Next Man Up, Poetry in Motion

Announcer 0:00
This is a K-Unb Studios original program. The

Wesley Knight 0:05
content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and Moore, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Donavan LeDean 0:15
Here we go, here we go, move it, move it, move it,

Donavan LeDean 0:20
you Yeah,

Donavan LeDean 0:41
hello, and welcome to the show. I'm your host, Donovan Le Deen, actor, author, and inspirational rhythmic poet. You're now tuned in to Next Man Up, Poetry in Motion Brother. 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 Malika Bella, who is a multidisciplinary artist from Las Vegas, Nevada, who uses spoken word, movement, and visual art to explore identity, healing, and connection. Her poetry explores love, lust, and loss, bridging the gap of what once was and what could be. Miss Malika Bella, thank you for being here. Queen,

Melikabella 1:28
yeah, I'm honored. Thank you, Donovan.

Donavan LeDean 1:31
So, what inspired you to pick up the pen and begin writing poetry?

Melikabella 1:35
Yeah, I don't know if there's like one salient moment. It kind of was as a kid I was always journaling, always writing, and as you know, with technology we have access to phones, so our notes app is right there. So I realized I always had these like ruminating thoughts, whether they're good, they're bad, they're ugly, they're beautiful, whatever, just like continuously playing in my mind, and I had to get them out, and the easiest way to get them out was on paper, and it wasn't for anybody to like see or show to, or anything like that. It really was just for me, and maybe I would never even see and open that book again, but just to, you know, spill out my thoughts instead of having them just ruminate and cycle through.

Donavan LeDean 2:15
Best way to channel your thoughts, most definitely. You recently was headline speaker for TEDx Las Vegas. How was that experience for you?

Melikabella 2:25
Oh my goodness, I'm still coming off that. It was like a high, yeah, for sure. And I would say, in addition to it being a unique opportunity, it was actually really interesting for me, because I've done several, like, public speaking engagements, I've delivered, delivered speeches, and, like, in different languages as well, and competed, and I'm also an instructor here on campus at UNLV, so talking is no problem for me. I can yap for days and get around to my point eventually, but with this it's a performance, and this was a new feat for me, because I would have to memorize things verbatim, I would have to practice my cadence and my flow, and how I wanted the performance overall to be delivered to the audience, and also taking into account that it, yes, it was live and it was a full house, but also this would be published eventually. So,

Donavan LeDean 3:13
did you have to add a little theatrics to it? Because I know it's a whole different type of vibe, I wouldn't

Melikabella 3:18
say I had to, but I wanted to, and I did. Yeah, so even taking into account my outfit, all the details, my expression, and all of my movements, too, everything was definitely intentional.

Donavan LeDean 3:29
Most definitely, I feel that we all have a duty in some way to listen, share, and help one another in some form of capacity through our gifts, abilities for humanity to exist, maintain, and to thrive. Right? In a recent podcast interview, a poet had mentioned that poets should never look at other poets, perform performances, because you may copy their cadence as a performer. Do you feel that this is good advice, considering that poetry is how we share ideas, learn from one another in order to evolve and grow for direction and purpose,

Melikabella 4:21
well, never say never, right? So I think there's a good balance and understanding, you know, yourself, what you intake and what you output. So it's really about understanding what you consume, and this is not just poetry, it's about any kind of media, any kind of, like, even food, right? Anything that you are consuming into your mind, your body, your soul, your spirit, understanding how you're transmuting that, and if you're processing it, what's happening with all of that, and if you're going to also produce, so if you're just consuming all day long, what's going to happen, right? And if you're just producing all day long, maybe you run dry, right? You don't know what's happening, you're like, what, where, you're out of touch, you're like, where. Is everybody at question like, who is it

Donavan LeDean 5:01
for exactly? For

Melikabella 5:05
yeah, so understanding that at least this is my perspective. Yes, you don't want to just go there and copy somebody, like just verbatim plagiarism, and being like, wow, I am so like drawn to this person in their performance, and there's, you know, whatever, and whatnot. It's more so about getting inspired. It's seeing yourself out of your comfort zone, maybe going to a brand new spot you've never been to, seeing new performers and poets, and whatever it is, artists, creatives, just seeing them and getting out of that comfort zone, and being like, "Wow, I've never thought about it this way, or "I've never looked at it this way, and I, you know, drawing back to that person that did mention, you know, you should never.. I don't think that you should never.. I think, you know, stepping out..

Donavan LeDean 5:49
yeah, I admire the competitive spirit, but at the same time, as a poet, you know, it still involves you being a great human being, you know what I'm saying, and so you learn to like, I've learned so much as a poet watching other poets' performances, you know, gives me the capability to become a great husband, great father, great everything, just a complete, just had that total complete package, you know. So those are my thoughts, you know. If

Melikabella 6:27
I could add, yes, yes, it's more so about I know, depending on topics, people are, you know, it's all vulnerable and sharing your work. Period. But some of these topics are even more deep and vulnerable, so being there in the audience to cheer somebody on, or to, you know, relate to what they're sharing. It's kind of like this group therapy set, like setting or session, and sometimes I, you know, leave that event, or, you know, talking to that person, or whatnot, and being like, "Wow, I feel so much better, I feel so much lighter, because I'm like, "I didn't realize you also went through a similar experience. It

Donavan LeDean 7:00
could be spiritual healing. Yes, exactly. Relief, you know what? Advice do you give to those who are interested in becoming an elite poet?

Melikabella 7:09
Elite poet. Wow, I don't know if I can even talk to that. Let's see. First and foremost, doing one thing, and you get to define what that one thing is right, so maybe it is finally writing something down, as I mentioned, you know, all those ruminating thoughts. Nobody has to see it, just writing it, either on paper, on a whiteboard, on your phone, whatever you have access to, writing it. Maybe it's talking to one person about poetry, and being like, I don't know, I always wanted to, you know, get out of my comfort zone, but I never really talked about this. Maybe you're embarrassed, maybe you're confused, maybe you just don't know where to start. It could also be going to one event or following one, you know, spoken word artist, or just one thing, right? Whittling it down to being like, okay, how can I get over this and get started?

Donavan LeDean 7:58
There you go. And where can they find more about you and what you have going on?

Melikabella 8:02
Yeah, so I'm only on Instagram. My name is Malika Bella, so it is my handle, plus my last name initial, which is S, so at Malika Bella S. And I'll post everything on there.

Donavan LeDean 8:15
And before we go, I would like you to share a poem for us. Yes. Ready. All right, Mirena, talk to

Melikabella 8:22
him. So, for context, this poem was written for the Afro salsa divas, and this is a dance group here in Las Vegas, and it's all about Afro salsa and Cuban fusion. So, I hope you enjoy. It's entitled Roots. The way the water flows, we already know Los Orishas have our backs from any spiritual attacks. There is strength within, grace and beauty. The wind, we're powered by this forest beyond our control, lifted up by the divine. As we hear the thunder roar, warriors shining brightly, feeling free, our truth all along is found amidst the trees. We must remember the balance we achieve by being who our ancestors fought for us to be. So, why don't you come and dance with me,

Donavan LeDean 9:16
powerful Miss Malika Bella Queen. Thank you for your time.

Melikabella 9:22
Thank you.

Donavan LeDean 9:22
The poets that will be featured on our playlist today are Asheena Burke, Luna, Rachel Davera Wenninger, Walter English, Sheldon Alex Sebastian, Liz Prince, Stephon Petway, Chelsea Marae, and Donovan Lee D. Now let's get on with the show. This is Next Man Up: Poetry in Motion. Here we go, here we go, Next Man Up, you.

Speaker 2 10:06
Thrive from out of body land, keep doing the best you can, never faced boys, no demand, keep doing the best.

Donavan LeDean 10:25
We need a leader, you with vision. You're paramount to move the world, impact the next generation of a young boy and a girl. Terror is on the rise. Harness headlines throughout the land. We're in despair, yet I want a peace mission, lending a helping hand. I'm a novice and territory accompanied by corruption, life, peace, joy, taken at once the great abduction. I'm taking on a fight, follow my lead, and you lead the way. Boost humanity is on us for a brighter day. Thrive, you Right

Speaker 2 11:25
from out of body land, keep doing the best you can, never faced by low demands, keep doing the best you can thrive

Donavan LeDean 12:20
Next man up. Before we let you go, I would like for you to share a poem for us. You ready?

Chelsea Maraee 12:26
Yes, I am ready.

Donavan LeDean 12:27
Gwen, talk to him.

Chelsea Maraee 12:32
My name is Chelsea Marae. 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, so sirens harmonized with swaying palm trees, and I'm usually always the woman who speaks when people demand silence, I was taught to swallow my pain like communion on a Sunday morning, dave 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 heavy, 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 bumping oldies. Dread ordering my food at a drive, and I say shouting poems in my four walls of a home. I love a lot of bad habits, and I think my worst one is loving men who can care less about me, measuring myself in replies, and how long my name lingers on his tongue. 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 Marae, and I'm still here.

Donavan LeDean 15:53
Next man up,

Speaker 3 15:54
Helen Jone won at sea. Can I achieve hope all by myself when I'm far off, almost lost in causing waves, in causing waves almost lost when I'm far off all by myself? Can I achieve hope? Moo,

Donavan LeDean 16:27
here we go, here we go. Next man up.

Speaker 4 16:29
Black love, the kind of love that starts off by aching, because we're terrified, terrified of showing our soul, laying down masks, having our triggers exposed. What kind of father did I have? So, how do I see black men? What kind of mother did you have? So, how do you see black women? Black love is on the siege, it's being attacked, and sometimes it implodes from the inside out, because instead of holding each other up, we tear each other down, but what if what if there was another way, a scarier one, but one that almost guarantees success, one that demands that we see each other, look right into our soul, and breathe, cry, scream, but then what follows is peace a love so strong it runs through generations and cultures between Africans, African Americans, and Caribbeans, between men and women that were told they should hate each other. What happens on the other side of the conversation? It doesn't deny the truth, it doesn't deny the betrayal, it acknowledges it sits and stands in it, but then lets it go, moves on to a better tomorrow, starting with a possible today. Black love, the kind of love they said we could never have, brothers and sisters, not from another mother, but from the same father, the one above black love, the one that builds communities, black Wall Streets, like the ones we saw burn down. True love, like a man and a woman holding hands through trauma, healing together, walking the path that's narrow, so that our children have a broader path. Reinvented love, the one that doesn't follow rules, but follows values and standards, uplifts women and honors them, sees the queen and treats her like one, so she can hold up her king, let him come home to a safe space where she can hold his soul, cover his heart, and be the one to protect him for once. Do you believe in black love, the one that teaches our children how to love their hair, their foreheads, and their noses, how to love their skin unapologetically, how to sing our songs and dance our dances, and hold our traditions, at least the ones that serve us, the ones that remind us where we're from, the continent that holds the imprints of our identity. I believe in black love. So I'm waiting, waiting for my king to find me, to recognize his queen amidst all the other women that claim they desire him, but I'm the only one who truly sees me. That's my kind of love, black love, black love.

Donavan LeDean 19:32
Next man up, the

Sheldon Alex Sebastian 19:34
parachute release. I returned to the land below with something new to give, but nothing new to see. It feels swell to return sturdy land in two feet, but it doesn't feel fine. What is wrong with me? I guess I'd rather spend time up high with the clouds in the sky than among the rest of us, where I'm from, which I came, where I went, where I've been. How it feels like better off? Is it wrong? If it is, prepare the ship. I'm going back. I'm going back.

Donavan LeDean 20:07
Next man up.

Speaker 5 20:12
Black man's jungle, walking down a boulevard of broken dreams, like a young Kanye. Truth bursting at the seams thinking of the flower I picked and the history of the history that lives inside of the history of the roots of a god's mystery, hearing sounds of the birds with broken wings attempting to fly further south at a distance instead of flying inside of the global warming machine trapped in a beautiful dark twisted fantasy wondering why I wasn't a college dropout, because I was late registering for a part-time job that I didn't even hope would pan out. Tires on the asphalt, people arguing about nothing, because he refused to take his mask off. Afraid, afraid, he was so darn afraid that they didn't see inside his soul, though that soul glows like Bruce Lee boy, he was a D boy with new toys, and he wasn't even trying to be that coy. Paintings on the walls of the Spanish stores, looking down on the poor, has become the second middle classist chore. Stuck in the cycle, hoping to change the chain, but the factory manufacturer says it's out of stock, as the man obsesses over his broken locks, hoping to get his next fix, his next fifth, or his gonna snatch a chain. These days, in a jungle of predators, these predators will predicate turning the regulars irregular while trying to meditate over the span of a life, which boils down to the heartbeat, which is initiated by the mind to keep the heart beating, sounds on top of sounds, seconds on top of seconds, analyzing this world, this black man's jungle. Got to survive, got to keep going, got to keep pushing, and got to keep moving. Maybe one day I'll make some more money, some more chatter, maybe I'll just survive in this black man's jungle, you The

Donavan LeDean 22:04
next man up, before you go, I would like for you to share Paul for us. Oh, yeah. Ready? I'm ready. All right.

The Unknown Odist 22:19
Life don't come with a manual, just scandals and sandals on paths that burn like candles. We gamble with fate like Vegas nights, fight our reflections like shadows with rights. Ingest wisdom from old heads that never chewed slow. I grew, though, through potholes and plot holes, and folks that got goals but stopped cold when dreams felt like frostbite. I toss light and dark spaces and spark stages with truth, because life ain't a sprint, it's a loop, a fruit that ripens with bruises, a fuse lit by losses that win if you use it, and it's life, and it's life.

Donavan LeDean 22:57
Next man up, Boss English. Before we let you go, I would like for you to share a poem for us.

Walter English 23:06
So, this is a pan tone called Thoughts from a Black Boy in America.

Speaker 2 23:14
Ready?

Walter English 23:15
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Donavan LeDean 23:17
Bought English, Kotalto.

Walter English 23:23
I am the one in front of the gun. I am terrified. I know I won't live forever. I haven't even reached my prime. I am terrified, like a rookie at the free throw line. I haven't reached my prime yet. My life is riding on this shot like a rookie at the free throw line. My heart is racing, yet my life is riding on this shot. My hands are up, my heart is racing. I try to seem less like a threat. My hands are up. I'm doing everything you said. I try to seem less like a threat. Mama, look, I'm doing everything you said. Why does this hurt? Mama, look, I'm the one in front of the gun. Why does this hurt? I know I won't live forever. I am the one in front of the gun. I am terrified. I know I won't live forever having to reach my prayer.

Donavan LeDean 24:29
Here we go, here we go. Next man up,

Speaker 6 24:32
coexisting in many realms of thought, a walk in prayer, meditation I can't evade frequencies I can't explain. Speak to me in Wisdom's name. I've been on that resonance before. They coined it, Bobby Lion can't control me. I broke out this show like I was Truman. The human programmed analytics can't measure the spirit, thus they can't fully study us. At this point, it's apparent. Know thyself, mental, physical, and etheric lyrics. Tap into your central node to the soul. You can feel it. Sit in the sun, download codes. I can hear them. There's a natural mystic flowing on Mother Nature's bio rhythm. Get on beat. Connect with every single living organism like ancestors before these evil ways of the system, walking the less traveled road. I, and I have seen many visions, many nights sitting still, yet still I listen. Guidance enters the vessel with pure precision, a choice to make daily. Why do we wrestle? Right decisions, tussling with the test illusions, carrying us away from the way we already know is best. Come back home, beloved. You no longer have to beat an eagle's chest, perch inside like an eagle in its nest. Followers cliff dive into the next trend. Sincere, you always been taking heed to the riddles the elders were attesting. Now I'm years ahead with good investments, just bump my head a little less than. Nonetheless, an imperfect perfection, a walk in prayer, avid meditator realms of thought between each. I'm a mediator, a metaphor of sorts, seeing obstacles as sport. I must master slow and steady wins the race. I learned that in the beginning chapters of a book without middle or end. Life goes on again and again. I write on and on with my mind as my ink and my soul as my

Liz Prince 26:50
pen. Next man up, this last one I want to read is called Naked. I feel this one in my heart as I read it. Do I deserve to be loved? Sometimes I feel my heart drop. It goes so low, I feel empty. My chest feels light, my body feels heavy, my soul feels alone, not needed, not wanted, not loved, just alone. I've got love to give, yet there's no one to receive. Instead, I lay here naked with my heart on my sleeve. I've got love to give, yet there's no one to receive. I lay here naked with my heart on my sleeve. Thank you so much.

Donavan LeDean 27:41
Before we go, I would like to conclude with a power message. It's a message about the program. The program consists of rules and regulations that we, as mankind, can never negate or deny. It involves moral duty to love thy neighbor, to share, and to help one another in time of need, and to never think that you're above the program because of money and power. Time as a way of showing us that we are all connected in some way, and that what comes up can and will eventually come down, so remain on the winning end and stay humble. Thanks for tuning in to Next Man Up, Poetry in Motion. I am your host, Donovie Dean. To see my inspirational and poetry reels, you can go to YouTube at Donovili Dean. Also, you can find my poetry books, children's books, and coloring books on Amazon under my name Donovan Lee D. Special thanks to my guest Malika Bella for stopping by discussing life poetry and mental health. I am Donovan Le Dee, actor, author, and inspirational rhythmic poet. Until next time, peace, Jay,

Speaker 7 29:00
you Drive

Transcribed by https://otter.ai