Heard and seen: Poet from Alexandria finds place among competitive slam poets

As a young girl growing up in Alexandria, spoken word artist Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley used to journal her day-to-day life.

“You know when we were younger, we had those little diaries that had the key,” said Sibley, who is the June Rapides Parish Library’s Author of the Month, in a phone call from her home in New Orleans. “I remember starting out like just writing my day-to-day. Like, ‘Today I went to school.’ And then that just kind of grew into writing.”

At the time, she didn’t know that what she was writing was poetry.

When she attended church with her grandmother, she always made Sibley do recitations in front of the congregation. Even though she was “super shy,” she was always told she was a good public speaker.

Finding her new home

Then, when she was a sophomore or junior at Xavier University in New Orleans, a friend invited her to an open mic poetry event.

“When I walked in, I just immediately felt at home. And knew that what those people were doing on stage was what I had been doing in my bedroom all along, which was reciting the things that I had written in my little notebooks,” said Sibley.

From that moment on, she was addicted to the idea of uninhibited self-expression.

“Because we know growing up in the South, especially, and being a little girl, you're not always encouraged to use your voice. Or, to express yourself fully so that was one of the avenues or outlets that I began to have to express myself,” she said.

A different kind of heart doctor

Sibley didn’t go to college to become a poet. She was a pre-med student at Xavier University. Then she went to graduate school at Tulane University to study public health.

“I thought I was going to be a doctor. I initially wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, which is a fancy way of saying heart surgeon. And then that changed to wanting to be an OBGYN,” she said.

Then, Sibley realized she didn’t like hospitals.

“I didn't necessarily want to be around that kind of environment, but I still wanted to do something that was in the vein of healing people. So now I still say I'm a doctor, or a heart doctor, I just have a different operating room now,” she said.

“To All the Little Black Girls with Big Names"

Sibley became popular and went viral some years ago for a poem, “To All the Little Black Girls with Big Names,” that is in of her book, “My Name Is Pronounced Holy: A Collection of Poems, Prayers, Rememberings, and Reclamations.”  The book can be purchased on her website, icontheartist.com.

The poem is based on the idea of growing up with a name like Sha’Condria.

“Many people, instead of trying to pronounce my name, would just kind of fumble whatever came out of their mouth instead of taking the time to actually pronounce it,” she said.

The book, which Sibley regards as her little baby, manifested itself during the pandemic.

“It is literally, I guess, stories or poems that kind of reach back to my family's history, my ancestral history, of being a little girl from Central Louisiana," she said. "There's a lot of imagery of that growing up in a really religious kind of background and upbringing and the evolution of that into the woman that I am today and how now I am reclaiming my own name. Not just my physical name, but like what we look at ourselves as and what we answer to.”

She took the book on tour with a good friend of hers, Tarriona "Tank" Ball, lead singer of the twice Grammy nominated band Tank and the Bangas of New Orleans.

“We went on a 10-city tour across America and introduced our books, which came out at the same time, because we have a history with each other being on the slam poetry scene together,” said Sibley.

Doing competitive slam poetry, which is when poets perform before an audience and judges, is how she really started out as a poet.

Coming together on a human level

It is Sibley’s hope and prayer that people see a bit of themselves in her work − or at least understand it.

“It's a call to come together on a human level first and foremost. So I hope that people walk away feeling seen,” she said.

This is especially true for young Black girls because Sibley said she knows what it feels like to not be seen and also overlooked, so she hopes that she is a mirror where they can see themselves reflected.

"So that they can see themselves as beautiful, as holy, as divine, as all the things that we all are,” she added.

She wants people to leave her readings “feeling empowered and seen and knowing that whoever they are and whatever their names are, that their names and deeds are holy and that we are all reflections of of a greater power that brings us all together.”

June Author of the Month

Sibley is the Rapides Parish Library’s Author of the Month for June.

“It is indeed a blessing and honor when your hometown recognizes you. And it’s an honor I definitely don’t take lightly because I’m sure there are a plethora of other authors who could have been selected,” she said. “But I definitely feel seen, again, which is something we human beings all want. I think at the base core of who we are is to be seen and to be loved and to be honored and recognized. As so I feel all those things and it makes it extra special that it’s from home.”

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Poet from Alexandria finds place among competitive slam poets