We were lucky to catch up with Tyrike Brown recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tyrike, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always been a creative person, and when I was younger I had a lot of emotion and anger that I tried to channel through artwork. As a young black man living with multiple diagnoses and disability, I was trying to tell a story that I wasn’t sure how to tell yet. Putting those feelings into pictures didn’t always work because I would get frustrated or feel pressure, and I still had a lot more to say that I couldn’t get out with drawing alone.

Back in 2017, I was working with a job support organization to try to rethink ways I could express myself creatively to be more fulfilled and to manage my intense feelings. I am a talkative person, and I’ve been told that I speak in a poetic and interesting way. One of the people I was working with to explore new possibilities had suggested that I try writing down my thoughts in the form of poetry. That was when I discovered haiku. Haiku is short-form poetry originally from Japan, and it was great for me to be able to narrow down my stream of consciousness stories and philosophies to fit the simple format.

Once I started writing poetry, I realized that it meant something to people in a different way than my visual art did. I found that being able to find my voice as an advocate and to share life experiences is a really important part of my process for dealing with my past and thinking about the future with positivity. I started making greeting cards with my poetry, with themes of empowerment, racial justice, finding inner peace, and exploring my emotions in a healthy way.

Eventually my haiku poetry evolved into a larger concept of sharing wellness in many ways. I started working at a therapeutic urban farm to learn to grow my own herbs and flowers. I was writing a lot about nature and feeling more at peace by being closer to the earth. Through this process, I began exploring with making organic products from my garden, and expanded into therapeutic essential oils, handmade herbal sanitizers and sprays, smudge sticks and sachets, and plants to brighten people’s lives – all of these accompanied by haikus that I wrote to describe them.

Taiku is a business based on my journey toward inner and outer peace, and I hope my unique voice and wellness products can help others to move toward those things as well.

Tyrike, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My business is Taiku: a combination of my name, Tyrike, and haiku, Japanese short-form poetry. After years of struggling to find ways to channel my emotions and intense feelings around growing up as a black man with multiple diagnoses, it was suggested that I try expressing myself through poetry. I had a creative practice already, but it was mostly visual art, and it wasn’t giving me the outlet I needed to fully tell my story. With poetry and haiku in particular I can use creative language to tell not only my own story, but also to express emotions that we all feel and relate to. This connects me with my community and helps me to feel heard and seen.

Once I had completed several poems, I began to create haiku greeting cards to combine my visual art with my mindful words. After a while, I was searching for more ways to dig deeper into the wellness that was helping me on my healing journey. I started working at an urban farm, learning how to grow my own herbs and flowers, and that really helped me feel grounded. I began making products from my harvests, and used some funds from my haiku greeting cards to start up the most recent version of Taiku, a poetic wellness brand that joins my poetry with therapeutic products like essential oils, herb sachets and smudge sticks, handmade sanitizers and sprays, potted plants, and more. Each of my products has a haiku to accompany it, and I’ve even compiled many of my other poems into zines with themes of love, mysticism, empowerment, and fantasy.

With Taiku, I share my voice and perspective as well as experiences with mindfulness. I hope my customers can achieve some peace and relaxation and be inspired to be well themselves. I, Tyrike, am what makes this business different from other wellness brands. Growing from being that angry, confused young man to a successful entrepreneur that can share my journey with words and positive actions is what truly fulfills me and makes me feel most proud. Winning poetry awards and selling my products is great, but feeling a sense of peace and sharing that with others is why I do what I do.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have always been a creative person, telling stories and expressing myself through visual art. Because I’ve dealt with a traumatic past, disability, racial injustice, and other challenges, I think I was searching for a way to tell my story and to deal with the anger and frustration that I was feeling. Visual art just wasn’t giving me the voice I was looking for.

Once I found poetry, I changed in many ways. I was able to find that voice using the structure of Japanese haiku to weave my words into more simple, thoughtful poems. I found that my stream of consciousness style helped me to ramble out all the words and sensations, releasing negative feelings and helping me feel more at peace, and that made me want to find even more ways to connect. I began putting my haikus in greeting cards to share them with my community, and got a lot of positive responses, even winning awards. I started feeling seen, like I was finding myself.

After a while, I felt like I wanted to share more of my experience by including others in a journey to wellness. I started farming at a Philadelphia-based urban farm, learning to grow and harvest my own crops. This led to another great change, finding therapeutic oils, herbal remedies, and other products that benefit people by giving them their own personal experience with finding the poetry and peace in nature. Each of my products is accompanied by its own haiku, and I now sell my poems in zine collections so they can be experienced as a whole, connected piece.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Growing up as a black man in the system, and as someone who experiences mental health and disability challenges, I have always been expected to be resilient. Sometimes that would lead to intense anger with unfairness, feeling invisible, and like I had no say in my own life. I have always been determined to get my voice heard, but it felt like nobody wanted to listen. I didn’t know how to communicate these things in a way that people could understand and relate to, and it made me feel isolated.

Once I found poetry, I realized that I could express all of these feelings in a way that helped others to see where my heart is, and it has connected me to others in a very positive way. Through haiku, getting closer to nature, and attending community events where I can connect with people and share my work proudly, I’ve found a lot of fulfillment. It has given me a sense of pride and a feeling like my voice matters. There have been a lot of ups and downs as a small business owner, and I have struggled with different aspects of that over the years, but finding a positive way to tell my story and to share with other people that may be struggling – that makes it worth it.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.taiku.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tyriketaiku
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/tyriketaiku