"Without Me Asking": A Conversation with SpokenbyT

Interview by Imani Dominique Busby

Photography provided by SpokenbyT

In this interview, spoken word artist SpokenbyT opens up about her creative journey, sharing the inspirations and emotions behind her poetry and the stunning visuals for her newest release: "Without Me Asking." In a candid conversation, she discusses how she became a poet, her creative process, and how her personal experiences have woven her heart and art together. SpokenbyT then explores how she embraces her authentic self while connecting with her audience on a deeply personal level.

How did you start writing poetry? How did you know that you wanted to pursue spoken word? What was that spark for you?

Honestly, I didn't know until I did it. I started because I was in grade nine drama class and we had an assignment to write a rant from the perspective of anybody we wanted in history. I wrote from the stance of a biracial girl in the Jim Crow era. Then it automatically started to rhyme when I was just venting and typing it out. So I asked my teacher, “Hey, am I allowed to rhyme?” She's like, “Yeah, that's actually spoken word poetry.” And I'm like, “Word?” I had no idea that was a thing.

I went home, watched a bunch of YouTube videos on it, and then performed for the class. It went really well and then my teacher asked if I wanted to do it for the Black History Month assembly, which I did. And then I just realized that it came very easy to me, and it was very natural. And it was the only way that I realized I knew how to talk about what I was really feeling without sugar coating it.

And I realized that if I rhyme, people are actually going to listen to what I have to say.

So I just kept going with it.

You've infused Jazz, Soul, R&B, and to Hip Hop into your poetry. How did genres influence your approach to spoken word, and how did you start creating your unique voice and sound?

The genres come from just my natural love of enjoying that type of music. I can't sing, so I'm never going to be able to create something that's more similar to the songs that I do listen to outside of poetry.

So when it comes to creating: I write the piece, I think about how it makes me feel, I share it with the producers, with the musicians that are working on it, and I'm like, "Okay, this is what I want to go for." It's really just a whole bunch of trial and error and seeing what fits. I never go into anything with a firm 'It's going to look like this, it's going to sound like this." I moreso have an idea and a feeling, and then leave it up to the experts, the music makers.

In your recently released poem “Without me Asking”, you describe the piece as a reflection of love found. Can you walk us through the creative journey behind this piece and how it evolved from being something that was written and recorded to a visual representation?

It was one of those unintentional things. I was sitting on my mom's porch. It was warm outside, and I started to feel all lovey-dovey because this is when I was new in my relationship. But I started to get mushy gushy about it, and this was the piece that flowed.

This is one of the ones where I never went back and reworded anything or edited anything. How I wrote it that day is how it's always been. And then I didn't feel ready to release it until last year because I was like, “Hey, I'm in my soft girl, exploring femininity era. I want to see what this looks like.” And when it came time to finally record it properly, I was grateful that we were able to bring together a bunch of musicians. We have live trumpet on there. We have beautiful background vocals from Jasmine Kiara on there. Again, just like what I had said originally, I didn't really have a sense of direction, I just knew how I wanted it to feel. And then I brought together a bunch of people that knew what they're doing in their respective categories, and they made it feel like that.

The video was a whole other thing. I wanted to do a really big production last year, but budget and time and schedules and everything just didn't really allow for that. And then this year, I was like, “You know what? I don't want to keep letting my ideas die out and be restrained by the influences of a schedule or releasing it in a perfect time period or whatever.” So I created a cute little treatment. I hit up Michael and I was like, “Hey, do you have capacity to do this? We got to get it done in a week.” And he agreed and here we are.

"Without Me Asking" is so beautiful and vulnerable, how did you choose which parts of your life to include in your art? And do you ever feel scared or hesitant to open up and share?

I don't choose. I know it's maybe cliché and weird to say, but when I feel like I have something to say, I just say it. And then whatever comes is what comes. And that's how that piece was born. And yes, I'm scared all the time. I'm absolutely terrified. I have no idea what's going to happen when these things are put out into the world. But it's very full and fulfilling to know that I have this ability to be able to write my feelings into a nice, fun way that people are actually interested enough in listening to it and hearing it. I always like to say that if you're not nervous about what you're doing, you should probably find something else. I'm glad that I'm nervous because I care. When I stop being nervous, it's like, "Oh, maybe I should try something else."

No, I love that. That's very inspiring, too.

The video is incredibly stunning. Could you share a bit more about the process of producing it? What was it like behind the scenes?

I was actually out co-working with my friend Danielle, and we're updating our EPKs, and I was like, "Valentine's Day is in two, three weeks. I really want to do something for it. I have these love pieces out that I never did any visuals for, and I just really want to have something out in time that's going to help people feel emotional and lovey-dovey and just lean into that romance aspect." I then hit up Michael and I was like, “Hey, I have this idea. I can get a treatment to you for tomorrow because it's super last minute. But if we were to do this, do you have the capacity? And when can we shoot?” Then we decided that we could do the shoot in a week's time. Within that week, I made the treatment, had the conversations with Michael about the shots and the mood board.

We did all the pre-production in a couple of days, rented an Airbnb and went out to Hamilton. It was very minimal set design because we just used the aesthetic of the home. It was super low budget, there were three people on set.

We just shot it, and I styled everything myself. I called my friend Danielle, who's a stylist to show her the looks. I thrifted everything that I was wearing if I didn't already own it. And she was on the phone. She was like, “Yeah, this is going to work. This is going to work.”

And It was made possible because of pure community and the fact that I had people that believed in it, even though we had barely any time to prepare.

You mentioned wanting to embrace parts of yourself that are often overlooked. How has this project allowed you to explore and celebrate different aspects of your identity that might go unrecognized? Outside of what you've already touched on?

I know you're saying outside of what I've touched on, but the two biggest things are my natural existence - what I look like without makeup, and specifically strategically choosing clothing that doesn't conceal the parts of me that I don't necessarily like. So for example, I don't love the size of my belly right now, or I don't love how my shoulders look in a tank top. I feel like I look like a football player sometimes, and that's okay. But I specifically chose a tight tank top where my belly is evident and my shoulders are evident and I have no makeup on because I'm trying to embrace those parts of myself. And I feel like the only way I'm going to be 100% comfortable with it is if I just do it. I can do all the mental work and do all the affirmations and things like that, but it's all a cover up until I actually am able to do it, look back and be like, “Hey, not so bad.” So there's that.

And then also the feminine aspect. Like I said, I grew up a tomboy. I grew up in sports. I grew up with rough, just rough. I was always the kid with bruises on the legs. I played too rough sort of thing. So I'm trying to embrace the feminine side of me that is soft and girly and mushy and gushy that I let out when I'm at home. But it still very much makes its way into my work, and I want to be able to embrace that end as well. So I'd say those are the biggest two.

How has your understanding of love shifted since the creation and release of this piece?

Honestly, I don't even know how to put it into words, really. I'm grateful that I'm finally seeing myself in a relationship that teaches me more about myself and about love than any other actual relationship ever has. I think the biggest thing that I've learned when it comes to love and romance and actually being in an invested relationship is that it's a choice. It's a choice more than it's a feeling. And once you're allowing yourself to be vulnerable enough to make that choice to be in the relationship, to choose love every day, then the softness and the mushy-gushy and the vulnerable stuff follows. But the mushy-gushy is not always going to be there. But once you find something that makes you feel mushy-gushy, it's about your choosing that literally every single second. You have to want it. I'm grateful because I want it, and it's awesome.

What a beautiful response. Do you see this impacting your artistry going forward? If so, how?

This is actually fire because it definitely has. It's involved itself into my work, even when I'm not trying to write a love poem, but a little line or two will make it in there about my relationship. Or I have a poem as well. It's called “You Don't Know My Name”, and it's supposed to be talking about the frustration that I feel for racism against Black men, but it's formed like a love poem. Now that I've broken that shield of allowing myself to write about these things and dive deeper into it, I've been finding that it's been making its way into work that isn't even intended to be a love piece. Honestly, it's very different because I used to write very angry and very passionate and loud and frustrated. Now a lot of my work is very soft and calm. And yeah, I'm enjoying it. I think it's cool.

So you've performed on numerous prestigious stages and the first poet to perform at a Candle Light concert. Congratulations. How do you prepare for audiences in these different spaces?

I used to curate my sets based on what I thought the audience would like best, but I'm now allowing myself to curate my sets based on what I want to say and how I'm feeling. And I try my best to tell a story, not one that's linear, but like a roller coaster of a story. So by the end of it, you felt every basic emotion that you could have felt like, I want you to cry, I want you to be sad, I want you to be happy.

I also make sure to choose pieces that I actually want to perform, not ones that I feel like are going to be the best that the audience wants to hear, just because I don't want it to be performative. I want it to just be raw and real and human.

And tying back to something that you had mentioned in terms of wanting the audience to feel a range of emotions. How did you realize that you had that gift to be able to connect with people so deeply and make them feel super intense emotions?

A lot of it is the realization comes from the feedback of the audience. Over the years, performing and having people come up to me or message me afterwards and be like, “Hey, you made me cry during this, or you made me think of this, or I felt like this when you're performing is a huge one.” I will never realize how my stuff makes other people feel unless I'm told.

And I'd also I would say, a while ago, I had a mentor, and one of the biggest things that he taught me was how to have the confidence to look people in their eye when I'm performing. And that's also when I can tell when I'm making people feel something. When I'm performing and I'm on stage and I'm locking eyes with somebody or people throughout the audience, and I could see that they are feeling. Whatever the feeling is, I can see that they're locked in with me or even the ones that look and then look away in an instant. It's like, I can tell you're still here with me. And those moments are very precious. And I can tell with those ones that emotions are there, whatever it is, emotions are there. So I guess those are my tell tales.

If you could describe your artistic vision for the next few years, is there anything that you are working towards, or themes or emotions that you'd want to explore or your vision as an artist?.

Actually, I had this realization when I did a photoshoot for my birthday. My birthday was in January, and it was all natural. No makeup, just “Here I am”. That was terrifying. But the reason why I did it is because I wanted it to be the start of a branding that I feel most comfortable with and a branding that I want to stick with for as long as possible, which is: "I am literally just a human, and that's it. Point blank, period."

I want to move through my artistry and the stuff I create and the stuff that gets put out into the world. I want to move out through that. I want to make sure that everything I'm doing for as long as I'm doing it is as raw and natural as any regular human would be. I don't want to be this big hair style, makeup, superstar. I definitely want to be selling off stadiums, but I don't want be doing it if it comes from a love for art that I have created that's not actually me or from videos that I've created where I don't actually look like myself or words that I perform that I don't actually resonate with.

I just want everything to be super raw, super natural, super just who I am, me. You know what I mean? That's my long term.

I love that. That's such a beautiful vision to have.

Thank you. Your questions are great, by the way.

Thank you. I was excited to chat with you.

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