Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa Williams

Hi Vanessa, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.

I was sitting in my 4th grade English class when my teacher gave the assignment: “today we are going to write a poem describing what home means to you.” My grandmother had written poetry since I could remember so I was familiar with the craft yet never written anything myself. We went over some rules of poetry and then left to write. I feel in love. I created a PowerPoint for my one poem, printed it out and hung it on my bedroom wall where I looked at it and read it every day. It seemed as soon as pen hit paper, my soul found a new home. A place to release, explore and become. I haven’t stopped writing poetry since.

At the age of ten, I joined a performing arts ministry where I performed my poetry at church, festivals, parades and anywhere I could. However, I never seen myself as being a professional poet. Until I moved to Las Vegas and got connected to my now mentor and friend Ms. Ayvee. She opened my eyes to so many opportunities and the places poetry can take me. In 2021 I entered my first poetry slam hosted by Ms. Ayvee and Beyond the Neon and to my surprise, I won! A month later, I did another and won. That year, I won 5 poetry slams, featured in Beyond the Neon anthology and wrote my very own poetry affirmation book “Poetically Affirmed.” It was safe to say, poetry had become more than a hobby but truly what I was created to do!

One of my best decisions was joining Spotlight Poetry Slam team, ran by Elle Hope. Having no experience in slam, I was able to learn, grow in community and travel to several different cities and states competing in spoken word. This being my third year, I am now a coach and loving every moment of it.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

One of the biggest struggles I face with being a poet and author is imposter syndrome. I have no formal training in performance poetry and no degrees in writing. My only poetry class was the one time in the 4th grade and never was taught anything again. So who am I to be on anyone’s stage speaking or teaching anything. But the truth is, I do have something to say and there is an audience created to hear it. There is always going to moments of self-doubt and in those times I think back to the people I’ve impacted, the lives that were touched by my words and with that encouragement I continue to write, to speak!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?

As a creative in any form, knowing your brand and what you want to tell the world is crucial to the development of the craft. At first, all I wanted to was inspire people with my poetry and use it as a way tell them about the love of God. People would always tell me, V when you speak, people listen. Yet, in 2017 everything changed. My mother passed away from a very sudden and shocking illness. My entire world crumbled and I did not know how I would ever be able to write, let alone speak again. Through much prayer, family and friends support and going back to just writing to release, I found my way back to my pen and eventually back to the stage.

My work is composed of writings of love, heartbreak, life after loss, using pain for a higher purpose and turning grief into greatness. I want to encourage those who have faced loss of any kind to know that healing is possible but it does take work.

I do not write from a place of completion but a place of someone on this journey of healing and through my work, I invite people to heal with me.

One of my proudest moments is writing and publishing my first book “Poetically Affirmed, a collection of I Am Poems to affirm you daily.”(available on Amazon) In 2020, just laid off from my job because of COVID, dealing with the loss of my mom and all the feelings of uncertainty of the time, my partner at time said, “you should do something with affirmations.” I looked at him and said, “how in the world am I supposed to encourage anyone and I’m the one who needs it.” Yet I couldn’t shake the thought and next thing I knew, I was writing a poetry affirmation book. I knew where I was emotionally and mentally was not the place I wanted to be so I decided to write myself into place I desired. As I wrote, I began to heal and hope began t0 grow. Now I use this book to during feature sets and teach workshops, illuminating the power of words and how impactful the words we speak over ourselves are. The world has a lot to say about you. But what matters the most is what you say about you. I encourage you to always speak life!

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?

The most important lesson I’ve learned is to give myself grace through every stage of my life and career. There will be seasons where everything is just working out wonderfully and other times where it seems as if the walls are crumbling. In both moments I am still worthy of good things and I know God has a plan in it all.

Pricing:

• Book $15
• Workshops: starting at $100
• Poetry Reading/Features starting $150

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Linktee.com/poeticv
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_poeticv
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/poeticvpoetry
• Youtube: www.youtbe.com/_poeticv