Next Man Up, Poetry in Motion

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Here we go. Here we go. Move it. Move it. Move it.

Donavan LeDean 0:22
The next man up.

Donavan LeDean 0:40
Hello and welcome to the show. I am your host. Donna van Lee Dean, actor, author and inspirational, rhythmic poet. Get out tuned into next man up. Poetry in motion, where the mission is to promote good mental health for everyone, this poetry show will motivate, educate and inspire you with spoken word, through cultural expression. We have a special guest in the building, Miss Niecy, an Inglewood, California native now residing in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a spoken word poet, recording artist, self published author and community arts advocate whose work blends the rhythm of poetry with the sounds of jazzy R and B and Neil soul. Her body of work explores themes of womanhood, identity, grief, healing and resilience. Her debut Spoken Word Album nuance was awarded spoken word artist of the year at the 2025 Las Vegas Black Music Awards and given a 20 26/68 Grammy Awards consideration. She has also published a two book urban fiction series, expanding her storytelling into new spaces and reaching readers beyond the mic. She serves on the board of manifest Academy, a nonprofit that gives underserved youth access to education and resources in the Recording Arts, including poetry and music. She also curates gems, a youth poetry showcase series that provides a stage for young poets to share their stories, build confidence and connect with community. She's been highly recognized from the Las Vegas chapter of the new era nation as the recipient of the 2025 Queen energy award. Miss Niecy queen, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. You have a long resume. Had to give a proper introduction. So Miss Niecy, you are super busy, and rightfully so, creating a healthy space for people to have a voice and share their stories, for healing, for education, for inspiration, for awareness. Elaborate on how your writing journey began.

Ms. Nise 2:57
I've been writing ever since I was a little girl, short stories, scribbling in books in my grandmother's library. I've just always been into it. It's something that stuck with me. Books and reading and writing, like my entire life. I never thought I would actually get into, you know, performing poetry, but it just kind of came with the territory one day, and the friends that I hang with, and they said, Well, you know, why don't you just try doing it, you know? And I said, Okay, well, why not. But the writing for me has always kind of come naturally. It's just, I've always felt like I had something to say, but not a lot of ears to listen to.

Donavan LeDean 3:33
It must be a wonderful feeling for your album nuance to be awarded Artist of the Year at the 2025 Las Vegas Black Music Awards and given a 20, 26/68 Grammy Awards consideration. Yeah, talk about your spoken word album, nuance, and what it all entails.

Ms. Nise 3:55
Nuance is exactly as the title suggests. You know, we are nuanced. We're layered beings. It goes through many different stages of life's you know, moments from grief, separation of friendships, you know, outgrowing friendships, to, you know, love, dating, all the different things that you know life embodies in the different stages of our lives. And I feel like it can touch everyone at any stage of life that you're in, and the you know, the awards and the accolades, you know, they're amazing. I'm grateful to have people actually want to hear something that I have to say and to give it any kind of traction at all. Very grateful. It just started out as a project that I really wanted to try. One of my my good friend, my producer on the album. Shout out to Mr. Rob Lacey. Gave me the idea he knows. He knows I'm a huge fan of like the Jill Scott's, the Eric about dues, the you know, the wordsmiths, the poetists, the poets and the jazzy R, B music. And he said, Well, why don't we just do something with all these pieces? Since you don't want to, you. Do another book. And I said, Oh, you mean an album, like, like, Joe Scott, like, I was really excited that you know about it. And he said, Let's do it. So we did it phenomenal.

Donavan LeDean 5:09
Elaborate on the opportunities that you're creating for the youth through your nonprofit at showcases.

Ms. Nise 5:17
Okay, well, yes, so manifest Academy, we will actually be celebrating our three year anniversary on the 19th of this month at Container Park. I believe the time is from one to four. I'm gonna double check the flyer on my Instagram page, as well as the manifest Academy Instagram page. It's manifest dot Academy, and we'll be celebrating three years of all of the amazing growth and work that we've been doing, it's going to be a fully lined youth show. What we provide is, along with mentorship, essentially, we create a safe space for youth to create, for them to express, for them to dive in and explore. There's a saying that creativity is just your intelligence having fun. So it's a space that we want to provide for them to do just that, have fun with all the different things that they're thinking so manifest provides studio time. We provide workshops, songwriting courses, and with me being in the poetry community, we extended it to poet shows, young young youth poets, because kids have something to say too, whether it's to a beat or without one, and that's that's kind of where that leg came from. But it's all encompassing. And whether it's instrumentation, audio engineering, DJing, whatever you want to learn, we can put you on the path for it phenomenal.

Donavan LeDean 6:36
So much has occurred under this administration within the past decade, from the overturning of Roe versus Wade to dismantling of from an affirmative action dei the controversial ICE raids. Don't round me up. We can't forget about the horrific incident at the US Capitol, January 620, 21 etc, etc, etc. Now we face with more uncertainty, with the war in Iraq, with the chaos and social unrest that's occurring within our country and abroad. How does poetry play a significant role in today's world?

Ms. Nise 7:16
Poetry is going to be the safe space where one may feel like their prayers aren't heard. Poetry is the safe space where you can express yourself when you're not sure if it's safe to talk to friends with deferring opinions. Poetry is the safe space to get the scary thoughts out of your head, the what ifs, because it's the what ifs and the What about ism that get us to places, to where we're in right now, and poetry is that safe space to maybe even turn those fears into something beautiful, or even use that fear to you know each one, teach one use that fear to create something beautiful and let someone share in that space with you and find comfort in knowing that they're not alone in these fears and all these thoughts. They're not crazy for thinking what they're thinking or feeling what they're feeling. It's a chance to create a community of its

Donavan LeDean 8:05
own, most definitely and where can they find more about you, your nonprofit, your book series, album and

Ms. Nise 8:12
events, all things nice on my website, by niece.com, b, y, n, i, s, e.com, my Instagram is nisi, n, e, e, i, i, c, y. Manifest has its own Instagram. It's manifest dot Academy on Instagram, and you can also find out more about all the things that we're doing with manifest under deaf mass, D, E, F, M, A, S, S on Instagram as well, and nuance also streaming everywhere. There you go, the instrumental album, so no words, just vibey. Lo Fi. Sounds instrumental. Make it No, make

Donavan LeDean 8:53
it No, most definitely, before we let you go, I would like for you to share a poem for us. Absolutely. You ready? Yeah, all right, queen, tell

Ms. Nise 9:01
to her, I lie awake at night deciphering my daydreams, those sweet things that cultivate the beautiful ideas, the Crafty schemes, the hopes and dreams. They bring wishes and purposes into alignment. And we'll fall asleep and get those epiphanies happening like paradigm shifts, we'll drift off in the existential crisis, feeling ambivalent because we didn't start out this life a willing participant. And it's probably why it can't be coincidence that we experience that cognitive dissonance be wanting to be here and at the same time leave here. So if we run away a little bit, just pardon our distance. Sometimes those thoughts make us feel too far gone, like we've fallen off the map. There's so many holes in the course of our life, and we wonder how it affects our handicap, our ability to go on each day with so many unanswered questions brimming in our caps, finding. Wisdom and the truth of our past is a lot like pulling teeth, and we just like to close that gap. And I've at least learned a few things about that, still wiping the tears of my inner child, whose cries have been long ignored, still trying to forgive a few things I've never gotten those apologies for, still using hope to extinguish the smoke from times that I've been burned, and still trying to recover unrequited love that got all is in return. Still learning that pace of myself is how I have the strength to get through a rough day, still learning that boundaries is how I keep the people I don't want to push away. There's so many stems in the Garden of Life that require tending to so I have to water my soul daily so I can strengthen up my roots. Because growth means learning that everything doesn't deserve a response. Growth is knowing I'll always have what I need, even if I don't get what I want. Growth is knowing that I have a village and I should go knocking When I need help. Growth means accepting who I've been, who I will be, and knowing that I should always accept myself. Phenomenal.

Donavan LeDean 11:15
You heard it right here. Miss Niecy, always

Ms. Nise 11:19
accept yourself exactly.

Donavan LeDean 11:20
Thank you for your time. Thank you. The poets that will be featured on our playlist today are Sheena Burke, Luna shymoro, the unknown, Otis, Sheldon, Alex Sebastian, Liz Prince, Stephon, Pettway, Chelsea Moray, Donna van Lee, Dean, Jess Flo Jenny you, Dean and Zachary Gutierrez. Now let's get on with the show. This is x. Man up. Poetry in motion. Here we go. Here we go. Next. Man up.

Donavan LeDean 11:54
What's good world? Show you right? Allow me to speak to you tonight, for the people, as I walk through God's precious playground, shade cascades upon me. It's persistent, but why pause? I reflect, I go into effect. I see a bruised man who kneels from the compressions of gravity and agony. His flesh is eaten away from the air molecules by the second. Soon it will eat away his muscles and tissues. Soon he'll disappear. He needs medic, but has no insurance. Pause reflect a shade that cascaded upon me for days finally goes away. A beam of light shines on both of us to highlight our moment, I offer him a smile, he reciprocates. I relieve the tension in his shoulders with the palm of my hand. I give him my lunch leftover from a diner two blocks down, with a $10 bill inside, I have a small conversation with him. That ended with an encouraging statement, stay strong, King. God's got you. He smiled again. Then ended our moment with a thank you. That moment made my day. That moment reassured me the fundamentals of humanity. I realize that humanity thrives with moments like this thrive on you.

Donavan LeDean 14:00
The noise. Next man up, the wellness goddess herself, Mrs. Sheena Berg, before we let you go, I would like you to share a poem for us.

Asheena Burke 14:25
You ready? I am ready. All right. Queen, talk to her Goddess Pose. She arises with the vibrational frequency of the sun. Spiritual prose, the body is the servant of the mind, cultivating the richness of the soil. Ritual worship of universal light and sacred intentions ignite with the celestial Angel singing in her ear, Moon. Magic caresses the essence of the heavenly visions manifesting into fruition, affirming the great I Am. I Am Love, I am light, I am abundant, health, wealth and prosperity. I am activated. She is acclimating her superpowers to the 3d realm of basic interpretations, and she prays for you in her sacred tongue, dripped in melanated, starved dust, she must keep her thoughts clean to live the dream heaven on earth, aligning with yemiya and Hadassah, bathing in sweet oil, softening the wounds of the heart, paradigm shifting. You are so magnificent. Your smile says So relax and receive the spiritual awareness that breathes. Goddess Pose, break free of the construct and think independently of your circumstances. Dance into your freedom. Goddess Pose, Goddess prose, Goddess knows how to heal the perpetual stagnation of her people. She's already been to hell, burned in the Deep Abyss, transmuted that energy into righteousness, and she glides into her virtuosity, stolen in the night by the bright lights, He winks pretty sweet nothings in her ear, tethering her to a false sense of reality. Indulge in the libation. Sip slowly, squeeze a little Limon into your water. Alkalinity divinity is within the sea moss. Replenish your beauty with a green smoothie and dive deep into the sea salt, bathe into the power of restoration to favor shrinking the open pores of deceit, manipulation, statistical abuse. You are the muse. Saturate your consciousness into established intentions of CO creating your destiny, Goddess position, leader of women, and release the shackles that imprison your mind in oppression, religious dogmatic mindsets keeping us all into a state of lack thereof. Reach for the purpose above you are a life changer. Shine the light of awareness of where you need to grow, where you need to go, what you need to know. The possibilities are infinite. Control the flow of your thought energy and all that you desire will be Goddess Pose, compel me into right action, release the past and become present. The pain stimulates the disciplinary transactions between Yahweh and you to create what is deep inside, suffocated by man made traditions that have nothing to do with raising your awareness. Take hold of your position. You are a goddess on a mission. Goddess Pose, powerful.

Donavan LeDean 17:57
You heard it right here. Mrs. Sheena Burke, queen, thank you for your time. Thank you, peace and blessings. Next man up, Dave, before we let you go, I would like for you to share a poem for us. You ready? Yes, I am ready, queen, talk to him.

Chelsea Maraee 18:16
My name is Chelsea Murray. I like roses, not because they're delicate or anything, but because you can bleed when you touch them. The petals are soft and the thorns are honest, a contradiction with roots that refuse to apologize. Just like me, my favorite color is pink. I'm from LA for sirens harmonize with Swain palm trees, and I'm usually always the woman who speaks when people demand silence. I was taught to swallow my pain, my communion on a Sunday morning that like coffee in any form. Actually, I daydream a lot. I daydream about wanting to walk freely at night barefoot on gravel or lying down in an open field where stars burn like stubborn lanterns and nobody asks if my body is safe. I want the river to claim me. Its cold mouth opening at my knees, its silted tongue pressing against my calves, its weeds combing my ankles like fingers. Sometimes I just want to slip into the water like the person I once dreamed of being. Sometimes my whole life just feels like an act of letting go. I have a son, and I love him so much, but most of the time I parent strictly from instinct or sometimes from the ache of wanting to call my own mama up and ask her, am I doing this right? So I sit with grief often between bedtime routines and morning rushes, I'm still learning how to be a mother without the safety net of being somebody's child. I'm tired, and not the kind of tired that sleep fixes. I mean bone deep history, head. The inheritance level tired. I'm tired of watching myself through other people's eyes, checking my posture, my words, my face, and asking myself silently, is it safe to be myself here? I'm tired of mistakes sticking to me longer than they stick to anybody else, knowing I could do everything right and still be questioned. I hate leaving my house. I love something oldies and dread ordering my food at a drive through window and I say shouting poems in my four walls of a home. I've got a lot of bad habits, and I think my worst one is loving men who can care less about measuring myself in replies and how long my name lingers on his tongue, or whether I'm needed or merely convenient, I'm still learning how to live in this body like it belongs to me. I'm learning how to teach my heart how to unclench his fist. And loving myself these days feels like learning a new language, but maybe loving myself right now doesn't look like confidence. It might look a little like patience, because some days I still look in the mirror and see everything I've been through before, seeing who I am and I'm not my worst day. I'm not what hurt me. I'm becoming so if you see me taking my time, I'm just learning my name again and loving myself in pieces instead of all at once. And I think out of all things I've done in life, I think this one is the hardest. My name is Chelsea Murray, and I'm still here

Speaker 4 21:36
next man up. Time to make something new, fresh out of hell, living incarcerated in the devil cell. Soon as I break out of here, I'm gonna drink from the Holy Grail, and I'm gonna fish in the heaven's whale, yearning for freedom and good food, or even a good burger. I never claim to be all that. I'm just spilling my guts only when you pick up a couple nickels, you trying to get some change, walking through this life and your thoughts just trying to be the change, because they'll be jealous of how you move, colliding is what you'll do, stunting like a half beast in the Shadowlands, colliding with other crews, trying to be famous, knowing that it's devilish you're being forced into the closing circles, and you're being cornered like you're in a Royal Rumble, and you are the main event, climbing to the top of the building trying to scaffold it. But there's nobody there, no cameras, no King Kong, no planes, no white girls, no Denzel. It's just you waiting to drop off of it. So live your best life, a second chance might never come again. If you don't believe me, just ask the other O'Hara's that was gone with the wind. The city is crumbling, but I'm ready for destruction been on my back so long that it's time to make something new get ugly and beautiful again.

Donavan LeDean 23:02
You next man up. Presents, Luna Queen tauto, here we go. Here we go. Next man up.

Luna 23:13
They told us Hell is a place where you go to burn in the flames, that hell is a home where evil lives, where sinners go to suffer forever, a burning place, a pit of fire. It smells like decay and smoke. But right here on Earth, I've seen monsters that take on human form. I'll tell you the real hell. It's the negative thoughts, the thoughts living in the mind, the lies we tell ourselves, the one that whispers when the room goes quiet, the one that waits until the world goes to sleep. They crawl through your memories, digging up moments you wished were buried. They remind you of every mistake, every embarrassment, every insecurity, or even every word you wish you said or didn't say like a broken record, scratching against your skull. You know those knots. They tell you you're not enough or you're too much. You should have been better, smarter, stronger, different, and the worst part, you believe them. You carry them around like an invisible parasite feeding on your piece. Slowly, quietly, they eat away at you, not all at once, oh, no, just a little piece at a time, until one day, you wake up and you see the war isn't outside. It's. Inside. That's why they say, listen to your heart. The mind can create hell, but it can also create peace, because thoughts are seeds plant fear and darkness grows and compassion, the mind becomes a garden. So if we live in our minds most of the time, maybe the real question isn't, where is hell? The real question is, what are we growing in a place we call home? Peace or fire. Here we go. Here we go. Next. Man up.

Sheldon Alex Sebastian 25:41
Motive on positive, mindset on prolong. Soul is on elevate. Sadness is so long as to say long gone, hope it won't come back where I'm headed now I need a backpack. Passes uncertainty, the faith is so high without a parachute, but beyond Earth's sky, into the wilderness, onward and beyond. I hope you remember me, because I'm so gone

Donavan LeDean 26:08
before we go, I would like to conclude with a power message. It's a message about anxiety. You're a busy individual and in high demand being booked for events while networking in between. Not only that, you've recently become a parent, will you be able to manage economically with your budget? How do you manage to where you don't become affected with anxiety? These demands can potentially cause you to have a system overload. Stop breathe, fall back and think of the options that you have, communicate with your partner fully to come up with a game plan, push back the tasks that are least important to a later date. Also, it's nothing wrong with incorporating a therapist into your daily routine if things seem to suddenly take a left turn, pace your life for positive results and anxiety relief. Thanks for tuning in to the next band of poetry in motion. I am your host, Donna Billy deed. To see my inspirational and poetry reels, you can go to YouTube at Donna Billy deed also you can find my poetry books, children's books and coloring books on Amazon under my name, Donovan Lee D for actor or poets bookings. You can contact me DV media, one zero@gmail.com Special thanks to my guest, Miss Niecy for stopping by discussing her life journey poetry and mental health. I am Donna Valley Dean, actor, author and inspirational, rhythmic poet until next time. Peace, jail, thrive. You. Dave, you you you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai