Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Lask. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Stephanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I had been writing poetry for most of my life. It wasn’t until watching Def Poetry Jam in the early 2000’s that I would discover spoken word poetry. I was amazed at how some of these artists were able to memorize their work! The concepts were nothing I had heard before, and it had me intrigued ever since.

In my college years (2001 – 2005), I would spend a lot of time free writing poems. Most of these poems felt more like journal entries that rhymed as opposed to well flushed out ideas lol. I just always felt like I had something to say, and just needed to write it out, whether I was at work, in class, or at the Student Union building at Norfolk State University.

It wouldn’t be until 2009, when my roommate and I went to an open mic in Norfolk, VA called “Words of Wisdom Wednesdays” at the now closed Soulicious Cafe. We were so inspired! We both vowed to come back the next week to recite poems. That following week had come, and we did just that! It was freeing, it was scary, it was necessary, and I felt so much better!

From there I met a lot of people I would later call mentors, friends, and family!

I knew that poetry was something I wanted to pursue because I love Hip Hop. I love rhyme, I love clever wordplay, I love the other elements of hip hop culture too. I knew that I would want to be in the schools whether it was for performing or teaching. I was in awe of the people around me and just wanted to learn and grow.

Stephanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an artist of different mediums, so I’ll first start with the graphic design and web design side of things.

I received my Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design from Norfolk State University in 2005. During that time, you had to take all sorts of drawing classes, typography, printmaking, painting and other core classes for your degree. I’m sure it’s changed a lot in 20 years, but for me, this was the beginning of being an artist for me.

After graduation, I took on a few freelance projects like designing flyers, and logos. In 2010, this would be amplified when I was commissioned to do more flyers for local events.

In 2013, after working almost 2 years in technical support for a web hosting company, I applied for a position in the web design department at the same company, and I was hired! I spent another 2 years learning and absorbing everything related to WordPress, Open Cart and code. But for me initially, this was huge because this would be the first time I was actually using the tools I had learned for my degree and getting paid a salary for it.

After those 2 years in that position, I applied to be a lead front end developer within the same department. I would be coding websites into a custom theme using WordPress and supporting plugins. I spent 7 years in this role and excelled! I learned something new almost everyday.

I was able to start taking on side projects as a web designer/developer. I have designed hundreds of websites for both corporate and small businesses, nonprofits, churches, restaurants, IT companies, technology and engineering companies, e-commerce websites (big and small), you name it, I was building and designing it!

What sets me apart from others is I am a designer, and a developer. So I can give you something visually appealing, and build it out for you so that it’s easy to use and maintain.

I love to create so of course this goes hand in hand with my love for poetry. I have been performing poetry now for almost 15 years. I have performed on numerous stages up and down the east coast as well as all over the Hampton Roads area. I got into the world of slam poetry back in 2016, which lead me to start performing on national stages via Southern Fried Poetry Slam, and virtually via the World Wide Poetry Slam League put on by Write About Now, as well as other virtual slams I have competed in.

Since entering the world of slam poetry, it’s allowed me to view my craft differently. It’s made me focus more on the performance and to pay more attention to editing my poems. When I first started, I wasn’t much of an editor. I would write freely, and go back and change stuff here and there, but with everything, you learn and you grow and you get better.

I’m proud to say that I run a slam poetry team called Verb Benders out of Norfolk, VA. We have been competing in team poetry tournament called Southern Fried Poetry Slam since 2017, and I’m proud to say that the 2023 Verb Benders Slam Team is now ranked 3rd in the nation out of 28 teams from all over the United States.

What sets our team apart from other teams is our wide range of topics, our sharpness with choreographing our group poems, and the dedication to wanting the best. We work hard, and we go for it!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist, on the graphic design and web design side of things, is hearing the sheer delight in your client’s voice when you have delivered something to them. It brings me absolute joy every single time.

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist on the spoken word poetry side is when someone in the audience relates to your work. Sometimes it brings me to tears when someone comments on how one of my poems reached them in a way that I didn’t my words could. This also brings me so much joy, every single time!

You never know who’s listening! You never know who’s watching! Create anyway!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Even though I do so much in my life, I still keep a full time job as a web designer.

I was so excited to hold a position as a web designer as a contractor, but I was in an environment where I wasn’t appreciated, validated, and looked at as an afterthought almost everyday. Eventually, after giving me almost no work to do, I was fired. As I was going through the off-boarding process, I kept asking why I was being let go, and I got a response I wasn’t prepared for. I was humiliated, felt ashamed, disappointed. It really cut me to core.

I spent months looking for a new job. Luckily I was able to support myself with the help of my savings and collecting unemployment benefits. I would get interviews and nothing would come from it until one day, a recruiter reached out to me. She had the perfect position for me and let me know all that I had to do for it, in order to get an interview. I had to do an assessment which was creating a landing page. I spent about 4 hours on it, making sure the code was clean, that it lined up perfectly on other screen sizes to include mobile. When I finally got to the interview, the managers were so impressed with my work and it restored my confidence! I was offered a job, and I’ve been loving it ever since I started!

I knew I couldn’t give up. I dealt with so much imposter syndrome during this time, but I fought through it because I knew the voices were lying.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://slfivedesigns.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slfive
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephanie.lask.7
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-lask-a7b6b83/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/steph_love500
• Other: https://spokenwordbysteph.com

Image Credits
Kit Rose Photos, Jeff Hewitt