October 27, 2024 • 43 mins
Check out Amanda's conversation with Nerd The Poet!
Dominic “Nerd” McDonald also known as Nerd the Poet, is a young Black Entrepreneur and Spoken Word artist from various cities in Los Angeles, California who relocated to the DC Metro area in 2019. He has put his views on growing up in the inner city between two households, his Hip Hop music obsession, college experiences, and more into Poetry and Spoken Word.
His first poetry book "The Love Song of D. Nerd McDonald" was written in 2015 and by 2016 he began touring and traveling as a Professional Published Poet. By his second tour in 2018 had published his second work "H.E.R (Heavens Epitome Realized)" along with two college friends and set his eyes on expanding his brand to the East Coast. His passion comes from serving the community, especially through the arts. He is the 2022 winner of the Day 8 Publishing's "DC Poet Project".
By writing from his heart and what he sees and hears, he hopes to be a “change agent” to the unheard.
Nerd's Links: https://www.instagram.com/nerdthepoet?igsh=OG54bTVrYWpyMjBl
Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/
And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE!
Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF...
Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services
Music by: Buzu Buzu
https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/
Dominic “Nerd” McDonald also known as Nerd the Poet, is a young Black Entrepreneur and Spoken Word artist from various cities in Los Angeles, California who relocated to the DC Metro area in 2019. He has put his views on growing up in the inner city between two households, his Hip Hop music obsession, college experiences, and more into Poetry and Spoken Word.
His first poetry book "The Love Song of D. Nerd McDonald" was written in 2015 and by 2016 he began touring and traveling as a Professional Published Poet. By his second tour in 2018 had published his second work "H.E.R (Heavens Epitome Realized)" along with two college friends and set his eyes on expanding his brand to the East Coast. His passion comes from serving the community, especially through the arts. He is the 2022 winner of the Day 8 Publishing's "DC Poet Project".
By writing from his heart and what he sees and hears, he hopes to be a “change agent” to the unheard.
Nerd's Links: https://www.instagram.com/nerdthepoet?igsh=OG54bTVrYWpyMjBl
Be sure to check out The Poet Speaks Podcast on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/thepoetspeakspodcast/
And listen to,The Poet Speaks Podcast, on the go on ALL STREAMING PLATFORMS WORLDWIDE!
Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cM1rdF...
Did you know The Poet Speaks is also Amanda's touring global workshop? She teaches people all about how to make, create and the history of Spoken Word and Indigenous oral traditions! To make a booking for The Poet Speaks Workshop with your organization, apply for mentorships with Amanda, book interviews, as well as writing consultations, please use this link: https://www.amandaeke.com/services
Music by: Buzu Buzu
https://www.instagram.com/bbuzu/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello everyone, it's your host, Amanda Eka and I have
some amazing news. Starting this fall, The post Speaks is coming.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
To your TV screens. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
After eight amazing seasons as a podcast, The poet Speaks
with Amanda Aka is now a TV show erin are
the Archaeology Channel's new streaming service, Heritage. Everyone get ready
for a visual feast, spoken word performances, and deep dives
into the minds of poets from all over the world.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Something extraordinary is coming and you won't want to miss
a single moment. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
All right, Hello everyone, and welcome back to the poet
Speaks podcast. Now. Our next guest is a black entrepreneur
and spoken word artists from various cities in Los Angeles, California,
who relocated to the DC metro.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Area in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's put his views on growing up in the inner
city between two households, this hip hop music obsession, college experiences,
and more into poetry and spoken His first poetry book,
The Love Song of d Nerd McDonald, was written in
twenty fifteen, and by twenty sixteen he began touring and
traveling as a.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Professional published poet.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Everyone welcome, to the Poet Speaks podcast, Nerd the Poet, how.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Are you negi going on? What's going on? Everybody feeling great?
Feeling great on this Thursday?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Absolutely absolutely, Well, that is quite the quite the name,
Nerd the Poet. Before before we get into how that
name came to be, tell us where are you speaking
to us out of today?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I am reporting live from the DMV area, specifically Washington, DC.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Nice. Nice, Nice.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So, now you grew up, you had a lie in
your bio two inner city between two households, looks like
cities Los Angeles to relocate to the DC.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So where were you born and raised in?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
So? I was born and raised in Venice, California, but
my father was from Inglewood, California. So I kind of
stayed between both of those areas growing up es sincely
being in the South Bay area of southern Los Angeles. Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Wow, Okay, so there's a So what when did you
make that cross country move?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Then? Those are two completely different coasts.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Right, So I moved to Maryland in twenty nineteen at
the age of thirty going on thirty one, and at
that point I had just decided like I needed to
change a lot of things were getting stagnant back home,
and I wanted to expand and grow my brand. You know,
(02:45):
a lot of major corporations didn't get to where they
are today by staying in their hometown, whether it was Blockbuster,
Circuit City, Starbucks, you know. So I started thinking globally
and not locally. That was twenty nineteen January.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, wow, wow, And that's such a big step, a
big move to make. I mean, what is the difference
do you think, too, from what you've now occurred, Because
so you've grew up on the West Coast, but now
you're adulthood, you've now spending on the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
What's the difference between the two coasts.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
There are a lot of differences. Some are manual, some
are very apparent. I think one is that they get
all four seasons out here. Yea, whether you know what
I'm saying, versus being on the West Coast, it's either
hot or cold. Yes, and our winters are really just
(03:44):
rainy mid to the high fifties.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, heck yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, it's a different it's a different lifestyle for sure,
different environment. So tell me a bit about I'm very
curious now, So when growing up on the West Coast
as a West schooboy. Tell me a little bit about
where you know, did poetry find you at that stage?
When living in California? Did you find poetry? Did you
find the love of writing at that stage or did
(04:11):
you find it when you moved as an adult to
the to the DMV area.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So my love of poetry came from hip hop. I
was born and raised in hip hop. My stepfather was
a DJ, so I recall Saturday mornings waking up to
record scratching and biological father was a hip hop fan,
so he had all the CDs from elkhol J Run
(04:39):
dmc diggle playing this tricoll quest. So the love of
lyricism was instrumental to my upbringing. And as I started
to get into writing, because language artis was one of
my favorite subjects, I started realizing that I had a
(05:00):
better command for it. So since I had a better
command for it, I had a better ear for it.
The first time I heard spoken word poetry was actually
on a lot of hip hop albums, specific a lot
of conscious hip hop albums, and I thought, oh, this
was pretty neat. You know, there's double meanings, metaphors, visual imagery,
(05:24):
things of that nature and in high school, specifically during
my senior year in two thousand and five, there was
an emerging show called Deaf Poetry Jam, which was spearheaded
by Russell Simmons, who did Death Comedy Jam, and my professor,
Professor John Lee, used poetry from the show as a
(05:50):
way to teach us certain things in history or talk
about certain practices through history, and I thought it was
pretty cool. And then I started to go back into
listening to some of the original reported poets like Gil
Scott Hearing the Last Poets Watch Profits and things of
that nature, and just like the verbal command and the
(06:13):
lyricism without it necessarily being like a song for him.
So in a way, because rap is rhythm and poetry.
I've been engulfed in poetry since, you know, as far
back as I can remember, but it really took off
in high school with the emergence of the syndicated show
(06:36):
Death Poetry Jam.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yes, absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal, Yeah, that show Deaf Poetry Jim.
I mean it was such a such a I mean
like phenomenal show to showcase just people on stage.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I mean, if you think about even the production.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Of that show, that was just people on stage and
an audience, no b roll necessary, people, you were just
so captivated by people just storytelling.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So it really is a testament that, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
People all over the globe I've now heard say that
you know that that shows really inspired them. That's pretty amazing.
Tell us a bit about that. Where did we kind
of come upon? Like I said, you have such a
grand name, the pen name Nerd the poet. Tell us
a little bit about how nerd nerd? How'd that come about?
What made you decide to make that your pen name?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So I haven't called a nerd all my life, and
what I found was it really typecasting me into something
that I didn't really resonate or identify with. And so
I decided that I was going to use the name
(07:46):
as a term of endeary. I was going to take
ownership of it, which was something very radical at the time,
because I believe once people got to know me on
a personal level, they saw the charisma, they saw the talent,
and they would say, oh, you're not an actual nerd,
(08:08):
you know, you just have the physiological makings of a nerd,
you know, wearing glasses and being an asthmatic, talking proper,
whatever the case may be. But that's not really you
know who you are, like, you're something different. So I
(08:29):
decided to take on that and give it my own definition.
And that was also in alignment with the hip hop
group that I was a part of in high school.
So they used to do these ciphers under what's called
(08:50):
the senior Tree, and I was a junior at the time,
and one of the seniors was a multi talented artist
could sing, so he was doing the beat box and
everybody was going around. So one day I was, you know,
determined enough say like, all right, it's gonna be my
turn to drop some bars, and I went in, you know,
(09:14):
much to the leeriness of everyone, and actually, did you
know something impressive? So you know, that individual actually dubbed
me with the name Nerd, and I took it and
I ran with it. So actually this year marks twenty
years under the nickname Nerd, because I got it in
(09:39):
two thousand and four.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Nice, amazing Nerd the poet. No, that's it's definitely a
memorable one. What is the kind of reaction been to
your stage name, Nerd the Poet? What's the reaction been
from people that listen to your work?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
It's usually something that I like to call the nerd effect,
where people are either like, you're not a real nerd,
you know, or they'll say like, I didn't expect to
hear that from you, Like I didn't expect you to
perform in such a way because that's not my understanding
(10:17):
of what a nerd is. Yeah, but once that transformation happens,
then they're like, Okay, I see what you were doing.
You took the name and embodied it into what it
is that you actually are, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Facts. Yeah, that's what's up. That really is what's up. Well,
let's let's go into it.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I mean, you were you know, let's talk about let's
go into your debut poetry collection, the Love Song of
the Nerd McDonald, that was written in twenty fifteen. Tell
us a bit about that title, and tell us a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We know your inspiration hip hop? Hip hop? Was your
love to introduced you to spoken word?
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Talk a little bit about that debut poetry collection again,
The Love Song of d Nerd McDonald sounds like a
romantic epic title of a lot of concoctions and love
potions and all that good stuff. Tell us a little
bit about what that debut was about.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Absolutely. So. I got my degree at California State University,
Long Beach in English Creative Writing, and as a part
of the curriculum, I had to take a poetry class
that was a survey of different literary times. So I
was inspired by the storytelling and the truth telling of
(11:37):
a lot of different poets and one particular one that
stuck out to me was ts Eliott. So Ts Eliott
has a poem called the Love Song Jay Alfred Prufrock,
which is about someone that is growing old and wasn't
able to far in love and then they have this
(11:58):
a strange fascination, uh infatuation with someone and they're like
they're going back and forth from their head on what
they should do about it. And you really get to
see the inner turmoil of how someone deals with different
social critiques when it comes to, you know, their trials
(12:25):
of love and relationships. So that inspired the title The
Love Song of de Nerd McDonald because I found in
my lifetime and the book is specifically going from like
I would say, early teens to about mid twenties, I
(12:47):
have these strange interactions with love and relationships, these different opinions,
different snapshots of you know, my romantic life. So I
decided to put that in a collection and make that afford.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You woodn't absolutely what is that like for you just
as a person as a human being, to put these
different snapshots of your romantic life.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
On display like that? What was that like?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Was it a lot of kind of bringing back the
bringing back memories, undigging those memories of whatever lost tragedy, beauty?
How was that kind of undigging that, like you said,
even starting from teenagehood, what was that like?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Undigging and unearthing those stories.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It was a big compartmentalization process because I had to
really look at the underdeveloped views of what was going
on and then kind of come to a place where
I brought it to residents. So it's interesting that you
(13:54):
mentioned that because there is a poem I closed the
book out called The Undertaker, and it's kind of like
we having a funeral for all of these feelings that
I had about these romantic connections. So I was strategic
in how I wrote it because at the end of
(14:14):
it all, it's kind of just dead relationship, dead dead
connections that I moved on from. So it was kind
of a fun process too, because I was like, oh, yeah,
I remember how I felt about so and so and
you know, my African American studies class and this happening,
(14:34):
that happened, and then it didn't work out, but we're
still cool or not cool, you know, and then kind
of move on to something else.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, that's that's definitely a lot, a lot of unpacking process.
I'm sure I'm bad, but okay, no, that's very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
And tell us about how that.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That debut came out almost ten years ago now a
decade ago. How has that been received from even before
and ten years ago to even now, how is that
your day be been received?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So what I've been told is that the words were
very powerful. And when it comes to because women are
the majority of purchases of my work, they say, I
never would have known this perspective, you know, I never
(15:26):
would have seen how someone felt by the actions of
something that I have done or might do you give me?
So it was like they were able to see a
man's perspective from like relationships that have gone astraight or
(15:49):
gone left, or have been too complicated. And I think
that still kind of holds true today, but more so
today people are like, Okay, well, I understand why you
have these feelings towards love and relationships because you've had experience,
(16:09):
You've gone through things. You know, you had a wide
variety of different interactions when it comes to you know,
finding love and knowing your place not only with yourself,
but with you know, a romantic partner.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Cour for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, yeah, yeah, absolutely every one. That is the love
song of the nerd McDonald. Now let's kind of move.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Gears a bit. You know, tell us now the subsequent tour.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
You went on, and then kind of how your life
really it seems like it changed quite a bit. Literally
went on a tour and then you know, you literally
became a professionally traveling poet in twenty sixteen, just a
year after that debut came out. Tell us a little
bit about how, again, that tour came about, from kind
of ground up to ground round, from the bottom to
(17:04):
the top, and then tell us about what it felt
like to travel as a poet, you know, as your passion.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Tell us about that experience.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I mean, so many people don't look at poetry as
something that you can go on tour with and travel
the world with, but people like yourself do it.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Tell us a bit about that.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, So I got inspired to do a poetry tour.
And I'll credit an artists by the name of Brandon
Alexander Williams who was hailing from Chicago at the time,
and he went by a real talk. So I looked
at his Instagram and I saw that he was going
(17:44):
to different cities with his poetry, and I was like, oh,
I didn't know you could do that, you know. And
I began to gain interest in traveling. So I talked
to other poets who have traveled. I talked to other
boys who had books, and they really just broke it
(18:06):
down and simplified it for me. So from that point on,
I began a track to do my research and see, Okay, well,
how am I going to schedule this tour? What do
I need? Do I need a booking agent? Do I
need all of these external things? And it really came
(18:28):
down to you could do this yourself, you know what
I'm saying. So I did my own in a sense
for men's tour, you know, already wanting to kind of
get out of the stagnation that I was experiencing in
Los Angeles, and it really was just an extension of
(18:48):
what I was doing back home in LA. Because I
went to different colleges with my poetry, I had went
to different cities, so it was like I already have
the know how to get around, you know, by myself.
So I organized a sixth city tour and basically just
(19:11):
use by connections with my family and my fraternity brothers
or you know, friends that have been from LA and
moved to other areas. And I was like, Okay, well,
I'm going to spend one week in each city, bring
X amount of books, go to these open mics, tell
my books, give myself a per dm and do some traveling.
(19:35):
And it was actually out of that tour in twenty
sixteen which inspired me to move to the DMV area
because I was also looking for a new place to live.
So I was like, well, this is a perfect opportunity
for me to check out the scenery and new areas
and prepare myself for this move. At the time, I
(19:57):
didn't know where I want to go just yet, but
I was surveying different areas and really kind of just
fell in love with poetry out here in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Sure short, I mean, and that's such a big bold move.
I mean, you're literally just I mean it's just you
and your bag. I mean, like you said, you just
went to a different open mic nights, brought some books,
gave yourself the pri dim What do you say to
people that are kind of yeah, like they're they're pretty
freaked out, pretty scared to take that big step by themselves.
Like you said, it was kind of a one man show.
(20:31):
How you know, what is your advice to people that
have that hesitation where it's like, man, I don't know
if I can do that. That's a lot of six
city tour. Just spend a week out there and just
see what happens.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Roll some dice.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, the first thing I would say is trust God,
you know, because that is gonna be one of the
only things that you can lean on. And it was
because I had that trust I felt a little more
safe than if I was not spiritually inclined, you know.
(21:08):
And anytime that you ask him to show up, he
shows out Right. It's been times where I'm just like,
I don't know how this is going to happen. I'm
taking a chance. I'm taking a risk. It's a calculated risk,
but it still has some you know, high stakes to it.
And the path has just been laid out, you know
(21:32):
what I'm saying, Like I came to two steps and
I saw my next tien. You know, by doing that,
you know what I'm saying, And so people are afraid
to move because they don't have anything to trust in
and lean on. So I just say, trust God first,
(21:53):
you know, and also have that emotional emotional baits with
a select you know, two or three people, you know
what I'm saying, and it expected to come from where
you don't expect it to come from, you know. Just
(22:13):
by me putting that out there, I connected with so
many people who I didn't even really talk to on
a regular basis. You know. I got congratulations and I
got helps in handouts from people who I never would
have expected, just by me being bold enough to do it,
you know, and partially because they wanted to live vicariously.
(22:37):
The other part was they wanted to congratulate me on
the bravery, you know what I'm saying. So once I
had that initial start, it was like, okay, so this
this comes with putting yourself out there. So we got
to keep this going. We got to keep it moving,
you know. And yeah, I would just say like like
(23:01):
have that faith, make calculated.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Risks and bet on yourself, absolutely betting on yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh man, that's a that's a that's a tough one though.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
But it's definitely high risk, high reward, I will definitely
say that.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
So an amazing thing. Tell us.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
So you know, and you again you bet on yourself
and now you know again you're a professional published poet.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Tell us a bit. Now, kind of the fruits of
that labor.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
You know, you've now been voted Best Mail Pope by
the DMV Renaissance Award pretty recently. Tell us, I mean,
what what is this kind of the fruits of your labor?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Tell us about being you.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Know, given these types of titles, you know, like Best
Male Pop by the DMV Renaissance Awards.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
What if things like that meant.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
It's definitely meant a lot.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
It is the hard work paying off and it really
ups your price, you know. Yeah, Like you have the
changeables now to say like, hey, I need to be
paid this, I need to be taken care of in
this way because I have shown improved, you know. So
(24:15):
it's very rewarding in the sense of like things that
you were hoping for have come to fruition. Yeah, you know,
and I like to think of this now, everything you
want is on its way towards you. What I'm saying,
the only reason why it hasn't gotten there is that
(24:38):
either it's not prepared or you're not prepared. Right. So
the more that you put yourself out there, the easier
it is for things that are already on their way
towards you to find you. Poetry is a very sensitive
art because once you put it out there like that's it,
(25:03):
you know what I'm saying, it's pretty much what it
is at the moment, and you can't change it, you
can't shift it, you know. So a lot of people
are reserved and sharing themselves because of that fact. But
also they're reserved because it gets them attention. Maybe they
didn't want the attention. Maybe they just wanted to get
(25:24):
these emotions and put that out there, you gee what
I'm saying. So you know, you have to decide, like
what is it that you want from your art? You know,
what are the things that you are trying to gain
and explore when you put yourself out there in this
(25:47):
art form?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, you know, but I love what you say.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You said, anything that's for you, it's either it hasn't
came because either you're not ready or it's just it
hasn't came towards you yet. No. I love that that's
such a positive way to look at things because I think,
especially as artists, it's so easy to just break the
hell down and just be be down and out for
(26:11):
the count. It's so easy to just just say, like,
just screw everything and just be done, because that's literally
the game.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I mean, it's you have I swear like you can have.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
You'd be so up in one week and then be
in the lowest pits of depression in the same week.
I mean, it really is just such a it's such
a life gamble. I mean, it's such a roll of
dice every day of you know what what.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Things are, and it's so much of out of your control.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Even collaboration with other people, with other artists, you know,
some people may not bring the same energy you do,
they may not bring the same momentum, they may drop
their ball. Then it's just time for you to pick
up pieces. So I love that kind of that spirit
of just what's for you is for you, and you
know you just have to be patient, right, we know
(27:02):
it's going to come when it's supposed to come.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I love that. So tell us about your second tour
that was in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
It was from your published second work, Her, And you said,
you know what, tell us about the importance of that tour,
and you know how quickly what mistakes did you learn
from the first to now kind of on that second
second leg?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Right, So the second tour was a midwest central US
tour where the first one was an East coast tour.
What I did on the second tour versus the first
one is I actually had a sponsor, so I was
able to fundraise and highlight a brand. This was one
(27:50):
of the first times that I did brand collaboration, and
the brand was called the Initiative Brand. I don't believe
that they're still activate at the moment, but you know,
that was one of the key things that I did
because it wasn't just me promoting myself, but I was
(28:12):
also in a sense of a brand ambassador. So I
got the promotion and sponsorship from that, and I think
I went to I went to two more cities than
I did the first one, So this one was an
eight city tour, and you know, I kind of just
(28:32):
learned how to navigate how to use the bus system,
and you know, really kind of just winging it still,
but just taking like a little bit more chance and
a little bit more risk. And it was pretty fun,
you know. I went, let's see, I think I started
(28:54):
off in Oklahoma City. Then I went to Dallas, Houston,
in New Orleans, Baton Rouge. Where else did I go?
I was in Memphis and Saint Louis was where I ended,
So that was that was also fun too, to just
connect with poets and poetry curators who I never would
(29:20):
have met, you know, had I stayed on the West Coast.
A few people I still talk to today.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
So yeah, tell us about So you know, obviously going
from first to second, like you said, you have sponsorship.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
You'll make the point earlier. You know, when you.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Accomplish these things, you know, price goes up. Your price
as a brand or as a poet really does go up.
And so much of that is that marketing aspect. I
always say, if you're in endeavoring into business or artistic adventures,
only about twenty percent is actually the art. The other
eighty percent is the business side. And the business side
(29:58):
isn't even what people think is the business side. Truly
is just the stuff no one wants to do, crossing
the t's, dotting the eyes, printing the paperwork, making sure
all those things are there.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
How important for you?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I mean, how how big of a kind of as
you expand your brand? How important was the kind of
business side of being a poet? How how much of
an importance did that start laying stake and claim in
your life?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Well, I've always I've always been an entre entrepreneurial artist,
you know. I think my dad's side is definitely where
I get a lot of my business mind from. So
not only do I do this for my poetry, but
I do it for myself, you know, anything that I
want to put myself to, because I've always looked at
(30:51):
Nerds as a brand, right, So even if it wasn't
in poetry, if I wanted to bring it to something else,
what are the What's the I said that I need
to have? So, you know, important things like knowing how
to fill out the W nine on time, knowing how
to make things tax right offs and these these are
(31:14):
things that I had to learn over and over again
because I didn't necessarily need to use that information right
at that moment, but because of repetition. When it was
like time to do it, like when it was time
to get my first you know, eight hundred dollars, five
hundred dollars from a poetry check. I was like, Okay,
(31:35):
this is serious because I do not want to slow
up the process. I don't want my brand or my
name to be tarnished by you know, lack of work
ethic or whatever. I just I didn't want to have
any lap, you know what I'm saying. I didn't want
to lack anything someone who likes to cover all bases
because I do not like missing opportunities, you know. So
(31:58):
it's been extremely important, and that goes into me starting
my own event planning and artists consulting company, Nerve the
Poor Productions. So right now I have a DBA registered
and Washington d C and looking to turn that into
(32:19):
an LLC soon. So just making myself a business, you
know what I'm saying. I think that's another thing that
poets have to understand if they want longevity. Yeah, that's
the the difference between if it's a hobby or if
(32:41):
it's a lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, absolutely, yea, that kind of yeah, that knowledge is
definitely important to have, you know, in no way is
the right way, right.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
It's it's how you just decide to go about things.
And you know, some.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
People that that's just not their thing. Other people that
definitely is their thing. Shouts to you for recognizing that
and creating this brand.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
All right, now, tell me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Was there a moment in your life where you just
knew you were a writer, where you knew you were
a poet? Was there just one moment snapshot of reality
where you like, yes, I am a writer.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Did you ever have that at that moment?
Speaker 3 (33:21):
I think I was fifteen years old and I had
to get an essay edited and corrected by an adult.
And one of my dad's friends at the time was
one to look at it because she was an educator,
(33:42):
and she said, this is really good. And I was like,
are I'm just doing my homework, like what are you
talking about? As you're like, no, you you're you're actually
a really good writer, Like you should look into developing
this one. And even then at the time, I was like, Okay,
that's great, this is an essay, but it's not something
(34:03):
that I would you know, like, how I can't be
a professional essay writer when I get older. So you know.
But that was me knowing that I was able to
use my writing in an intriguing way, you know, So
when it came to doing creative projects, I kind of
(34:27):
took that boost of confidence and said, all right, you know,
I'll give it a shot. And then I got the
same results, like people like, oh, this is actually it's good,
Like I'm enjoy yeah reading this. So yeah, I would
say I was about like fifteen years old at the time.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
That's what's up. That's actually amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, yeah, as a kid even knew back then that's
what's up.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
All right, Nerd.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I have one final question for you today. Why do
you need to get your words up?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I need to get my words out because I've been
always told that I need to be quiet and stay
in whatever place that the person was telling me. I
felt I need to stay in, you know. And this
(35:21):
is a great question because as poets like, we always
ask ourselves like why are we doing this? Like why
does it doesn't matter? And there are multiple answers. You know,
I'm pretty sure there's about one hundred thousand other Nerve
(35:43):
the poets out there in some way, shape or form. However,
what's different is that my story speaks to my legacy,
and it's something that I want to do. You know,
if I didn't want to do it, then I want
to do it, you know. But something in me, the passion,
(36:06):
the raw emotion, and the connection that I have, forces
me to do it and I can't explain it. So
the fact that I want to do it and I
can't explain why, is the reason why I do it.
Because there's a reason why I have that, you know
what I'm saying. And so I always talk about having obedience.
(36:29):
Sometimes you have to be obedient to what life is
telling you to do, because if you don't, there's gonna
be some type of resentment that you have. You know,
there's gonna be some type of disconnection that you have
because you're not doing what you're supposed to do. You
may not be able to explain why you're supposed to
do it. You may be the only person who understands
(36:51):
why you're supposed to do it. But if you don't
do it, it's like you're not even living life correctly.
You know what I'm saying, You're not even living the
life that you were supposed to live. So I don't
know who that's gonna make sense to. But for those
(37:13):
you know who do understand and that makes sense to it,
like that's why you're supposed to do whatever it is
that you're supposed to do, you know. And it's like
being in alignment with purpose, you know what I'm saying.
So I feel like, for whatever reason, on purpose to
be a writer and a speaker, you know, regardless of
(37:37):
what has happened to me in life, what's gonna happen
to me in the future. My outlet, by mission is
to tell my story to others so they can connect
with it, and then whatever happens after that happens. I
don't know if it's going to inspire someone to build
a school. I don't know if it's going to inspire
(37:57):
someone to write another book about their experiences with love
and relationship. I just know that I'm supposed to do
it because I want to do it.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Sure, sure, absolutely, absolutely, Well, thank you so much for
sharing that, Nerd. And before we wrap up, wrap up,
tell us what is the rest of twenty twenty four
looking like for you? And even glimpses of twenty twenty five,
And tell us give us drop some links down, drop
some links about social media websites, where can folks check
(38:27):
out all of your amazing work.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Okay, so first off, all my links dot com slash
Nerd the Poet. Once again, that's all my links dot
com slash Nerd the Poet. You will be able to
find all my work in the channels that you need
to find it at. Please support because I get hungry
three times a day, you know, and bills come every month.
(38:54):
What you all can look forward to in twenty twenty
four is really me allowing myself to look at everything
that has happened this year. It's been a great year.
I've been on the local news, I've been in the
international festival. I've been multiple festivals. I've hosted open mics
(39:18):
multiple days a week. I'm giving open mics away, I'm
coaching people.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Yes, I'm going to pull it speaks podcast.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
So a lot of things have happened in these nine months,
and I want to give myself time to really think
myself for what it is that that I've done, and
also get back to to creating. They're supposed to be
a volume two of The Love Song of the nerve
(39:50):
Re Donald coming out and volume three, you know, so
I owe that to myself and my readers to put
out some more poetry collaborations, some more things on YouTube.
I also am looking to develop a podcast where I'm
(40:12):
also interviewing other poets and authors that are local in
the area, so that, you know, people can understand them more.
You know what I'm saying, Because it's one thing to
see us on stage, but not everybody gets a chance
to have that intimate conversation and get a better understanding
of why we are where we are. So take a vacation,
(40:37):
you know, enjoy Thanksgiving, you know, maybe enjoy Christmas. I
don't know. I kind of want to go somewhere where
it's a little warm, you know, because that's one thing
that did not leave when I made this move. I
still like being in warm climates and by the beats
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
So yes, sir, absolutely, I completely agree with you.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Take that time out to celebrate yourself, celebrate how amazing
you know, the accomplishments you's achieve, both big, both small,
both medium. Everything is worth celebrating because you did it right.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I love that taking that time out to make sure
that the next thing you do is to just really
celebrate and heal your spirit nurture your spirit with that,
giving that affirmation and praise to yourself first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
So thanks so much, Nerd.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
We really appreciate you today on the Poet Speaks podcast.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Thank you, thank you so much for having me. Oh
and again, also, I didn't drop the ig. The instagram
is Nerd the Poet spell correctly like what is school?
Because it did. If you're on Facebook, you can go
to Facebook dot com slash Nerd the Poet or MTP
P O r D that's nerd to for productions, I'm
(41:55):
open to bookings for you know, I'll take a couple
of for this year, but really looking to twenty five.
If you want collaborations, if you need advice, mentorship, coaching,
feel free to reach out. I'm pretty sure my information
will be a job here and let's have a conversation.
(42:15):
I'm very approachable. I'm full of ideas and I cannot
use every idea that I think of, which is like
a good and bad thing, you know what I'm saying.
So please reach out to me on ideas in different
ways that we can collaborate. And yeah, hope to see
some of y'all in the interwebs or in person soon.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Absolutely all right everyone, Nerds information will be in the
detailed box no matter where you're listening to this podcast.
That no matter the streaming platform. Again, Nerds information will
be in the detail box down below, no matter where
you're listening to this podcast. And again, a big thank
you to Nerd for joining us on today's episode of
(42:56):
the Post Speaks podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Everyone listen to the Postbeaks podcast.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
No matter where you listen to your podcast, we are everywhere,
all right, good night one, good bye, please
Hello everyone, it's your host, Amanda Eka and I have
some amazing news. Starting this fall, The post Speaks is coming.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
To your TV screens. Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
After eight amazing seasons as a podcast, The poet Speaks
with Amanda Aka is now a TV show erin are
the Archaeology Channel's new streaming service, Heritage. Everyone get ready
for a visual feast, spoken word performances, and deep dives
into the minds of poets from all over the world.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Something extraordinary is coming and you won't want to miss
a single moment. Stay tuned.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
All right, Hello everyone, and welcome back to the poet
Speaks podcast. Now. Our next guest is a black entrepreneur
and spoken word artists from various cities in Los Angeles, California,
who relocated to the DC metro.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Area in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Let's put his views on growing up in the inner
city between two households, this hip hop music obsession, college experiences,
and more into poetry and spoken His first poetry book,
The Love Song of d Nerd McDonald, was written in
twenty fifteen, and by twenty sixteen he began touring and
traveling as a.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Professional published poet.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
Everyone welcome, to the Poet Speaks podcast, Nerd the Poet, how.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
Are you negi going on? What's going on? Everybody feeling great?
Feeling great on this Thursday?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Absolutely absolutely, Well, that is quite the quite the name,
Nerd the Poet. Before before we get into how that
name came to be, tell us where are you speaking
to us out of today?
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I am reporting live from the DMV area, specifically Washington, DC.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Nice. Nice, Nice.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So, now you grew up, you had a lie in
your bio two inner city between two households, looks like
cities Los Angeles to relocate to the DC.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
So where were you born and raised in?
Speaker 3 (01:55):
So? I was born and raised in Venice, California, but
my father was from Inglewood, California. So I kind of
stayed between both of those areas growing up es sincely
being in the South Bay area of southern Los Angeles. Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Wow, Okay, so there's a So what when did you
make that cross country move?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Then? Those are two completely different coasts.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Right, So I moved to Maryland in twenty nineteen at
the age of thirty going on thirty one, and at
that point I had just decided like I needed to
change a lot of things were getting stagnant back home,
and I wanted to expand and grow my brand. You know,
(02:45):
a lot of major corporations didn't get to where they
are today by staying in their hometown, whether it was Blockbuster,
Circuit City, Starbucks, you know. So I started thinking globally
and not locally. That was twenty nineteen January.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Yeah, wow, wow, And that's such a big step, a
big move to make. I mean, what is the difference
do you think, too, from what you've now occurred, Because
so you've grew up on the West Coast, but now
you're adulthood, you've now spending on the East Coast.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
What's the difference between the two coasts.
Speaker 3 (03:21):
There are a lot of differences. Some are manual, some
are very apparent. I think one is that they get
all four seasons out here. Yea, whether you know what
I'm saying, versus being on the West Coast, it's either
hot or cold. Yes, and our winters are really just
(03:44):
rainy mid to the high fifties.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, heck yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, it's a different it's a different lifestyle for sure,
different environment. So tell me a bit about I'm very
curious now, So when growing up on the West Coast
as a West schooboy. Tell me a little bit about
where you know, did poetry find you at that stage?
When living in California? Did you find poetry? Did you
find the love of writing at that stage or did
(04:11):
you find it when you moved as an adult to
the to the DMV area.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
So my love of poetry came from hip hop. I
was born and raised in hip hop. My stepfather was
a DJ, so I recall Saturday mornings waking up to
record scratching and biological father was a hip hop fan,
so he had all the CDs from elkhol J Run
(04:39):
dmc diggle playing this tricoll quest. So the love of
lyricism was instrumental to my upbringing. And as I started
to get into writing, because language artis was one of
my favorite subjects, I started realizing that I had a
(05:00):
better command for it. So since I had a better
command for it, I had a better ear for it.
The first time I heard spoken word poetry was actually
on a lot of hip hop albums, specific a lot
of conscious hip hop albums, and I thought, oh, this
was pretty neat. You know, there's double meanings, metaphors, visual imagery,
(05:24):
things of that nature and in high school, specifically during
my senior year in two thousand and five, there was
an emerging show called Deaf Poetry Jam, which was spearheaded
by Russell Simmons, who did Death Comedy Jam, and my professor,
Professor John Lee, used poetry from the show as a
(05:50):
way to teach us certain things in history or talk
about certain practices through history, and I thought it was
pretty cool. And then I started to go back into
listening to some of the original reported poets like Gil
Scott Hearing the Last Poets Watch Profits and things of
that nature, and just like the verbal command and the
(06:13):
lyricism without it necessarily being like a song for him.
So in a way, because rap is rhythm and poetry.
I've been engulfed in poetry since, you know, as far
back as I can remember, but it really took off
in high school with the emergence of the syndicated show
(06:36):
Death Poetry Jam.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yes, absolutely phenomenal, phenomenal, Yeah, that show Deaf Poetry Jim.
I mean it was such a such a I mean
like phenomenal show to showcase just people on stage.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I mean, if you think about even the production.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Of that show, that was just people on stage and
an audience, no b roll necessary, people, you were just
so captivated by people just storytelling.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
So it really is a testament that, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
People all over the globe I've now heard say that
you know that that shows really inspired them. That's pretty amazing.
Tell us a bit about that. Where did we kind
of come upon? Like I said, you have such a
grand name, the pen name Nerd the poet. Tell us
a little bit about how nerd nerd? How'd that come about?
What made you decide to make that your pen name?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
So I haven't called a nerd all my life, and
what I found was it really typecasting me into something
that I didn't really resonate or identify with. And so
I decided that I was going to use the name
(07:46):
as a term of endeary. I was going to take
ownership of it, which was something very radical at the time,
because I believe once people got to know me on
a personal level, they saw the charisma, they saw the talent,
and they would say, oh, you're not an actual nerd,
(08:08):
you know, you just have the physiological makings of a nerd,
you know, wearing glasses and being an asthmatic, talking proper,
whatever the case may be. But that's not really you
know who you are, like, you're something different. So I
(08:29):
decided to take on that and give it my own definition.
And that was also in alignment with the hip hop
group that I was a part of in high school.
So they used to do these ciphers under what's called
(08:50):
the senior Tree, and I was a junior at the time,
and one of the seniors was a multi talented artist
could sing, so he was doing the beat box and
everybody was going around. So one day I was, you know,
determined enough say like, all right, it's gonna be my
turn to drop some bars, and I went in, you know,
(09:14):
much to the leeriness of everyone, and actually, did you
know something impressive? So you know, that individual actually dubbed
me with the name Nerd, and I took it and
I ran with it. So actually this year marks twenty
years under the nickname Nerd, because I got it in
(09:39):
two thousand and four.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Nice, amazing Nerd the poet. No, that's it's definitely a
memorable one. What is the kind of reaction been to
your stage name, Nerd the Poet? What's the reaction been
from people that listen to your work?
Speaker 3 (09:55):
It's usually something that I like to call the nerd effect,
where people are either like, you're not a real nerd,
you know, or they'll say like, I didn't expect to
hear that from you, Like I didn't expect you to
perform in such a way because that's not my understanding
(10:17):
of what a nerd is. Yeah, but once that transformation happens,
then they're like, Okay, I see what you were doing.
You took the name and embodied it into what it
is that you actually are, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Facts. Yeah, that's what's up. That really is what's up. Well,
let's let's go into it.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
I mean, you were you know, let's talk about let's
go into your debut poetry collection, the Love Song of
the Nerd McDonald, that was written in twenty fifteen. Tell
us a bit about that title, and tell us a
little bit.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
We know your inspiration hip hop? Hip hop? Was your
love to introduced you to spoken word?
Speaker 1 (10:59):
Talk a little bit about that debut poetry collection again,
The Love Song of d Nerd McDonald sounds like a
romantic epic title of a lot of concoctions and love
potions and all that good stuff. Tell us a little
bit about what that debut was about.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Absolutely. So. I got my degree at California State University,
Long Beach in English Creative Writing, and as a part
of the curriculum, I had to take a poetry class
that was a survey of different literary times. So I
was inspired by the storytelling and the truth telling of
(11:37):
a lot of different poets and one particular one that
stuck out to me was ts Eliott. So Ts Eliott
has a poem called the Love Song Jay Alfred Prufrock,
which is about someone that is growing old and wasn't
able to far in love and then they have this
(11:58):
a strange fascination, uh infatuation with someone and they're like
they're going back and forth from their head on what
they should do about it. And you really get to
see the inner turmoil of how someone deals with different
social critiques when it comes to, you know, their trials
(12:25):
of love and relationships. So that inspired the title The
Love Song of de Nerd McDonald because I found in
my lifetime and the book is specifically going from like
I would say, early teens to about mid twenties, I
(12:47):
have these strange interactions with love and relationships, these different opinions,
different snapshots of you know, my romantic life. So I
decided to put that in a collection and make that afford.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
You woodn't absolutely what is that like for you just
as a person as a human being, to put these
different snapshots of your romantic life.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
On display like that? What was that like?
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Was it a lot of kind of bringing back the
bringing back memories, undigging those memories of whatever lost tragedy, beauty?
How was that kind of undigging that, like you said,
even starting from teenagehood, what was that like?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Undigging and unearthing those stories.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It was a big compartmentalization process because I had to
really look at the underdeveloped views of what was going
on and then kind of come to a place where
I brought it to residents. So it's interesting that you
(13:54):
mentioned that because there is a poem I closed the
book out called The Undertaker, and it's kind of like
we having a funeral for all of these feelings that
I had about these romantic connections. So I was strategic
in how I wrote it because at the end of
(14:14):
it all, it's kind of just dead relationship, dead dead
connections that I moved on from. So it was kind
of a fun process too, because I was like, oh, yeah,
I remember how I felt about so and so and
you know, my African American studies class and this happening,
(14:34):
that happened, and then it didn't work out, but we're
still cool or not cool, you know, and then kind
of move on to something else.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, that's that's definitely a lot, a lot of unpacking process.
I'm sure I'm bad, but okay, no, that's very fascinating.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
And tell us about how that.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
That debut came out almost ten years ago now a
decade ago. How has that been received from even before
and ten years ago to even now, how is that
your day be been received?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
So what I've been told is that the words were
very powerful. And when it comes to because women are
the majority of purchases of my work, they say, I
never would have known this perspective, you know, I never
(15:26):
would have seen how someone felt by the actions of
something that I have done or might do you give me?
So it was like they were able to see a
man's perspective from like relationships that have gone astraight or
(15:49):
gone left, or have been too complicated. And I think
that still kind of holds true today, but more so
today people are like, Okay, well, I understand why you
have these feelings towards love and relationships because you've had experience,
(16:09):
You've gone through things. You know, you had a wide
variety of different interactions when it comes to you know,
finding love and knowing your place not only with yourself,
but with you know, a romantic partner.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Cour for sure.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
Okay, yeah, yeah, absolutely every one. That is the love
song of the nerd McDonald. Now let's kind of move.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Gears a bit. You know, tell us now the subsequent tour.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
You went on, and then kind of how your life
really it seems like it changed quite a bit. Literally
went on a tour and then you know, you literally
became a professionally traveling poet in twenty sixteen, just a
year after that debut came out. Tell us a little
bit about how, again, that tour came about, from kind
of ground up to ground round, from the bottom to
(17:04):
the top, and then tell us about what it felt
like to travel as a poet, you know, as your passion.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Tell us about that experience.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
I mean, so many people don't look at poetry as
something that you can go on tour with and travel
the world with, but people like yourself do it.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Tell us a bit about that.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Yeah, So I got inspired to do a poetry tour.
And I'll credit an artists by the name of Brandon
Alexander Williams who was hailing from Chicago at the time,
and he went by a real talk. So I looked
at his Instagram and I saw that he was going
(17:44):
to different cities with his poetry, and I was like, oh,
I didn't know you could do that, you know. And
I began to gain interest in traveling. So I talked
to other poets who have traveled. I talked to other
boys who had books, and they really just broke it
(18:06):
down and simplified it for me. So from that point on,
I began a track to do my research and see, Okay, well,
how am I going to schedule this tour? What do
I need? Do I need a booking agent? Do I
need all of these external things? And it really came
(18:28):
down to you could do this yourself, you know what
I'm saying. So I did my own in a sense
for men's tour, you know, already wanting to kind of
get out of the stagnation that I was experiencing in
Los Angeles, and it really was just an extension of
(18:48):
what I was doing back home in LA. Because I
went to different colleges with my poetry, I had went
to different cities, so it was like I already have
the know how to get around, you know, by myself.
So I organized a sixth city tour and basically just
(19:11):
use by connections with my family and my fraternity brothers
or you know, friends that have been from LA and
moved to other areas. And I was like, Okay, well,
I'm going to spend one week in each city, bring
X amount of books, go to these open mics, tell
my books, give myself a per dm and do some traveling.
(19:35):
And it was actually out of that tour in twenty
sixteen which inspired me to move to the DMV area
because I was also looking for a new place to live.
So I was like, well, this is a perfect opportunity
for me to check out the scenery and new areas
and prepare myself for this move. At the time, I
(19:57):
didn't know where I want to go just yet, but
I was surveying different areas and really kind of just
fell in love with poetry out here in Maryland.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Sure short, I mean, and that's such a big bold move.
I mean, you're literally just I mean it's just you
and your bag. I mean, like you said, you just
went to a different open mic nights, brought some books,
gave yourself the pri dim What do you say to
people that are kind of yeah, like they're they're pretty
freaked out, pretty scared to take that big step by themselves.
Like you said, it was kind of a one man show.
(20:31):
How you know, what is your advice to people that
have that hesitation where it's like, man, I don't know
if I can do that. That's a lot of six
city tour. Just spend a week out there and just
see what happens.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Roll some dice.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Yeah, the first thing I would say is trust God,
you know, because that is gonna be one of the
only things that you can lean on. And it was
because I had that trust I felt a little more
safe than if I was not spiritually inclined, you know.
(21:08):
And anytime that you ask him to show up, he
shows out Right. It's been times where I'm just like,
I don't know how this is going to happen. I'm
taking a chance. I'm taking a risk. It's a calculated risk,
but it still has some you know, high stakes to it.
And the path has just been laid out, you know
(21:32):
what I'm saying, Like I came to two steps and
I saw my next tien. You know, by doing that,
you know what I'm saying, And so people are afraid
to move because they don't have anything to trust in
and lean on. So I just say, trust God first,
(21:53):
you know, and also have that emotional emotional baits with
a select you know, two or three people, you know
what I'm saying, and it expected to come from where
you don't expect it to come from, you know. Just
(22:13):
by me putting that out there, I connected with so
many people who I didn't even really talk to on
a regular basis. You know. I got congratulations and I
got helps in handouts from people who I never would
have expected, just by me being bold enough to do it,
you know, and partially because they wanted to live vicariously.
(22:37):
The other part was they wanted to congratulate me on
the bravery, you know what I'm saying. So once I
had that initial start, it was like, okay, so this
this comes with putting yourself out there. So we got
to keep this going. We got to keep it moving,
you know. And yeah, I would just say like like
(23:01):
have that faith, make calculated.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Risks and bet on yourself, absolutely betting on yourself.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Oh man, that's a that's a that's a tough one though.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
But it's definitely high risk, high reward, I will definitely
say that.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
So an amazing thing. Tell us.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
So you know, and you again you bet on yourself
and now you know again you're a professional published poet.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Tell us a bit. Now, kind of the fruits of
that labor.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
You know, you've now been voted Best Mail Pope by
the DMV Renaissance Award pretty recently. Tell us, I mean,
what what is this kind of the fruits of your labor?
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Tell us about being you.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Know, given these types of titles, you know, like Best
Male Pop by the DMV Renaissance Awards.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
What if things like that meant.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
It's definitely meant a lot.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
You know.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
It is the hard work paying off and it really
ups your price, you know. Yeah, Like you have the
changeables now to say like, hey, I need to be
paid this, I need to be taken care of in
this way because I have shown improved, you know. So
(24:15):
it's very rewarding in the sense of like things that
you were hoping for have come to fruition. Yeah, you know,
and I like to think of this now, everything you
want is on its way towards you. What I'm saying,
the only reason why it hasn't gotten there is that
(24:38):
either it's not prepared or you're not prepared. Right. So
the more that you put yourself out there, the easier
it is for things that are already on their way
towards you to find you. Poetry is a very sensitive
art because once you put it out there like that's it,
(25:03):
you know what I'm saying, it's pretty much what it
is at the moment, and you can't change it, you
can't shift it, you know. So a lot of people
are reserved and sharing themselves because of that fact. But
also they're reserved because it gets them attention. Maybe they
didn't want the attention. Maybe they just wanted to get
(25:24):
these emotions and put that out there, you gee what
I'm saying. So you know, you have to decide, like
what is it that you want from your art? You know,
what are the things that you are trying to gain
and explore when you put yourself out there in this
(25:47):
art form?
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, you know, but I love what you say.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
You said, anything that's for you, it's either it hasn't
came because either you're not ready or it's just it
hasn't came towards you yet. No. I love that that's
such a positive way to look at things because I think,
especially as artists, it's so easy to just break the
hell down and just be be down and out for
(26:11):
the count. It's so easy to just just say, like,
just screw everything and just be done, because that's literally
the game.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
I mean, it's you have I swear like you can have.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
You'd be so up in one week and then be
in the lowest pits of depression in the same week.
I mean, it really is just such a it's such
a life gamble. I mean, it's such a roll of
dice every day of you know what what.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Things are, and it's so much of out of your control.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Even collaboration with other people, with other artists, you know,
some people may not bring the same energy you do,
they may not bring the same momentum, they may drop
their ball. Then it's just time for you to pick
up pieces. So I love that kind of that spirit
of just what's for you is for you, and you
know you just have to be patient, right, we know
(27:02):
it's going to come when it's supposed to come.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I love that. So tell us about your second tour
that was in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
It was from your published second work, Her, And you said,
you know what, tell us about the importance of that tour,
and you know how quickly what mistakes did you learn
from the first to now kind of on that second
second leg?
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Right, So the second tour was a midwest central US
tour where the first one was an East coast tour.
What I did on the second tour versus the first
one is I actually had a sponsor, so I was
able to fundraise and highlight a brand. This was one
(27:50):
of the first times that I did brand collaboration, and
the brand was called the Initiative Brand. I don't believe
that they're still activate at the moment, but you know,
that was one of the key things that I did
because it wasn't just me promoting myself, but I was
(28:12):
also in a sense of a brand ambassador. So I
got the promotion and sponsorship from that, and I think
I went to I went to two more cities than
I did the first one, So this one was an
eight city tour, and you know, I kind of just
(28:32):
learned how to navigate how to use the bus system,
and you know, really kind of just winging it still,
but just taking like a little bit more chance and
a little bit more risk. And it was pretty fun,
you know. I went, let's see, I think I started
(28:54):
off in Oklahoma City. Then I went to Dallas, Houston,
in New Orleans, Baton Rouge. Where else did I go?
I was in Memphis and Saint Louis was where I ended,
So that was that was also fun too, to just
connect with poets and poetry curators who I never would
(29:20):
have met, you know, had I stayed on the West Coast.
A few people I still talk to today.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
So yeah, tell us about So you know, obviously going
from first to second, like you said, you have sponsorship.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
You'll make the point earlier. You know, when you.
Speaker 1 (29:35):
Accomplish these things, you know, price goes up. Your price
as a brand or as a poet really does go up.
And so much of that is that marketing aspect. I
always say, if you're in endeavoring into business or artistic adventures,
only about twenty percent is actually the art. The other
eighty percent is the business side. And the business side
(29:58):
isn't even what people think is the business side. Truly
is just the stuff no one wants to do, crossing
the t's, dotting the eyes, printing the paperwork, making sure
all those things are there.
Speaker 2 (30:10):
How important for you?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
I mean, how how big of a kind of as
you expand your brand? How important was the kind of
business side of being a poet? How how much of
an importance did that start laying stake and claim in
your life?
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Well, I've always I've always been an entre entrepreneurial artist,
you know. I think my dad's side is definitely where
I get a lot of my business mind from. So
not only do I do this for my poetry, but
I do it for myself, you know, anything that I
want to put myself to, because I've always looked at
(30:51):
Nerds as a brand, right, So even if it wasn't
in poetry, if I wanted to bring it to something else,
what are the What's the I said that I need
to have? So, you know, important things like knowing how
to fill out the W nine on time, knowing how
to make things tax right offs and these these are
(31:14):
things that I had to learn over and over again
because I didn't necessarily need to use that information right
at that moment, but because of repetition. When it was
like time to do it, like when it was time
to get my first you know, eight hundred dollars, five
hundred dollars from a poetry check. I was like, Okay,
(31:35):
this is serious because I do not want to slow
up the process. I don't want my brand or my
name to be tarnished by you know, lack of work
ethic or whatever. I just I didn't want to have
any lap, you know what I'm saying. I didn't want
to lack anything someone who likes to cover all bases
because I do not like missing opportunities, you know. So
(31:58):
it's been extremely important, and that goes into me starting
my own event planning and artists consulting company, Nerve the
Poor Productions. So right now I have a DBA registered
and Washington d C and looking to turn that into
(32:19):
an LLC soon. So just making myself a business, you
know what I'm saying. I think that's another thing that
poets have to understand if they want longevity. Yeah, that's
the the difference between if it's a hobby or if
(32:41):
it's a lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Yeah, absolutely, yea, that kind of yeah, that knowledge is
definitely important to have, you know, in no way is
the right way, right.
Speaker 2 (32:53):
It's it's how you just decide to go about things.
And you know, some.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
People that that's just not their thing. Other people that
definitely is their thing. Shouts to you for recognizing that
and creating this brand.
Speaker 2 (33:06):
All right, now, tell me a little bit.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Was there a moment in your life where you just
knew you were a writer, where you knew you were
a poet? Was there just one moment snapshot of reality
where you like, yes, I am a writer.
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Did you ever have that at that moment?
Speaker 3 (33:21):
I think I was fifteen years old and I had
to get an essay edited and corrected by an adult.
And one of my dad's friends at the time was
one to look at it because she was an educator,
(33:42):
and she said, this is really good. And I was like,
are I'm just doing my homework, like what are you
talking about? As you're like, no, you you're you're actually
a really good writer, Like you should look into developing
this one. And even then at the time, I was like, Okay,
that's great, this is an essay, but it's not something
(34:03):
that I would you know, like, how I can't be
a professional essay writer when I get older. So you know.
But that was me knowing that I was able to
use my writing in an intriguing way, you know, So
when it came to doing creative projects, I kind of
(34:27):
took that boost of confidence and said, all right, you know,
I'll give it a shot. And then I got the
same results, like people like, oh, this is actually it's good,
Like I'm enjoy yeah reading this. So yeah, I would
say I was about like fifteen years old at the time.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
That's what's up. That's actually amazing.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Yeah, yeah, as a kid even knew back then that's
what's up.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
All right, Nerd.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
I have one final question for you today. Why do
you need to get your words up?
Speaker 3 (35:01):
I need to get my words out because I've been
always told that I need to be quiet and stay
in whatever place that the person was telling me. I
felt I need to stay in, you know. And this
(35:21):
is a great question because as poets like, we always
ask ourselves like why are we doing this? Like why
does it doesn't matter? And there are multiple answers. You know,
I'm pretty sure there's about one hundred thousand other Nerve
(35:43):
the poets out there in some way, shape or form. However,
what's different is that my story speaks to my legacy,
and it's something that I want to do. You know,
if I didn't want to do it, then I want
to do it, you know. But something in me, the passion,
(36:06):
the raw emotion, and the connection that I have, forces
me to do it and I can't explain it. So
the fact that I want to do it and I
can't explain why, is the reason why I do it.
Because there's a reason why I have that, you know
what I'm saying. And so I always talk about having obedience.
(36:29):
Sometimes you have to be obedient to what life is
telling you to do, because if you don't, there's gonna
be some type of resentment that you have. You know,
there's gonna be some type of disconnection that you have
because you're not doing what you're supposed to do. You
may not be able to explain why you're supposed to
do it. You may be the only person who understands
(36:51):
why you're supposed to do it. But if you don't
do it, it's like you're not even living life correctly.
You know what I'm saying, You're not even living the
life that you were supposed to live. So I don't
know who that's gonna make sense to. But for those
(37:13):
you know who do understand and that makes sense to it,
like that's why you're supposed to do whatever it is
that you're supposed to do, you know. And it's like
being in alignment with purpose, you know what I'm saying.
So I feel like, for whatever reason, on purpose to
be a writer and a speaker, you know, regardless of
(37:37):
what has happened to me in life, what's gonna happen
to me in the future. My outlet, by mission is
to tell my story to others so they can connect
with it, and then whatever happens after that happens. I
don't know if it's going to inspire someone to build
a school. I don't know if it's going to inspire
(37:57):
someone to write another book about their experiences with love
and relationship. I just know that I'm supposed to do
it because I want to do it.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Sure, sure, absolutely, absolutely, Well, thank you so much for
sharing that, Nerd. And before we wrap up, wrap up,
tell us what is the rest of twenty twenty four
looking like for you? And even glimpses of twenty twenty five,
And tell us give us drop some links down, drop
some links about social media websites, where can folks check
(38:27):
out all of your amazing work.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
Okay, so first off, all my links dot com slash
Nerd the Poet. Once again, that's all my links dot
com slash Nerd the Poet. You will be able to
find all my work in the channels that you need
to find it at. Please support because I get hungry
three times a day, you know, and bills come every month.
(38:54):
What you all can look forward to in twenty twenty
four is really me allowing myself to look at everything
that has happened this year. It's been a great year.
I've been on the local news, I've been in the
international festival. I've been multiple festivals. I've hosted open mics
(39:18):
multiple days a week. I'm giving open mics away, I'm
coaching people.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Yes, I'm going to pull it speaks podcast.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
You know.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
So a lot of things have happened in these nine months,
and I want to give myself time to really think
myself for what it is that that I've done, and
also get back to to creating. They're supposed to be
a volume two of The Love Song of the nerve
(39:50):
Re Donald coming out and volume three, you know, so
I owe that to myself and my readers to put
out some more poetry collaborations, some more things on YouTube.
I also am looking to develop a podcast where I'm
(40:12):
also interviewing other poets and authors that are local in
the area, so that, you know, people can understand them more.
You know what I'm saying, Because it's one thing to
see us on stage, but not everybody gets a chance
to have that intimate conversation and get a better understanding
of why we are where we are. So take a vacation,
(40:37):
you know, enjoy Thanksgiving, you know, maybe enjoy Christmas. I
don't know. I kind of want to go somewhere where
it's a little warm, you know, because that's one thing
that did not leave when I made this move. I
still like being in warm climates and by the beats
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
So yes, sir, absolutely, I completely agree with you.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Take that time out to celebrate yourself, celebrate how amazing
you know, the accomplishments you's achieve, both big, both small,
both medium. Everything is worth celebrating because you did it right.
Speaker 2 (41:13):
So I love that.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
I love that taking that time out to make sure
that the next thing you do is to just really
celebrate and heal your spirit nurture your spirit with that,
giving that affirmation and praise to yourself first and foremost.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
So thanks so much, Nerd.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
We really appreciate you today on the Poet Speaks podcast.
Speaker 3 (41:33):
Thank you, thank you so much for having me. Oh
and again, also, I didn't drop the ig. The instagram
is Nerd the Poet spell correctly like what is school?
Because it did. If you're on Facebook, you can go
to Facebook dot com slash Nerd the Poet or MTP
P O r D that's nerd to for productions, I'm
(41:55):
open to bookings for you know, I'll take a couple
of for this year, but really looking to twenty five.
If you want collaborations, if you need advice, mentorship, coaching,
feel free to reach out. I'm pretty sure my information
will be a job here and let's have a conversation.
(42:15):
I'm very approachable. I'm full of ideas and I cannot
use every idea that I think of, which is like
a good and bad thing, you know what I'm saying.
So please reach out to me on ideas in different
ways that we can collaborate. And yeah, hope to see
some of y'all in the interwebs or in person soon.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Absolutely all right everyone, Nerds information will be in the
detailed box no matter where you're listening to this podcast.
That no matter the streaming platform. Again, Nerds information will
be in the detail box down below, no matter where
you're listening to this podcast. And again, a big thank
you to Nerd for joining us on today's episode of
(42:56):
the Post Speaks podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:58):
Everyone listen to the Postbeaks podcast.
Speaker 1 (43:00):
No matter where you listen to your podcast, we are everywhere,
all right, good night one, good bye, please
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