The poem “Have you Heard my Special K” is to honor the memory and the love of my daughter Kaiya LouiseLeslie-Anne Smith who passed away suddenly in 2016. Kaiya was a youth spoken word artist who impacted many lives young and old.

Twenty years ago, I was Kaiya’d when I was handed five pounds of life. I was made to vet my definition of not only being a mother but also me being a woman. For 18 years, I weighed my words with the great importance because it was shaping the mind and heart of my daughter. Each word was measured with anticipation, fear, hope, and stirred with truth. With each season, I tilled the soil of our souls and planted seeds of reciprocity, justice, and love hoping that the sun would rise to give us a better day. The daily work of finding our better selves would need to be mantra’d by the conviction of our hearts and the dedication of our hands.

When Kaiya put volume to her voice she challenged everyone around her to dig up the questions that the status quo made us bury in the name of conformity. She never lived life "off the racks". She learned the importance of owning your style and finding the establishments, organizations and individuals that brings out, dresses, and celebrates the true you...A Swaggalicious Diva Extraordinaire!!! Life is not a one size fits all, and it is hurtful to be called “leftovers”, “outsiders” or “extra” just because we don't meet the views of people. As I watched our lives changing, she encouraged me to find my "new normal" as I encouraged her to find her passions. We were in each other's worlds growing into better versions of ourselves each day, until one day there were no more words, no more sounds, no more support from my Special K.

In my journey of mourning, as a mother and a fellow creative, many people have shared with me how they have been “Kaiya’d”. The loss challenged me to keep the words and memory of my daughter relevant to people who would yet to discover her. Now the journey is continued by taking the blueprint of her poetry and cadence to find the jewels that will continue to encourage us to love ourselves and "style from within".

"Have You Heard my Special K" (https://github.com/digital-culture-seminar/PetrouchkaMoise-PoetryRepo/blob/master/Have%20You%20Seen%20My%20Special%20K.txt)

The first step of this process was to own how personal and difficult this assignment was going to be. Therefore, I had to approach this with the efficacy of a social scientist trying to explain the "God Principle", delicate and deliberate. The poem was initially written for all those who would never get a chance to meet Kaiya. In my analysis, I dissected the poem to see if I could identify key phrases and call-to-action statements that I could use through various filters and codes to see if the redirection would give me a new view or approach to the poem.

In the poem “Have you Heard my Special K” there are three players – Kaiya as the source, me as the narrator and the connector, and the audience as the receptor. Each have actions and reactions of what knowing Kaiya has created and manifested.

Many lines of code presented intriguing possibilities. However, the Text-to-Sound format worked the best in capturing the inflections presented in the poem. Unfortunately, the poem was too long for the format to recognize the entire text. In order to translate the poem into a format that would be convereted into a soundwave, only a part of a stanza could be selected . The following lines were selected to create the waveform illustrated below.

Have you Ever Loved My Special K,/ Whether you thought you were her Bae, Boo, or her Boy / Wanting to believe that all she gave was all for you, / My Special K bathed you with a smile / that made you want to burrow more into her warm chest / To drown in her ocean

(https://github.com/digital-culture-seminar/PetrouchkaMoise-PoetryRepo/blob/master/special%20k%20%20verse%20run%202.py)

There is a fluid reflection of the cadence of the text. The inflections give a very pronounced dynamics to the peaks illustrated. The dimensions of the piece does not present enough of levelled surface to create a place to sit comfortably; therefore, would not be appropriate for a bench design. However if placed as a back feature of a waterfall design. Then it would better meet the expectations of this project.

The next steps for this project is to process the soundwave into a model form on chipboard panels that will be cut out using a laser cutter. #FingersCrossedNotCut

This project was very interesting because it made me analyze when text is fragmented and deconstructed how the scope and the goals changes the intent of the reader. I initially thought that this would give me a different perspective of who was the source and the receptor in the way I viewed Kaiya. The process made me more inquisitive of my daughter's writing style and cadence... what was the DNA signature of her style? and could my one poem have that same literary signature by my placement and delivery?

In conclusion, this class taught me that by the analysis and physical translation of text that there is an untapped landscape of how we interpret the delivery of feelings, emotions, and understanding. In relation to my thesis, "Identifying the Identity of the Haitian Artist", there are over a 100 years of essays and literary works used to derive the image of the Haitian culture and artist. However, by utilizing the Mallot coding process, large body of works can now be used to analyze and filter key phrases and terms that have been repeated throughout the past to redefine and change our outlook. Now we can find the markers in text as to when and how the narrative is created, maintained, dismantled and repurposed.