Dear Jodie-Ann,

You are one of my most difficult students. You tell me to shut-up when I give you directions. You backtalk. You talk shit. You laugh at me when you know you’ve successfully pissed me off.

Some might find it curious that I would then post you on my blog. Well, let’s just say you’re lucky you can write good. You’re lucky you are getting better every day. And soon every one will see your gift, intensity, and passion as I do, and like me, will also not be able to deny you.

So I typed your whole name into the YouTube search box and found but one result that featured the young woman I know as Jodie-Ann Geddes. I was hesitant. It was posted 11 months ago and God knows when it was recorded. I was afraid the viewers of this blog would not see the full potential of such a rapidly growing artist.

I told a friend this past weekend that none of my poetic/slam/spoken word/Youth Speaks peers have made it far into their twenties without a sense of jadedness and contempt towards the artform - which has consequently stunted our writing. We have fallen. And Jodie, I see you falling.

So if not for the edutainment of our viewers, I post this blog for you, Jodie - and for all others who can see the sparkling fire in your eyes. Look at yourself, Jodie. You see how that smile holds conviction? You hear how you speak when you believe that what you speak is truth? I ask you to remember. Relocate that place in your body where you believe that your words can change the world. Because they can. And if you allow that beautiful idea to be forgotten for too long, you may forget how to remember it. Like a dream that grows hazy as the day goes on. Record your dream, Jodie. Then bring it to our reality. Because we need it. The world is built on it. You hold a position of importance.

Speak, Black Woman, speak.