ACTIVISTS AND AGITATORS OCTOBER 4, 2018 BIO CLEO WADE is a poet, artist and storyteller. She is a fierce advocate for love and acceptance in a time when both seem in short supply. Cleo stands for specific causes drawing attention to criminaljustice reform and putting an end to mass incarceration in the United States, for starters as well as a broader agenda to promote change through positivity in her best-selling book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life. Her work speaks to the importance of self-care, beloved community building, and social justice. Cleo believes that kindness is easier than you think, bravery belongs to all of us, and love is something we all deserve especially the kind that lives within yourself. Cleo writes for the New York Times, Teen Vogue, W Magazine and her popular Ted Talk: Want To Change the world? Start by being brave enough to care. was released in spring of 2018. Cleo has been named one of America s 50 Most Influential Women by Marie Claire, 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company, The Millennial Oprah by New York magazine, and Everyone s B.F.F. by the New York Times. Sometimes the only thing another person needs is for us to believe in them.
ACTIVISTS AND AGITATORS OCTOBER 4, 2018 ARTICLES CLEO WADE 7 Life Lessons from Cleo Wade By Jenae Sitzes for Oprah.com The author of Heart Talk shares the inspiration for her powerful, relatable writing and the most important words you can say to others and yourself. I don t need to know you to love you, the millennial poet and artist Cleo Wade writes in her first book Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life. You are my tribe, and I am yours. With a growing fan-base of over 340,000 followers on Instagram, her messages of positivity have extended even further with a recent Times Square display, TEDWomen talk, along with being named among most influential and most creative people lists. So what has Wade learned along her journey? Be open to inspiration anytime, anywhere. A few years ago, I was sitting at The Standard hotel [in NYC], waiting on a friend of mine who was staying there. She had left a book she was reading. I was just kind of skimming through it. Then I sat and stared out the window and had this thought that popped into my head: Could I be doing this better? I was like, I don t think I know how to be a better person, but I think I know how to be a better daughter. I think I know how to be a better sister. I think I know how to be a better friend. And the biggest Aha! question that I asked myself that day was, Could I be better to other women? And I knew that I could. In that moment, I decided that I would live really deliberately with how I behaved with other people. Spark change with a single thought. I don t want anyone to feel like I m selling them the answer or the cure-all that will change your whole life. Because I don t think there is. The only thing I can say, The journey may be really hard, and this will help you along the way. I never say, This is the one big thing to do. I say, Here s a shift. Here s what you can do with that thought. I think that s a lot more practical. Find your mantra. When I have really bad anxiety, I have this mantra I say to myself every time: I m struggling, and this is not you. It is something moving through you. I just say it over and over again. Because the power of a mantra is to take you out of that spiral, right? We can t help what comes up, but we have so much control over how we direct what comes up. If we direct it in a way so it leaves through the door it came in, then we can return to ourselves. I think that s where we hear our intuition; that s where we hear our true desires and our wants. Relax and renew yourself every day. I m the person who needs to make a tea in the morning and just sit with my ideas, skim the news if I want to. It s so important for me to feel calm and steady before I move through [the world]. Morning rituals are so important because we really harness the energy we want for the rest of the day and replenish and feed ourselves. When you have moments to yourself, you can say to yourself, I want to work on being more patient. I want to work on being more loving. I want to work on having stronger nonviolent communication with the people who are important to me. I think that s such an
amazing time for choosing who you want to be that day. Start with hope. Our thoughts become our energy, our energy become our words, our words become our actions. Having hope and belief that we can change the world is where everything starts because when you embody that energy, that s when we start to see real shifts, even if the shifts are just in conversation. Take a step back and remember that changing the world doesn t just look one way, and it can vary from day to day. And just because you know that you can t do everything doesn t mean you can t do something. There s something you can do every day, whether that just means smiling at your neighbor and really asking them how they re doing and listening, whether that is the day you wanted to give $20 to this organization or that one, or the day you researched and found where you could spend your time, or the day that you apologized to someone and gave them and yourself that healing experience. Celebrate everything. I was riding my bike in my neighborhood in New Orleans [where I m from], and I saw this sign that said, Until further notice, celebrate everything. It was such a good reminder that gratitude doesn t have to feel like a heavy idea. It s simply being thankful for everything that allows you to be. So you could start with, Thank you, body, for breathing. I m going to celebrate you today! And it could extend as far as, Thank you, Mom. Finally, remember these three powerful words to say to someone you care about. Poet Cleo Wade on Art, Activism and Her New Book, Heart Talk Cady Lang If you want to know why Cleo Wade has become the poet of her generation, look no further than Instagram. Her 350,000-plus followers eagerly post shots of her affirmational poems with captions like Positive vibes only or the prayer hand and heart emojis. In fact, it s nearly impossible to scroll through any social media feed without seeing images of Wade s sage poetry, usually hand-written in her trademark all-caps style, or Wade herself, speaking about self-love during a TED talk or sharing her thoughts on social issues alongside celeb friends like Yara Shahidi. Be yourself. I love you like that. Don t let your old hurt get in the way of your new love. Stop worrying about what you should do get to work on what you can do. These are just a few examples of the self-empowering phrases that are resonating with so many and have led Wade to be dubbed the Millennial Oprah. The rising literary star has now released her first book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life, and has some thoughts on why her voice fits so seamlessly into the current wave of feminism and the #MeToo era. How do you view your role as an artist and an activist? I see you.
As Nina Simone says, an artist s job is to reflect the times. Right now, the words that are popping up on protest signs, the tops of graduation caps, Instagram and billboards, reflect a collective feelings. I think that activism is really organized storytelling and I tell stories through poetry and visual representation. So for me, as I was writing Heart Talk, I didn t want it to just look beautiful, I wanted it to be useful and a tool. Whenever I write anything, or make anything or put anything in a creative art installation, I ask myself, What does this do? How do you think activism has changed and evolved in the age of social media? It s so incredible how you are able to find your tribe and the people you believe in, but it s important to remember that the online world isn t the answer to connectivity, it s the launch pad. In terms of creating change, we do have to live beyond the click. It s not about invalidating connecting online, it s about furthering it. It s important to make sure the balance is right, and that we are critically looking in the right place at the right time for the right connection in order to get things done in terms of activism. You ve been vocal in the past about practicing everyday activism how do you define that? I think it s important to define everyday activism with a spirit of flexibility. To me, activism is doing what you can with what you ve got, and in your own way. You can always ask yourself, what do I have today, where am I today, and what can I do with it? Sometimes that can be making sure you ask your neighbor how they re doing, or it can be how you give your time or money to something. My advice for young people is to never let your inability to do everything get in the way of your ability to do something. How we can ensure movements like #MeToo and Black Lives Matter create real change? Sometimes, what ends up happening when moments feel dire is that we end up thinking that we need to reinvent the wheel. It s important to remember that even if you have an idea for how to change something or if you re just finding out about an issue, you need to identify the people who have been working towards fighting this problem for a long time, and find ways to amplify the cause and their messages. After Parkland, so many people were supporting Everytown, but there are so many black and brown people in inner cities who have been working to get guns out of the streets for a long time. So it s important that when we have our Aha! moments to dive deep into the issue, and find the people that have been and are doing the work. Why do you think your poetry is striking a chord with so many people? Poetry has always held a special place in American culture. That s why President Kennedy invited Robert Frost to recite a poem at his inauguration. When we think about the movements that were happening in the 1960s, there s a parallel with what s happening now, and poetry plays an important role in these times. There s been so much fear and uncertainty, especially with this last election, and people are looking for things, whether it s songs or poetry or the arts, to just help them. Art is important because you can t change laws or policy without first changing hearts and minds. And usually art can do the best job of that.
Did you expect your words to inspire so many people? There s a page in my book that says, if you give anyone or anything the ability to make you feel that you re on top of the world, you give it equal ability to make you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. For women now especially, we have more agency than we ve ever had before. It s not just that the world is so exhausting, but we re also able to know ourselves more freely than any other generation before, and ask, What are my needs, really? How do I show care for myself, really? Every time I pick up a pen or a paintbrush, my promise to my audience is that no matter where you are or whatever you feel, know that I am looking for you, know that I m writing for you, know that these words are for you. Then I have a promise that I keep to myself and to my life, which is to be a storyteller. I think there are three pillars of storytelling: bravery, authenticity and vulnerability and my promise to myself is to live in those three pillars. How do you stay inspired? I m inspired by people, whether that s my friends, my family, my neighbors or people I meet on the subway. I don t think you can be good at writing about feelings or emotions if you re not a good listener. So I try to have a really good practice of compassionate listening. It s what inspires my work the most, and where most of my work stems from. Why is self-care and self-love so important? First we have to look at the interconnected relationship between self-care and self-love. I think most of us are looking for love from another being, but we have to remember that it s really, really difficult to find or give love without first learning how to love yourself. Self-care is what really fuels that. It is also what fuels our ability to love ourselves and others in a way that is faith-based and not fear-based.