We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Akosua Mireku a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Akosua , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I initially moved to Los Angeles in 2019 to pursue songwriting. I had some great experiences in the music industry and also had some really horrible ones. I came to LA with some big ideas to not just write songs, but to produce records, potentially get involved in music publishing and really put a business mindset behind what I was doing. Unlike many artists, I have a head for business from working in sales for over 15 years. My take on this experience is that as a Black woman artist coming in with the mindset that I had as well as the talents that I had to offer, I didn’t fit the mold of what was expected… I was met with a lot of resistance. I do realize that it’s possible that I just wasn’t interacting with the right people that would be a match for my energy. Unfortunately, the end result was that after a while ended up feeling quite dejected and disillusioned. I think this feeling was confounded by the fact that, growing up I generally didn’t have a lot of support for my art. So this experience was especially triggering.

My reaction to all this was that I completely stopped writing. I even stopped listening to music. I knew this wouldn’t be forever, but it was a pretty strong reaction and for a while I just accepted that I was having it.

So when I started Poem a Day Project, it was out of a desire to reclaim my creativity. A few years after pretty much not creating anything, I started to think about how I could just take it one day at a time to get back to these things that I know are such an important part of who I am at my core.

I thought about how I learned in music school that Stevie Wonder at one point wrote a song every day. I’m not sure if it was for a whole year, but I loved the concept. Writing a song everyday felt like way too much pressure so I decided to write a poem everyday.

In this process, it was really important that the work would be just for me and just for the process of doing the work, not for some end result. Also, the work was not to be evaluated as good or bad, the goal was just to complete a poem every day.

I ended up deciding to post the work on Instagram for accountability and it turned into something really beautiful.

“A poem a day keeps the existential dread away.” This is the first thing I posted. And indeed it does!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

An important part of who I am is that I’m the last born of 2 hardworking parents who immigrated from Ghana. My Ghanaian heritage and values shaped who I am in so many ways. Outside of writing, I work in biotech sales helping patients get access to important therapies.

Starting in July of 2024, I wrote a poem a day for 365 days and this is a project I’m calling Poem a Day Project. After completing the writing, I’m now making short videos reading the poems and posting them to Instagram and TikTok.

The themes are on love, spirituality, curiosity about the human experience, womanhood, race…everything about me basically, that is close to my heart.

I’ve always been a writer, a weaver of words and someone who is passionate about language and communication. I started writing poems when I was about 7 years old, and throughout my youth I could always be found scribbling on a napkin or tucked away in some corner writing in a notebook.

When I was a freshman in high school I wrote a paper and my teacher called me aside and asked me how I even knew the word “evinced.” I told her that I enjoy reading the dictionary. She called me a nerd, which I didn’t mind at all.

As a songwriter, I had a song I wrote with a few other writers picked up by a small label in 2021. The song is called “Meant to be Lonely” performed by Donatella and Ray Volpe Jr. It’s been played all over the world by Ray at his events.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Yes, there is one story from childhood that always comes to mind.

I was in 3rd grade and we were completing a week’s lesson in Poetry, which I was very excited about. We were all asked to write a poem and submit it to the teacher. I remember my teacher coming to my desk with another teacher after reading my submission and stating that “this is plagiarism ,” and then explaining to me what that meant.

The poem, or at least part of it, was as follows:

Love is like a rose
It withers and it grows
When each petal falls
A new day of love calls.

I just remember I was so mad and panicked at being accused and not being believed about my work. The teachers were standing over me threatening to call may parents. I’ll also add, just for context, that I was the only little black girl in the class and I was often singled out and usually not for anything good.

I asked Mrs. Black, the main ringleader, to find where in our education materials I had copied. She couldn’t find it. So I told her to stay there and I sat at my desk and within a few minutes I had produced my own version of Shakespearean sonnet, which we had just learned about.

Both teachers stood there with there mouths agape, and the feeling of triumph and “shove it” that I had in my little heart, is one that I’ll never forget.

This story, is truly a microcosm for my journey in this world as a creative living in a Black, female body. I have no doubt, that though I may face significant challenges, it’s through my gift of creation that I will always overcome.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I think for me, the idea of and ability to create something transformational (which is what art is) out of thin air, whether it be music, or words put together in a certain way, is truly a therapeutic and spiritual process. It’s a deep way of connecting with the world around us, seen and unseen, emotion and sensation, near and far.

It’s a journey into the collective unconscious to pull out something that can help us to better understand each other, or help us to better understand ourselves.

It’s a way of putting something intangible into the tangible so that you can reach across barriers and touch someone with it.

It’s truly so rewarding and so magical, which is why I always refer to my creative process as a sorcery of sorts!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poem.a.day.project/
• Other: TikTok: @poem.a.day.project

Image Credits

Sarah Krick Photography