KIONI MARSHALL: I feel sorrow / Now a deep breath from my lungs / That sees all the pain
from what I have become. JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: She's how old? She
said what? Where's her mother? KIONI MARSHALL: I sat there and cried with
a dozen forget-me-nots. But the forgetful have never forgot.
KASHEBA MARSHALL: She's very much a little girl. You don't expect this stuff from her.
KIONI MARSHALL: Some of the poems are about rape. Some of the poems are about murder.
Not being loved. Loneliness. JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: I just want to run
on stage and drop-kick her, 'cause I'm like, "Oh man, I wish I would have wrote that first."
KIONI MARSHALL: My name is Kioni Marshall, aka "Popcorn," and I am 12-years-old.
JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: That little girl is the truth.
[Music]
KIONI MARSHALL: My dad taught me poetry.
KIONI MARSHALL: He called me "Popcorn" a lot, because he says I'm soft on the outside and
hard-headed on the inside.
KIONI MARSHALL: I started writing poems when I was either six or seven and my dad wanted
me to do it. BEAU HARRIS: She needed, um - some way, somewhere
to channel that need for attention. KIONI MARSHALL: My first poem was the little
girl poem about, like, bubbles flying away, or a man losing his hat. I wasn't really trying
to get an emotion across. I was just trying to make it rhyme, because that's what I knew
was actually a poem. KIONI MARSHALL: When I went to the Queens
library I heard the adult version of poetry, and at first I said, "This sounds pretty boring."
But then I started to like it.
KIONI MARSHALL: I decided to step up my game. JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: Most of the young poets
that I run into, they have the same formula for writing. Popcorn doesn't sound like anyone.
She found her own voice. She knows what she wants to say and how she wants to say it.
KIONI MARSHALL: I washed away the tears and bruises / You left on my face / The names
you called me / Still tingle in front of my mind / As you tell me / You love me.
JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: This girl is wise beyond her years.
KASHEBA MARSHALL: It took me awhile to get what was happening with Kioni and poetry,
'cause she's very much a little girl. Like, you don't expect this stuff from her.
BEAU HARRIS: I absolutely feel that she'd be grabbing certain things about us both.
KIONI MARSHALL: You rub my heart bruises / With peacock-scented lotion / And the other scent
/ You force out of your mouth / Every time you / SMACK.
KIONI MARSHALL: I've performed my poetry for dozens of times, actually. After I finish
my poems, a lot of people want to invite me to their forums and want to have me at their
workshops. I will be performing at the Nuyorican Poet's Café. I think it's going to be pretty
exciting. I'm pretty psyched about it.
JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: Nuyorican is like the Apollo for poets. Some seasoned artists have
been featured at the Nuyorican Poet's Café. And here you have Popcorn, a young kid.
BEAU HARRIS: As far as New York City goes, this is the epitome of like, the grand stage.
KIONI MARSHALL: I am nervous. KIONI MARSHALL: I'm thinking of two pieces
that I would like to perform, but I'm going to write two or three more poems.
KIONI MARSHALL: [To parents] Well I have two poems that I would like to read to you. I
have one old poem and one new poem. It's called "Glacier."
KIONI MARSHALL: There is a cold war against my heart for control of my body.
KASHEBA MARSHALL: Kioni is sometimes aware of grievances people have in their lives.
She has the amazing ability to tap into a particular emotion even though she hasn't
herself gone through it. KIONI MARSHALL: I write about rape, murder,
abuse, not being loved, loneliness, being enclosed, feeling trapped.
JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: The fact that she's willing to take that, and show emotion even
though she's never been through it, is ridiculous. It's insane.
BEAU HARRIS: When it comes to life, for many years going back with Popcorn, we don't keep
her in the dark. And that might explain why the poetry is so dark sometimes.
KIONI MARSHALL: I do think I think about things that other children my age do not thing about,
because I take the time to pick out certain details, and not stop thinking about it until
I get an answer. And a lot of the times I don't.
KIONI MARSHALL: [To parents] My glacier is reborn, and my heart has been sealed. My feelings,
hushed. BEAU HARRIS: That poem, that's the one I really
like. That's the one you read two weeks ago at Urban Juke Joint, and I like that.
KIONI MARSHALL: Oh yeah, that was the one. BEAU HARRIS: The crowd enjoyed it a lot.
KIONI MARSHALL: This is a new poem called "Revealed."
KIONI MARSHALL: There was a dead flower in my heart. There is no water to save me from
this destiny of solitude and death. Like a desert in my soul, I am...
KIONI MARSHALL: I showed some of my friends in the third grade a poetry book, and they
said, "You didn't write that! It's too good." I decided I'm not gonna share my poetry with
them anymore. It's too embarrassing. I don't want them to know. How will they respond?
Will they think about me differently? My poems help me after I finish writing them because
they release a lot of the anger that I feel. Maybe even more than tears.
KIONI MARSHALL: [To parents] And my mind will stay captured inside of this cage until death
finds the time. BEAU HARRIS: The tone, the delivery, even
maybe the subject matter for each poem is the same. Now, I can very much be impressed
by that first one, but now the second one seems similar, then I'm a little less impressed.
So if I could get some diversity, I would appreciate it more.
BEAU HARRIS: I will never be one of those American Idol parents. If my child is not
up to par, I'll let them know. KIONI MARSHALL: My dad definitely pushes me.
He pushes me when it comes to my poetry, going to different performances. And he likes to
call himself my manager, even though I already fired him.
[Music]
KIONO MARSHALL: I was of course very, very nervous my first time performing poetry. And
I just continued to be nervous after that, and even now. I'm still nervous because it's
like the adrenaline is running and you don't know how the crowd will feel, you don't know
how it will go.
[Music]
JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: Check. Ladies and gentleman, welcome to the Nuyorican Poet's Café.
[Cheers]
JOHN 'CHANCE' ACEVEDO: The first person coming up has been doing this a very long time, and
she's only 12-years-old. Put your hands together, make a lot of noise, for Miss Popcorn. Clap,
clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap!
[Cheers]
KIONI MARSHALL: So, the first poem that I'm going to do today is called "Scraps."
KIONI MARSHALL: What do you think when you see my smile? The nose of the father that
left you with a child? Or is it my brown eyes that will never be yours? Is that the reason
I've been feeding off scraps of love ever since you left? Looking for a place to starve
off my hunger that you never fed? Walking on thin ice that should have been yours? But
you left me then, forgetting in that hospital room that - the only person I came from is
you and - non-stop talk about it if you didn't do that before - I wouldn't have been born
into this situation where I have nothing to lose, 'cause - I'm always feeding on scraps
of love at the dining room table. But see, I'm older. Don't act like I never told you
that we're over. I don't wait by my bedside hoping for a kiss. I don't roll over in bed
because I never got my wish. I don't pretend to my friends that my mother loves me more.
I just wonder what it would be like to have a dad - without the ruckus and the scraps.
I just don't want to have to ask: Mom, can I please not be my father? Thank you.
BEAU HARRIS: Initially when she started performing "Scraps," I had some concern about how the poem
would be received by strangers. I was able to put that concern to the side, and say,
um - that's her art form. That's the way she chooses to express herself. And if someone
can hear that poem, and they can relate, so be it. I think that helped me deal with it
better that way.
[Music]
KASHEBA MARSHALL: I think I would be satisfied if Kioni was able to do this on any level
because she wanted to do it and she had the desire to do it. Because I know it's going
to save her during those times in her life when she's going to need to rely on something,
that she can rely on herself. KIONI MARSHALL: I believe that poetry should
be free-style, free written, um, because the more free it is, like - the more space a bird
has to fly, and the higher it can fly, the higher it will probably fly.
[Music]
KIONI MARSHALL: Love. I wash away the tears and bruises you left on my face. The names
you called me still tingle in front of my mind as you tell me you love me.