very patient of
you know helping me edit and having my book formatted correctly
when i was having difficulties like trying to upload my
(12:40):
manuscript online so he definitely was very patient
yeah i will also say like he gave
me also advice as well he told me like when you
release your book release your projects do it
when on your time don't do it when you know people
try to rush you and try to you know try to speed you
up just do it in your on time when you're ready because i
(13:01):
want to make sure my poem was ready and perfect and
just you know ready for the world to
be taken so most definitely marcus emmerker he's he's such a wonderful mentor
to everybody here in the community so everybody could definitely learn from
this man so shout out to him yeah man he's like he's basically making mr poetry
(13:22):
for sure like Like when you say poetry in Charleston,
he's one of the names that pops up. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Well, you do know that poetry is a great way to express yourself,
like letting out all of your emotions, whether it's being happy, sad and so on.
What has poetry meant to you in your life that helped you overcome obstacles in your life?
(13:48):
Oh, I definitely it definitely gives me a chance to kind of vent.
I don't outwardly share my
thoughts as much i'm pretty i keep it
pretty positive but everybody goes through these moments when
when things aren't you know always going so well so writing is always an outlet
it's just been a thing that i've been doing and a great way to meet more people
(14:15):
and And just a conversation spark between artists.
You know, I like to, you know, go to the open mics and workshops and just,
you know, kind of share ideas with people and kind of see how somebody else
might interpret something.
So just those conversations and, you know, allow me to be creative and kind of push the envelope.
(14:42):
I love how poetry is kind of like, it allows you to be free.
Like, I'm not the most...
Vocal person you know i'm not the center of
attention type of guy but i feel like when poetry allowed me
to kind of get my voice and kind of command the audience even though i'm not
always like that i kind of like play the background but when you're on stage
(15:04):
and it's it's almost like you can have that that that other alter ego like it's
a little more stand out than my normal self,
I can definitely relate to, you know, being on stage and bringing out your alter
ego because I'm kind of different from, you know, my personal life.
(15:25):
I'm like more reserved, laid back. And then when you perform,
you become this person that, you know, motivating and so encouraging.
So I definitely love it. It just brings out my, take me out my shell when I
perform. form. So most definitely.
And I would say like, for me, when I write my poetry, I kind of write from personal
life experiences, wherever I'm dealing with, you know, depression,
(15:47):
happiness, and joy, I kind of write that down rather than just bashing somebody on social media.
I'd rather just like write it down, go in the corner and just express myself,
you know, just, it helps me, it helps me definitely better death,
you know, get myself better in life. So most definitely I can related to that.
I'll ask you a question. So in your poetry performances, you are,
(16:11):
you are the man at crowd participations in your poetry performances.
Like, you know, you feed off the people's energy and you just motivate everybody.
Like you always do that lights on, lights off.
I just like that. So that's one of my favorite parts in your poetry,
you know, lights on, lights off.
So do you think it's like important, very important to incorporate crowd participation
(16:33):
and portrait pieces to make the audience feel one with your work?
I think it can help definitely it kind of breaks the ice with you too that's
kind of kind of get get the nerves out because as much as you perform you're
still going to be a little nervous when you still go up there for the first
time you know that night or that evening whenever,
so it gets the and sometimes the crowd
(16:56):
not always into it you know they might they might
not know who you are you know
at that point they might they might came to see another
poet they didn't come to to see you or that kind
of like sparks their attention you know the
way you present your work so i think it definitely can
help absolutely i kind of agree with that
(17:19):
man like i'll say when i go to my performances
like i think my first open mic
was a couple years ago at the common house i can
remember it it was like nighttime and marcus was hosting it
my lips first chat like my lips was
like i was shaky dicky man i was like i was
doing ums and ahs and just i was
(17:40):
so nervous but after a while you just get better and
better like i definitely love the crowd participation like especially um i'm
learning from dl like he he's good at you know just crowd participation like
you know he's been like shout out some words shout out some words like different
subjects and then he create poems like off the bat like that on the spot Yeah, yeah.
(18:02):
I'm not ready to freestyle a poem like that yet.
Well, I did it before. It's not bad at all.
For my performance next month for the Charleston Arts Fest, I'm probably going
to do some freestyling. So it is fun.
I might just wrap off your stickers and your T-shirts and just create a poem.
(18:26):
And, you know, everyone love it.
Hey, man, like I said, man, there's always different ways to go about it. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Because I'd be thinking like poetry, like you just had to rhyme and your poems
got to make sense to the people.
And, you know, but like you said, like poetry comes in so many art forms and
(18:46):
different shades, you know, like poetry, just everything.
So there's no right or wrong when you write and perform. So most definitely.
Yeah. Yeah. So I see that you put out your own poetry book called Flickr that
I have, man. I definitely loved it.
And I do love the picture illustrations with your poems.
(19:08):
I'm definitely very proud of your publication, man. So I'm very proud.
Thank you. Thank you for putting it out.
Can you tell the people checking it out?
Of course. Of course, man. Shout out to your peoples that definitely help put your poems together.
Ever and you know the whole publication everything can you
tell the people what your poetry book flicker is
(19:28):
about and what has inspired you to creating it so uh
kind of what sparked it is when i was just posting
on social media and i was you know you get a certain amount of space and when
i was tweeting tweeting that is prime you know you only had 140 characters so
i started I started doing like haiku and then kind of transforming into my own
(19:53):
version of poetry where,
you know, it wasn't exactly counting syllables,
but I would have a central thought and I would kind of try to pack it in,
in a certain amount of lines.
And then I kind of stumbled upon this genre online called micro poetry.
So I started becoming pretty good at, you know, saying a lot when those small amount of lines.
(20:19):
And I just, you know, kept putting, you know, coming up with poems and and writing down on paper.
And I was just, you know, having something to post.
You know, I would post a poem every few days or every day and it started becoming
something I do on Instagram and Twitter and getting good feedback.
And it was a quick hitter.
(20:39):
So, you know, somebody is scrolling. rolling they don't
have the time or maybe they
don't plan on stopping and reading
an entire longer poem so they can you know
on your timeline they'll see those three or four lines and like
oh that's pretty clever oh I like that you know then they might share it or
they might retweet it they might you know like it so I started like kind of
(21:04):
developing a knack for that so I just had a bunch of short poems that i just
compiled in a document and.
I've also seen where people would put a picture to go along with it.
So I was like, all right, well, I reached out to some art, you know,
art teacher friends of mine or just artist friends of mine and said, hey, I got some poems.
(21:25):
Can you draw, you know, a little sketch to go along with it?
So, you know, I sent them some poems and, you know, I kind of gave them a little
direction or I also let I want them to be free with it.
You know, like whatever you come up with something, you know, I can kind of.
Yeah, I like it or I don't. so i feel
like it was another way to add to
(21:47):
the poetry so you can put a little picture there to
go along with it so i decided to put it out
and just go with it man and it makes sense because you know it was all i was
thinking light you know all i got a lot of light theme poetry and just promotion
so i'm thinking like it's a quick it's a quick poem so it's like a flicker of
(22:09):
light Right. Right. Absolutely.
I definitely love the illustration, man. I'm with the same way with my poetry
book that came out last year. Colors can overcome levels of real stages.
And I talked to one of my great designers, Mr. Chris Kendall,
who created my graphics. graphics.
And I told him I want, I want to have my pictures as the, you know,
(22:31):
the backdrop, you know, as defining my emotions with the red that represents redemption,
black color represents, you know, darkness, dark, dark days, like them dark times.
And then the gold color represents, you know, the good and inspiration in my
life. So he definitely executed that.
And the pictures go along with my poetry and it definitely flowed very well. So I'd.
(22:55):
Definitely appreciate the illustrations your illustrations and the
people that behind it man it's amazing
love absolutely so
i would ask you like you know in the author's world
you know like book reviews from online can either
make you or break you like i don't know
if you deal with it have you deal with any good or
(23:17):
bad reviews about your book and if so um do
you feel book reviews can make a poet better or
can it make you intimidating uh that's
something i always kind of struggle with like criticism so
i mean a good review can.
Be a good thing and then a bad
(23:37):
review can also take away from it so i don't
want to force it but you know i do
kind of like hey if you like the poem can you write
a little bit about it just because a review
can definitely help you know the next person decide if
they want to read it or they want to buy it but i
guess it's all all kind of criticism if it's
(23:59):
from a positive place like you know
some people just like tearing you down just because you know
if it's not for you it's not for you so why put
all the effort into writing a negative review so
if somebody asks you to write to review i think
they respect your opinion enough and like maybe it wasn't for you but you can
(24:22):
kind of pick out some positive things about it so i feel like there's a there's
a way to give some criticisms or you know what you could do better but that's a slippery slope so.
I haven't had any well lately
i guess there's always somebody on social media that you know they don't understand
(24:44):
your poem or they didn't understand one of my poems or you know i don't mind
clarifying like i actually like when people ask me like you know what did you
mean by that or if they say some kind of smart remark you know maybe a good
conversation can come from it,
so i think it's all about how you approach somebody with it and how it's done
(25:04):
and i agree with you also with you know people's opinions and reviews like when
i put out my book on amazon i I was so nervous, too.
Like, I was like, I was waiting on somebody to, you know, say something bad
and tear me down to shreds. But, you know, so far, everyone has been loving
it, you know. Yeah, because you got to go.
(25:25):
I mean, you got to go out. I mean, a bad review.
Okay. If it's food, something.
I feel like you took a chance. You always going to take a chance.
I'll take a chance on a movie. You know, maybe I'm not familiar with the actress.
I'll take a chance on it. So for me to go on and write a bad review and try
(25:47):
to make the, you know, there's a way to do it.
I feel like you got to go out your way to be negative about somebody's art.
It was like, okay, it wasn't for me. I bought it. It wasn't my cup of tea.
I feel like to write a negative review about
it it's kind of like unnecessary man now
(26:08):
if somebody came to me and had i feel like yeah i can do a positive review but
i don't know it's just not me i'm not the type of person to go online and write
a negative review about somebody's art you know if it wasn't for me it wasn't
for me i mean there's some people that they do that that's what So they do,
you know, you get, you get more attractions and some being negative about something
(26:32):
than being positive about it.
But I guess if you want to, I, I haven't, I'm very strategic about who I do
ask my, you know, who I want to ask about, you know, the work.
Cause somebody be careful what you get, careful what you ask for.
Cause you know, it can't make a difference.
Especially if you're going to a new name, you decide to pay somebody.
(26:56):
That's a stranger that does review, you know, you're taking a chance that it might not be that great.
So I guess I'm all, I'm trying to be as organic as possible, man. So, you know,
Hopefully it lands in the hands of somebody that appreciated it and then they
want to, you know, share the good things about it. Right. Absolutely.
(27:18):
I'm the same way, too, man. Like, I don't take it as a, you know,
a bad experience, like, you know, good or bad.
But with reviews for me, I feel like it betters me as a poet.
If something is bad, I can do better on the next poem and the next book that
I put out. I feel as this person says it.
(27:38):
I'm not going to change my whole style of poetry because one person said it wasn't good.
That's my art. That's like if I'm a painter or a sculptor and somebody doesn't
like my painting, I'm not changing my whole style because of you.
So you take it with a grain of salt, I think.
Now, maybe they could say, maybe your illustration could have been done differently
(28:02):
or maybe your, you know, your layout on the page.
Okay, I can understand that. But if you didn't like my poem,
I'm not changing the way I write.
Like, it's a hard thing as an artist.
You're writing it for yourself most of the time.
Sometimes you're writing it for the audience. So I don't want to get caught
(28:23):
up in trying to please the audience so much.
At the end of the day, if you think your poem is good, you need to put it out there.
Because somebody is going to connect with it. And there's some people that it's not for everybody.
So I'm not the type of person, yeah, I'm going to take your criticism if it's something that I can...
(28:46):
I don't know if it's something that could help me as a writer,
but I can't take the I didn't like it. OK, you didn't like it.
What? I'm not going to change the way I write for a negative opinion of it. So that's just me.
I don't think any artist should change, you know, their core values to appease
(29:08):
the audience, because at the end of the day, you should write for yourself.
Like we're not no we're not drake out here we're not trying to sell a million copies so,
you're writing from a place like it's your story i'm telling my story i can't
let nobody tell me that i'm not telling my story correctly like oh that's that's
(29:30):
not that's not gonna i'm not gonna change my style because the one person doesn't
like it because like you said you like Like,
you got your favorite artist, and you all about that favorite artist.
And there's some people who don't like that favorite artist.
I don't think the artist gets in trouble when they start changing themselves,
(29:51):
for the audience to get more people supporting them.
You kind of lose, like, what are you doing it for? I like the art at its purest form.
You know, everybody wants the applause. everybody wants
to sell a bunch of copies but at
the end of the day out you put it out like you
(30:14):
were proud of something you put out like this was something that
i thought was good and at the end of the day i
think that's all we need i agree with you man like
you know i wouldn't want to change my poetry for anybody because
everybody's story is so unique different because
you don't know what that person go through the next person go through so
why why would we change it so exactly
(30:37):
we don't want we don't we don't want everybody's porn
to be the sound of saying like i love those free verse open
mics like it's so many different styles go to the open mic there's so many different
styles and all of this good like there's no i love poetry because there's no
one way to do it you can't tell me i'm doing it wrong you can't tell me i'm
(30:57):
writing poetry wrong now there is a technical aspect which i'm not the most technical poet.
I'm sure there's line breaks. You got to do a line break here.
I'm not so technical with that, but end of the day, there's no wrong way to
do it. You can't do it wrong.
Not at all. Not at all. We are unique and different, especially with the slams.
(31:22):
I went to a slam last year. I participated in it, but I feel no one is different
than the other person. And, you know, everybody is so unique at their own style. Like, no.
Yeah, and that's a big thing. Man, I've never been a slam person because I don't
want, and people get caught up.
I'm not going to be correlating my poem to a score. I just never want to get caught up in that.
(31:47):
I've been online. I know I follow a lot of poets online, and there's a lot of
controversy about slam poetry right now, and it's the competitive nature,
and it's like they're kind of ruining the.
Uh the whole essence of what yeah yeah okay
i get it trying to be the best that's cool trying to
be the best it's cool but land has never been
(32:10):
my thing so i've always stayed away from slam like nope i'm not getting into
a slam like i'm not doing it this is i'm gonna deliver my poem the way i want
to and i'm like i don't get caught up in slam that's not that's not my that's
not my style right i agree it's not for me either but you know it was a experience that.
(32:31):
I mean, yeah, I can't knock it.
There's a lot of really good slam poets out there.
And I've been to some slams.
I've been to a popular slam that's called Southern Fry.
And I heard about it, and I decided to go one year. And it was good,
like some really good poem.
And I commend you for that.
(32:52):
And there's a way to do it, too. And it's like, again, what we just talked about.
You're you're writing you're going into
these slams with certain poems that you're
not going to resonate with the people so it's
almost like you're writing to win so i don't know that's not my thing like i
(33:14):
you do have to kind of i did learn it i don't know how you feel about it but
if you thought that what's what what's the thought process you go to when you're
like all right what what poem am I going to read?
Like, what poem am I going to choose? Like, we had, the last time I saw you
out at the Free Verse one, you could only do one poem.
(33:36):
All right, so what do you, what goes through your mind when you're like,
I only got one poem to kind of,
get the crowd, get the crowd's attention. I got one poem. So what goes through
your mind when you're trying to decide which poem I want to do?
How do you decide what poems you're going to do?
Man, for me, I just go how, what the energy feels like. I just go with the flow.
(34:02):
Like a lot of people like reading about love and happiness and joy,
but you know, I just, I decided, you know, I'm just going to write something
that's dark and just to get them on their toes so they can relate.
I think one of them was about like a
abuse relationship I've been in and you know it
was just about I'm no longer a victim and it kind of resonate with the audience
(34:23):
I just I just go with the flow of you know how the audience is feeling you know
I try not to like read the same exact kind of not the same exact but the same
exact theme that everyone else is reading I want to just do something all right
you gotta shake it up you gotta shake it up sometimes you know.
But yeah, most definitely, you know, that's, that's what, that's my,
my, you know, thought process of, you know, just going there.
(34:45):
Cause when I'd be going to, you know, free verse, like, you know,
the poetry events, I've been thinking it's like therapy, you know,
cause you'd be seeing how the seats, how the seating areas is seated.
It felt like, you know, going to therapy and, you know, to always this therapist
and, you know, they just listen to your work and it is such a good feeling,
(35:06):
man. And like, it's not intimidating at all, you know, and I just love it.
Absolutely. So I want to ask you, like, for anyone that's listening out there,
like what type of advice would you like to give anyone that wants to start a
journey as a poet and what can they learn from it?
But I would say just kind of be a sponge,
(35:32):
you know, when you start to go out and hearing poets and kind of take little
pieces from other people. Oh, I like the way she does that.
I like the way he does that. that so you know
try to you don't want to you still want to be original but you can still take
pieces of your favorite poets and kind of build your own style from that that's
(35:56):
what's up okay so it's uh since it's national poetry month i hate to put you on the spot.
But you always deliver your poetry as always man so is there a poem in your
heart that you would would like to share with any with all the listeners and
fans out there that's kind of,
(36:19):
it's only right that i do my introduction poem i like to start off every show
with this poem you know if i got multiple poems to share i'd like to start off
the night with this one because,
you know this is where it started i think this is one of my first poems that i wrote to,
share out with people,
This poem is called Let There Be Light. I remember when mom used to call me
(36:42):
home before the streetlights came on.
Now I feel at home on stage when the lights are on. Senior year,
undergrad, that's when the light came on.
Time to illuminate. I write like I'm afraid of the dark. My pen is a light bulb,
a match waiting for that spark.
When I start to shine, I don't plan on flickering. My brain is a generator,
(37:02):
ready to kick in like an NFL punter.
Try to take my shine i got enough radiance to
go around i'll even pass it out like free samples like
the first attempt for neanderthals trying to create fire you probably fizz out
before you replicate me when someone closes the gap it's time to increase the
voltage become more ultraviolet for every sunrise or the sunset but not if i
(37:24):
can help it prepare for my summer solstice let there be light lights out.
Man did you just say with closing the gap your brain is you know generated oh my god.
That's what's up that's why I had you at my book release party like you you
(37:47):
deliver man appreciate that you are welcome man,
I wish you could do another poem but you know kind
of running out of time but uh i'm most definitely
going to check out at more open mic events man you're you're
a crowd pleaser as always hey man like i said it didn't always start like this
(38:08):
because i like i said i had to go through my moments where i was the nervous
person the person with the paper you know i just kind of i decided to like make it my goal.
No, I do read off paper. It depends on what kind of setting.
You know, if I'm doing a poetry reading, an extended amount,
(38:28):
I'm definitely going to do some from memory, but I might pull out a couple poems
that I want to read to the crowd.
But if I'm out and about, I'm only doing one or two, I'm definitely trying to go from memory.
Like, that's what I like. I think I can.
I'm not good about reading from the paper and looking up. up and it loses some
(38:52):
of that, you know, the energy.
It loses some energy to me because I got to worry about where I'm at on the paper.
So I like to do it from memory and that way I can just, you know,
I like to move with the poem and I want to be looking at, I want to be walking
around a little bit, sometimes I don't want to be in one spot.
On that one line, I'm looking at this person, I'm looking over here.
(39:14):
You can pause, you can add that, you know,
know you can the way you can enunciate certain words like when you got it from
memory i feel like you can do so much more with it absolutely absolutely i agree
with you man like i think like doing performing poetry out of memory is it feels
so real it feels so fluid like you just.
(39:35):
It just feels a lot better man you know i tried like
you know i still do read off paper looking at the
audience look down look at the audience it's helpful
for most people but you know i felt like you know having
a memory is you know a lot better it took
me about uh almost a month to memorize um a poem because
i had to keep repeating words repeating it's a
(39:56):
hard part like that i still for me i gotta actually i'm gonna i want to actually
memorize a new poem and it's just it's it's tough man i realize i just gotta
you just gotta make yourself i've started to record myself and then play it
back over and over. Oh, yeah. I've been doing that, too.
(40:16):
That's how I remember. I remember. If I actually put my mind to it, you give me a week.
And that's that's with other stuff going on like give
me a week and then i can i'll have
that poem pretty memorized but the bad part
is if i don't do poems for a while i'll still forget some of it but then you
(40:38):
go back through it then it comes back kind of quickly but i gotta start it's
a it's a certain poem or two and that's in my catalog that i think would be
good when i do a show and i was I want to add it.
You know, I want to give somebody another poem.
I don't want them to be like, oh, I heard that already. Oh, I already heard that from you.
(40:58):
I want to be able to give you at least one new poem that you didn't hear the last show.
Even if my catalog is big enough that I can kind of switch them out,
I want you to feel like you heard a different poem than the last time.
Or maybe it was a different order.
Or I took a poem out and then I put another poem in. So I feel like especially
(41:20):
if you're somebody that goes to all of my shows or to a lot of my shows,
I want you to feel like, oh, I didn't hear that one. I didn't remember that.
I don't remember that one for last time.
So that's that's my goal. Absolutely. Absolutely, man.
Where can where can people find you at? I know you got upcoming events coming up.
Can you share that with any listeners? listeners list out there what you got
(41:43):
going on first of all you can find me on instagram,
at kilowatt poet facebook mr
enlightenment i dabble a little bit on tiktok at kilowatt poet i got a poetry
show coming up in may may 17th is a friday here in charleston area mount pleasant
(42:06):
to be exact at a place called Harb Call Brewery.
It's in Mount Pleasant. So it's a,
seven to nine on a friday so like
about a month out you know uh so
it'll be me and a couple other my poet
colleagues coming to share some
(42:26):
poetry to the people absolutely absolutely man and i've been very honored to
being a part of your delight show um last year so most definitely i definitely
appreciate you having me on man along with the other fellow poets man it's been
so much fun man And just share the stage with you.
And it's been great, man. I definitely appreciate it.
(42:48):
Most definitely come out to the live show, everybody. It's amazing.
Like, most definitely. You will get inspired.
Dang. I would like to thank you so much, man.
Joy, for definitely being on this segment of Content Creators by the Brothers Company Podcast.
It was a great show. I felt so inspired by your words of encouragement and motivation of your poetry.
(43:12):
Man you are truly truly a gift
from god man in this community and i know
the sky is the limit for you man just keep going uh
just keep doing what you do beth man i just
definitely love your work man is there
anything else you would like to say in the segment
of content creators that you haven't really or any advice
(43:34):
you know i appreciate the opportunity
man i like what what y'all doing like i said i didn't know how long
y'all have been doing a podcast and it's pretty pretty impressive
man just to because a lot of people do a podcast they
do it for a little while they stop you know you
gotta put a lot it's a lot of dedication whatever you decide to
do you that's why i say low motion better than no motion you know i had my moments
(44:01):
where i didn't do poetry as much but i literally even if i wasn't sharing it
i was writing it from time to of time or I was watching a video. So.
Keep going whatever it is keep going don't stop
it's gonna get hard you're gonna feel like you
know you're not making much progress but you
(44:21):
definitely are you you definitely got
more if you look back at it your journey
you farther along than you were when
you started absolutely man i definitely appreciate that
man because i tell everybody like if you have a goal
dream an aspiration in life just go for it
you know don't hold yourself back you know i'm working on
(44:42):
that man because i'm trying to
deal with the the fear of failure and
you're gonna have to take your losses too man but i'm
not a fan of it was nobody here to take
that risk you know some people some people like taking the risk man i'm a calculated
guy man i'm gonna i'm gonna take my baby steps i don't really go out there and
(45:05):
i haven't taken that i hadn't left yet like i'm I'm taking my baby steps,
right? I ain't take that junk yet.
So I'm going to have to do it at some point. But I right.
Sir, failure is not an option with you, sir. You always succeeding.
You always doing great things.
So I don't see failure in your eyes when you perform and seeing you about with,
(45:27):
you know, as an educator or anything, man.
Like, seriously, you is doing it. You is doing it.
Always our own worst critic, too. So that's the thing, man. man.
Hey, I'm glad I'm making it look like I got it together, but at the end,
you're dealing with your stuff and you want to be, like I said,
(45:48):
you want to be a perfectionist, but you got to put it out there.
How are people going to feel about it? Are they going to like it?
Are people going to show up at the show?
I mean, that's kind of nerve wracking, man. When you're putting together your
own show and you're putting yourself out there, are people going to show up, man?
So that's what that's what you gotta deal with
absolutely man most definitely i definitely appreciate man well thank you so
(46:14):
much man for definitely being on this episode man and hope to see you doing
big things man i'll be looking for you all right man shout out to the enlightened
man you are now enlightened that's out.
All right, guys, you have heard it here. Mr.
Lightman has given us his encouraging words, his story, and his inspirations
(46:36):
within his life and his heart, man. He's such an amazing dude, man.
Just to wrap up, my name is Chris C. Larrick Wynn of the Bravo's Company Podcast
presents Content Creators.
You can definitely follow Content Creators, Bravo's Company Podcast Podcasts
at Facebook, Twitter, IG, TikTok, and on our website at,
(47:00):
brothersandcompanypodcast.com, where you can see the latest episodes,
including this one here with Mr. Enlightenment on the website.
We do have bios of me and Derek, one half of Brothers and Company Podcast there,
pictures, and along with our merch store right here.
All right. Yeah, you got it all.
Baited, no Charleston right here. and
(47:23):
you can definitely purchase shirts hoodies coffee mugs
and more definitely on our website so definitely definitely check
out our merch store guys and again we
always say this on our show i mean derek
we are free 99 guys you
ain't gotta take out no loan no mortgage no payments to
watch us man like why why pay for
(47:45):
you know content you know it's all
free so most definitely check us out guys
i need to subscribe to y'all i needed to subscribe to
you on um youtube man oh absolutely absolutely
most definitely i can definitely share that link with you after the show is
wrapped and i could definitely you know share that with you all right okay man
(48:06):
guys thank you so much for tuning in you guys have a good night peace and one
love this is the brothers in company podcast.
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