We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Imani Rhema a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Imani, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?
I started performing poetry at local open mics in 2006. As time went on, I started my own open mic event, the Soul Food Poetry Cafe, mostly to provide a comfortable and welcoming space for performers. The first night, February 2, 2007, we opened with a modest crowd of about 30 people. Since we charged $5 for entry, we really didn’t make money that night, or the shows thereafter. My goal actually was not to make money, but to build community and provide a stage for newcomers to seasoned artists. As the years went by I got involved with Youth Speaks, now known as Southern Word, and I received my first check, and my very first standing ovation, performing at an event for them. I saved a copy of that $40 check for years!
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.
Native to Nashville, Tennessee, I am Imani Rhema, a local poet and spoken word artist. Imani is my self-given spiritual name, meaning Faith in Swahili. I chose this word to define myself because my beliefs often are the basis of the poems I write. Rhema (pronounced RAY-ma) can be defined as ‘prophetic spoken word’ in Hebrew and in Greek. The word rhyme derives from it.
I have been writing rhyme in the artistic forms of poetry and songs since the age of 12.I write about the beauty of being African American, its situations and circumstances. I have penned thought-provoking poems with topics ranging from being a single mom to growing up listening to hip hop music in East Nashville. This is my passion, my calling, my escape, my purpose. I call my style of writing Souletry. I perform at weddings, funerals, birthday parties, family reunions, churches, leadership seminars, scholarship ceremonies, and awards galas.
I am the founder and host of Soul Food Poetry Cafe, Nashville’s premiere event for live music and spoken word. We at SFPC just celebrated our 16th year – and it is the longest-running local live music and poetry event. We are the only independent artist group with a permanent residency at The City Winery Nashville; May marked 6 years. We usually have events quarterly throughout the year, and have set and broken many attendance records in our genre. In February, our Valentine’s show ‘Love Letters’ sold out two shows in advance! This means that over 650 people had a chance to share an intimate evening of love poems and love songs with us! The show is an alternate form of nightlife with quality urban entertainment, and we get great feedback about the mature crowd, the vibe we create, and the high level of talent.
In our tenure we have hosted shows in Nashville and California. We have celebrated poetry with two spoken word awards shows (the first of its kind to honor spoken word artists, venues, and organizations), supported the community by hosting two benefit shows, and all professional artists and musicians that grace our stages are paid to perform. We were awarded a Proclamation of Cultural Relevance in Nashville by the mayor.
We love to introduce audience members to the beautiful art of performance poetry. There are still thousands of people in Nashville that are not familiar with spoken word, and we want to get the word out to them!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
We were on a hunt for the perfect venue. We have used event halls and places where we have had to deal with decor, food, alcohol, sound systems, playlists, TV monitors, and things that are not in our wheelhouse, were costly, and took a lot of time and energy. I had my heart set on getting into the City Winery – full service restaurant and bar. State of the art sound system… central location. Convenient parking. I had yet to even set foot in the venue, but after looking at pictures of it online, I was married to the idea of having my events there! I went to their website and started calling the event manager. I gave a her a quick overview of what we do, and what venues we have worked with (Venue 109, Kazu Restaurant and Lounge, The Onyx Room, and The Hard Rock Cafe), our attendance, and the sentiments about our events. The lady asked for my press kit, and for a year she then avoided my calls, stated she didn’t get my emails, and eventually stopped answering my calls or responding to my emails. I started reaching out every month instead of weekly. One month, in January of 2017, a newly hired event manager answered. She was from Atlanta, so she understood spoken word, we had several mutual artist connections, and she took a chance and added us to their lineup, starting us upstairs in their lounge. The show sold out in advance – this was on May 27, 2017. We then were moved to the main event hall downstairs, and we have been rocking with them ever since. If I didn’t keep my eye on my vision, push through when I felt unheard, and even wondered if I were being discriminated against, we would never have seen this level of success.
How did you build your audience on social media?
We started our social media presence by creating a Facebook page. We built our audience by connecting with people who had attended our shows and spoken word artists. We then used the page to create events and invite the followers. After each event we would post videos and photos. We then started using Facebook ads, which were very key in growing our audience. We replicated this on IG, and added Twitter and TikTok pages as well. In addition, we created a role within our company for a social media and promotions manager, as this is a full-time need. If you’re just starting out, it’s key to create engaging posts with vibrant photos and active and fun videos. Have a professional logo and merchandise. Make sure everyone on your team shares the posts and help introduce your business to new people. Marketing is an everyday thing, there should always be products or merchandise to expose to your followers. Don’t just promote before an event, promote your business/craft/merchandise always!
Contact Info:
- Website: soulfoodpoetrycafe.com
- Instagram: @soulfoodpoetrycafe and @imanirhema
- Facebook: Soul Food Poetry Cafe and Imani Rhema
- Linkedin: Imani Rhema
- Twitter: @imanirhema @officialsfpc
Image Credits
photo credits at the City Winery = @shootingforlovephotography