Spoken word poetry artist, Jasmine Swanagan aka “Cocoa Flo” brings her ingenious talent to Dina’s Place tonight at 8 p.m. at the cultural event titled “Words Matter” hosted by the DiGiorgio Student Union.
According to the DSU website, “Cocoa Flo’s work speaks on empowerment, perseverance and uplifting women’s voices.”
The artist started in spoken word in 2015 shortly after graduating from the University of Cincinnati.
“I started writing in a spoken-word style a few years prior, but I didn’t yet know that was the style I was writing. I wrote and recorded a poem called ‘9 Trillion’ and shared the video on social media. That led to me getting a show offer. The show offer led me to hitting open mics sets to prepare and the rest is history. I’ve literally been in the game ever since!” Flo said.
Since then, the artist has been presented with the President’s Award for Personal Growth and Accomplishments, Community Involvement and Service to Others while also receiving many accolades for her work Including, “Four time first place winner of Dayton Poetry Slam (Dayton, OH) 2016-2018, second place Lipstick Wars Poetry Slam (Louisville, KY) 2016 & 2017, second place Art & Soul Poetry Slam (Cincinnati, OH) 2017 & 2018, first place Soul Spit Summer-Slam (Louisville, KY) 2017, first place Detroit Summer Bank Slam (Detroit, MI) 2017, first place Stay Woke Slam (Cincinnati, OH) 2017, second place Half Stack Slam (Detroit, MI) 2018, first place University of Dayton Litfest (Dayton, OH) 2018, first place Slam Madness (Greenville, SC) 2018,” According to boldcreativesolutions.com.
Flo describes the development process of her poems as “quite loopy.”
“One day I’ll have the poem idea and maybe a few lines, then weeks later I might think of a few more to go along with it, then I might let it sit for a while before I even think of it again,” Flo said.
While the creative process is long, inspiration is vital to the construction of each poem.
“Creating for me requires that my brain is a restful enough space to actual[ly] think and dream a poem into fruition. Usually, I don’t know if a poem is truly ‘done’ until I have a chance to perform it and get a feel of how it flows,” Flo said.
The internet and social media have allowed internet users to connect with an abundance of poetry artists ranging from an innumerable amount of styles and “share themselves with the world,” Flo said.
“The pandemic showed us how useful a tool the internet and social media is for poets. When shows could no longer be onsite, poets were still able to adapt and do virtual shows. It didn’t matter if you were in Charlotte or San Diego, there was the opportunity to still give your gift through the internet,” Flo said.
Junior fine arts major Jordan Stewart said, “Student and faculty could benefit from Winthrop bringing in poetry artists because art is one unique way to inspire people to do things because just telling someone to do something doesn’t necessarily push them to want to do it but if they’re inspired or if it sticks in their brain like how poetry is really repetitive, kind of like a song it’ll stick in their head longer and it’ll push for more change even if it’s only a small minority of people who feel impacted by these performers, it has still affected a percentage of the audience and this could be for the students and the faculty, and anyone who might hear [about] it from the people who were at the event.”
With each performance, Flo has a few different goals in mind.
“Firstly, I want the audience to have fun. I am such a charismatic and high-energy performer and I want the room to feel that. Secondly, my goal is to say something that gives the audience reason to act, think or heal. I want them to hear something that relates to them or causes them to see the world differently or want to make changes in how they see themselves. Lastly, I want them to understand the importance of words and how they help guide us,” Flo said. “I want them to believe that they have something to say that is worth hearing and to create those spaces for themselves. It’s bigger than you, and you never know who can and will be impacted by your words!”
Cocoa Flo’s work is available for listening on Spotify, iTunes, Google Music and CD Baby.
