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Meet Darrien Case of Case by Case Collections in Kansas City, Missouri

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Darrien Case.

Darrien, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I wrote my first poem senior year of high school in 2014. Since 2017, I have performed in multiple events and have racked up quite a few accolades along the way. The Kansas City Poetry Slam is the biggest poetry competition in my city held once a month. Throughout my performance career, I have won the KC Slam 10 times and helped take a KC poetry team to the National Poetry Slam in August of 2018. The first poet I ever watched perform on YouTube was Rudy Francisco and I met him at nationals (because he also competed) and discussed a dialogue about his voice unlocking mine. I have battled quite a few life issues utilizing my craft. I personally believe poetry is a group healing effort when you let an audience know they aren’t alone in their trials. Very recently, I was featured in a short film about a spoken word in the KC community. The film was called “Release” and was directed/produced by Bryce Benlon. Available on my website and Youtube. In 2019, I have won the “Best Slam Artist” award from the Music & More Poetry Foundation, performed a set/dialogue at TEDx – Rockhill and finished writing my first poetry book titled, “The Sky Has Full Lips” (which will be released August). I truly believe this art form and the community which surrounds it has saved my life.

Has it been a smooth road?
I’m going to list out a few things here, haha.

In 2017, my parents and little sister moved to the Dominican Republic (we’re not Dominican).
They left to follow my father’s dream of a ministry driven non-profit that would go international.
I had just turned 20 and was a sophomore in college on a full-ride track scholarship and couldn’t go with them.

In November 2017, I had a son (who I was lied to about being aborted) just to find out a month in through a paternity test the child was not mine

Also in November of 2017, our family cat (who I took in when my family moved) was killed by a dog my roommate was being paid to watch.

In 2018, I contemplated suicide and was told by my coach to “do less poetry, it affects your ability to perform.”
At that point, the weight of my families absence was beginning to consume me.

In 2018, I was profiled by a police officer for the first time. I had my hood up, headphones in minding my business at a shopping mall in Idaho. I was there for the WAC indoor track championship. An officer walks by me with a Zales bag in his left hand and he reaches for his holster to his right. As he got closer I saw in my peripherals that he unclipped his weapon in case he would need it. I froze and an insane amount of adrenaline hit me as I recognized what was happening. But thankfully, I stayed still enough that he got a safe distance past me before looking back to make sure I had stayed in place. It was incredibly terrifying and I wrote a poem to release that trauma before competing that weekend.

In fall 2018, I was removed from the division 1 track team because of my attendance at the National Poetry Slam. I told my coach 6-weeks prior that I would miss the first week of cross-country practice BEFORE school starts. I told them I would still go and we could work out days and communicate but they refused. My career accomplishments, records, accolades had all been from track and not cross country. Even so, they stripped me from the program and took all of my tuition/room and board stipend away even before the school year began. I appealed the decision and even though I had numerous testimonials and probable cause discussing previous special treatment of other athletes, I didn’t win. The financial aid office ended up offering an institutional scholarship to cover the debt of that semester as I would of more than likely involved the local news channels or even the ACLU.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Case by Case Collections story. Tell us more about it.
As a spoken word poet, my brand is my own voice. I travel to perform or stick to the local open mic scene. Now that music has been incorporated into my performances, my work has been traveling a bit more on social media and will be soon available on music streaming platforms. Right now, I am most proud of the TEDx performance I did in April. It was very impactful to perform poetry about my trials with my previous track program and the police profiling incident I was involved with. I performed “Puppet Boy” about my coach telling me to do less poetry and performed “When the Boy Cried Bullet” about police brutality. I had numerous people discuss after that it was the most impactful talk of the whole day and I need to continue writing, singing and performing spoken word. I think Ted Talk will release the set video later this year.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
One word:
International.

I want to see my work manifest globally with this upcoming book, “The Sky Has Full Lips” with the companion music EP which will be released later this year. I want people to walk through my shoes and walk out differently on a large scale. I feel as though within my experiences I have narrated issues that occur everywhere. My goal is activism through art.

Another word:
Youth.

My end goal is the empowerment of our youth. I eventually wish to found a non-profit to implement poetry into early childhood education. I believe children (especially minority children) need guidance on how their voice is valuable. Often in education, we tell kids to simply regurgitate the information they’re fed instead of how they feel about it. I want to let them know introspection is key and a way to channel that is through poetry.

Pricing:

  • The Sky Has Full Lips will go on resale in July available for $15
  • subscribe to darriencase.com for free! Follow my social channels.
  • Feature Performances I currently price at $350 with the discussion to discount based on proximity or special cause.
  • More merchandise to come in August, $20 shirts and more

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
dev.elopment (IG), midafter (artist name), Tedx-Rockhill

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

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