About Beauty Within The Cracks
Introduction:
Hello and welcome to About Beauty Within The Cracks. In this, I'm going to be talking about my project Beauty Within The Cracks which came out in September 2020.
Firstly I wasn't sure what I was going to call this project in the beginning.
Then one day I was sitting doing some writing and the name Beauty Within The Cracks came to me and straight away I loved the name as it is so powerful and sums up what I wanted to talk about on this project so I was keeping this name.
Official and Promotional Poems:
Official Poems:
Silhouette, Brave Warrior & Your Art Form
So it all started with Silhouette (the poem I dropped in March 2020). This was a great introduction to the project as I felt Silhouette was a great start with the idea of the sunlight on me.
The official video came out in September 2020.
With this project, I wanted to give people poems, creative videos, artwork, audio, and more but also because of the pandemic I had to change some stuff around.
The next official poem was Brave Warrior (I love the imagery in this piece).
When I first started writing this piece I was already visualising the whole battle scene and how life is like a battlefield and we're the warriors battling through everything.
I decided for this piece to give the audio only and add a powerful image of a warrior and all around them destruction but also hope to keep going.
The next poem was Your Art Form a beautiful, short and powerful poem that goes alongside the title Beauty Within The Cracks.
With this poem, I decided to just give the poem instead on a beautiful background instead of a video or audio (like I said I wanted to switch things up on this project and try some new things).
Promotional Poems:
My Foundation/Wings of Angels, PICTURE PERFECT & Journey (Destination Unknown)
For the promotional pieces, I started with My Foundation/Wings of Angels I felt this was great to start promoting the project with this piece.
I dropped this piece in May 2020 (2 months after Silhouette) this piece works well after Silhouette and I use the line “My Silhouette is
Boldly perched above,
While the lights continue to flash
Observing the destruction below”. - such a powerful part that talks about how the destruction of life is flashing below while my Silhouette is up above on the #BeTheChange platform just doing my own thing.
One thing I love about this short piece is the imagery throughout and I could already imagine what it looked like when I was writing it.
My favourite line has to be “Marks on the pillars
begins to appear
like scars on the skin
each one
telling a different story”. Such a powerful line and I love how I compared marks on the pillars to scars on the skin.
The next piece I picked was PICTURE PERFECT which I dropped in July 2020 (4 months after Silhouette & 2 months after My Foundation/Wings of Angels) and this was the final piece I was dropping before the whole project dropped since I didn't want to give too many pieces away before the whole project dropped.
So with this piece, I was nervous sharing this piece because it’s pretty personal and different from Silhouette & My Foundation/Wings of Angels but I wanted people to learn that the project was going to be a mix of emotions and tones and I felt that this poem was good to go next after M.F/W.O.A and a great piece to leave people on in July before the whole project dropped.
With this piece, I was saying that the world always wants you to be on your A-game all the time and to be the perfect picture but I wanted to keep it real and say that life is not always like that. My favourite lines have to be “I find that
the world always wants you
to be
ready, confident, slaying
the ‘perfect picture’
but
sometimes I
don’t feel
those things at all.
My
shoelaces are always tied
but
there are days
when I fall.
Spots slowly growing
and taking its place
with pride
on my face
my mouth doesn’t move
but
if you looked into
my mind
it would speak a billion words”.
I’m just going to pause for a moment to let the words sink in. So much to digest here with this part but I’m so glad I decided to put this piece on the project.
Journey (Destination Unknown):
After PICTURE PERFECT I wasn't sure what piece I was going to make the next promotional poem but I decided on Journey (Destination Unknown) because we’re all on our own journeys and we don’t know what the end destination will look like so I felt this was an important message to talk about. Also, I love the sense of journey.
•Collaborations:
As you lot know I love collaborating with people and I wanted to have a few people on this project with me to be a part of the Beauty Within The Cracks journey.
One thing I noticed about the collaborative pieces on the project all three pieces have powerful titles and important meanings to them.
So let’s start with Still Workin’ On It (ft. Becca) this was another personal piece I worked on which had me talking about things I was still working on.
At first, I wasn’t going to put this piece on the project just because of how personal it is, but I felt it worked for the project. This piece started as just a solo but then I decided I wanted to have another added voice on this and I love Becca’s part so much I love how it’s hopeful and positive.
This is a powerful piece so thank you for being on this with me Becca (make sure you check her poems out).
Next, we go to the title of the project: Beauty Within The Cracks (Ft. Hayden).
I mean what can I say about this piece it’s so amazing, beautiful, and I love the imagery throughout. This poem started as a solo but I wanted to have another person on it and to see what Beauty Within The Cracks means to them and I met Hayden at Poetry LGBT online and was interested in their poems and love their part.
Thank you for being on this with me Hayden and make sure you check out Hayden’s poems.
The final collaboration is on FIERCE QUEEN (ft. Cerri). Well, the tone of this piece is a bit different from the first two.
I remember when I first started writing this piece it's saying that we all have that inner fierce queen inside us, and sometimes the world doesn't want us to be different and unique.
One part I love in this piece is where I say “To be different
To feel good
And I know
You hate that
I feel your coldness
All over me
The frosty words
and the stone-cold stare
But
In all of this
I’m feeling powerful
Like an iceberg.
I bring the sunshine
With my flame,
I bring the showers
Refreshing life
With the downpour of rain,
I bring the thunder
Sparks soar
From the electricity.
Lighting up the world
With positivity”.
What I love about this part are the things to do with nature, using the coldness as a negative and also the sense that I have powers with fire with the sunshine, water with the rain and thunder.
I knew I wanted to have someone on this piece with me and Cerri was a great choice. I love their part so much it's so honest and pure.
Cerri also made the artwork for this piece which was incredible since it was the first time I had someone design artwork for my project.
Thank you for being on this fierce poem with me Cerri and make sure you check out their artworks and poems online.
•Why a project like this?
I feel this project was needed because of the messages and themes I was talking about throughout.
The whole message of beauty is so important because beauty isn't just one thing, we need to stop judging people, it's okay to be working on yourself daily, and we need to come together more to make changes in the world and so much more.
Especially with everything that was happening in 2020, not just with the pandemic but other stuff too I felt this was the first project that I wanted to start on.
With Beauty Within The Cracks, you can learn a bit about me, poems that I feel need to have more of a conversation about and I switch it up a bit on poems like Swerved & OWNIN’ IT but they still have powerful messages in them.
•Achievements for the project:
Performed pieces from the project live at some open mic nights online
Was able to do the Beauty Within The Cracks Experience which was so much fun and also did some of it from home
Was on my first podcast in February 2021 (Eat The Storms: The Poetry Podcast)
More
•Videos:
I wasn't able to do a lot of videos in 2020 because of the pandemic.
So the first video I did was Silhouette. The whole sense of light and darkness came through so strong with the lighting in the video.
The next video was for Journey (Destination Unknown) another piece that I wasn't going to do a video for but one day last year I went on a walk and decided to start filming the journey I was on and put the two together since it worked.
I love how raw and natural the video feels when you watch it.
•Beauty Within The Cracks Experience (2021)
•New Artwork was made
•Performed at a few open mics online
•Was working on ART IS MY SUPERPOWER
•Creative Meetings
•Conclusion:
I would like to say thank you to everyone who read through Beauty Within The Cracks and support me with my creative work it means so much.
Do you have a favourite poem from the project?
I hope you have a bit more insight into Beauty Within The Cracks.