Social Media Influencer & Poet: Janielle Browne

Social Media Influencer & Poet: Janielle Browne!

By T’afari Steede

“Every action is a political statement”

I had always seen her around at Poetry Limes or at UWI but my first interaction with Janielle was stapled after a poetry reading for Pouii magazine in the Cynthia Wilson Arts Lecture Theatre. With her impeccable sense of style I was pleased to note that she also had great taste in literature. The following semester found us in a course together and through multiple class discussions on philosophical views I grew to realize not only was she wellversed in topical issues but she was also a growing social media influencer due to her poetry.

Amassing over two thousand followers on both Facebook (Janielle F. J Browne) and Instagram (@aquanxD), Janielle says she really began to blow up after releasing a video for her poem ‘Melanin’ which spoke on the harmful effects of bleaching one’s skin: didn’t expect it to blow up,”

“I didn't expect it to blow up she says, while contending that the feeling of having strangers approach her in the streets because they related so much to her poetry was definitely appreciated:

“Sometimes I am wary of putting out things that are so personal, but when people relate to it, it kinda makes me realize that nothing is in a vacuum.”

Janielle has poetry platforms both online and outside in the real world; but before delving into how she utilized social media as a tool for expression I wanted to find out more Janielle Browne the poet and how she got into poetry.

"I got into poetry when I was about say, eleven. I always loved literature because my mother was an English teacher so I always had an appreciation for words. As soon as I got into school I got into writing. Do you remember on mother’s day and father’s day in class how they would make you write a little poem? So I guess I started there but I didn’t get into it until I was like eleven and I started to write stories. I realized you could still tell a story with like, fewer lines so I did my first poetry collection when I was like twelve, but I didn’t get it published so don’t get excited! But I was really proud of myself for being able to write and write that consistently so that I could have an actual body of work.”

Imagine amassing an entire collection at the age of twelve. I was curious as to whether she had adult assistance or if she undertook this endeavour completely on her own.

“This was actually completely unassisted. I used to take my exercise books for school and write stories in them. My teachers [sic] would always be like:’ why do you need a new exercise book again?’ and I would be like: ‘ohh don’t worry about it!’ but I was really just writing stories. Then I got a notebook, cause I really wanted a separate notebook for poetry. It was one of those black and white notebooks with the static on it; you know what I mean? So I wrote pages back to front of poetry. I didn’t really want to share anything with anybody because I just started and it was more of a personal thing. In my classes in secondary school we had a book club thing where we would share our fictional works and everybody would read them, but I didn’t want to do that with my poetry.”

“Obviously this was when you were still young, right? So when was it that you were actually propelled into sharing your poetry?”

“About two years later, when I was in third form... about thirteen. My best-friend actually sent me a poem a few weeks ago I wrote when I was thirteen and I was like: ‘you still have that?’ but she was the first person I decided to share my poetry with and she was like : ‘this is really good!’. In our English classes when our lecturers would let us do something creative I would opt to write a poem to give myself practice. Eventually my class started becoming aware that I didn’t only write stories, I also wrote poems. We had this thing in fourth form...it was kind of a harvest celebration and I wrote a poem for it. It was a poem competition actually and there were four of us..but when I had to read my poem the um the microphone got cut off...but I didn’t know. See, I could hear myself but the audience couldn’t hear me. It was so embarrassing, cause it was in front of the whole school. After that it became, like known that yeahh I write...so yeah I guess you can say that is how it got out.”

Two of Janielle’s pieces which really stuck with me are ‘PERManent Issues’ and ‘Melanin’ which she performed at the Humanities talent show. These pieces discussed hair and skin-colour politics faced by black people.

“ ‘I don’t need a natural hair journey to know that we have journeyed across the transatlantic ocean.’ Can you tell me what inspired those pieces?”

“Umm, ‘PERManent Issues’ I wrote in 2015. I had just gotten my hair permed/ straightened. I have always been known as this...I don’t want to say ‘deep’ but you know people kind of attached this ‘Erykah Badu’ persona to me because I do poetry and because of the topics I normally talk about. “PERManent Issues’ was personal for me as people were taken aback that I had straightened my hair and I guess I wasn’t going to be a natural girl or whatever...but I was like : ‘none of you are going to come to my house and help me detangle and deal with my hair’. I wrote it at the time when my mother was like ‘ I’m not going to do your hair anymore’. I was like: ‘I want it straightened and I’m going to get it straightened’ and it was just more manageable for me. People were like ‘you trying to be white’ and stuff like that. It isn’t something I heard a lot but it was something as the natural movement progressed that in order to prove how black you were or like, woke or selfaware that you have to wear your hair natural. So the poem is essentially about the fact that I am completely aware of my history cause I have been a history student for literally more than half my life. I know my roots, I know where we come from and those roots have nothing to do with the roots on my head.

“The second one ‘Melanin’ is personal to me because it is something important but I also wrote it for other people. I think I wrote it in 2017 when the bleach epidemic became like ….it was blowing up. It was something that really broke my heart because I was like ‘I don’t understand’. Black people are stunning, naturally. Unassisted. We don’t need help to look good and it was kinda hurtful to see people feel that they are dirty and go damage themselves. It isn’t like makeup where makeup enhances your skin. It became really damaging ...the bleaching epidemic. I wrote about it because somebody needs to talk about it. I also did a video of it. I posted it on my facebook and it got a lot more attention than I expected and I was like ‘ohh okay’. People started sharing my video and I was like ‘this is cool’. This was on my facebook page. The part that surprised me was when I like, went to town and people were like ‘Oh my God, you’re the girl who did that poem ‘Melanin’ and I was like ‘okay!’. It is very strange to be recognized by strangers.”

‘Blackness’ is a common theme in Janielle’s poetry.

“Well when I performed at the Humanities talent show I actually did more poems than just ‘PERManent Issues’ and’ Melanin’. Funny enough that was a theme that was common in all of them... you know,# blackisbeautiful and #melanainmagic. For me it is really important because I am a black girl and it is something you can’t hide like, I mean you can’t just wake up one day and take off your skin to put on someone else’s.. .and when I was like around five years old I had what I think was eczema. It was never diagnosed but I think I had it because I had like really spotty and scarred skin; although I never really saw an issue with it when I went to school somebody got it in their head to call me ‘spotty banana’.

Children are cruel. I went home, I cried about it and I was like ‘I am here crying and nobody is helping me’ so I was done with that. The next day I went to school...I guess that is where my sass started because I defended myself and from that I was never teased again. I’ve never been approached in terms of racist remarks but it was that experience that kind of made it click for me how people feel when they are discriminated against because of something they can’t control that is literally skindeep. So blackness has always been really important to me. I was influenced by American media as well because you know about all of the shootings that happen constantly. I couldn’t even fathom being in a situation where because of how you look you are constantly afraid. I think it is important for black young people to understand that different doesn’t necessarily mean bad. The whole idea that came from slavery was to find a difference among people and then use that as a rationale for why they should be enslaved. So differences are used to separate, to divide, to conquer but I feel our differences should be celebrated. I would never be raising up our own black people and putting down white people. I don’t see it like that.

Inset: Janielle Browne

Photo by: Aliah-Rose Taitt

‘Blackness’ has to be an important theme to her as a young black woman. I asked Janielle if every action then becomes political, in the sense that one is making a statement simply because of their skin colour and gender.

“I don’t think everything you do should be political but I think by default everything you do is a political statement...because you never act out of your beliefs.”

With the knowledge of making a statement in every thing one does I asked her how this translates to performances; whether she preferred an online or ‘in-person’ performance.

“I really do appreciate my online audience because I believe it is a better way to reach people as you have a larger platform. Sharing is just a click away. I think online is really effective to be honest. But I do love performing live because I love to see people’s reactions and I love to hear the snaps (laughs).I love when people go ‘Oooo’ you know? Those are things you don’t get online and I love to get the reactions real-time. It feels more intimate when you can just connect to people who are right in front of you.”

However another benefit to social media is having your work noticed by media companies. Janielle did another poem ‘Rape Culture’ which was actually picked up by a local radio station back home in St. Vincent. In that way online has a way of boosting who you can reach. I proceeded to ask her how far she saw poetry taking her career-wise.

“I ’ve always wanted to be a writer. At first I wanted to be a prose writer then I just got into poetry. I kind of look at people like Rupi Kaur...she has gotten so far in terms of her poetry and her poetry is a form of healing and

I believe that is what we should do with our words. A lot of my poetry is personal but even when it is it does not just stay with me. Some of my pieces I put out are so personal and I’m like ‘Oh my God’ why did I put that out? But then someone would message me and be like ‘ohh I really related to that piece’ and it makes me remember I am but one part of a bigger tapestry. Even though I am a unique person I am not alone in my experiences. Other people have walked the same path. I hope to one day make money from my poetry as well because when you make money doing something you love, it doesn’t feel like a chore. I guess I just want to speak up for those who are rendered voiceless or those who feel they don’t have the platform to speak...I want them to know some-body gets them.”

Much thanks to Janielle Browne for agreeing to be interviewed!

You can find her on instagram: @aquanxD

Much thanks to our photographer Aliah-Rose Taitt.