A.p~

Getting Started: Writing has always been apart of A.p~, but she didn’t really find her niche for poetry until her last year of high school: her 12th grade literature teacher, Ms. McWaters, made students analyze poetry. “Frost, Browning, Sir Raleigh, others, and a lot of Shakespeare,” A.p~ said, “I remember a lot of Shakespeare. I really enjoyed it, though, and eventually began writing and breaking down my own.”/ By the time A.p~ reached college, however, her new found niche “sort of subsided.” Until, in 2001 when she was re-united with former classmate and fellow poet, Arnold Butler (author of “The Forgotten Letters of a Lost Soul”). “Butler inspired me to pick up the pen and pushed me to write,” A.p~ said. That same year, she met hip-hop artist, Life the Great (Lloyd Musa) and through him found the art of performance poetry./ After hearing A.p~ recite in a lobby outside of Georgia Perimeter College’s library, Musa encouraged her to perform and talked her into entering a talent show. She won grand prize. “I had no idea at the time that what I was doing was called spoken word,” she said, “it would be a long time before I found out about spoken word and the spoken word scene.”/ The following year, A.p~ entered the talent show for the second time and won again. She performed in subsequent talent shows and said her “small victories introduced [her] to many opportunities.” ____________________________________________________________ In the Middle: A.p~ began accepting invitations to speak at special events ranging from African American round-table discussions to pastoral appreciations, and though most of her poetry was not written for the page, some of her work was published in literary magazines (i.e., Eclectic and Creative License) and newspapers. She also served in conjunction with spoken word artist, NyneElementz, as host of an open mic forum in downtown Decatur./ In 2006, A.p~ was approached by Anonymous Entertainment, an Atlanta based company that gives underground music artist exposure, and asked to perform spoken word pieces at their concerts—dubbed, “The Beautiful Life.” She has since shared the stage with United Kingdom sensation, Julie Dexter and musical fire crackers, Maleke West [as Victoria Blue], Brodie, and Janessa, just to name a few. ____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________ Nowadays: A.p~ continues to perform with Anonymous Entertainment, but has, more recently, been seen on Atlanta’s SLAM poetry scene. “I’m not sure how that happened,” she said laughing, “ask Chas Jackson.” Jackson, who is a SLAM poet, discovered A.p~ during a featured performance at Urban Grind with Def Jam Poet, Tommy Bottoms. “He [Jackson] encouraged me to try out for one of Atlanta’s SLAM poetry teams –I had no idea there was such a thing— and took me under his wing,” she said. With Jackson’s persistence, A.p~ tried out for the Java Monkey and Art Amok SLAM teams and on the first try, placed for finals, for both. In April, she became one of two new members to join the Art Amok SLAM Team. “This still amazes me,” she said. “I’m excited and anxious about being on the team … I think I’m more excited about simply learning from my teammates to become better at what I do, though.” A.p~ said Art Amok’s SLAM team consists of some of “SLAM poetry’s greats”: Karen G., Stefen Micko, Shannon Leigh, Theresa Davis, and new member MistaFunn./ Nonetheless, A.p~ can still be seen performing at any one of Atlanta’s various poetry spots and continues to speak by invitation. She just completed her first one woman show at the U*Space Art Gallery in May. Even with her newfound victory, however, and a growing number of speaking engagements, A.p~ remains humble, simply seeing herself as a poet and lover of the art in its many forms. “I consider poetry to be the salt in my stew,” she said, “without it, life just wouldn’t taste right.” ____________________________________________________________ Additionals: A.p~ has a Bachelor’s degree from Georgia State University in print journalism and also does a bit of copy editing—from novels and books of poetry to essays and scientific articles. She has plans to publish a book of poems, prose, and maybe short stories. To catch A.p~s next performance, see her blog: “Where is A.p~ ?” or the below calendar.

You should create your own MySpace Layouts like me by using nUCLEArcENTURy .COM's MySpace Profile Editor !Masthead Banner Made with MyBannerMaker.com! Click here to make your own!