Janet

It was evening when we left for the amphitheater with the sun still shining and my excitement at its max. My first concert. Janet. "Miss Jackson if you're nasty". It was summertime but I had goosebumps the whole ride. We had seats under the pavilion about 10 rows back and since this was a birthday present from my cousin and aunt they let me have the aisle seat. Her "Velvet Rope Tour" and I was there, up close, and so ready to become temporarily deaf. When her voice started to sing it was like she was singing to only me.

I was born in 1982, when hair was big, neon was in, and scream-singing was a must. At this time, one woman was carving her way into the music industry, her name was Janet Jackson and from the minute I heard her voice I was hooked. She was a force to be reckoned with at a time when most women still didn't have "an opinion that mattered" in many ways. I've heard it said that she grew up in a strict home surrounded mostly by boys. Despite that, she came bursting onto the music scene exuding female empowerment, confidence, and sexuality. She was born into the industry with her brothers having strode the road before her. So, she knew there was a certain amount of industry rank that would lead her in this direction instead of that but that didn't matter to Miss Jackson. Janet knew what she wanted and nothing was going to stop her from making her music and videos her way. She was all about speaking to the masses not only about love but about racial inequality, female pride in who we are, and empowerment for what we stand for in life. All of these qualities spoke to me loudly and made her all that more inspiring to me.

After hearing and seeing her perform right in front of me I thought, this woman is invincible. She "crushed it", "slayed it", owned the stage and crowd while doing it all with such strength and control. I was in awe, to say the least, and I knew then that I didn't want to be one of a million I wanted to be in control of my life and one in a million. I wanted to be standing in between the velvet ropes of life, not on the outside of them looking in. My life wasn't going to be all for anyone else but all for me and then others by extension. She taught me that you have to know yourself first before you can be anything for anyone else. I learned this through her album progression. Albeit that when Miss Jackson came on the scene I was just a baby and her music was just a lot of fun dance music to me but because I listened to her over and over again the words started to have more meanings. So, as I got older, "Let's Wait Awhile" was more clear in its message that even though I thought about a boy a lot I didn't have to just give in. Further assuring me that when I did there was a level of "Pleasure Principle" that mattered and if that wasn't met I had every right to ask "What Have You Done For Me Lately". As I continued to mature her albums, while having been released many years prior, still seemed to flow with my own thought processes. Rhythm Nation inspired me to realize that even though I needed to gain understanding about myself, I also needed to know what was going on around me in the world so that I didn't grow up naive.

It wasn't only her musical presence that inspired me either, it was the way she carried herself in her life as well. She didn't limit herself to just one art, she branched out and was my inspiration for becoming a poet. Her performance in Poetic Justice and the way she read and delivered Maya Angelou's words caught hold of my soul and encouraged me to be a writer. Thus leading to today and my presence on Vocal Media with my poetic prose, poetry, and short stories. Without Janet, my words may not exist and without my words, I don't know who I would be.