Daily Inspiration: Meet Savanna Hulbert

Today we’d like to introduce you to Savanna Hulbert.

Hi Savanna, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I began writing since I was very little, my family would say I had a very vivid imagination. I understood that I wanted to become a storyteller when I was in middle school, I would say 6th grade. Once I got the understanding how to create a story, how to connect with the audience in a book, how to exactly tell a story and it does not have to be fiction or it does not have to be using big words that I knew most could not understand at the time. I started writing short stories and I will turn them into my teacher, asking what she would think of them.

After a while, she created a piece of her module for the semester that allowed students in that class to write a short story and whoever had the best story would get posted on the wall outside our classroom. I just so happened to be one. So ever since then, I would try to write stories, not only by myself but my friends, as if it were like a girl’s diary. Then once those same friends left the school we were at and it was just me, I was like, OK, I could do this by myself. So, I kept writing and by time I got to my senior year of high school, my AP English teacher got us heavy into poetry. Yes, we will read Shakespeare, but we also read Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and we read Langston Hughes and so much more that gave me the push I needed to see that I could do that too. He would ask us to write prompts at the beginning of the class and we would have to share it with everyone. At that point, when I got feedback about the poems, I wrote I just knew that I could write stories, but I can write poems too. I was good at it so not only did this encourage me to keep writing but this encouraged me to publish the first book I ever wrote, and that book had been done. Yet, published on this app called Wattpad since I was in middle school.

I said I wanted to do more so my second book, One Mind To Another I published, is a poetry book and now currently I am complete with my third book Silky Secrets, an adult poetry book that I’ll be publishing as well. Now long before writing, I had always been an entrepreneur. I started when I was seven years old in which I had a business called Delicious Wishes and it was a business where I took candy and made candy dolls, candy bouquets, candy roses, candy cakes, etc. I was on the news not only introducing my business but fighting for better lunches in schools and better teachers in networking events and it was exciting for a 7-year-old. I continued that up until I was about 11 and then after, I had a dark moment where I had to go through something that most kids go through at that age, like molestation and rape, I wanted to be the survivor that could help others who go through the same thing. I took on my sister, Yolanda “Quiet Storm” Gates, nonprofit called Angels in Action, taking the initiative to make those kids who were not only homeless, had been through molestation and rape, had been through abuse, being bullied and gave them some type of comfort. Whether it was a pillow drive, a pajama drive, serving food, I wanted to be that person to show them that you are not alone.

Fast forward years later, I had the drive to be a federal agent, not just because of the shows and the movies, but because I really love helping my community. I have done the community work, so I said I wanted to be a cop or a federal agent. Now currently I am a junior at Webster University in Saint Louis as a Criminology major, I have founded a group and organization called Rhyme N Reasons for all poets and writers on and off the Webster University Campus and I am still writing I am still working I am still in the community however working to graduate with my bachelor’s in criminology and hopefully a job in the federal world.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has not always been a smooth road. I had to deal with those telling me to focus on one thing or another, feeling alone when it came to certain support systems, financially trying to figure out how I can support the work I do, in addition to having to figure out if its what the people really want. It all boils down to uncertainty for me.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Rhyme N Reasons is a Webster University Student Organization where students come to express their creativity through writing, whether that is poetry, novels, music, or scripts. Also to promote the creation and performance of poetry and writing that engages communities and provides a platform for voices to be heard beyond social, cultural, political and economic barriers. Here I am able to provide advice, feedback, and collaborate on work for those who come in and I can also take heed as an author and poet myself. I am most proud of the events I have held in addition to the next year to come, I would be expanding Rhyme N Reasons more to the community outside of Webster. So, it will no longer just be a Webster organization.

I am proud of the networking it has allowed others to do and the friendships with other poets, writers, and authors we have made. What set me apart from others is that I began this organization my freshman year, the first organization here at Webster that have contributed to writers, authors, and poets like myself. Yes, there has been poetry nights and open mic nights, but never a group like Rhyme N Reasons who host events for other artists to come in and work with students, to perform with and for students. What also sets me apart is that I am one of the few (3) black ran organizations on this campus.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
BE YOURSELF! There is nobody else like you and only you can do what you have planned! My book Silky Secrets will be published and ready for purchase come the end of January, each book comes with a set of gifts. In February, I will be stepping into the new realm of subscription boxes, creating the “How to get over a break-up” subscription box. So, be on the lookout!

Pricing:

• All books are $25 + shipping

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indigo.poetry_/

Image Credits:
Photographer Reginald Johnson, Rhyme N Reasons member Larry Hearn, and other specific individuals from the Memphis and St. Louis poetry scene.