Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tamara (MsTee.Kay) Kumoji. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tamara (MsTee.Kay), looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
I believe success is a personal accomplishment. One of my favorite quotes from Maya Angelou is “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it”. Everyone has a personal journey that they embark on that is very different from the next individual. A person’s personal journey can require more or less time than the other individuals and the multitude of things needed to define an individual’s personal success.
Success to me means meeting my goals that I set for myself and enjoying the process especially when more accomplishments are met along the way that was unexpected. For instance, starting my artist performing career was definitely unexpected but purposeful! I went to a Busboys and Poets in Baltimore on November 2, 2022 just to share my poetry. However, going to Busboys and Poets changed my life and 6-months later I was a self-published author of my very first book called Vibrations of Love.
Tamara (MsTee.Kay), 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 am Ms.TeeKay a performing poet, songwriter, artist & storyteller on the Baltimore art scene, a born and raised native of Baltimore, MD and mother of 3 daughters. A self-published author of Vibrations of Love Chapbook, who has been writing poetry & short stories for over 25-yrs. As an affiliate Artist of a Baltimore local talent & entertainment company, I am able to explore my musical talents and utilize my many years of experience and skills in business management. My first love is music and most notably that love can be witnessed throughout my poetic lyricism and fiery stage performances. I am also a creative seamstress & jewelry maker in my Hand Crafts business called TamsHandCrafts established in 2019 which can be purchased at different markets throughout the city. My goal this year is to increase my public speaking goals; therefore, I am currently taking the Global Speakers University (GSU) Professional Speaker Certification Program and will be completing this certificate program, November of 2024.
I am known as a woman of many words. I describe myself as a helper and healer with my words and spirit. Embarking on my poetry journey allows me to pursue my passion of sharing stories of women’s truth and love. I have been a featured artist locally at Zee with the Fur open mic in Camp Springs, MD , CJ’s Place open mic in Baltimore, MD, Special Guest Artist at Whiskey Nights Open Mic in Clinton, MD., Special Guest at “An Evening with Authors” Nerd the Poet Productions in Silver Spring, MD and also a featured guest on “Embracing the Culture of Unspoken Word” Podcast with Storytime with Crystal, “Shine Vibrations” Podcast on Blast Music 247 Youtube Channel, AloneatiQ (Smart Dumb) Podcast and Nominated as “Supporter of the Year” 2023 for Baltimore’s Crown Awards. You can find (Me) Ms. TeeKay performing all across the DMV area.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The beginning of my poetry career had a slight bump in the road. November 2, 2022, I performed for the first time publicly at the former Baltimore BusBoys and Poets. “I did not know that there was actually a poetry community and was local! This sparked my interest and at Busboys and Poets where I was introduced to Charm City Slam. The very next day I went to the November Charm City Slam (2022) where I met many of Baltimore’s best poets. I began to study them— How they wrote poetry, and how they performed poetry. I took 3-months of going to different open mics in the Baltimore area before I was ready to actually perform again.
Well when I thought I was ready to perform, I was hit with the crab and barrel… no one knew me. So I was bumped off the list at several open mics. Being bumped off the list was very discouraging but I didn’t give up. I researched other open mics in the surrounding areas outside of the Baltimore area, which really changed my life and poetry career.
I drove over an hour to the Piano Keys Open Mic in Brandywine, MD hosted by Miko Reed where I met several of my mentors that opened up many doors for me. Whiskey Girl being my influential mentor, helping me to set the structure and foundation of my poetry and speaking career including training me to be a better performer, training me on event planning and business management in the artistry world, contributing her time and resources and lastly but most importantly helping me to become a Self-Published Author of my very first Chapbook called “Vibrations of Love”. I can never thank Whiskey enough for all of the efforts and love that she poured into me.
How did you build your audience on social media?
My audience on social media is ever changing and growing in ways that I didn’t imagine since becoming a performing poet. “It’s very important to me to show support to other artists as the love and support was shown to me”. I do this by going to other artist features, sharing performances on my social media stories, sharing/ going to events, giving reviews of products, sharing vendors/ entrepreneurs and giving encouragement and likes on posts. I believe that showing support to others helped me to gain more genuine and authentic followers which helped me to grow my audience and the reason I was nominated as “Supporter of the Year 2023” for Baltimore’s Crown Awards.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/mstee.kay
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mstee.kay/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tamara.canty.16
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MsTeeKay/
- Other: Purchase my book: “Vibrations of Love” Amazon https://tr.ee/D4BKWYtgBm E-Book: https://tr.ee/D_NYp52boS Tiktok: @allbouttam https://www.tiktok.com/@allbouttam IG: @tamshandcrafts https://www.instagram.com/Tamshandcrafts https://linktr.ee/tamshandcrafts
Image Credits
@richrocketmedia; @visionthroughvisual; @lindria.dockett