Meet Alyse Green

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alyse Green a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alyse, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

In 2017 I was taken to Nuyorican poets cafe to my first ever open mic. I was too afraid to sign up so I just sat and watched. I saw so many people go up and one guy in particular stood out to me. He didn’t speak a lick of English, was completely red, and he shook so hard the entire time but it didn’t stop him from getting up there to rap in a language NOBODY understood! In my head I was so proud of him, yet I kicked myself so hard because I didn’t have the courage. Watching everyone perform I said to myself I could probably be better than half these people if I only had the courage to put myself out there. I knew it wasn’t about being better than them but it was my own head so no filter was needed. It was about the courage to take a chance at something I KNEW I was good at. So, fast forward a year and one toxic breakup later. I had just lost my voice and for some reason Nuyorican poets cafe kept coming to my mind. I told myself once my voice came back I would go to Nuyo and perform. On November 18th 2018 I bought my ticket to Nuyo and on November 19th 2018, I performed my first open mic. I was shaking the entire time and my vision was blurred when I looked at the crowd but I kept going and got so lost in my poem I ripped off my wig to emphasize the words in it and I couldn’t even believe that it was even me up there. That was the day I believe I developed my confidence. My self esteem increased with every open mic I attended to date. I noticed I was able to talk to people more without being as anxious or awkward as I normally would be.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

By day I am a medical assistant for a primary care office. I have always found great joy in being able to take care of others and be in a space where I could put my empathy to good use. I remember being in kindergarten and everyone would call me the little Dr. because I was always trying to care for someone that was hurt. Outside of that, I am a spoken word poet. Poetry is my lifeline. It has always been my way to express myself. I’m so much better at writing things out than having to put my words together on the spot. I started writing poetry when I was about 11 or 12. Prior to that I would always love writing scary stories for school projects. Eventually, at 11/12 I decided to try my hand at singing and songwriting. I was NOT a good singer so I decided maybe I could write poems. I liked the feeling I felt when I was writing poetry and I just couldn’t stop. I felt like my soul was flowing through my fingertips and onto the paper. I didn’t learn about spoken word until I seen the movie Love Jones. Once I saw that I hoped to come across something like it because I never knew poetry clubs or open mics were a thing until 2017 when I went to Nuyorican poets cafe. My poetic journey has been amazing. I am now apart of a amazingly talented poetry collective called Lost voices. We as a whole have many different contributions towards our community and within self. Some of us teach poetry in schools, we have events geared towards specific themes and topics like one we have coming up in march. It highlights “breaking generational curses through poetry”. My hope and my goal is to make poetry a bigger part of my career as opposed to just my hobby.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I would have to say Faith, wisdom, and dedication. I have come to realize that I cannot do anything without my faith. I trust God in everything that I do and it took a long time for me to get here. I feel like my journey in life has been such an up-and-down roller coaster a lot of times because I didn’t necessarily trust God. I would do things either by my own accord, or what my parents would tell me, it’s not to say that my parents didn’t teach me or let me know to go to God. It just wasn’t a primary factor Growing up so I learned to go to God first. In going to God I learned to take all of the experiences in life that I’ve had and kind of learned from them to basically take the wisdom that I obtained from all these moments and experiences and now looking at myself and how I’m going through life, I’ve learned to basically apply it to when I come to similar situations or scenarios or anything. I’ve learned to kind of have a different outlook on how to handle it or how to handle it better to where it’s beneficial for me and it’s conducive for me. I think dedication is one of the main things that I feel like I lack. A lot of in my journey in life and poetry I’ve lacked a lot of dedication to self. I’ve always struggled with being able to put myself first. Majority of my adult years I was raising a child and I’m still raising a child so I went from being a kid who was emotionally supportive to her parents to then becoming emotionally supportive to my own child and nowhere along that journey did I ever stop, didn’t say or take a moment for myself until I felt like myself was breaking down or myself was missing. There was just a lot of things that I didn’t have for me, and when I started to take those moments for me to look at myself, I was able to put forth that dedication to myself to make sure that I’m happy to make sure that I’m healthy to making sure that I’m prioritizing myself and what I need and not just doing for everyone else. My dad always told me one thing and I applied to everything. If I can’t take care of myself, I can’t take care of anyone else and that that can go in anyway you choose to put it because if I’m not good to me, I can’t show up for work. I can’t provide the service they need if I’m not good to me. I can’t go out and perform poetry. I can’t give you my best poems or anything because I’m not taking care of myself. I’m just completely neglecting myself and I have nothing to really give to the world so if I don’t have anything to give to myself, how can I give myself to the world?

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

I think the number one obstacle that I’m facing right now would be letting go of the woman I used to be. I find myself often fighting old ways of thinking, old ways of doing things, and it’s like I know those ways don’t work. I’m learning to accept all of my past mistakes. It just doesn’t stop the habit from running on a cycle. When we say we let go of something it’s not like picking something up and putting it down especially a habit. When you’ve been conditioned to be a certain way and you’re trying to break that it will take everything in you to let it go. I am learning to stop, breathe, think, then decide. I am also in a space of not only grieving my old self but allowing grace. I’m allowing myself to grow and be open to necessary change. I’m not as quick to be depressed nor do I allow it to consume me. I’m not giving into fear, or doubt. I’m pushing past all the boundaries that kept me stuck. I’m doing it afraid. I’m doing it when I feel insecure. I’m doing it happy. I’m doing it because the sky is blue and because I owe it to myself to try.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @simplyalyse
• Facebook: Alyse green