KAI’s POETRY CLUB: The Bigger Picture
KAI is a 19-year-old, Chicago-based artist and community leader who continues to show his commitment to helping others despite juggling school, his art, and his mental. After getting serious recognition from blogs like Lyrical Lemonade to These Days Mag through the success of his last EP, Steve’s Demo, KAI is ready to make his return to music after taking a short hiatus. KAI’s unique sound palette tastefully pulls from a myriad of influences, culminating into an interesting blend of Jazz, Rap, and Neo-Soul.
Although KAI is turning heads with his music, he is so much more than just an artist. Since July of last year, KAI has been hosting events known as, Kai’s Poetry Club. The theme of the events is a conversation on mental health which includes people from the community sharing their journey dealing with mental health through poetry and or personal anecdotes. This initiative that Kai has begun is so important for our community, as many of our youth don't have access to the resources or trusting community they need to deal with whatever they're going through. The stigma around mental health can be crippling for many, especially in inner-city communities where addressing mental health is often frowned upon. The poetry club is battling the stigma while also creating a safe community and healthy outlet of expression for those who may be hesitant to seek help. With that being said, it’s clear that KAI is passionate about creating something of his own for his community. KAI will be hosting his third installment of Kai’s Poetry Club in July. (For more info, @kaicrewsade or @kaipoetryclub on ig)
The following is a conversation I had with Kai:
How’s life been, and what’s keeping you going?
A lot has changed since the last time we talked, Kendrick dropped, yeah haha, a lot of shit has happened. I wasn’t on lyrical lemonade last time we spoke, Steve’s Demo went top 50 on Lyrical Lemonade, I hosted my second poetry club, then I disappeared for 5 months. I just been having a lot of shit going on with my mental health and I’m still in school too I’m graduating in July and getting my associate's, then I’m going to another school. The last 5 months I’ve had a lot of shit going on whether it’s school, family, or just some mental health shit. Winter is a cool time to figure things out because you really need that break like I’m not one of those creatives that can constantly drop. I had to take a step back and I think it’s perfect because we need that step back to gain a new perspective. From September to December my life was on straight go mode and I realized I needed to figure my life out. I had to plan the rollout for the next EP and what the next poetry club was going to look like. I have been alright though to answer your question… whether it ends up being productive or not at the time you need to sit back and evaluate what's going on in your life. [With that being said] I’m working on some new music right now, my computer had crashed so I had to save up and get a new one so slowly but surely I've been easing back into making music. I didn't make a song from October to April. At the time I was helping Menace and Gayun Cannon with their stuff. But I wasn't really doing anything personal for me so April was the first time I got back into my groove of making music for myself and it’s been really fun.
You mentioned that you are setting your focus towards making new music. Can we also expect another Kai’s Poetry Club event in the near future?
Yeah for sure, the next Kai’s Poetry Club will be in July. This will be the third one and it is important to me to get it in during July because it’s my birthday month, and the original one took place last year in July. I want it dead smack in the middle of the summer because I’m planning on dropping [an EP] in August so I have to really plan my months out for everything I got going on. Yeah, so the next one will be in July we about to go crazy!
For those who don't know, what is Kai’s Poetry Club?
Kai’s Poetry Club is an event that’s goal is to spread awareness about mental health while providing an open and vulnerable place for those to be themselves; free to cry, laugh, or do whatever they want to do for the 2-3 hours that we’re in there. The tagline I use for it is “a conversation and celebration of mental health.” People need to come together and really know that others are going through the same shit as them. We got to talk about it because it’s really something that we all got.
The amount of people at the last show was unexpected because it snowed and I was like there’s no way people are going show up and it ended up doing even better than the first one. A shift I noticed during the last event was this sense of community because it was like everybody was already aware of what KPC was and some people showed up and didn't even do poetry they just came up there to talk to others and share advice and their experiences. I think it’s really important that we remember the meaning of what this is and really embrace what we’re dealing with because there are all these commercials with doctors trying to throw prescriptions at us–and there’s nothing wrong with the medications itself–it’s the somber and stigmatized way they continue to [portray] getting help that’s so bad. The first step really gotta be losing the negative stigma around mental health and we can’t do that with the way seeking help continues to be represented, like there are all these damn A24 movies. We really need to get to a place where we can say ‘I have this condition and it’s cool because I’m going to figure it out and I’m not alone’ and KPC is a great place to start that journey. If you come to the next event and share that through your poetry, and if you come there just for the community that's great too. Really one of the reasons I started this was because I felt alone and I didn't know how to talk to people about what I was dealing with. Especially for teenagers and young adults, I felt like we need a spot where we can laugh and cry all this shit out.
Something I really love about KPC is it goes beyond just spreading awareness for mental health–like spreading awareness is all well and good, but realistically what is an aesthetically made infographic really going to do for someone really going through it? Creating an event where like-minded people can freely share who they are and what they’re going through is so much more productive and necessary for those who don’t have access to traditional therapy.
Yea for sure, my friends are always talking about all this negative positivity in the world right now with all this vague advice we see so often on ig stories. Like I seen a post saying ‘Be happy’ or ‘just stop thinking about that’, like how am I supposed to do that. I really want to make it clear that at KPC I’m not giving you an answer to fix what you're going through, that’s not what we do here. It’s really the people and the stories shared at KPC that make it so special. I had a bunch of people coming up to me and telling me that they had never had a space ‘period’ that they could feel comfortable like that and that’s really what I’m doing this for. There are people out there that really feel alone and they need a place where they can be themselves because there are a lot of times when we feel like what we got controls us and it’s so important that you battle that feeling. Again I will never give you that ‘just be happy’ bs, what we’re going to do though is celebrate your progress and find a healthy path towards being happy along with other like-minded people. There are way too many taglines without a roadmap on how to actually get there–fuck that. I’m majoring in psychology and it’s tough because everyone got an outdated perspective on mental health–even the textbooks! Psychology is such a wild major, to be honest. Like I’ve always wanted to be a school social worker, but it’s really crazy seeing how these psychologists been treating these real people. They really don't look at humans as humans, shit is wild.
What can we expect from the next KPC event? Will there be anything different from the first and second installations?
I’m working it all out right now, but my first attempt was super risky because I was in my head like this might not work. The second time I had more confidence because I was more established and people knew me because of this music shit and they heard about how the first one went. This one I really don’t plan on changing too much about it because I don’t want to fix something that isn't broken. I think right now I’m happy with how it’s going and I really don't want it to get to the point where the presentation of the product is bigger than the message. Because some people can lose their way and lose their original message or goal, by getting caught up in the success. I mean I always have a vision for it being a large room filled with people willing to be vulnerable about their story and what they’re going through. Like that concept is amazing to me and you gotta understand how rare that is in the world we live in. There’s really no such thing as a crowd of vulnerable people and that’s really what I’m aiming towards. I really want people leaving KPC feeling the most positive and vulnerable version of themselves. Especially young black men don’t have the right to be vulnerable with what we got or what we going through like that’s something I’m still trying to figure out now with myself.
I saw recently on the KPC IG account that you’re shifting towards posting more archival and historical images and poems, is KPC going to continue as only an event or will it become a thing where people within the community are given a platform to share their stories or poetry?
Yeah haha, that’s exactly what it’s heading towards. When I started the page I thought it would be cool if people would start sending in poems and I would share them, but I never really got around to that. I definitely do want to do more posts where people submit their own poems to me and I’ll post them on my platform. It’s always just a matter of how because like I said I never want to take away too much of the message from others. There are instances where brands approach me to sell their products at the events and I never want anything commercial to overshadow the message of the event. I do think it would be great if we could showcase local [grassroot] brands and creatives at these events like WTRS, Menace4hire, and others to put on for the city because at the end of the day everything I do is Chicago.
You mention the word community a lot and I don’t know if this is just me getting more involved within the creative community within Chicago, but it really amazes me to see the willingness of creatives like yourself or Fortunehouse to invest their own money to create spaces for others to learn from and thrive. I’ve never seen anything like it before. Do you think that this sense of community will help separate us from other cities? Because we got a lot of talent just waiting to break!
Yeah, every day there is a new thing I see and I’m like wow they got it. There are so many singers, rappers, artists, and clothing brands really doing their thing–their own singular thing. We are an independent city, we don’t have any labels here, think about it. New York, LA, and ATL all got labels. We really don't have major labels or corporations out here for real, no one’s really out to help us so we really out here battling together. An obvious example is Chance The Rapper who’s the first independent rapper to win three Grammys; that’s important. Saba is going on a global tour fully independent. We live in such an independent city! Realistically you can’t do it all by yourself and to grow you must collaborate and it really shows in the art coming out of our city right now. If you live in the Chi, connect! As far as my music goes I’m always going to try to find a way to collaborate with others, and it’s just fun!
With your own music, you mentioned that you were thinking about dropping an EP in August is that right?
Yeah, I want to drop something soon! I really got a lot I want to talk about and some cool ideas that will drop around August or September.
I know artists hate throwing labels on their art, but are you thinking about continuing down the Neo-soul lane or what sound can we expect on the next project and beyond?
Neo-soul that’s definitely my range. I been listening to a lot of jazz recently though, so that will definitely be incorporated into this project. I’m 19 now and I made Steve’s Demo when I was between 17 and 18, so I’m still learning and experimenting for sure so it’s hard for me to stick to one thing.
Even beyond music, being 19 while pursuing shit is great because I got time to figure things out. I see a life where I may not be rapping, where I graduate and get my bachelor's and then go to high school to be a social worker to help the youth out. I see that for myself and love that, I hope that lane is something I never stop pursuing. I got a lot of anxiety and going down such an uncertain path with this music shit can be hard, but no matter what I never want to stop organizing community events like KPC. 19 is a weird age for sure. These last few months I have been dealing with a lot of messed up things, but I made it through. I’ve really learned no matter what you got to keep your faith–whatever you believe in, even if it’s just in yourself it’s always going to work out. You can’t continue to walk in this world without believing in something, there’s too much bs going around for that.
To wrap it up, do you have anything you want to speak on?
Yeah like I said, the next KPC is in July and new music is on its way. I love Chicago and this growing creative scene within it. With everything I have been going through these last few months, it will only make what I got coming out next more meaningful so I can’t wait for people to experience it with me.
This was my second time sitting down with Kai and I can say for certain that he’s one of the most genuine and talented people I’ve ever met. Kai has introduced me to so many amazing people these last few months and really allowed me to get my foot in the door within this music scene, which I’ll forever be grateful for. What he is doing for the community is so important and I wish nothing but the best for him. Oh yeah, and he makes great music!
Keep your eyes out on Kai’s socials for updates on the next event and new music!
Sincerely,
A genuine perspective
