E78: Comicon Poetry for the Wounded Warrior
The Poetry Cafe
LJ, a poet from Fayetteville, North Carolina, shares his journey of building a thriving spoken word community through events like Nerd Slam
Key takeaways
- Community-building starts with creating space and consistent events that attract diverse participants.
Main topics
- Building poetry communities in underserved cities
- The evolution of slam teams in Fayetteville
Notable quotes
"If you build it, they will come."
Conclusion
LJ's story exemplifies how grassroots efforts in poetry can create las
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:00) You are at the the the the the poetry cafe We feed your mind we feed your body we feed your soul your soul your soul your soul you are at the the the the the poetry cafe We feed your mind we feed your body we feed your soul your soul your soul your soul Hello and welcome to the one and only P O E T R Y Cafe I'm your host with the most Josephus. Sit back, relax and enjoy. Here we build. We share our art, our gift, our passion and our joy. Inside the one and only Poetry, Poetry Cafe. Yes, yes, it's like you are at the, the, the, the Poetry Cafe. We feed your mind, we feed your body, we feed your soul, your soul, your soul, your soul. You are at the, the, the, the Poetry Cafe. We feed your mind. We feed your body. We feed your soul. Your soul. Your soul. Poetry Cafe, y'all. Nobody does it better. Speaker 3 (1:10) Welcome to the Portrait Cafe, where we feed your mind, your body, and your soul. From our Greensboro studios, here at the Triad Stage, we present weekly guests and live recordings. Join us as we listen to new works, share great stories, and build community that connects and changes the world. And on this week's episode of the Portrait Cafe, we've got my man, LJ. Speaker 2 (1:29) We don't speak on this enough in the art community. So there's one thing when you put together events. It's another thing when you put together an event and build a community from that. And I love when people do that perfectly. Speaker 3 (1:58) Thank you so much for tuning in to the one and only Poetry Cafe feeding your mind and your body and your soul. For more information and behind the scenes footage, check us out on our Patreon or slide on over to www.thepoetrycafe and grab you some merch. And now back to the show. Speaker 3 (2:30) Welcome back from the break. This is the Portrait Cafe. My name is Josephus and today I'm at Elders in the Building breaking it down for us how you can build the community, the scene that you want to be in. How you can start from the bottom and move all the way up. How you can just build the community around you. What it takes. How to succeed. And how to get up on your phone. Speaker 2 (2:55) If you build it, they Speaker 3 (2:57) will come. And before there was a scene here in the city, we were performing at nightclubs and pool halls and churches and school auditoriums. Comes a time when you see other cities growing and building, you want to create something for your own. So you find the space, you open the doors, you make the investment, and over time, more and more people come through the doors. More and more people share the stage. More and more people hit the microphone. And the buzz grows, the community grows, the artistry grows, and you grow. All because you stopped traveling to other cities just to partake in something and brought a little bit of something home, started something for yourself. And my man LJ in Fayetteville and myself here in Greensboro are living proof of that. Speaker 3 (3:46) The man, the artistry, the creativity, all the different avenues and venues that's accepted and taken and inspired his work. From country to country, from city to city, from state to state, from slam team to stages, public school system. He's been doing it for quite some time, man, but it all started in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Stand up, NC, my man LJ, holding it down. Speaker 3 (4:22) just amazing things you've been able to accomplish. I'm in Fayetteville and really just, you know, create a scene that has sustained itself for goodness gracious. You've been doing this art form there for how many years now? Speaker 2 (4:32) Me personally, I've been doing it. It's weird because I was just having a conversation with an artist not too long ago. I've been doing it for about 16 years and the scene itself has been going on since 24th year in general. Yeah, so, you know, Poet Years is like... In Poet Years. Yeah, Poet Years is like about 50 years, but you know... 50 years of Poet Years. Speaker 3 (4:50) All right, and the Slam Team is also there, too. Used to be two Slam Teams there, but now it's only... It's only one. One Speaker 2 (4:56) currently. It started off originally with Fayetteville Fire, which then it ended up becoming debunked, and then there was an artist by the name of Infinite that ended up bringing up the Slam Team known as the Marquee Slam that was going for a while. And then... they ended up debunking theirs. And we started what's known as now the Detour Slam team, which Detour started in 2019 when Southern Fry, so Fry, so when that came to Fayetteville and we just been going ever since and the team has been phenomenal. So it's been a good journey. And, you know, just seeing the building blocks is passing torches. It's just seeing different eras of slam, just like you see different eras of poetry. So it's been great. Speaker 3 (5:33) A lot of different cats coming up in the slam. Aeronaut in Fayetteville. So what else are you doing? So I know you have the monthly events there also. Speaker 2 (5:39) We have an event called Art Meets Life that's every first Friday. We have an event that's through Black on Black Rhyme Carolina known as Wordplay every second Friday and then every third Thursday we have an event called Tap on Thursday which is at this wonderful spot called Winter Bloom Tea and tap stands for tea and performance. Yeah I know it sounds corny but we love it and we just do a lot so but aside from that I literally just came out with a new book. called Before a Collection of Poems, which is basically like my somewhat autobiography, which I didn't realize until after the poems got put together and I seen it. And we just released that book on Saturday, which released worldwide. And we got a chance to actually have books at an event I did in Atlanta. Speaker 2 (6:24) Yeah, it's a lot of other things in the works. Too many that I can even think of. But we'll probably come back to this. We'll come back to it. So Speaker 3 (6:30) you have an event almost every week in Fayetteville. So if you're in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and you're into poetry, there's an event almost every week. You said first Friday. First Friday, second Friday, and then Thursday. But that Speaker 2 (6:43) doesn't just say that I'm the only one doing events. There's a multitude of other events. So on Facebook, we ended up starting this page called Poetry in Fayetteville about... seven years ago, I believe. And it was because there was an abundance of open mics that was going on in the city. And Fayetteville is a transitional city. And I mean that by the way of you have college kids that go there, but then you also have military that comes there to come and go. So there's always this thing. There's nothing to do in Fayetteville. So we wanted to let people know, hey, if you like the arts, if you like poetry, open mics, join this page. It'll keep you in the know of all events going on, I think. And at this moment, we may have 11 events that actually happen throughout the month in Fayetteville. And then you have your one-offs that pop up every now and then. But there are so many other artists and poets and just curators that's putting together events in the city. So it's always good to have options of places to go to. Because one place you may not like, but you may love the other place. And it's always good to have options. Speaker 3 (7:38) I agree. I agree. And we were speaking earlier, too, about just, you know, the career as a spoken word artist and how that's changed over the years and what... what enables you to be able to still do it? You know, we've been having lots of different interviews on the air. And I know that you work at the Girls and Boys Club now. Yes. You also tutor at the public school system. I do. And then you still do some poetry outside of that and a book. So how do you make all those things like flow together as one life? Speaker 2 (8:07) The good thing is my wonderful wife. Okay, shout out to wives. So she's very instrumental in helping me. build up a plan and like an order to structure things. So it's always crazy. So I can tell you like on a regular day, I'm literally waking up. I go to work around maybe eight o'clock, start tutoring. I tutored till 12. I got a two hour break and then I go to Boys and Girls Club to help out with the kids there and also help incorporate art to that particular Boys and Girls Club. So then depending on the day, I may have to like leave there and then go do an event. But the biggest thing is just been trying to find time and structure because at the end of the day, and I'm... Sure, you can attest to this, as many other artists can probably attest to it. The biggest thing is time, because at one end, you have to balance your career, but you also have to make time for your family as well. And that's been one thing that we've definitely made instrumental in everything that we do. Make sure you're making time for these particular things, because at some point, like the difference between last year and this year is that with the Boys and Girls Club, I was a full-time employee. Speaker 2 (9:08) I didn't do as much or I stayed more so doing local events and travel very sparingly. But this year, because I ended up having to leave the job and then I ended up coming back part time, it gave me a little bit more leeway because both jobs, I actually get to make my own schedule. Right. So flexibility. Yeah. And then I have more time to like. put myself back into the art like I wanted to. So now I can make that time for everything, but I also got to make sure I make time for the family because at the end of the day, when the wife and the boys want to say, hey, we need to do something as a family, that comes first before the art. Even though the art take care of the bills, I still got to make time for family. Speaker 3 (9:39) So you also just came back from Atlanta. How was that? Speaker 2 (9:42) The Atlanta trip was good. And shout out to Lady V, the poet. She put together this wonderful event known as Art Out Loud. And I've known her for years. So to see how she... We don't speak on this enough in the art community. So there's one thing where you put together events. It's another thing where you put together an event and build a community from that. And I love when people do that perfectly. So like going there, seeing the amount of people there, there's a packed house. But the fact that the thing I love the most about that event is that when poets are going up there, everybody is cheering them on. Everybody is giving each other daps and hugs. and the community afterwards when everybody was just sitting there talking exchanging information and it was a beautiful thing and i think that's what's the one thing that people don't get a chance to see so much because for most folks they see like the snapshot the pictures we put up right about being a dope event but then we have the events that's actually Speaker 2 (10:37) like organically bring you in and make you want to come back because you just love that environment is peaceful and it just seemed like you were just second or third cousins. I think that's what makes for a great event. And that's what that event was. It was awesome seeing the