Writing a book has always been a goal for Kristen Elizabeth Harris, a.k.a. K Money the Poet. And now she's done just that.
The St. Louis native recently released her first book Y’all Not Ready for that Conversation — a collection of poems ranging from awareness poems, battle poems to love poems and custom pieces.
“My whole thing was to give a voice to the voiceless,” she says. “Right after graduating the title kind of popped in my head, but at the time I didn't know that I was going to write a book or start performing or sharing my poetry. It just was kind of like an idea. [The poems] came from just various different experiences, and then just really trying to bring some of the things that don't get talked about, or that may not get challenged as much in the open. I feel like a lot of times it's better received as a poem versus a conversation, because as a poem I just feel like people don't always take things as personal.”
For example, Harris says her poems “Marginalized” discusses racism, sexism, white culture, body shaming and poverty; “I Cry When the Villain Dies” is about mental health. She also has poems bringing topics to light such as dementia, stress awareness month, Juneteenth and abortions.
“The point is to start a conversation, but also to kind of encourage people to learn more about different topics in the process of starting the conversation,” she explains. “The book also has several love poems, or poems that people don't think about. There's a poem called 'RIP,' and that poem is basically talking about how people are so sad when people pass away and they have all these nice things to say. People always want to fight these long halls and give people flowers after they pass on, but they don't really do that enough when people are alive and living.”
Harris grew up in University and Spanish Lake. She's a proud graduate of Hazelwood East High School and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
More recently, she was the featured poet for the Poetry for Personal Power’s book share event on February 11 at the 14th Street Artist Gallery, and will be coordinating a poetry event in honor of Black History Month on Tuesday, February 27, at Harris-Stowe State University (3026 Laclede Avenue) in the Henry Givens Jr. Administration Building’s DJW Auditorium from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.
“I also serve as the Director of Communications and Marketing at Harris-Stowe, and in addition to that, I serve as their poetry advisor,” Harris says. “We're doing a Black History event on February 27, a Women's History event on March 18 and we're doing an event for National Poetry Month on April 15.”
Being an author and working at Harris-Stowe are just two of Harris' many talents. She’s also a spoken word artist, poet, voice-over actress, public speaker, interviewer/host, print and runway model, event coordinator, freelance communications and public relations specialist.
“I first started writing poetry when I was younger, but it was more like a joke with my friends,” she explains. “I've always been a lover of music and music is poetry, but I just can't sing. So since I couldn't sing, the next best thing to do was just turn the songs into poems. And that's kind of where it came from. But I feel like writing can be therapeutic. So anytime I was going through anything, or even when I had something funny to say.”
Since then Harris has collaborated with the Riverfront Times to create the Art A’fair Poetry exhibition in 2022 and the Luminary in 2023 to create TIMELESS. She's also been Fox2 News, 100.3 the Beat and 1600 hallelujah. Harris was voted St. Louis’ 2022 Best Top Poet at the 2022 STL Awards, was honored as a 2022 St. Louis American Salute to Young Leaders award recipient and a 2023 Black Girls who Rock honoree, as well as featured on the cover of DELUX.
“I am very, very ambitious,” says Harris. “I’m looking to create a couple more books, but also do some workshops in different schools all around the world, not just in St. Louis.”
For more information on K Money the Poet or her new book, visit her website.
Email the author at [email protected]
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