Speaker 1: Join us on the Poetic Odyssey, a celebration of voices, cultures,
Speaker 1: and the power of words. I'm Amanda Ecking. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the poet Speaks, where every syllable ignites inspiration for get,
Speaker 1: involve with what stories are on these tracks?
Speaker 2: This idea of the Bronx. Now, boogie down Bronx.
Speaker 3: That's what people say, right, Don't become someone's subway story.
Speaker 4: Medicate me with a lick of the like, I am
Speaker 4: not afraid to love you.
Speaker 5: All of us have a story.
Speaker 4: Microphone magnifying.
Speaker 3: No one want to listen, So I think that's what made.
Speaker 5: Me in writing the writing disco.
Speaker 2: You ready amazing poetry always.
Speaker 4: Hello everyone, and welcome back to the poet Speaks podcast.
Speaker 4: Now our next guest is an award winning spoken word poet, artist, educator,
Speaker 4: and motivational speaker performing in locations such as New Zealand, Mexico, Canada,
Speaker 4: in thirty six states around the country. Known for his
Speaker 4: dark Side Towards fromont his first ever poetry chat book,
Speaker 4: and his Crown Jeweled Deficiency A Tale from My dark
Speaker 4: Side album, Root and Transparency, as well as healing.
Speaker 2: Also the founder and CEO of Called to Move CTM.
Speaker 4: And Artistry organization with the pursuit of aiding youth and
Speaker 4: self actualizing and personally developing.
Speaker 2: Through the art of poetry.
Speaker 4: Oh and yes, he's also the season fifteen winner of
Speaker 4: America's Got Talent.
Speaker 2: Everybody, Welcome to the Poet.
Speaker 4: Speaks podcast, Brandon Leak, Brandon, how are you today?
Speaker 3: Ah?
Speaker 5: Very well, thank you for the invites. Very happy to
Speaker 5: be here, very happy to be here.
Speaker 4: Absolutely absolutely When you even just now, when you hear
Speaker 4: someone reading your bio, do you still blush? Do you
Speaker 4: still you get a little goose mumpy believing all the
Speaker 4: things that you've been able to do.
Speaker 3: Not really fam I'll be honest, I hate my bio.
Speaker 3: That's just but that's just like a personal thing.
Speaker 5: I just hate.
Speaker 3: Like I'm trying to get better at being okay with
Speaker 3: hearing my accolades and like being able to enjoy the.
Speaker 5: Hard work I put in.
Speaker 3: I'm a real futurist at heart, and so I constantly
Speaker 3: am just looking forward, very rarely looking back at the
Speaker 3: things I've already done. Yeah.
Speaker 4: No's that's something so futurists. So you look forward, you
Speaker 4: never look back or stay in the present. Is that
Speaker 4: what you mean by that?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm trying. God's really working on you with that though.
Speaker 3: God's like ao soun like, I gave you a testimony,
Speaker 3: so you got to you gotta use it. So I'm
Speaker 3: trying to take a bit more care of that these days.
Speaker 3: Still a work in progress, for sure.
Speaker 2: For sure, let's kind of go back, go back a bit.
Speaker 4: You know a lot of people, you know, they know
Speaker 4: you for your accolades, but you know, tell us a
Speaker 4: bit about where did you grow up and kind of
Speaker 4: tell us how your childhood affected your journey to become
Speaker 4: the writer, the poet that you are today.
Speaker 2: So where did you grow up? Were you born and
Speaker 2: bred anywhere? Tell us?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm a Cali kid Worner raised in Stockton, California.
Speaker 3: That's actually where I still reside now. And yeah, like
Speaker 3: writing was never my first love. I enjoyed drawing and
Speaker 3: like making comic books as a kid because I used
Speaker 3: to go to the Maya Angelou Library, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: real poetic considering what I do for a living now,
Speaker 3: But I used to go to the Maya Angelou Library
Speaker 3: just up the street from my house, and I would
Speaker 3: go get these Dragon ball Z manga comics and I
Speaker 3: would like trace them with trace paper and then add
Speaker 3: my own words to their speech bubbles. But before that,
Speaker 3: it was it was just basketball. Like basketball was the passion,
Speaker 3: Basketball was the drive. Basketball was the whole dream all
Speaker 3: the way through my first two years of college. So like,
Speaker 3: I played basketball for about like sixteen years since I
Speaker 3: was four, and so that was the whole Like, hey, like,
Speaker 3: what do you want to be when you grow up?
Speaker 3: Kobe Bryant? Like that was that was the answer, full
Speaker 3: and complete.
Speaker 4: That's kind of crazy. I mean, so you were you
Speaker 4: were a baller growing up. That was really the dream.
Speaker 4: How did you then shift? Because I'm Cali native myself,
Speaker 4: I'm from Sacramento, I can say Northern California is definitely
Speaker 4: a place I had. I had dreams of sports, whether
Speaker 4: it be track, basketball, of course, But I wonder, how
Speaker 4: then did you make this shift to becoming a writer,
Speaker 4: becoming a poet spoken word poetry, especially performing.
Speaker 3: I wrote poems in like middle school and high school
Speaker 3: for girls who I thought were cute. But like in
Speaker 3: my freshman year of college, my best friend, Bernard Daniels,
Speaker 3: he died due to some gang violence that was happening
Speaker 3: in the city. He had actually drowned in a levee
Speaker 3: down the street from where we grew up. And I
Speaker 3: used to just take them all on my pain out
Speaker 3: on the court. It used to just be like my
Speaker 3: one place of solitude. If I was calling through something,
Speaker 3: I could just let it all out there. This is
Speaker 3: one of those pains where releasing it on the court
Speaker 3: didn't do nothing for me, didn't help me in any way,
Speaker 3: didn't free me anyway.
Speaker 5: And I really prayed.
Speaker 3: And I was like, hey, God, like, like Jesus, what
Speaker 3: are you wanting me to do with this?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 3: What are you asking me to do with this pain?
Speaker 3: I saw a sign for an open mic and it
Speaker 3: was the first time that I had seen and open
Speaker 3: mic functioning at my school, and I was like, man,
Speaker 3: maybe that's it. Maybe I write about it. And so
Speaker 3: I wrote a poem, went and shared it. And that
Speaker 3: was kind of like the first experience that gave me
Speaker 3: any inclination that poetry could be like the vessel for me,
Speaker 3: that it could be a place where me and God
Speaker 3: could meet for the sake of the healing that I
Speaker 3: needed to do.
Speaker 5: So yeah, I would say that that was like probably like.
Speaker 3: The capstone marker change for me artistically.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, I'm curious, you know, being familiar
Speaker 4: to someone that grew up in northern California, stock then
Speaker 4: you know it has such variables in terms of the
Speaker 4: gang violence, safety that's all around that city. How much
Speaker 4: of your life was affected, Like you said, you know,
Speaker 4: you had a friend that you know, may they're so
Speaker 4: rest in peace that passed away due.
Speaker 2: To that violence. How much of your.
Speaker 4: Life and your youth was affected by that, by those
Speaker 4: outer influences of violence and maybe just the community.
Speaker 2: That you were of Stockton.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's actually highly overstated how violent Stockton is,
Speaker 3: just because it's not like when I think of any city,
Speaker 3: like if you go to the wrong neighborhood, then you
Speaker 3: have the unfortunate opportunity to be met with violence or
Speaker 3: you know, gangs or drugs or whatever. Like I know
Speaker 3: Sacramento is being gentrified as we speak, but like there
Speaker 3: was a period of time where being in oak Park
Speaker 3: was you know past a certain time would resulting you
Speaker 3: not being the most safe individual, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3: We know what happens in places like Oakland right now
Speaker 3: you go to certain parts of us, So like it's
Speaker 3: I think it's overstated, but.
Speaker 5: Like, I would say I was fairly shielded.
Speaker 3: Interestingly enough, I was at a Bible study yesterday and
Speaker 3: one of the people was like, man.
Speaker 5: Like, like God has really graced.
Speaker 3: Your life, Like as I hear your story, like God
Speaker 3: is really like put a head around you. And I'm like,
Speaker 3: man like, as I reflect on it, God really has.
Speaker 3: I didn't go to the public school in my neighborhood.
Speaker 3: My mom tested me for a magnet school that I
Speaker 3: was able to go to that you know, was probably
Speaker 3: about like four or five miles away from my neighborhood,
Speaker 3: closer to the downtown area, where I got like a
Speaker 3: really high quality education. I grew up in a Baptist
Speaker 3: amme churt where like I had a church family everywhere
Speaker 3: select no matter where I went, I always had somebody
Speaker 3: who either had an eye out on me or for me.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I would say I was fortunate in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways to avoid the pitfalls of what normally
Speaker 3: comes especially a lot to a lot of young black men.
Speaker 3: Like I've been immensely blessed in that regard. So I
Speaker 3: would say it's it's impacted me on on the outer
Speaker 3: scale of like seeing things and witnessing them and like
Speaker 3: being impacted by people who've been directly hit by them.
Speaker 3: Like I attended eighteen funerals by eighteen, Right, many of
Speaker 3: them were like family who were like elderly and older,
Speaker 3: but like I would say a solid seven to eight
Speaker 3: of them were people either my age, slightly younger.
Speaker 5: Or just slightly older.
Speaker 3: And so like that does impact you, you know, like
Speaker 3: death does touch me differently because I've had so many
Speaker 3: engagements with it. I would say, God really really blessed
Speaker 3: me to not have to endure as much as that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my goodness, eighteen funerals by the time you're eighteen
Speaker 4: is wild. I mean, that is really definitely life changing,
Speaker 4: and we really appreciate you for sharing that. So tell
Speaker 4: me a little bit about now, you know, you went
Speaker 4: from a former athlete to becoming a writer. Tell us
Speaker 4: about how that kind of evolved for you to now
Speaker 4: becoming the career that you've had. I mean, tell us
Speaker 4: about how that trajectory kind of slowly or maybe it
Speaker 4: happened fast for you. How did that trajectory happen to
Speaker 4: now this became a professional life's work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like I was an English major in
Speaker 3: college for my first year and a half and What
Speaker 3: ended up happening was I had a teacher who talked
Speaker 3: like the viazine man. For all the young folk who
Speaker 3: are watching this, they have no idea what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: But he had a very monotone, boring voice. It was
Speaker 3: really really not fun to listen to. I remember falling
Speaker 3: asleep in this class for like the third time in
Speaker 3: the same day and just thinking to myself like, oh, yeah, like,
Speaker 3: I can't I can't stay here, Like I can't stay
Speaker 3: in this classity board. I am going to lose my
Speaker 3: mind if I stay here any longer. I went and
Speaker 3: switched to become a psychology major that same day. I
Speaker 3: already had enough courses to qualify for an English minor,
Speaker 3: so I was like, hey, I got my minor. I'm
Speaker 3: going to be a psych major. I'm going to become
Speaker 3: a psychologist, or I'm going to become like a psychiatrist,
Speaker 3: or I get the chance to like work with people
Speaker 3: who need mental help. And I quickly realized that that
Speaker 3: type of one on one relationship where it's only like
Speaker 3: one person talking, would leave me really drained. And I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: I won't be helpy doing this, so let's not do
Speaker 3: that either. So I'm like, God, what do you want
Speaker 3: me to do? And it's around this same time that
Speaker 3: poetry starts taking a more prevalent place in my life.
Speaker 5: I made a poet by the name of Michael Bourney from.
Speaker 3: Long Beach, and I'm like, oh, man, like I want
Speaker 3: to do that, like I want to be a professional artist.
Speaker 3: And I over spiritualize it, like super deeply. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 3: God's calling me to be an artist. And then the
Speaker 3: poet who I looked up to, Micah, He's like, hey,
Speaker 3: whoa whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa before you put a
Speaker 3: whole lot on it, do you like it? And I'm
Speaker 3: like yes. He was like, do you do you hear
Speaker 3: God telling you no, Mike No, He's like, is it unbiblical?
Speaker 5: I'm like no, He's like, and just go for it.
Speaker 3: Operate in freedom until you get told otherwise. And so
Speaker 3: like that happens sophomore year, and from that point on,
Speaker 3: I was getting my degree because I knew I was
Speaker 3: going to have to have a regular job at some point.
Speaker 3: But I had been just like slowly and surely making
Speaker 3: my way into the idea of like, hey, art is
Speaker 3: going to be a very big part of my life,
Speaker 3: I'm going to be doing this. And what ended up
Speaker 3: happening was after graduating college, I had a whole slew
Speaker 3: of issues occur. We can talk about that another time
Speaker 3: or in another question, but I was a divine intervention
Speaker 3: brought me back home. I worked a job as a
Speaker 3: paraprofessional at a school with a student who had a
Speaker 3: mental disability, and then I got a job working at
Speaker 3: the county for a group called Black Health.
Speaker 5: And all the while while I was doing this, I
Speaker 5: was running.
Speaker 3: From my city in Stockton up to Sacramento, where you're
Speaker 3: from like three to four days a week, performing at
Speaker 3: places like Mahogany, places like Shine Cafe, places like brick House,
Speaker 3: places like Luna's Cafe, random open mics that would just
Speaker 3: kind of pop up here and there, and I was
Speaker 3: just like, Oh, this is it, Like this is what
Speaker 3: I'm going to do. This is like I'm going to
Speaker 3: chase after this. And then I ended up joining the
Speaker 3: Sacramento Slam team and performing alongside them in the year
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen, which was really eye opening experience at not
Speaker 3: just like the quality of poetry, but the dedication required
Speaker 3: to be able to make that type of quality poetry
Speaker 3: and all the while I was still working these jobs,
Speaker 3: got fired from a couple of them because I was
Speaker 3: doing way too much poetry stuff and you know, took
Speaker 3: my ls, learned how to make those under dubs. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it wasn't until twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen that I really
Speaker 3: took the plunge to become a full time poet. Traveling
Speaker 3: touring for my album Deficiencies. I did one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty shows over the course of ten months, went to,
Speaker 3: as you mentioned, like three or four different countries, thirty
Speaker 3: six states, and that number has just grown over time. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So that's that's kind of been the trajectory and the
Speaker 3: road that we've taken to get here so far.
Speaker 4: No, that's you know, that is when you really kind
Speaker 4: of put that into perspective. That is wild, the amount
Speaker 4: of footwork and the amount of hustle that you've really
Speaker 4: put in there, especially within that ten months over one
Speaker 4: hundred shows that you've done. So that's quite a testament
Speaker 4: to the passion and dedication. Tell us a bit about
Speaker 4: I do kind of want to hit a point yours.
Speaker 4: You seem very rooted in your religion and your spirituality
Speaker 4: and your religious religionosity, tell us a bit about if
Speaker 4: you feel comfortable obviously, tell us a bit about how
Speaker 4: much of that guiding force has been kind of trajecting
Speaker 4: your career in terms of we'll get into it later,
Speaker 4: but you know the industry. Tell us how much of
Speaker 4: that guiding force of your spirituality and your relationship with
Speaker 4: a higher power, because you know you've mentioned it several times,
Speaker 4: how much does that influence so much of where you've
Speaker 4: taken your life stack?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's a it's the life source behind
Speaker 3: it all. You know, it's the guiding force behind the
Speaker 3: decisions I make. I could likely be very much farther
Speaker 3: in my career if I was willing to sacrifice a
Speaker 3: lot of the morals, values, and principles by which I
Speaker 3: hold most ferment deer in my life. But you know,
Speaker 3: you got a question like, hey, at what cost do
Speaker 3: you want to go up just for them to tear
Speaker 3: you back down? Because that's how society functions, right, Like
Speaker 3: we build heroes and then make them villains the moment
Speaker 3: that we feel like they got too high, you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. Like we see it all the time
Speaker 3: in sports, you know, like we build up these people
Speaker 3: like a person like Patrick Mahomes. Everybody loved him on
Speaker 3: the rise. Everybody was like super happy to see him
Speaker 3: win the first and the second. But then it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're winning too much now, like let somebody else get there.
Speaker 5: Type of a thing.
Speaker 3: You see it with celebrity all the time, like with
Speaker 3: musicians who we prop up and be like oh.
Speaker 5: Yo, like look at them, look at all this stuff
Speaker 5: that's happening.
Speaker 3: Then they have their fall from grace and everybody it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: they deserved it, and some of it rightfully so, without
Speaker 3: a question. But no, like my faith informs the art
Speaker 3: that I make, It informs the decisions I make, It
Speaker 3: informs the people who I associate with and the things
Speaker 3: that I would like to do moving forward. And I
Speaker 3: can't say I've always made that my priority, because there
Speaker 3: most certainly been seasons, especially shortly after winning the show,
Speaker 3: where I allowed my ambition to be my guide versus
Speaker 3: the guiding principles that I have. Yeah, that was not
Speaker 3: a good season of life. That was not a good
Speaker 3: season of life.
Speaker 4: Well, first off, I want to hit a point that
Speaker 4: you just said I think is huge there.
Speaker 2: You said I could be much.
Speaker 4: Higher if I was if I didn't let kind of
Speaker 4: my greater core of spirituality.
Speaker 2: Lead my life.
Speaker 4: I think that's such a big thing to admit. A
Speaker 4: lot of people wouldn't say that. A lot of people
Speaker 4: would not admit I could be so much farther in
Speaker 4: my career, you know, or whatever a career looks like
Speaker 4: to you, that looks so different for each person. A
Speaker 4: lot of people just wouldn't admit my success could be
Speaker 4: maybe more fun, whatever it is, financially, whatever it is.
Speaker 4: If I would to kind of let go of some
Speaker 4: of those principles.
Speaker 2: What did it take? And I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people don't admit it because it takes a lot to
Speaker 2: admit what that means.
Speaker 4: What did it take for you to kind of really
Speaker 4: get to that point where you can only admit that
Speaker 4: but also still have that integrity and be proud that, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm still happy where I'm at.
Speaker 3: Yeah, humility is part of the call, right, and not
Speaker 3: just humility and like oh yeah, like I'm humble, I
Speaker 3: do these things, but humility and the fact that like,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, like I'm not the MC for all who
Speaker 3: don't know what that means?
Speaker 5: Like main character. And I think in the West, we.
Speaker 3: Have a lot of people who deal with like main
Speaker 3: character syndrome, who feel like the world revolves around them
Speaker 3: everything needs to be about them. You'll see it in
Speaker 3: the way people think or talk, Like I know in
Speaker 3: my own inner head. I've had to really work on
Speaker 3: this voice where I hear where I think that people
Speaker 3: are constantly looking at me, perceiving what I'm doing, perceiving
Speaker 3: what I like, what I'm wearing, or all these other things,
Speaker 3: and by humbling myself from that stature to being like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: like I am just continuing. I am just another part
Speaker 3: of this ongoing story that's already happening, and everybody else
Speaker 3: is just as busy and involved in not thinking about
Speaker 3: me as I am about them. It really helped me
Speaker 3: be able to not care about the status because I
Speaker 3: think most people don't share it because they're afraid of
Speaker 3: what that would do to the status that they feel.
Speaker 3: People think of the ass they think about their highest
Speaker 3: point and they're like, oh, people still look at me there,
Speaker 3: and it's like, Oh, who cares? Who cares what they say?
Speaker 3: Who cares how they feel? Who cares what they see?
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, are you Are you
Speaker 3: proud of the decisions you've made. Are you proud of
Speaker 3: the life you've built? In my worst season where I
Speaker 3: was like so hell bent on trying to prove something,
Speaker 3: my mentor he was like Brandon considered is people who
Speaker 3: win shows like these are usually bankrupt within two years
Speaker 3: after winning the show. People who win the lottery are
Speaker 3: usually bankrupt within two years. And you have built a
Speaker 3: lasting career that is still ongoing with still more story
Speaker 3: to tell. How awesome is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 5: When all you see are the things that have gone wrong,
Speaker 5: you are ignoring all the things that have been built
Speaker 5: up right for you. So yeah, I think that answers
Speaker 5: the question.
Speaker 2: Sorry, no, you're good for sure.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Brandon, let's get into it. You know,
Speaker 4: we've already made hints to it. You know, winning America's
Speaker 4: Got Talent obviously, you know that was such a huge achievement.
Speaker 2: What was it?
Speaker 4: You were the first person as a spoken word poet
Speaker 4: artist to win a show. When that talent show tell
Speaker 4: us about how that experience changed your life, you know,
Speaker 4: both good, both bad and what are still those ripple
Speaker 4: effects that you have, maybe whether it be career wise
Speaker 4: but also mentally emotionally.
Speaker 2: Was as we've kind of hinted that a little bit too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, tell us the process. What was the process to
Speaker 4: even audition? Most people? I don't even know how does
Speaker 4: someone even get that in their viewpoint to even get
Speaker 4: into TV like that to audition for a show.
Speaker 3: So I actually auditioned back in twenty seventeen. Originally, my homegirl,
Speaker 3: Courtney was like, Hey, Agt's coming to San Jose.
Speaker 5: They never go to the Bay Area. This is our time.
Speaker 5: We need to go.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, hey, you said no but a word.
Speaker 3: So I went and picked her up, but she wasn't there,
Speaker 3: she wasn't at her house. I was super mad at her.
Speaker 3: She was like, I'm too afraid. I can't go, like,
Speaker 3: just just go without me. And I'm like, Bam, you're
Speaker 3: the one who gave me the idea. I don't want
Speaker 3: to go do this whole thing solo, but I go
Speaker 3: do it. And this is the moment where I realized
Speaker 3: that like I loved poetry, I just did not respect poetry.
Speaker 3: And the reason why I learned that was they clearly
Speaker 3: gave me rules. They told me that you have ninety
Speaker 3: seconds to be able to share a whatever work of
Speaker 3: art that you're going to be sharing in this ninety seconds.
Speaker 3: You're not going to get any more time, and you're
Speaker 3: not going to get any less time, right. I showed
Speaker 3: up prideful, like, man, I have this really good three
Speaker 3: minute poem. It kills every time I go perform it.
Speaker 3: Everybody loves it, so they're gonna love it and then
Speaker 3: they're gonna let me finish it. And that's how I
Speaker 3: know I'll make the show. And what I learned was
Speaker 3: if you don't prepare for the call that you've been given,
Speaker 3: you can miss it. Because they for sure stopped me,
Speaker 3: they for sure stopped be it, told me, hey, yeah,
Speaker 3: thank you, You're all good, and then I had to
Speaker 3: make my way back and go sit down with the
Speaker 3: rest of the acts who were waiting for an opportunity
Speaker 3: to get on the show. And I realized in that moment,
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, I didn't make it. I didn't get
Speaker 3: the call to go do that this time. And it
Speaker 3: really sat with me that I had messed up. And
Speaker 3: that's actually what sparked my tour in twenty eighteen for
Speaker 3: deficiencies to be able to like dedicate myself to the craft,
Speaker 3: to learn it, to be able to like practice and
Speaker 3: prepare for the moment. And then twenty nineteen rolls around
Speaker 3: and my wife is pregnant, and I'm like.
Speaker 5: Oh, I got to go back to a regular.
Speaker 3: Job because this doesn't come with health insurance. And so
Speaker 3: I go work the regular job, go back to being
Speaker 3: a full time teacher, and then AGT pops back up
Speaker 3: on my Facebook feed and I'm like, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna try it, Like, let's use this as a
Speaker 3: litmus test, because I was already going to a poetry
Speaker 3: competition called Eyewhips, and I was like, Hey, I'm going
Speaker 3: to use this to test and see how much better
Speaker 3: I've gotten, and we'll see how I do. So I'll
Speaker 3: use AGT as a similar thing. So I go try out,
Speaker 3: but this time I have a poem that I've worked
Speaker 3: on for two months. I had taken it to fifteen
Speaker 3: or twenty different open mics. I had edited it, reworked it,
Speaker 3: worked on the performance of it, and I was ready,
Speaker 3: and I showed up to Los Angeles at this random
Speaker 3: casino in the middle of the desert. I remember I
Speaker 3: was the tenth act to perform in my group of ten,
Speaker 3: and I looked not only at the acts who were performing,
Speaker 3: but the person who was judging us, and I said,
Speaker 3: he's checking out after ten seconds. After ten seconds, if
Speaker 3: they're not gathering his attention, he's gone. So I'm like,
Speaker 3: I only got ten seconds to catch him, so let's
Speaker 3: make sure we catch the poem. I did capture his
Speaker 3: attention in those ten seconds, and from there it's all history.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely. I love what you said there.
Speaker 4: You said sometimes you know, when you're not ready for
Speaker 4: your call, you can miss the opportunity.
Speaker 2: Of your life. And that is very, very.
Speaker 4: True, and that's very factual, and it's a great thing.
Speaker 4: You know that second call and you were able to
Speaker 4: catch it.
Speaker 2: So take us through that.
Speaker 4: Now, Okay, you go through the ranks of America's got talent.
Speaker 4: Obviously it's a couple a couple of rounds. Here you
Speaker 4: do and you're now you're at your final. I mean you,
Speaker 4: I believe they do the gold buzzer. Right, You passed
Speaker 4: through all that and now you get to the final.
Speaker 2: That final night. Tell us what's your stomach like, what's
Speaker 2: your mental health?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 2: Most people can't even process something like that. That night
Speaker 2: you win? What is that hole leading up to everything?
Speaker 4: What was that feeling like to find out you became
Speaker 4: the winner.
Speaker 5: Man, I'll give you kind of like the brief run
Speaker 5: through of it all.
Speaker 3: So like the day that I get my golden buzzer
Speaker 3: is the day that California shuts down due.
Speaker 5: To COVID.
Speaker 2: Wow no way wow wow.
Speaker 3: So like they had called me because I was working
Speaker 3: and I was supposed to I was supposed to come
Speaker 3: down on a Monday, and I'd already gotten the day
Speaker 3: off of work and out They're like, hey, if you're
Speaker 3: not here tomorrow by eight am, then you can't perform.
Speaker 3: So I my wife just had our first child thirteen
Speaker 3: days before.
Speaker 5: So I was like, hey, babe, if you say.
Speaker 3: No, I completely understand, like you are still recouping from
Speaker 3: like giving birth. But my mother in law came down,
Speaker 3: took care of my wife, and I went down. So
Speaker 3: I get my golden buzzer that day, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, like what am I going to do?
Speaker 3: I get my call to come back, so that way
Speaker 3: I can go back down to LA but my family
Speaker 3: can't come because I have to be quarantined in a
Speaker 3: hotel for the next four months to be a part
Speaker 3: of the show for as long as I'm on the show.
Speaker 5: The next poem I do is a poem called Pooky.
Speaker 5: And the way that like my poems were.
Speaker 3: Selected for the show was I had to like send
Speaker 3: the poem ahead of time, or send them two poems
Speaker 3: ahead of time, and then they selected which one they wanted.
Speaker 3: And so I sent them a poem about my wife
Speaker 3: and I sent them Pooky. And I was like, Hey,
Speaker 3: they're going to pick the poem about my wife because
Speaker 3: Pooky's a little edgy, not really, but like for national television,
Speaker 3: I don't know how they'll do. And when they picked Pooky,
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, I'm gonna get eliminated.
Speaker 2: Dog.
Speaker 3: Like we already got all the Black Lives Matter protests
Speaker 3: going on. The main people who watch this show are
Speaker 3: middle of americle, white folks that is not going to
Speaker 3: like this com right, And so I'm like damn. But
Speaker 3: then I make it to the next round. I'm like, oh, snap,
Speaker 3: let's go, and then I have my worst mental breakdown
Speaker 3: of the entire show during this portion. My daughter's like
Speaker 3: six months old at this point, yeah, and I haven't
Speaker 3: been home in a couple months because I've been here
Speaker 3: at the show, quarantine in the hotel and everything.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, man, what is going on?
Speaker 3: Like I want to go home, and they tell me
Speaker 3: I can't go home, even when they promised that I
Speaker 3: would be able to. And I'm in the middle of
Speaker 3: an interview and I'm like, yo, I'm really done with this,
Speaker 3: and I just take off all my stuff and they
Speaker 3: try to get me to stay, and I just walk
Speaker 3: up to my room and I kind of just I
Speaker 3: shed my tears, send up my prayer, and I fall asleep.
Speaker 3: And then I don't know how long I was out,
Speaker 3: but then I hear the banging on my door and
Speaker 3: it's my producer, who's technically not allowed in the hotel,
Speaker 3: but he was there, and he's like, Brandon, I talked
Speaker 3: to the team. If you drive, you can go home,
Speaker 3: but you can only go straight home and straight back.
Speaker 3: You can't go see anybody else. You can't go to
Speaker 3: grocery stores, you can't stop for food, you can't do anything.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, no, it's three days ago is when
Speaker 3: I needed to go home. I'm locked in to get
Speaker 3: this performance done now. So no, like, if I make
Speaker 3: it to the next round, I'm going home for a
Speaker 3: week and then I will be back a week before
Speaker 3: I need to be on stage.
Speaker 5: And so that was the agreement, and then that's when
Speaker 5: I did my.
Speaker 3: Poem Letters to my Father, which was super nerve wracking
Speaker 3: because that poem was originally six and a half minutes
Speaker 3: and then I had to condense it down to three
Speaker 3: and a half minutes. So the hardest part was not
Speaker 3: reverting back to the old version of the poems. I
Speaker 3: rocked that poem out. The next day they announced the
Speaker 3: winners and who's going to the final They announced my name.
Speaker 5: I walk off stage.
Speaker 3: I walked clear past the like the interview part portion
Speaker 3: where they're trying to, like, you know, get to like
Speaker 3: talk with the media. I just point to my producer
Speaker 3: and he's like, oh, yeah, no, no, no, he doesn't
Speaker 3: have media.
Speaker 5: He's good.
Speaker 3: And I walk straight to my rental car and go home.
Speaker 3: And then I do my final poem for my daughter.
Speaker 3: And then the day that they're announcing the winner, I
Speaker 3: didn't think I won. I did not think I want
Speaker 3: because I remember the producers being like, are you sure
Speaker 3: you want to do a poem for your daughter as
Speaker 3: your last piece. I'm like yeah, I mean, like, I
Speaker 3: just did a poem about being a fatherless child. What
Speaker 3: better way than to show that the fatherless kid became
Speaker 3: the better father. I was like, yo, I'll be top five,
Speaker 3: but I'm not gonna win. And so I'm like thinking
Speaker 3: about all these things in my head, kind of plotting
Speaker 3: it out. And then when i make it to top three,
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, Christina raised next to me and Broken
Speaker 3: Roots are next to me. I know Broken Roots did
Speaker 3: not win, but Christina Rays she was killer, so she
Speaker 3: probably picked up the win. And then when they knocked
Speaker 3: Christina Ray off at third, I'm like, I just want
Speaker 3: I just won this show, and like you'll see it
Speaker 3: on my face while I go like, that's me realize
Speaker 3: what just happened. When they announced my name, I just
Speaker 3: dropped to my knees. The confetti rains.
Speaker 5: Yeah it was. It was amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah.
Speaker 4: My goodness though, oh my gosh, that journey to get there,
Speaker 4: that is that is a lot. I mean, the birth
Speaker 4: of a child, you know, shout outs to your wife,
Speaker 4: that is no joke, My goodness to get there, the
Speaker 4: kind of toll and stress of that, you know, so
Speaker 4: honoring that is so key. So now okay, so you win,
Speaker 4: that is that is huge? Tell us again, what was
Speaker 4: the kind of winner? What does that package now look like?
Speaker 4: You know, especially you wake up the next day after
Speaker 4: you win something as big as that.
Speaker 2: You're You're on GMA, You're on all the morning talk shows.
Speaker 2: You know, isn't it you? Really?
Speaker 4: You win like a show in Vegas, you win money? Obviously,
Speaker 4: what is that next day, the day after, after that
Speaker 4: huge dopamine that's just been put on you, But it's
Speaker 4: also that huge kind of release of energy from what
Speaker 4: you had to do to finally get there.
Speaker 2: What is thou when you wake up the next day?
Speaker 2: What does that look like?
Speaker 3: Well? No interviews actually, at least in terms of in
Speaker 3: person simply because it was still COVID, so like nothing
Speaker 3: like that was happening. That I had probably about like
Speaker 3: wenty phone to zoom interviews, like just back to back
Speaker 3: to back to back, you know, signing paperword, clearing myself
Speaker 3: out of the hotel because one thing that they for
Speaker 3: sure did was get us out that hotel by noon
Speaker 3: the next day.
Speaker 5: Wow, So we d am They like, hey, dog, we
Speaker 5: appreciate you. Head on home.
Speaker 3: We've been paying for this hotel and your food for
Speaker 3: the last three and a half four months. You're gonna
Speaker 3: have to get up out of here. And so but
Speaker 3: my family was there with me. We kind of illegally
Speaker 3: snuck them in, which was fun, but no, it was
Speaker 3: it was like for me, the biggest part was just
Speaker 3: saying goodbye to all of my fellow acts, who I
Speaker 3: built like real friendships with. It a point because we
Speaker 3: had been going through this really unique experience of being
Speaker 3: trapped in a hotel together when we were the only
Speaker 3: ones in the hotel, and week after week it becomes
Speaker 3: less and less people. Yeah, that was kind of the
Speaker 3: weirdest part. It was like being in college again. But
Speaker 3: you know that, like come next week, twelve, we y'all
Speaker 3: aren't going to be here next week.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so you okay, So now we're at that stage.
Speaker 2: So you you've won it.
Speaker 4: It's a billion in one interviews. Obviously we're still in
Speaker 4: the pandemic. Tell us now, kind of what has been
Speaker 4: the kind of after you achieve something like that, winning
Speaker 4: America's Got Talent, What now what happens to you then?
Speaker 4: How was your career Did you see like an immediate.
Speaker 2: Just overnight trajectory upwards?
Speaker 4: What was that like in terms of your career now
Speaker 4: that long lasting effects? How did that experience of winning
Speaker 4: truly change your life?
Speaker 5: Well, even before Ringing.
Speaker 3: Things change fairly dramatically off the strength that like had
Speaker 3: way more opportunities, so that that would probably be the
Speaker 3: most significant change is just visibility and people being willing
Speaker 3: to accept like, oh, yeah, like he's really good, because
Speaker 3: it's like you, what's fort did you play?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: So you and I both played basketball, You and I
Speaker 3: understand what that is. And so like when somebody tell
Speaker 3: you like, oh yeah, Daul like they nice, you'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 3: they might be.
Speaker 5: I gotta see it though. I got to see that
Speaker 5: they're good.
Speaker 3: And then when you see that they're good, now it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: respect Like I feel it.
Speaker 5: I feel like that was kind of what happened with
Speaker 5: the show.
Speaker 3: Was like I had always been nice, but folks now
Speaker 3: are like, oh, like I can respect it because like
Speaker 3: I didn't seen it up close.
Speaker 5: I didn't seen it for real.
Speaker 3: And so like people in the industry, businesses and corporations,
Speaker 3: like making believers of people who you know, didn't always
Speaker 3: see poetry as a as a valuable art form then
Speaker 3: became the goal in the and the reach that we
Speaker 3: pulled off, which was beautiful. I'm still longing for the
Speaker 3: day where America's got talent le's another poet back on
Speaker 3: their stage, because lord knows it's a it's about time
Speaker 3: that another one gets a shot at it.
Speaker 2: Sure short, No, that's such a huge point.
Speaker 4: The idea of poetry, spoken word, the art oral traditions, that's.
Speaker 2: Still not a valued art form. So it is that
Speaker 2: idea of being able.
Speaker 4: To win such a huge on a huge platform like that,
Speaker 4: being able to bring that to the world, that that
Speaker 4: makes a difference, just even even in your presence. Still,
Speaker 4: you know, I kind of want to move on a bit,
Speaker 4: tell us about I mean, do you still face challenges
Speaker 4: in the industry, Like you said, spoken word poetry.
Speaker 2: You were the first and still only person.
Speaker 4: Especially on a public platform, to really to win a
Speaker 4: show like that. But also, you know, I think about
Speaker 4: obviously HBO had that Deaf Jam poetry. You know, we
Speaker 4: have the Posts Speaks, podcasts of Demand to Acha on
Speaker 4: Archaeology Channel. You know, we do have a lot of
Speaker 4: there's still a bit of a lacking of poetry in
Speaker 4: public spaces.
Speaker 2: I mean, do you still face challenges in the industry.
Speaker 4: You know, obviously you won an Emmy, did right You
Speaker 4: want to tell you you know, you've really expanded your
Speaker 4: reach with poetry. But do you still feel like there's
Speaker 4: still a challenge for you in this industry as a
Speaker 4: spoken word artist?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 5: Big time.
Speaker 3: I mean the reality is you get up there and
Speaker 3: you realize, oh, the work that it took to get
Speaker 3: here is less work than it is to stay here,
Speaker 3: and way less work than it is to continue to
Speaker 3: go up. So yeah, like Hollywood, or you know, the
Speaker 3: industry as people want to call it, it has short memories.
Speaker 3: They have short memories, you know, Like I was on
Speaker 3: the show four years ago now, and that's a lifetime
Speaker 3: ago for this industry, right, Like somebody who started a
Speaker 3: movie four years ago, people may not really remember them
Speaker 3: anymore now, simply because you're out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker 3: Not to you know, throw shade on nobody's career or
Speaker 3: nothing like that, because I actually really like this actress.
Speaker 3: But like the woman who started the diver Urgent films
Speaker 3: went through a very similar thing. People thought that she
Speaker 3: was going to go on this like massive run, similar
Speaker 3: to Jennifer.
Speaker 5: Lawrence after she got done with a.
Speaker 3: Series and she took a break, and that break afterwards,
Speaker 3: momentum died down. People kind of forgot and then all
Speaker 3: of a sudden she was now doing television versus doing movies,
Speaker 3: which some people perceive as a downgrade, may have been
Speaker 3: exactly what she wanted to do instead. I couldn't tell you,
Speaker 3: but I know this. Two years of distance between your
Speaker 3: most successful film and the next project will do a
Speaker 3: lot against you unless you've built a fan base that
Speaker 3: will find you the way that like you know, like
Speaker 3: for comparison's sake, let's use comedy. Dave Chappelle can disappear
Speaker 3: for years and then reappear and nothing happened because his
Speaker 3: fan base is built for that.
Speaker 5: He made that.
Speaker 3: Kevin Hart can't do that, and that's why Kevin Hart
Speaker 3: stays in the face of everybody all the time, Similark,
Speaker 3: like Drake and Kendrick Lamar. If Drake disappeared for five years,
Speaker 3: like Kendrick, people would be like what now? Would they
Speaker 3: be exciting when Drake reappeared? Sure, but there'd be some
Speaker 3: people who had been lost in the shuffle. Hendrick does
Speaker 3: not have that problem. But that's because he's built and
Speaker 3: trained his fan base for that. So in our modern
Speaker 3: time where quick fast media is the norm, you have
Speaker 3: to learn how to be able to adjust to that.
Speaker 2: No, yeah, you make such a good point.
Speaker 4: Yeah. One of my heroes, heroes, favorite artists of all
Speaker 4: time is Shade.
Speaker 2: Remember she did an interview back in the day and.
Speaker 4: She said, and she has one of those fan bases, right,
Speaker 4: she could go away for years, people will still celebrate
Speaker 4: Shade as one of the greatest. And I remember she
Speaker 4: gave a quote one day, she said, you know, people
Speaker 4: are scared to go away.
Speaker 2: People as artists.
Speaker 4: They're scared to not be in everyone's face all the time.
Speaker 4: They're scared to take time off to go away to
Speaker 4: recoup and create something better. But do I understand where
Speaker 4: you're coming from a lot of the modern gust that
Speaker 4: we live in art artists. Unfortunately, you know the world
Speaker 4: we live in with money, money making, you can't go away.
Speaker 2: You have to be there twenty four to seven.
Speaker 4: You know, it really does take a true artist, creating
Speaker 4: from just the heart and soul to say I'm going
Speaker 4: to step away to create even better. So for you,
Speaker 4: I mean, being in the industry like this, it's very competitive,
Speaker 4: it's very highly competitive.
Speaker 2: How much does the.
Speaker 4: Competition versus cooperation and community building do you kind of
Speaker 4: seek out in terms of you know, your craft as
Speaker 4: a spoken word artist, do you find yourself being in
Speaker 4: more competition or creating community with your words, obviously with
Speaker 4: the work you do with the youth. How much do
Speaker 4: you see yourself now competition versus community building through poetry.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I'm a highly competitive dude, and it's to my
Speaker 3: detriment at times, solely because I can unintentionally burn bridges
Speaker 3: just off the strength of like wanting to fuel my
Speaker 3: own desire to be great. I feel God really has
Speaker 3: called me in this season to like be the bridge
Speaker 3: instead of being the fire. And so, yeah, I think
Speaker 3: competition has a place because it can fuel people's capacity
Speaker 3: to be better, their drive to be better. It can
Speaker 3: give them the boost that they need to be able
Speaker 3: to chase after excellence. But it can't come at the
Speaker 3: cost of being able to build with the people alongside.
Speaker 3: You can't come at that cost. Like, I love the
Speaker 3: people in my craft who take it seriously, who are
Speaker 3: trying to pursue excellence, who are trying to be great,
Speaker 3: and who are continuing to push our culture forward predominantly
Speaker 3: in healthy ways, not just like oh yeah, like great penmans,
Speaker 3: but like great people, because I think great people can
Speaker 3: produce the best art. But yeah, in my modern time,
Speaker 3: I'm trying to be more community oriented. I'm I'm trying
Speaker 3: to be a better steward of the gift that I
Speaker 3: have to be able to build people upstead of saying like,
Speaker 3: oh yeah, watch how I can break you down so
Speaker 3: I can be seen as higher.
Speaker 2: Sure sure, No, absolutely absolutely, And that's a.
Speaker 4: Path that takes a lifetime to still understand what community
Speaker 4: and community building is.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing no moving gears here a bit.
Speaker 4: You know, you've been a poet on an international scale
Speaker 4: that you know most poets could only dream of having
Speaker 4: that type of success, so quite naturally, you've touched a
Speaker 4: lot of lives.
Speaker 2: All throughout the globe.
Speaker 4: Is there a story you could share, maybe even a
Speaker 4: moment where you realize the impact your words of spoken
Speaker 4: word of the word had on another human being.
Speaker 3: There's a seventy two year old white woman in Iowa
Speaker 3: who reached out to me after my poem Pooky, and
Speaker 3: she told me, Brandon, thank you for opening my eyes
Speaker 3: because I hated Black Lives Matter. I used to you know,
Speaker 3: protest against you know, all these all this vandalism and
Speaker 3: all this all these you know, all these things I
Speaker 3: thought people were making. These police brutality stories up and
Speaker 3: then I heard your story and I realized I'm a
Speaker 3: mother of three young boys, and I would burn a
Speaker 3: city down if something like that happened to them. Another
Speaker 3: story of a young lady in Brazil. She told me
Speaker 3: she never met her father. She didn't know the man,
Speaker 3: and he had recently reached out to her, and from
Speaker 3: my time on the show, she had always contemplated, because
Speaker 3: she had had this letter for about a year, on
Speaker 3: whether or not she should actually reach out and be
Speaker 3: able to go meet him. And my poem about my
Speaker 3: father and I encouraged her to actually go meet the man,
Speaker 3: and now they have a I won't say a thriving relationship,
Speaker 3: but they are at least cordial and he has a
Speaker 3: role in not only his daughter's life, but his granddaughter's
Speaker 3: life too. There's a young man who is in Australia
Speaker 3: who told me, man, becoming a father is the scariest
Speaker 3: thing because I don't want to make the same mistakes
Speaker 3: that my father made with me. And I'm only nineteen,
Speaker 3: but when I hear you talk about your daughter, I
Speaker 3: want to be that guy.
Speaker 5: So those are just a few instances.
Speaker 2: Wow, No, that is amazing.
Speaker 4: It gives you goosebumps for you as the person on
Speaker 4: the receiving end, Do you even have the bandwidth to
Speaker 4: even understand what that means that you've had that great
Speaker 4: effect on someone's life?
Speaker 2: Can it even be can you even process it fully?
Speaker 3: You know? No, especially at the time being the futurist,
Speaker 3: I've always been Yeah, I never really allow myself to
Speaker 3: kind of just sit with it and to just be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: like I did really awesome work. Like I'll be there
Speaker 3: in the moment as I'm messaging them back, but then
Speaker 3: as soon as the message is gone, then I'm away
Speaker 3: from it all.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So I'm trying better.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely so, Brandon. I mean, you've shared so many gems.
Speaker 4: We really appreciate you and your time on the show today.
Speaker 4: One of the things that this show really seeks to
Speaker 4: do is give advice for the next generation of poets.
Speaker 4: Anyone for their closet poets. They've been in the game
Speaker 4: for a while, maybe they don't have to start. I mean,
Speaker 4: what is just from your you know, give us some
Speaker 4: free game. What advice do you give to aspiring poets
Speaker 4: to look up to you and want to follow in
Speaker 4: your footsteps of really making spoken word and poetry life's work.
Speaker 5: Three pieces of advice, I'll try to make them quick.
Speaker 4: One.
Speaker 3: Be a healthy person before you're an awesome poet. It's
Speaker 3: far more valuable that way. Lesson to write the bad poem.
Speaker 5: It doesn't.
Speaker 3: All of the work you make does not have to
Speaker 3: be amazing. All of it does not have to be beautiful.
Speaker 3: Some of it can be trash, some of it can
Speaker 3: be just awful, And you will find that writing the
Speaker 3: bad stuff will give you the chance to be able
Speaker 3: to then write the good stuff you're hoping to get
Speaker 3: out of it. And then, last, but not least, don't
Speaker 3: ask for success without being willing to pay the costs
Speaker 3: that it requires. Many people will get jealous, get frustrated,
Speaker 3: get upset that they haven't reached the heights that they
Speaker 3: desire to reach, not realizing that in order to get
Speaker 3: that high, in order to get that success, there was
Speaker 3: a lot of imbalance that was required. I can't tell
Speaker 3: you the number of hours I sacrificed from family, from friends,
Speaker 3: from people who I love and practice in my backyard
Speaker 3: or in the car or at some random park, the
Speaker 3: number of hours I spent on the road to go
Speaker 3: to an open mic in another city so I can
Speaker 3: try out and find a new scene just to get there,
Speaker 3: share my poem for three minutes, and then have to
Speaker 3: take another three hour drive home so I can make
Speaker 3: it to work the next day on time. It's going
Speaker 3: to require imbalance for a season. And if you desire excellence,
Speaker 3: then go get excellent, but you also have to give it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, those would be my three pieces of advice.
Speaker 2: We appreciate it now. Those are excellent. Those are amazing,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Brandon. What legacy do you hope
Speaker 2: to behind through your poetry? Brandon?
Speaker 3: Honestly, these days, I just want to be known as
Speaker 3: somebody who loves Jesus and loved people.
Speaker 5: And so if I can do those two.
Speaker 3: Things really well and have people be like yo, man,
Speaker 3: like he loved God well and he loved us well,
Speaker 3: then I feel like I did a good job.
Speaker 4: Thank absolutely all right, Brandon, last question we have for
Speaker 4: you on the Post Speaks podcast today, Brandon, why do
Speaker 4: you need to get your words out?
Speaker 3: I get these words out, because if I did, I'd
Speaker 3: probably probably go kill some of y'all from what y'all
Speaker 3: be doing out here in these streets.
Speaker 5: I'm just gonna be honest. So I choose a I
Speaker 5: choose words instead of violence.
Speaker 2: There we go, all right, y'all he would out if
Speaker 2: he could shoot. All right, he chooses words my violence.
Speaker 3: We love it.
Speaker 2: We love it, all right, Brandon. Well, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for being guest today.
Speaker 4: Now before we wrap up, wrap up, just tell the
Speaker 4: folks out there what's next for you in the year
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: And above and beyond?
Speaker 4: And where can folks find all of your amazing work
Speaker 4: at any social media websites that you.
Speaker 3: Want to drop For January twenty twenty five, my short
Speaker 3: film Complexity, which won fifty six awards internationally and nationally,
Speaker 3: will be debuting online on my YouTube page just Brandon Leak.
Speaker 5: You will see me when you type it in. It's
Speaker 5: my I channel.
Speaker 3: I have about almost twenty thousand followers there, So yeah,
Speaker 3: that'll be debuting in January. February of twenty twenty six
Speaker 3: will be my return back to poetry. For all who
Speaker 3: don't know, I've been on sabbatical for about a year
Speaker 3: and a half now. God called me home to be
Speaker 3: able to take a break, be with my family, to
Speaker 3: rest and to reconnect with Him, and in that I
Speaker 3: have been preparing for this next album entitled Intimacy, and
Speaker 3: we will be putting on three live shows in my
Speaker 3: city and then potentially a very small tour. But it's
Speaker 3: me with a sixty piece orchestra, a band, and a choir,
Speaker 3: so it is not just branding up there on stage.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get a full on performance. You will find
Speaker 3: me at Brandon l E a k E on all platforms.
Speaker 3: I'm the only Brandon Leak with a check mark next
Speaker 3: to his name on all these platforms, so I'm pretty
Speaker 3: easy to find. Hit me up on YouTube, most importantly Instagram.
Speaker 3: You'll see me every day. So yeah, just come highlight
Speaker 3: a brother. I'll be around awesome. Thanks so much, Brandon.
Speaker 2: Everyone.
Speaker 4: Brandon's links will be down below no matter where you're
Speaker 4: listening to this podcast, no matter the platform, check out
Speaker 4: the detailed box detail sections below for Brandon's all his links.
Speaker 2: All right, well, Brandon, we really appreciate you.
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being a guest on the
Speaker 4: Polts Speaks podcast today.
Speaker 5: Thank y'all.
Speaker 4: Absolutely all right, everyone again, Brandon's links. Brandon Links links
Speaker 4: will be down below in the description box below.
Speaker 2: Everyone, thanks so much.
Speaker 4: Check out the Polks Speak podcast no matter where you
Speaker 4: listen to your podcast, all everyone, take care.
Speaker 5: Bye bye