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This is the Brothers in Company Podcast.

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Music.

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Hello, hello, hello, everyone, and good evening.

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And welcome to another episode of this segment of Content Creators from the

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Brothers in Company Podcast, podcast, where we showcase artists,

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poets, business professionals, doctors,

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and much more here in Charleston, South Carolina and beyond.

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My name is Chris C. Laird Gwynn. I'm one half of Brothers in Company podcast tonight.

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It is Tuesday, April the 16th, 2024.

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And tonight, tonight, I have a special guest and a great friend of mine and

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fellow poet but in the Charleston community.

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And his name is Mr. Joey Tucker, better known as Mr. D. Enlightenment.

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He was born in a small town in Walterboro, South Carolina.

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Grew up listening to his favorite hip hop artists, often writing raps of his own.

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His hip hop roots are evident in the poetry community.

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What rolled in Presbyterian College, Mr.

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Enlightenment took a creative writing poetry class. It was at that time he put

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together his own collection of poems.

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After graduating, he wrote from time to time, but nothing serious.

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A breakup sparked his creativity once again.

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In 2009, he released his first chapbook, Wallets and Purses,

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released it. and also along with light and a poet's playground.

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In 2023, he released his poetry book called Flicker.

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He also released two poetry CDs, Worth the Wait and Watts in 2015 and Summer Solitus in 2017.

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Mr. D. Lightman's name is a play on words streaming from his job as an educator.

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Also, he wanted to shine on stage while delivering his work.

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Mr. Lightman has performed at various venues in South Carolina and Georgia.

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And also, also, he has performed at my book release party last year for Colors

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in 2023, along with other great fellow poets.

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It was a great success and turnout. And Free First was definitely,

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definitely in the building to show me so much love.

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And he is one of them. All right, guys. I am so honored to have this man on this episode.

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Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, show your love for the one and only Mr.

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Joy Tucker, better known as Mr. The Enlightenment.

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What's going on? How y'all doing out there?

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Good, good, good. I'm so glad and honored to have you on our show today, man.

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How you feeling? man that's good man trying

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to uh wrap up this school year and

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just promote myself and just you

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know interact with fellow artists and

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just you know try to make my mark out here that's what's up that's what's up

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you are most definitely making a mark in these streets as a poet man you are

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so well known man well can you tell me about yourself and who is joy tucker

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or better known as Mr. De-Alignment?

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Man, I'm just a nationalist, sports fan, elementary school teacher,

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just a social butterfly.

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You know, if I'm not doing some poetry, I'm out and about, just hanging out

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with friends, you know, just enjoying life, man.

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That is great, man. Oh, I about to ask, who is your favorite team?

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Team either football NFL I

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am a Las Vegas Raiders fan that's what

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well I'm a Carolina Panthers fan you know my

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whole family loves the Panthers you know

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I can get down with that yeah because we collect our

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we collect their merch and you know just everything they beg on the Carolina

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Panthers you know we're trying to win we're trying to win a win a Super Bowl

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so everybody everybody got the same goal right we've been close but you know

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we just got to do better up and up and down man,

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absolutely absolutely so can you tell me how long have you been performing and writing poetry,

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so my first open mic like i know i was doing i was posting posting poems on social media stuff just.

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I wrote, like I said, I was in college, put together some poems for a class.

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And, you know, along the way, me and a friend of mine, we're,

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you know, just writing stuff and sharing it between each other.

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You know, I was starting to post stuff online and getting pretty good feedback,

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just interacting on Facebook.

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And I met this guy who was also a poet.

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You know, he wanted to get he almost doing what Marcus is doing now in Charleston.

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He was doing that just all around it wasn't like locally based he was out of philadelphia,

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well he had a he had a i think went to

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college in in the georgia in college in

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georgia or in the south for sure and he ended up in philadelphia but he had

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a passion for poetry you know he offered me a chance to kind of put together

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unofficial you know it wasn't nothing with a barcode it was just you know put

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together some paper staple it together and just Just, you know, just grab fruits,

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getting your eye, getting your work out there to the few supporters that you

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had at the time and just build from there.

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So I did my first open mic in 2010.

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Wow. That's awesome. That's awesome. I mean, I had my spurts and I pretty much continued it.

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You know, I had my more productive years in poetry, but I never stopped doing it. Absolutely.

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You don't ever stop doing poetry, man. Well, I started doing poetry.

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It started back in high school. I used to like write songs.

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I'm like, I'm big into hip hop and R&B. And, you know, and I was like writing and singing in chorus.

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And then I was like, oh, my songs can be turned into poetry.

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And then, like you said, I started writing poetry more. Or I went to Trident

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Tech in the early 2000s and I took like a creative writing class and I created

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my first chapbook and it was like an awesome experience.

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I'm like, oh, my God, I can write and I've been getting like good grades on it.

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Yeah, man, it's been awesome. And I also like started going to free verse as

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well after, you know, dealing with different situations during during and after COVID.

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Just try to, you know, better myself as a person.

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And, you know, it's been very great. Like, I really love performing and going

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to open mics just to get inspired by a lot of people. So most definitely.

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Yeah. So in your bio, I want to ask, like you stated that hip hop has influenced your art of poetry.

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Tree um can you tell me some of your favorite hip-hop artists

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that has inspired your work and how they impacted your

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life well i grew up in south carolina but i

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listened to a lot of up north uh hip-hop you

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know because new york kind of the mecca hip-hop and well

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yeah especially when i was younger we weren't you

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know the southern rappers weren't getting that much uh

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publicity so you know know we all were just new

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york new york is what we kind of were influenced by

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and you know i was a big wu-tang fan

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growing up and jay-z is my favorite rapper

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of all time so just i guess if

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you listen to it enough i was just able to you know put words together like

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i could i could just be creative and put a simile together that would just be

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clever and you know kind of have a a little bit of humor with it too so i don't

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know if i kind of credit you know if you listen to.

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Lyricists i think you start to become a lyricist i think if

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whatever you kind of subliminally listen to

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or are you exposed to you kind of pick

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it up i must definitely tell you i i

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love um new york hip-hop as well i do like west coast

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hip-hop south hip-hop i like the old school hip-hop like you know kid and play

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like house party movies and that's when i got really inspired to you know you

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know listening to hip-hop and then also going to parties as well so most definitely

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most definitely new york is in the house that's what's all started.

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So like i would look i would look at a

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rap city the basement you know that kind

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of kept me in the loop about what was going on

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and you know when videos were like you

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know we kind of depended on videos to kind of see the artists now social media

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but you know i had to you had to wait to see your favorite artist and you had

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to watch videos and you came out with an album you didn't get to see the behind

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the scenes in the studio you just had to wait for that that release date,

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oh yeah absolutely man i missed the old

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bt days man like you know like you said like rap city

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and doing those cyphers or freestyle battles and

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stuff i truly missed that it was the good

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old times i wish we could go back in time and you know relive those moments

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you know but you know again social media has really kind of taken over and just

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changed everything from hip-hop like i still collect cds to this day like i

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don't like like streaming and download to my phone because you You know,

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I still like, you know, collecting and looking at booklets and stuff and how

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to produce what producers is on album and the lyrics and stuff, you know what I mean?

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You bought that CD, you like, you open it up and read the inside while you're

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listening to it. Absolutely. And I still do. And I have like a bunch of CDs in my room.

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So is this a full stack of CDs, movies as well, video games as well. ourselves.

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Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, we met at open mic nights at free verse

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events, you know, created by, you know, Mr.

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Marcus Amaker, who was our first poet laureate of Charleston.

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Shout out to Mr. Marcus Amaker, you know, and then going to these events,

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you know, he want us to perform in a safe space without any judgment.

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What can you tell me? What great advice has mr marcus

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amaker given to you that impacted your life as

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a poet or any advice that he has given you oh

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he just he's very positive like

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he'll never be critical of your work and i kind

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of take that same approach you know you want to be positive about an upcoming

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artist or a new poet it you want to you know never kind of shut people down

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you know especially if they feel.

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Like they want to share their work with you because i

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guess if you're a veteran of that field you know

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they want that mentorship so he

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was always the the positive guy and

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you know in in warm inviting like

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he you know he had events and he invited me

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out and he gave me opportunities opportunities to do my poetry with

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them so you know I just kind of take the

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same approach like I'm trying to share opportunities

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if I have them and you know just not tear anybody down just you know keep doing

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what you're doing and you know poetry is unique and that it's so many different

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styles and we're all you know we're all adding something important to in the community.

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Absolutely, man. I can tell you definitely, Mr. Marcus Amaker,

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he is such a positive, like you said, he is a positive, positive poet here in

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the community of Charleston. Like I call him my big brother poetry because I learned so much from this man.

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Like he actually helped me with the formatting for my book.

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And I've been like going back and forth with him. like you

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know i wanted to be perfect and he was very patient of

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you know helping me edit and having my book formatted correctly

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when i was having difficulties like trying to upload my

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manuscript online so he definitely was very patient

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yeah i will also say like he gave

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me also advice as well he told me like when you

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release your book release your projects do it

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when on your time don't do it when you know people

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try to rush you and try to you know try to speed you

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up just do it in your on time when you're ready because i

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want to make sure my poem was ready and perfect and

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just you know ready for the world to

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be taken so most definitely marcus emmerker he's he's such a wonderful mentor

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to everybody here in the community so everybody could definitely learn from

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this man so shout out to him yeah man he's like he's basically making mr poetry

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for sure like Like when you say poetry in Charleston,

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he's one of the names that pops up. Absolutely. Absolutely.

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Well, you do know that poetry is a great way to express yourself,

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like letting out all of your emotions, whether it's being happy, sad and so on.

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What has poetry meant to you in your life that helped you overcome obstacles in your life?

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Oh, I definitely it definitely gives me a chance to kind of vent.

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I don't outwardly share my

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thoughts as much i'm pretty i keep it

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pretty positive but everybody goes through these moments when

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when things aren't you know always going so well so writing is always an outlet

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it's just been a thing that i've been doing and a great way to meet more people

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and And just a conversation spark between artists.

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You know, I like to, you know, go to the open mics and workshops and just,

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you know, kind of share ideas with people and kind of see how somebody else

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might interpret something. So just those conversations and, you know, allow me to be creative and kind of push the envelope.

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I love how poetry is kind of like, it allows you to be free.

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Like, I'm not the most... Vocal person you know i'm not the center of

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attention type of guy but i feel like when poetry allowed me

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to kind of get my voice and kind of command the audience even though i'm not

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always like that i kind of like play the background but when you're on stage

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and it's it's almost like you can have that that that other alter ego like it's

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a little more stand out than my normal self,

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I can definitely relate to, you know, being on stage and bringing out your alter

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ego because I'm kind of different from, you know, my personal life.

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I'm like more reserved, laid back. And then when you perform,

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you become this person that, you know, motivating and so encouraging.

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So I definitely love it. It just brings out my, take me out my shell when I

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perform. form. So most definitely. And I would say like, for me, when I write my poetry, I kind of write from personal

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life experiences, wherever I'm dealing with, you know, depression,

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happiness, and joy, I kind of write that down rather than just bashing somebody on social media.

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I'd rather just like write it down, go in the corner and just express myself,

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you know, just, it helps me, it helps me definitely better death,

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you know, get myself better in life. So most definitely I can related to that.

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I'll ask you a question. So in your poetry performances, you are,

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you are the man at crowd participations in your poetry performances.

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Like, you know, you feed off the people's energy and you just motivate everybody.

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Like you always do that lights on, lights off.

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I just like that. So that's one of my favorite parts in your poetry,

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you know, lights on, lights off. So do you think it's like important, very important to incorporate crowd participation

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and portrait pieces to make the audience feel one with your work?

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I think it can help definitely it kind of breaks the ice with you too that's

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kind of kind of get get the nerves out because as much as you perform you're

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still going to be a little nervous when you still go up there for the first

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time you know that night or that evening whenever,

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so it gets the and sometimes the crowd

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not always into it you know they might they might

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not know who you are you know

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at that point they might they might came to see another

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poet they didn't come to to see you or that kind

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of like sparks their attention you know the

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way you present your work so i think it definitely can

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help absolutely i kind of agree with that

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man like i'll say when i go to my performances

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like i think my first open mic

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was a couple years ago at the common house i can

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remember it it was like nighttime and marcus was hosting it

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my lips first chat like my lips was

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like i was shaky dicky man i was like i was

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doing ums and ahs and just i was

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so nervous but after a while you just get better and

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better like i definitely love the crowd participation like especially um i'm

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learning from dl like he he's good at you know just crowd participation like

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you know he's been like shout out some words shout out some words like different

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subjects and then he create poems like off the bat like that on the spot Yeah, yeah.

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I'm not ready to freestyle a poem like that yet.

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Well, I did it before. It's not bad at all.

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For my performance next month for the Charleston Arts Fest, I'm probably going

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to do some freestyling. So it is fun.

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I might just wrap off your stickers and your T-shirts and just create a poem.

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And, you know, everyone love it. Hey, man, like I said, man, there's always different ways to go about it. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

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Because I'd be thinking like poetry, like you just had to rhyme and your poems

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got to make sense to the people. And, you know, but like you said, like poetry comes in so many art forms and

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different shades, you know, like poetry, just everything.

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So there's no right or wrong when you write and perform. So most definitely.

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Yeah. Yeah. So I see that you put out your own poetry book called Flickr that

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I have, man. I definitely loved it. And I do love the picture illustrations with your poems.

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I'm definitely very proud of your publication, man. So I'm very proud.

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Thank you. Thank you for putting it out. Can you tell the people checking it out?

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Of course. Of course, man. Shout out to your peoples that definitely help put your poems together.

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Ever and you know the whole publication everything can you

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tell the people what your poetry book flicker is

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about and what has inspired you to creating it so uh

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kind of what sparked it is when i was just posting

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on social media and i was you know you get a certain amount of space and when

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i was tweeting tweeting that is prime you know you only had 140 characters so

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i started I started doing like haiku and then kind of transforming into my own

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version of poetry where, you know, it wasn't exactly counting syllables,

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but I would have a central thought and I would kind of try to pack it in,

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in a certain amount of lines. And then I kind of stumbled upon this genre online called micro poetry.

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So I started becoming pretty good at, you know, saying a lot when those small amount of lines.

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And I just, you know, kept putting, you know, coming up with poems and and writing down on paper.

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And I was just, you know, having something to post.

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You know, I would post a poem every few days or every day and it started becoming

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something I do on Instagram and Twitter and getting good feedback.

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And it was a quick hitter. So, you know, somebody is scrolling. rolling they don't

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have the time or maybe they

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don't plan on stopping and reading

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an entire longer poem so they can you know

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on your timeline they'll see those three or four lines and like

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oh that's pretty clever oh I like that you know then they might share it or

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they might retweet it they might you know like it so I started like kind of

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developing a knack for that so I just had a bunch of short poems that i just

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compiled in a document and.

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I've also seen where people would put a picture to go along with it.

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So I was like, all right, well, I reached out to some art, you know,

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art teacher friends of mine or just artist friends of mine and said, hey, I got some poems.

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Can you draw, you know, a little sketch to go along with it?

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So, you know, I sent them some poems and, you know, I kind of gave them a little

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direction or I also let I want them to be free with it.

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You know, like whatever you come up with something, you know, I can kind of.

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Yeah, I like it or I don't. so i feel

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like it was another way to add to

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the poetry so you can put a little picture there to

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go along with it so i decided to put it out

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and just go with it man and it makes sense because you know it was all i was

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thinking light you know all i got a lot of light theme poetry and just promotion

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so i'm thinking like it's a quick it's a quick poem so it's like a flicker of

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light Right. Right. Absolutely.

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I definitely love the illustration, man. I'm with the same way with my poetry

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book that came out last year. Colors can overcome levels of real stages.

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And I talked to one of my great designers, Mr. Chris Kendall,

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who created my graphics. graphics.

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And I told him I want, I want to have my pictures as the, you know,

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the backdrop, you know, as defining my emotions with the red that represents redemption,

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black color represents, you know, darkness, dark, dark days, like them dark times.

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And then the gold color represents, you know, the good and inspiration in my

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life. So he definitely executed that.

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And the pictures go along with my poetry and it definitely flowed very well. So I'd.

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Definitely appreciate the illustrations your illustrations and the

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people that behind it man it's amazing

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love absolutely so

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i would ask you like you know in the author's world

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you know like book reviews from online can either

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make you or break you like i don't know

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if you deal with it have you deal with any good or

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bad reviews about your book and if so um do

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you feel book reviews can make a poet better or

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can it make you intimidating uh that's

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something i always kind of struggle with like criticism so

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i mean a good review can.

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Be a good thing and then a bad

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review can also take away from it so i don't

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want to force it but you know i do

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kind of like hey if you like the poem can you write

23:46

a little bit about it just because a review

23:49

can definitely help you know the next person decide if

23:52

they want to read it or they want to buy it but i

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guess it's all all kind of criticism if it's

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from a positive place like you know

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some people just like tearing you down just because you know

24:05

if it's not for you it's not for you so why put

24:09

all the effort into writing a negative review so

24:13

if somebody asks you to write to review i think

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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

24:26

a way to give some criticisms or you know what you could do better but that's a slippery slope so.

24:36

I haven't had any well lately

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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

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clarifying like i actually like when people ask me like you know what did you

24:52

mean by that or if they say some kind of smart remark you know maybe a good

24:57

conversation can come from it, so i think it's all about how you approach somebody with it and how it's done

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and i agree with you also with you know people's opinions and reviews like when

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i put out my book on amazon i I was so nervous, too.

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Like, I was like, I was waiting on somebody to, you know, say something bad

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and tear me down to shreds. But, you know, so far, everyone has been loving

25:23

it, you know. Yeah, because you got to go. I mean, you got to go out. I mean, a bad review.

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Okay. If it's food, something.

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I feel like you took a chance. You always going to take a chance.

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I'll take a chance on a movie. You know, maybe I'm not familiar with the actress.

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I'll take a chance on it. So for me to go on and write a bad review and try

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to make the, you know, there's a way to do it.

25:51

I feel like you got to go out your way to be negative about somebody's art.

25:56

It was like, okay, it wasn't for me. I bought it. It wasn't my cup of tea.

26:01

I feel like to write a negative review about

26:04

it it's kind of like unnecessary man now

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if somebody came to me and had i feel like yeah i can do a positive review but

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i don't know it's just not me i'm not the type of person to go online and write

26:18

a negative review about somebody's art you know if it wasn't for me it wasn't

26:22

for me i mean there's some people that they do that that's what So they do,

26:27

you know, you get, you get more attractions and some being negative about something

26:32

than being positive about it.

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But I guess if you want to, I, I haven't, I'm very strategic about who I do

26:39

ask my, you know, who I want to ask about, you know, the work.

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Cause somebody be careful what you get, careful what you ask for.

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Cause you know, it can't make a difference.

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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.

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So I guess I'm all, I'm trying to be as organic as possible, man. So, you know,

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Hopefully it lands in the hands of somebody that appreciated it and then they

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want to, you know, share the good things about it. Right. Absolutely.

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I'm the same way, too, man. Like, I don't take it as a, you know,

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a bad experience, like, you know, good or bad.

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But with reviews for me, I feel like it betters me as a poet.

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If something is bad, I can do better on the next poem and the next book that

27:34

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.

27:44

That's my art. That's like if I'm a painter or a sculptor and somebody doesn't

27:50

like my painting, I'm not changing my whole style because of you.

27:53

So you take it with a grain of salt, I think.

27:56

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.

28:07

Okay, I can understand that. But if you didn't like my poem,

28:10

I'm not changing the way I write.

28:12

Like, it's a hard thing as an artist.

28:16

You're writing it for yourself most of the time.

28:20

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.

28:27

At the end of the day, if you think your poem is good, you need to put it out there.

28:32

Because somebody is going to connect with it. And there's some people that it's not for everybody.

28:38

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,

28:49

but I can't take the I didn't like it. OK, you didn't like it.

28:54

What? I'm not going to change the way I write for a negative opinion of it. So that's just me.

29:01

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.

29:12

Like we're not no we're not drake out here we're not trying to sell a million copies so,

29:20

you're writing from a place like it's your story i'm telling my story i can't

29:25

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

29:36

like it because like you said you like Like,

29:39

you got your favorite artist, and you all about that favorite artist.

29:42

And there's some people who don't like that favorite artist.

29:45

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.

29:57

You kind of lose, like, what are you doing it for? I like the art at its purest form.

30:05

You know, everybody wants the applause. everybody wants

30:08

to sell a bunch of copies but at

30:10

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

30:18

i thought was good and at the end of the day i

30:21

think that's all we need i agree with you man like

30:24

you know i wouldn't want to change my poetry for anybody because

30:27

everybody's story is so unique different because

30:30

you don't know what that person go through the next person go through so

30:33

why why would we change it so exactly

30:37

we don't want we don't we don't want everybody's porn

30:40

to be the sound of saying like i love those free verse open

30:43

mics like it's so many different styles go to the open mic there's so many different

30:48

styles and all of this good like there's no i love poetry because there's no

30:54

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.

31:03

I'm sure there's line breaks. You got to do a line break here.

31:08

I'm not so technical with that, but end of the day, there's no wrong way to

31:14

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

31:27

than the other person. And, you know, everybody is so unique at their own style. Like, no.

31:33

Yeah, and that's a big thing. Man, I've never been a slam person because I don't

31:39

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

31:52

controversy about slam poetry right now, and it's the competitive nature,

31:57

and it's like they're kind of ruining the.

32:01

Uh the whole essence of what yeah yeah okay

32:04

i get it trying to be the best that's cool trying to

32:07

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

32:14

a slam like i'm not doing it this is i'm gonna deliver my poem the way i want

32:19

to and i'm like i don't get caught up in slam that's not that's not my that's

32:24

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.

32:35

And I've been to some slams.

32:38

I've been to a popular slam that's called Southern Fry.

32:42

And I heard about it, and I decided to go one year. And it was good,

32:47

like some really good poem.

32:49

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.

32:58

You're you're writing you're going into

33:00

these slams with certain poems that you're

33:04

not going to resonate with the people so it's

33:07

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

33:18

if you thought that what's what what's the thought process you go to when you're

33:24

like all right what what poem am I going to read?

33:27

Like, what poem am I going to choose? Like, we had, the last time I saw you

33:32

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,

33:41

I only got one poem to kind of,

33:44

get the crowd, get the crowd's attention. I got one poem. So what goes through

33:49

your mind when you're trying to decide which poem I want to do?

33:52

How do you decide what poems you're going to do?

33:56

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,

34:06

but you know, I just, I decided, you know, I'm just going to write something

34:09

that's dark and just to get them on their toes so they can relate.

34:12

I think one of them was about like a

34:15

abuse relationship I've been in and you know it

34:18

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

34:27

I try not to like read the same exact kind of not the same exact but the same

34:32

exact theme that everyone else is reading I want to just do something all right

34:35

you gotta shake it up you gotta shake it up sometimes you know.

34:39

But yeah, most definitely, you know, that's, that's what, that's my,

34:42

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,

34:49

the poetry events, I've been thinking it's like therapy, you know,

34:53

cause you'd be seeing how the seats, how the seating areas is seated.

34:57

It felt like, you know, going to therapy and, you know, to always this therapist

35:01

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.

35:12

Absolutely. So I want to ask you, like, for anyone that's listening out there,

35:17

like what type of advice would you like to give anyone that wants to start a

35:22

journey as a poet and what can they learn from it?

35:25

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

35:39

pieces from other people. Oh, I like the way she does that.

35:42

I like the way he does that. that so you know

35:45

try to you don't want to you still want to be original but you can still take

35:49

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.

36:06

But you always deliver your poetry as always man so is there a poem in your

36:12

heart that you would would like to share with any with all the listeners and

36:16

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

36:23

with this poem you know if i got multiple poems to share i'd like to start off

36:29

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,

36:35

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,

36:49

undergrad, that's when the light came on.

36:51

Time to illuminate. I write like I'm afraid of the dark. My pen is a light bulb,

36:57

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.

37:04

Try to take my shine i got enough radiance to

37:07

go around i'll even pass it out like free samples like

37:11

the first attempt for neanderthals trying to create fire you probably fizz out

37:15

before you replicate me when someone closes the gap it's time to increase the

37:19

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.

37:32

Man did you just say with closing the gap your brain is you know generated oh my god.

37:42

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,

37:52

I wish you could do another poem but you know kind

37:55

of running out of time but uh i'm most definitely

37:58

going to check out at more open mic events man you're you're

38:01

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

38:12

person the person with the paper you know i just kind of i decided to like make it my goal.

38:21

No, I do read off paper. It depends on what kind of setting.

38:26

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

38:34

that I want to read to the crowd.

38:37

But if I'm out and about, I'm only doing one or two, I'm definitely trying to go from memory.

38:43

Like, that's what I like. I think I can.

38:46

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.

38:54

It loses some energy to me because I got to worry about where I'm at on the paper.

38:58

So I like to do it from memory and that way I can just, you know,

39:01

I like to move with the poem and I want to be looking at, I want to be walking

39:06

around a little bit, sometimes I don't want to be in one spot.

39:09

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,

39:17

know you can the way you can enunciate certain words like when you got it from

39:21

memory i feel like you can do so much more with it absolutely absolutely i agree

39:26

with you man like i think like doing performing poetry out of memory is it feels

39:31

so real it feels so fluid like you just.

39:35

It just feels a lot better man you know i tried like

39:37

you know i still do read off paper looking at the

39:40

audience look down look at the audience it's helpful

39:43

for most people but you know i felt like you know having

39:46

a memory is you know a lot better it took

39:50

me about uh almost a month to memorize um a poem because

39:53

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

40:01

memorize a new poem and it's just it's it's tough man i realize i just gotta

40:08

you just gotta make yourself i've started to record myself and then play it

40:13

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.

40:24

And that's that's with other stuff going on like give

40:27

me a week and then i can i'll have

40:30

that poem pretty memorized but the bad part

40:33

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

40:43

a it's a certain poem or two and that's in my catalog that i think would be

40:47

good when i do a show and i was I want to add it.

40:51

You know, I want to give somebody another poem.

40:54

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.

41:04

Even if my catalog is big enough that I can kind of switch them out,

41:08

I want you to feel like you heard a different poem than the last time.

41:13

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,

41:24

I want you to feel like, oh, I didn't hear that one. I didn't remember that.

41:27

I don't remember that one for last time. So that's that's my goal. Absolutely. Absolutely, man.

41:34

Where can where can people find you at? I know you got upcoming events coming up.

41:40

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,

41:47

at kilowatt poet facebook mr

41:51

enlightenment i dabble a little bit on tiktok at kilowatt poet i got a poetry

41:58

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.

42:10

It's in Mount Pleasant. So it's a,

42:13

seven to nine on a friday so like

42:17

about a month out you know uh so

42:20

it'll be me and a couple other my poet

42:23

colleagues coming to share some

42:26

poetry to the people absolutely absolutely man and i've been very honored to

42:31

being a part of your delight show um last year so most definitely i definitely

42:36

appreciate you having me on man along with the other fellow poets man it's been

42:41

so much fun man And just share the stage with you.

42:44

And it's been great, man. I definitely appreciate it.

42:48

Most definitely come out to the live show, everybody. It's amazing.

42:51

Like, most definitely. You will get inspired.

42:56

Dang. I would like to thank you so much, man.

43:00

Joy, for definitely being on this segment of Content Creators by the Brothers Company Podcast.

43:06

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

43:15

from god man in this community and i know

43:18

the sky is the limit for you man just keep going uh

43:21

just keep doing what you do beth man i just

43:24

definitely love your work man is there

43:27

anything else you would like to say in the segment

43:30

of content creators that you haven't really or any advice

43:34

you know i appreciate the opportunity

43:38

man i like what what y'all doing like i said i didn't know how long

43:40

y'all have been doing a podcast and it's pretty pretty impressive

43:44

man just to because a lot of people do a podcast they

43:48

do it for a little while they stop you know you

43:50

gotta put a lot it's a lot of dedication whatever you decide to

43:53

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

44:07

i was writing it from time to of time or I was watching a video. So.

44:12

Keep going whatever it is keep going don't stop

44:15

it's gonna get hard you're gonna feel like you

44:18

know you're not making much progress but you

44:21

definitely are you you definitely got

44:25

more if you look back at it your journey

44:28

you farther along than you were when

44:30

you started absolutely man i definitely appreciate that

44:33

man because i tell everybody like if you have a goal

44:36

dream an aspiration in life just go for it

44:39

you know don't hold yourself back you know i'm working on

44:42

that man because i'm trying to

44:45

deal with the the fear of failure and

44:48

you're gonna have to take your losses too man but i'm

44:51

not a fan of it was nobody here to take

44:54

that risk you know some people some people like taking the risk man i'm a calculated

44:59

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,

45:11

right? I ain't take that junk yet. So I'm going to have to do it at some point. But I right.

45:18

Sir, failure is not an option with you, sir. You always succeeding.

45:21

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.

45:33

Always our own worst critic, too. So that's the thing, man. man.

45:38

Hey, I'm glad I'm making it look like I got it together, but at the end,

45:43

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.

45:52

How are people going to feel about it? Are they going to like it?

45:54

Are people going to show up at the show? I mean, that's kind of nerve wracking, man. When you're putting together your

45:59

own show and you're putting yourself out there, are people going to show up, man?

46:04

So that's what that's what you gotta deal with

46:07

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

46:18

big things man i'll be looking for you all right man shout out to the enlightened

46:23

man you are now enlightened that's out.

46:28

All right, guys, you have heard it here. Mr.

46:31

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.

46:41

Just to wrap up, my name is Chris C. Larrick Wynn of the Bravo's Company Podcast

46:46

presents Content Creators. You can definitely follow Content Creators, Bravo's Company Podcast Podcasts

46:53

at Facebook, Twitter, IG, TikTok, and on our website at,

47:00

brothersandcompanypodcast.com, where you can see the latest episodes,

47:04

including this one here with Mr. Enlightenment on the website.

47:07

We do have bios of me and Derek, one half of Brothers and Company Podcast there,

47:13

pictures, and along with our merch store right here.

47:16

All right. Yeah, you got it all. Baited, no Charleston right here. and

47:23

you can definitely purchase shirts hoodies coffee mugs

47:26

and more definitely on our website so definitely definitely check

47:29

out our merch store guys and again we

47:33

always say this on our show i mean derek

47:36

we are free 99 guys you

47:39

ain't gotta take out no loan no mortgage no payments to

47:42

watch us man like why why pay for

47:45

you know content you know it's all

47:48

free so most definitely check us out guys

47:51

i need to subscribe to y'all i needed to subscribe to

47:54

you on um youtube man oh absolutely absolutely

47:57

most definitely i can definitely share that link with you after the show is

48:01

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

48:12

love this is the brothers in company podcast.