We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alex Tha Great a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Spoken Word is a very intricate art form. I believe that any poet is honestly born a writer, they just discover their talent is a gift at different times in life. For me, I learned more of the technicality behind the craft from studying other greats. I entered the world of slam poetry and participating in national slam competitions really did help me to hone in on my craft. I participated in all of the side events that would happen including the writing workshops and I would perform on any and every open mic I could get in. You have to practice the craft to get a good groove with it. I would follow other poets I really admired. (I started by asking other people for recommendations of who I should be watching/reading/listening to. From there I would follow Nationals and see who ranked as finalists each year and even previous years before I started. I would look those people up and start following them, watch their performances on Youtube, and purchase their books. Then I developed my own niche for myself. I don’t think I needed to make my learning process any more efficient, it went with appropriate pacing. I did the best I could with the tools I had at the time. Most essential skills are effective listening, communication, writing, time management, networking, and marketing. The only obstacle that is probably facing a lot of artist, but more specifically that of spoken word artists is the devaluing of the artform and the issue of not being paid enough.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Alex Tha Great and under the umbrella of that branding, I operate various different components that are all pretty much reflective back on my poetry. I am a spoken word artist so with that I write and perform poetry. I am an author of five books. My newest collection of poetry entitled Weeping in Public Spaces is now available for pre-orders through my website at www.alexthagreat.com. I also facilitate writing workshops both online and in person. I have an online writing group that meets quarterly called Right 2 Write. I am a keynote speaker and often speak on various topics including cultural competency, DEI efforts, leadership, women’s empowerment, conquering fear, and my own personal story of resilience.

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

Pretty recently, myself and a friend traveled about 4 hours to Houston, TX to perform at a show. Moments before I was to go on stage, my friend came to me looking sullen and said “Uh your car got towed”. I said excuse me. Mind you, this is just days prior to my daughters birthday. And close to rent time coming up. I had gone there with the intention of making money not to spend it. After calling around we find out it will cost $285 to get the car back from the tow yard. I had about 5 seconds of desperation before I said “Well its go time. This feature just turned into a fundraiser”. I got on stage and killed it. As my friend says, you turned into Incredible Hulk up there. The audience and the people really did show up for me that night. They put cash into the tip jar till it overflowed. I got so many dings on my cashapp and paypal notifications. And they also bought me out of the merch I was selling. What could of been a horrible time was absolutely amazing. Technically I didn’t get paid if we are talking about net and profits, but my how I was blessed immeasurably. No dollar sign could go before that. Thank God I didn’t have to come out the pocket. Cause they blessed that tip jar baby. Got paid for poems and gave it back to the City of Houston whether through ticket or tow. Then I got back in the car and went home looking like my dog died. But such are the highs and lows of this world. The good times are countered with the bad and everything in between.

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

I have always been a pretty much free spirited person in terms of thinking outside of the box and not just acquiescing to formal standards without question. With that I would say the most rewarding thing about being an artist and creative is that I don’t have anyone to answer to. I can truly live in my full authenticity and not worry about a pressure of fitting in or anything. I am able to do a thing that I love vigorously and it is such a blessing indeed. I love that my own story and sharing of my experience can also help others. I have grown to accept my vulnerability as my super power.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alexthagreat.com
• Instagram: followthagreat
• Facebook: Alex Tha Great Fan Page
• Linkedin: Alexandria Gurley
• Twitter: alexthagreat1
• Youtube: the1greatpoet

Image Credits
Reign Ifa Kat Mac Photos