to see our first performer.

- "I am not ready to die a little more today.

My nails are polished, a bright aquamarine.

My skin smells like the ocean.

In my hair, I'm wearing the flowers he left on my doorstep.

Tiger's eye and turquoise are wrapped around my wrists.

Do I look like I'm attempting an early death?

My headphones sound like Sade.

I wish these new girls would get off their knees and transform a room with some subtle power and grace.

Sade doesn't really dance poet and that is the point.

When did it become okay to die in this country?

On our knees, the walking dead.

A 24 hour day spa, they paraded in groups.

Hell, I need a massage too, but at what price?

I gotta stand behind mediocre bars just 'cause the kids rocked to it.

I have yet to hear an MC destroy the alphabet more gangster than Ntozake, so I ain't ready to die today.

Won't participate in the spirit massacre of our children.

My thought was on fire.

My pen is hot, Ntozake is dead.

Ntozake will never die.

I'm more alive at 47 than most of these wannabe Euro inside out millennials.

I've graduated from digital slavery masterclass.

I read books without screens.

I have sex with men my age or not whenever I feel like it.

I love my hair, my breasts.

I'm clear, my power is between my ears, inside my chest.

Black girl magic doesn't grow between our legs.

This is the mythology of men.

How much to get off your knee sis?

This pen is a knife stabbing out the hearts of dead trees.

These trees already dead anyway.

A walking dead urban forest, we are surrounded.

So I continue to climb to write 'cause I ain't ready to die today or tomorrow.

I'm gonna keep living inside poems you didn't know were left for you.

If you would just get off the floor.

You can see all these poems, all this world.

See all this world, the attempt to kill you with is really your universe to inherit, to change to rebuild, get off your knees, stop crawling for them.

Stand up, Queen.

Latifah, Lyte, Lauryn, Missy Elliot, Left Eye.

Bahamadia, Rah Digga, Roxanne, Rapsody.

K'Valentine, Mama Sol, microphones are not stripper poles.

Sonya, Audrey, Maya, Ntozake, Jane, Lucille Nikky, Nikki, Toni, Yasha, Stacyann, Kara Mahogany, Elizabeth, Lisa, Michelle, me, us.

We need you to stop dying.

Stop dying.

Stop dying to be less than who you were destined to be.

We need you to outlive death in all its forms.

Live, live, live.

So patriarchy can finally die."

- Welcome everybody back from the stage.

From that moving performance by jessica Care moore our own Detroit Promise.

- Thank you.

Your story, It felt good.

- So your poem, the first poem that you did, what is the title Of it?

- "I'm Not Ready to Die Today" - Yes.

- I wrote that for Ntozake.

I wrote that for all of us, you know?

I wrote it really for young writers and young artists.

Women, young girls in particular, right?

Who once you get, this industry is a vicious one, right?

And it's very sexist and very interesting depending on how you look and how you're treated, right?

And the expectation of that when you show up on stage.

And so like in my head, I'm never performing for people.

I'm, I'm always, it's always an internal thing.

What am I trying to do for myself in this moment?

And, and who am I touching?

But sometimes when we become more famous and well known we get opportunities to be in front of very large, in larger audiences.

And so deciding on what's the best thing for how to present yourself.

And oftentimes, sometimes I think young girls or artists think that, I mean I'm, you know I produce Black Women Rock, Daughters of Betty and yeah, we wear lots of sexy clothes and you know it's a very provocative show but it's also grounded in ownership, like self ownership.

And so sometimes I see artists, women in particular they don't feel like, I don't feel like they're in control of the decisions that are being made for not just what they're wearing but the moves they're making and, and yeah like crawling on the floor and things like that, you know, and just being putting ourselves in these very subservient spaces.

I just, I'm just kind of tired of it.

- Is there a journey to ownership?

And I know that you can support young women - Yeah.

- By getting ahead of the game and saying, Hey, hey, hey.

But is there a natural organic journey one must take?

- Yeah.

Wow.

It's so deep.

Like years ago, Annie Lennox said something in an interview that was really profound.

What she said was, what?

"I wish they wouldn't give it away so quickly."

Like we get it, you want to make money as an artist but money can't be mo your motivation for art.

When I'm, you know, if I'm writing poems for money I need to make money.

I'm not inspired by money.

- Right.

- No matter how much money you give me, if you tell me I jessica, I got like a good billion dollars and write this poem, I can't just write it.

I have to actually feel something.

But owning your work is, is really important.

Ownership all over all of it.

I say this as a girl and a woman.

- Any last words?

- Just thank you so much.

I'm thankful to Audra Kubat for asking me to be a part of this segment.

I'm a fan of her spirit and her and her music and I adore you.

So just thank you.