We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Justace Travis Lee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Justace, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents showed me both the benefits and drawbacks of hard work
I learned it’s not always payday
Sometimes it’s Monday
You gotta put your head down and get to Friday
My mother was a Hired maid for a cleaning company worked hard cleaned hardwood floors on her knees, But one day she knew her body couldn’t take it anymore she quit with no forward plan she waited for god. She got a new job where she was sitting until she retired.
My father was the same way. Gave too hard for
A job that would careless about him. He literally worked until he died
Went directly from the job to the hospital. He was a elevator engineer
He would always tell me when I asked why are going to work
He would say cause it’s not payday. He spent his last week alive in a hospital
And it was the only time I spent a full work week with my dad

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.

I started doing poetry three years ago. Before that, I was a pretty middling hip-hop artist. I always loved writing, but with hip-hop, the beat sometimes took the spotlight. I got injured at work I fell hit my head
Got a brain injury I had amnesia for awhile
Rapping wasn’t the same thoughts were jumble up Poetry gave me the space to really go in-depth—to let the words breathe.

At first, I wasn’t even into poetry like that. It was my partner, Laela(Sincerely L.), who got me into it. Watching her on stage, the sincerity in her presence—pulled me in. I was used to writing for other people, staying in the background. I didn’t think I belonged on a stage.

But once I got up there, something clicked. I started connecting—not just with the mic, but with the people in front of me. That’s when I realized: sometimes the gift isn’t just for you. It’s a God-given tool to reach others. And now, every time I perform, I get to witness how words can shift something in someone else’s spirit. That’s the real reward.

What I’m most proud of is Poetry Unleashed, the open mic I co-host—one of the first in the city to really lean into slam-style poetry. It’s not just an event; it’s a movement.

I’m also proud of the slam community we’ve started to rebuild here in Philly. For a while, it felt like that energy had faded—but now, it’s back. Laela was the first in our circle to step into that world, and then I followed. After that, more and more poets from our community found their way to the slam stage.

I’m proud of that. I’m proud of them. I’m proud of the new poets rising under this wave we’ve helped create.

Poetry in Philly used to look a certain way. Now, it’s shifting. It’s growing. We’ve laid a real foundation—something solid. And the bricks are the new voices. The ones who are already showing they’ve got what it takes to not just perform, but build their own spaces, their own communities, their own stages.

That’s legacy. And it’s only the beginning.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve never really had the support of family and friends in anything A huge part of me needed that. So I would lose interest fast because it must not the cool thing This I started alone when I showed ppl what I was doing the looked at me crazy said was I was crazy for continuing to pursue a stage to perform when everything else around me was falling they didn’t understand the necessity
to take the raw emotions and transform them
In to something polish and pretty, rigid and ugly
But honest to self
It helped with my emotional maturity
I learned I had a lack of it and I had gone thru my life holding onto emotions that were Toxic but so familiar they looked like DNA

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

My father used to say there’s not much difference between crazy and convinced. Just because God showed me something and not you—that doesn’t make me crazy.

When I began performing, it wasn’t out of desire, it was out of necessity. I had just separated from my wife of over 15 years. I couldn’t see my kids. My world was falling apart.

But poetry gave me a place to land. A space for outlet and understanding. I was able to lay down my disaster and look at it without ego, without rage.

It’s hard for men to process the end of long-standing relationships and still move forward. But through poetry, I find resolve. I found the empathy to see not only my family’s pain but my own—as a human being. And humans? We mess up. That’s part of the truth I had to learn to accept.

You can’t change the world around you until you change the world within. Poetry helped me do that.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @iam_justace
• Twitter: @acecover
• Youtube: Just-Ace
• Other: @PoetryUnleashed

Image Credits

Hip-hop and Poetry