Milwaukee’s Brit Nicole Sets Spoken Word to Neo-Soul

Expand

Photo: Brit Nicole - Facebook

Brit Nicole

Brit Nicole

Brit Nicole is many things—poet, vocalist, healer, performer, and musician to name a few. She co-founded PENtastic open mic in 2013; currently she’s hosting open mic Lyrical Sanctuary and is involved with Heal the Hood MKE, Wisconsin Association for Child and Youth Care Professionals, and Rooted Society. Earlier this year in April, Nicole released her debut spoken word album Nocturnal Butterfly, a 13-track project of thoughts, feelings and emotions with neo-soul and R&B musical accompaniment. The album follows her debut published poetry collection titled “Moods, Melanin & Magic: A Manifesto” released in May 2021.

Nicole begins with some background about her creative journey. “I’ve been doing spoken word professionally for almost 10 years but I’ve been writing since forever,” she explaines. “I actually did a lot more singing than writing in high school and was in different choirs but once I got to college, I learned to fuse the two. I went to UW-Parkside in Kenosha but then I transferred back to Milwaukee and got involved with things like Poetry Unplugged and Lyrical Sanctuary, and it opened up this whole new world for me.”

She thanks Dasha Kelley Hamilton for taking a chance on her with PENtastic, which she hosted for four years. “Now I’m four years in with hosting Lyrical Sanctuary which really feels full circle,” she says. “I teach workshops no matter what the age is and I was in a band called Heal the Hood Soul Collective for like a year and a half. The really great thing about being a creative in this space is that I get to do this life with the folks that I absolutely love and admire.”

Moods & Melanin

Expand

'Moods, Melanin & Magic: A Manifesto' by Brit Nicole

She made the decision to put Moods, Melanin & Magic: A Manifesto out first and then commit to the spoken word album. It took Nicole four tries before finally completing Nocturnal Butterfly. “I’m so grateful for divine timing, because if it would’ve happened those other three times it would’ve been a whole different project,” she says

The title comes from Nicole’s love for butterflies combined with the fact that she wrote much of the album at nighttime between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. “Butterflies represent transformation, which I’ve been going through a lot of,” she explains. “I’ve always been one to stay up and some really good art has come out of it.”

She worked with her dream team on Nocturnal Butterfly; B~Free and Bluhaz3 provided instrumental contributions (listen to Brit Nicole and Bluhaz3’s new song here), Quinten Farr engineered it, Genesis Renji mastered it, Symphony Swan did the cover art (she did Nicole’s book’s cover art too) and Tae Spears, Aichelle White and Bobby Drake all provided additional creative direction. “These are people that are careful with their art so of course they’re going to be careful with your art as well,” Nicole says heartfully. 

Melting Pot of Emotions

Expand

'Nocturnal Butterfly' by Brit Nicole

Bandcamp’s description of the album states that “the intent is to highlight the human experience through love, life and transitions.” Speaking on how this concept plays into the themes of Nocturnal Butterfly, Nicole shares, “I’m a Pisces Sun, Gemini Moon and Libra Rising which is a melting pot of emotions (laughs). I think of myself as a plus-size Black woman—and as a human being—who just wants to be seen, heard and valued.

“The ‘Ya Jigglin, Baby’ poem kind of wrote itself; I was hearing LL Cool J in my head, but I changed the lyrics into something about really loving yourself in the sense where no matter how you transform, the person on the inside is the same,” she continues. “As my physical frame has changed and my mindset has changed, I honor that process. The ‘Obey’ poem is 10 years old but when I wrote it, I didn’t have a beat or anything; they were just thoughts at the time. There are poems on this album that I can deliver and remember where I was, but the emotions attached to them aren’t there anymore. These experiences in life and love happened to me but what did they teach me? I’m still here. I’m still strong. I’m still good. I’m still whole …

“You’re never the only person going through these things and that’s why that ‘Love You to Life’ poem is so powerful, because we always say “I love you to death”—which always really bothered me—and I want to change that narrative into something that brings about community and connection. The ‘26’ poem touches on a lot of things but also kind of introduces you to my wordplay in a clever way with the alphabet, and then it transitions into ‘Invisible Epistle’ which when B~Free added her flute to it, it was the perfect complement; I actually wrote that one for the show Br(OK)en Genius I was part of back in 2014. The only one that I didn’t live through is ‘Soulmate’; I did not meet my soulmate at his wedding (laughs) but I thought it was an interesting concept, which is why we’re turning it into a 30-minute film with Arts at Large.”

A big lesson for Nicole through Nocturnal Butterfly is that it’s OK to pivot. She had originally planned to be in Italy for her birthday in March and release the album then, recalling, “There was a new form of COVID emerging and I didn’t want to put myself or anyone else through that. We put it out in April instead, and April is National Poetry Month, so it worked out. I didn’t have a big listening party or anything and I was pretty quiet with the rollout; I was going through it heavily with my job at the time and I ended up quitting my job like three days before the album came out. I chose me first and wasn’t sure what would come next, but as long as you stay aligned, you will always be divinely connected to the right people and the right opportunities. Things can be delayed but not denied.”

Listen to Brit Nicole’s Nocturnal Butterfly here. The film premiere for Soulmate is slated for April 15, the album’s one-year anniversary.