SOUND OF OUR VOICES
Bringing you Black authors.
SOUND OF OUR VOICES
A Voice Unleashed: An Introspective Migration – Introducing Sound of My Voice by Aafroqween
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LoveArtLife Publishing is proud to celebrate the official arrival of a powerful poetic voice.
Sound of My Voice: Poetry From The Journey by Aafroqween (Fisiwe Zwana Freeman), is an evocative journey that celebrates identity, heritage, and self-discovery.
This collection is not merely a book; it is a lens into an "introspective migration," documenting the path of a voice finding its place from the Deep South to Southern Africa. Aafroqween describes the work as the organic progression of discovering her own voice, using poetry to hear and be heard as a Black woman.
Are you navigating your own "introspective migration"? If you are in the middle of your own migration—searching for where you fit—this episode is your invitation to start listening to your own voice and find your rhythm. Let Aafroqween’s words be your companion.
Order your copy today and join a community of travelers finding their truth.
https://loveartlife.tv/product-category/lal-store/publishing/poetry/
#loveartlife #soundofmyvoice #poetryfromthejourney #aafroqweenauthentic #poetryis medicine
Opener
SPEAKER_01Four, three, two, one.
Episode Intro
SPEAKER_05Welcome to the sound of our voice. I'm your host, Tracy Winfield with Love Art Life Publishing. Today we are opening with a very special chapter, celebrating the release of Sound of My Voice, Poetry from the Journey by the Incredible Afro Queen. Our mission has always been bringing you black authors, and today we explore this voice as the heart of our movement, our poetry.
About the Book: Sound of My Voice-Poetry From The Journey
SPEAKER_04Love Art Life Publishing presents Sound of My Voice by Afro Queen, available from Love Art Life Publishing, Amazon, and international booksellers, especially those centering voices of black women.
Migration by Aafroqween: Poetry Excerpt
SPEAKER_02Who will document the migration of the black woman from the first soil to the auction block? From the hymnal to the immortalized cell. Who will study the composition of the songs, tears, and memories in her wings and chronicle her journey with objectivity and respect? Who is watching with an eye for a truth that can only be told from a desire to know, not to keep? It won't be science. It won't be religion or government. Who will care? Because she is beautiful. Who will feel her mystery and wonder without dissecting her? Who will follow her without a glass jar? Who will love her freedom?
Author Introduction
SPEAKER_05How are you doing, everyone?
SPEAKER_00I'm blessed, I'm well. Thank you for asking. How are you doing?
SPEAKER_05I'm doing good. So good to have you here. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
SPEAKER_00Um let's see, how do I describe myself? I'm a vocalist, um a poet, I'm a spoken word artist, and for some of us there's a distinction. Um, I'm a mom. Uh I've been a dancer all my life, and I really, really love writing poetry. Um I curate a very special spoken word virtual space called the Sunrise Scribe that is inhabited by a tribe of very talented, insightful, and powerful uh poetry writers. Um and I'm also the co-founder and artistic director of Love Art Life TV that is now streaming O Roku. And basically, we are an arts and culture space that amplifies the voices of the African diaspora through spoken word, independent music, and visual storytelling.
About the Podcast Series
SPEAKER_05We hope to explore during this series not only the sound of my voice by AfroQeen and her journey, but we hope to help you explore your journey as well. We'll be back after these messages. Thank you so much, Afro Queen. We're gonna be back and we're gonna talk about that journey.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
Commercial Break 1
SPEAKER_01LoveArtLife TV, now streaming on Roku. Learn more at www.loveartlife.tv. We are Deep Love, Soul Art, Authentic
Interview Question 1 How do you define the personal sound of my voice?
SPEAKER_01Life.
SPEAKER_05And we're back. This is the Sound of Our Voice this series, and we're going to be talking about what it truly means to listen to yourself. Afro Queen, for our listeners, just beginning to understand your work. How do you define the personal sound of my voice?
SPEAKER_00Um, for me, sound of my voice manifests itself as poetry, my writing, my singing, my songs, because that is how I have learned to see myself more clearly, how I've learned to explore my own feelings and process my own experiences, my lived experience. Um, it is the way that I feel like I um best express myself. I can speak, I can talk, um, I've been told I'm articulate, but I feel like I'm most honest and creative when I'm either writing or singing. And so my journey to um understand and really recognize the sound of my own voice has been through spoken word and my singing voice and music. For other people, it might be painting, for some people it might be dancing. Um, you understand what I'm saying? It could be whatever that thing is for you. That is your um, some people might call it your happy place, some people call it your gift, some people call it your purpose. Um, but it is how you recognize what your soul has to say.
Interview Question 2 Unpacking "introspective migration"...
SPEAKER_05Today, in a voice unleashed our first um segment in the series, you describe this collection as an introspective migration. Can you unpack that for our listeners? What does that migration look like for you, both physically and emotionally?
SPEAKER_00The introspective migration for me has been about recognizing that what is seen from the outside looking in is not the same as what is seen from the inside looking out. Because there are a lot of different things that happened in my life as a young girl, as a black woman, I feel like I recognize that I have been silenced in a lot of ways, both intentional and unintentional. And so it's been a journey for me to really examine myself and discover my own voice to validate my own thoughts, to value my own feelings, and to now try to live a life that reflects me and who I truly am, um, how I want to show up in the world. Um, so that's what this introspective migration is about. It's definitely a journey from um places of silencing into places where my voice is loud, where my voice is acceptable, if only to me.
SPEAKER_05Yes, I totally understand.
Interview Question 3 How do the landscapes of the deep south and Southern Africa influence your poetry?
SPEAKER_05You've mentioned that this collection expands from the deep south to southern Africa. How do these two distinct landscapes influence the sound of your voice in poetry?
SPEAKER_00So I try to explore, um, I try to explore my experiences that go far back even beyond my tangible memory. And for several reasons, I have issues with memory and my relationship with it. But I live with a mother who was born in Alabama, so on my mom's side, and actually on my mom's, yes, my mother's mother and my mother's father both are from Alabama. My father is from Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. They met in college at Syracuse University in the late 60s, and so I have both of those worlds inside me that manifest themselves in different ways. Some of those ways I was not always um, I did not always recognize. And the more I go on this introspective migration, and the more I am intentional about this journey, um, I'm discovering the ways in which those worlds manifest themselves in me and they come out in my writing. I try to write about them as I recall them, as they come up as memory, or even as they come up as impressions, things that I am trying to define with language.
SPEAKER_05Yes, great job.
Interview Question 4 In attempting to progress organically, what is the biggest barrier you have had to break through?
SPEAKER_05You often talk about organic progression, the organic progression of discovering one's voice. In that process of becoming a black woman who is finally heard. What is the biggest barrier you had to break through?
SPEAKER_00Oh I use this term uh a bit, silencing. There are so many things that we as black people, and because I'm a woman, I experience as a black woman that seek to shut us down, to shut down our narrative or to change our narrative, to shut us down from advocating for ourselves, to even shut us down from recognizing ourselves, and then being able to show up in the world as us. And so it could be things that are intentional and unintentional by the people around us, the even the people who raised us, and especially from the systemic, um, systemic influences of racism in this country and in the world. Um so everything from acceptable standards of beauty that tell us that we are not beautiful, that we are exotic, that we are less than um, everything from being told to quote unquote stay in your place because you are female gender, everything like um being overlooked because you are a woman or you are a girl, and people don't think that your voice or your opinion is valuable or as valid as your male counterparts. Um so I could go on. There's there's a just a list of things, and so um that silencing is something that we find ourselves having to overcome, and one of the biggest barriers in doing that is being really careful um how that in itself manifests itself because what we don't want to do, at least what I don't want to do, is I don't want to become bitter, I don't want to swing all the way to the other extreme of the pendulum, so that because I have been silenced, now my answer is to be um louder than I need to be, belligerent than I need to be, and that does not mean I don't take up space in the room, but I should be, in my own opinion, still mindful about how I want to show up, and that doesn't mean now becoming a bull in a china shop, if that makes any sense.
SPEAKER_05That makes a lot of sense, and I do love when you say we
Interview Question 5 How does your writing help you bridge the gap when navigating transition?
SPEAKER_05give poetry so many descriptions, and I love that about you, and we'll talk about it through the series, but um I love the way you describe poetry as a hand ever outstretched. How does that writing help you bridge the gap when you feel you are navigating the dark tunnel of transition?
SPEAKER_00Um, I used that term a hand ever-outstretched because I feel like when I'm writing, I'm reaching for something. I'm reaching for understanding, I'm reaching for clarity, I'm reaching for a lot of times language that I did not have before. Um I'm reaching for attention sometimes. I want somebody to hear. Um, I'm reaching for the commonality with other women who may be having the same or similar experiences that I'm having. And so for me, poetry is that way of um stretching myself and stretching my art, stretching my purpose, and um reaching for all those things, all those answers to to all the questions that life life poses to me.
SPEAKER_05That's beautiful. It's amazing how we find our voice through our art or do what we love to do. You know, we don't usually find it the work that we have to do.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Exactly. Exactly.
Interview Question 6 What is one poem you want a reader who is feeling unsure to hold on to during their own migration?
SPEAKER_05Building on that idea of the outstretched hand, if a listener is currently feeling lost or unsure of where they fit in in their own migration, what is one poem or line from the book that you will want them to hold on to as they start listening to their own voice?
SPEAKER_00I I knew exactly what that was. And it's a poem called A Love Poem to Self. It's actually on page, it starts on page 29 of the book. And um the last part of the piece says, and I love you because if I don't set the standard, who will ever love me like they should? And that question. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_05No, go ahead, finish, please, and that question.
SPEAKER_00That question I pose to myself as a way of setting that standard for me. I have to always be asking myself and evaluating for myself, is this the way you want to be treated? Is this the way you want to feel in this situation? Is this the way you want to show up? Because if I don't set the standard according to what makes me feel whole, what makes me feel healthy, what makes me feel um uh fulfilled, then I'm letting someone or something else do that for me. And nine times out of ten, that is not gonna work out well for me. So when I say, you know, um, if I don't set the standard, who will ever love me like they should? I think that is a question that we should all be asking ourselves on this journey so that we can um so that we're always ever outstretching and seeking more, seeking more clarity, but being rooted in who we want to be and how we want to show up.
SPEAKER_05That is beautiful.
Interview Question 7 What do you hope the reader feels as they finish the very last page of the book?
SPEAKER_05Um, what do you hope the the reader feels the moment they finish the very last page of the book?
SPEAKER_00The last page of the book is this poem, and it's a very short poem, probably the shortest phone. It's called She is titled She Butterfly. And it says, In an instant, her wings unfoiled, plumped up with knowing. I hope that when somebody closes this book, they feel like they've been on a journey of getting to know themselves better. Because every question that I ask in this book, I hope they ask themselves. Every situation that I pose, I hope they see something that resonates for them in it. And by the time we get through this journey, I hope that they have um not only listed their own questions, but started to answer some of them too, and that they have a sense that this journey of getting to know self is the work of our life.
SPEAKER_05Beautiful.
Interview Question 8 How has your voice changed over the course of writing this book?
SPEAKER_05Um, and before, you know, before we go, how has your voice changed, or perhaps deepest, from the moment you begin writing this collection to the moment you held the finished books in your hand? Like, how has your voice changed?
SPEAKER_00Oh, my voice changed a great deal. Um this poem, this book is full of poems from that span many, many years of my life. Some are old and some are new. Um when I first started writing, when I first started writing poetry, it was all about declaring because it was like a knee-jerk reaction to having been silenced for so long and finally discovering that I had this thing called a voice, and it was fantastic and it was exciting and it was you know so stimulating, and I was just ready to blast out and just tell the world, here I am, here I am. You haven't been looking at me, you haven't been seeing me, and I'm here, I'm here. Um, and I was young then, I was in my t I was still in my twenties. Um no, I wasn't. Was I my 30s? I was young. I was young. Um, I was definitely young emotionally. I was young in terms of my art. And um, I was young in terms of womanhood, and I I'm what I would term a late bloomer when it comes to womanhood because um of the way that I was raised and the life that I lived, I became, I think I even say this in so many words in the book, in one of the poems, I feel like I became a mom and a wife before I really became a woman. And I don't mean became a woman in the biological sense. I mean I was I had a baby and I was married and I had yet to live enough life that taught me what womanhood was really about. So having those experiences early um was my process. And so over the years, my voice as a writer, as a poet, and my poetry has become far more introspective, far more transparent, far more um honest. And when I say more honest, I don't mean that I always achieve full honesty, but I do mean that I am always pressing for it. Um but it's a constant, it's a constant battle. And it reflects, I think, really organically where I'm at at any point in my life. If I'm having a hard time, I'm writing hard poetry, I'm writing writing about difficult things. Um so yeah, that's it, it's pretty organic that process.
SPEAKER_05Yes, it
Interview Question 9 How do you define the rhythm of this journey for someone who is just starting to navigate their own migration?
SPEAKER_05is. As we close this first episode, how do you define the rhythm of this journey for someone who's just starting to navigate their own migration and listen to their own voice for the first time?
SPEAKER_00Um, I like the word organic because I think it allows us to pay attention to ourselves and to be honest and for us to say it's okay to be where I am. I think the rhythm has to be organic and as opposed to being forced. Like we can't live our lives according to all of the things people tell us we should do by this time or that time, all the things that we have to be because we're 30 or because we're a mom or because this or that. I think that the rhythm has to be according to um what your capacity is, what you're what you're ready to handle in the moment, and you have to that I think you have to honor that. Um in the beginning, you may have to take baby steps, and that's okay. Um, but for some of us who are a little more um who might be a little bolder, baby steps might not be enough. We might be the type of person who needs to leap off the leap leap off the bridge or you know, leap off the edge of the mountain. And if that is who you are, then that's okay too. Um a big part of that is confronting our fear of taking a wrong step. We can't avoid those, and that's one thing I'm learning. We just cannot avoid um missteps, mistakes, or things that hurt, but we can get through them, and so I think you need to allow your rhythm to be organic.
SPEAKER_05It's been so great talking to you and thank you, Afro Queen, for setting the tone for this journey
In Closing: To our listeners...
SPEAKER_05to our listeners. Find your rhythm. Order your copy of Sound of My Voice today at Love Art Life TV. We will see you in the next episode as we explore the art of becoming.
Podcast Disclaimer
SPEAKER_03The primary purpose of this podcast is to provide opportunities for self-awareness. This podcast does not constitute advice or services. While guests are invited to listen andor participate, listeners andor participants acknowledge that they are not being provided professional advice from the podcast or podcast guests. This podcast is for private, non-commercial use. Alteration or reproduction of this podcast without express permission is strictly prohibited. The statements and views of this podcast's guests do not necessarily reflect any agency, organization, or company that they work for, nor do they necessarily represent the views of the podcast and its creators.