BMP (Buffalo Music Players) Episode 34: Yamilla Tate

Yamilla Tate is a wonderfully talented poet, writer, and creative. She came on the pod a few weeks ago as we experimented with different places to record and now after some production work, we're ready to bring her episode to you.

A special treat is a performance of one of Yamilla's powerful poems by herself so don't miss out and keep streaming this audio podcast to the very end. Thank you for listening!

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Captain Tom & the Hooligans

BUFFALO CREATIVE WORKSHOP

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SHIANNE WAXING STUDIO

Theme for the Shianne Waxing Studio Commercial was Conducted & Composed by Philip Milman

Transcript

SPEAKER_07 1:20

This just then a double scoop of bad news. Man, life just isn't letting up. I feel like the walls are closing in, and I don't have a way to stop it. I wish there was somewhere I could go. Some place where I could just get away from everything. And just be creative.

SPEAKER_05 1:42

There is a Buffalo Creative Workshop. Who said that? Spirit of Creativity. I heard you're playing I fell to do the healthy. Okay, in the Great Arrow Building on Elmwood Avenue. Use our space, our art supplies, and equipment to your heart's content. Let us hope you beat back less dress and feel centered again.

SPEAKER_07 2:05

Wow, that sounds great. I'll check it out.

SPEAKER_05 2:08

Always remember, if the world has your creative spirits in a rut, come to the Buffalo Creative Workshop for a pick-me-up. More about Buffalo Creative Workshop can be found at Buffalo.creativeWorkshop on Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 2:27

Hello, Buffalo Music Player Listeners. This is your host, Benjamin Joe, and I am Max. And we are with a very amazing guest today. Her name is Jamila Umkey, and she uh lives in Buffalo. She is a poet. And well, I'm just gonna let her talk put herself in her own words. She introduced yourself, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Hi, I'm Jamie Latha. I am a local Buffalo poet. Um, yeah, I'm very happy to be here on the podcast. A lot of my work revolves around identity, revolves around just the human experience, and I'm happy to be here with both of you talking about things.

SPEAKER_04 3:04

That's amazing. Appreciate it. Now uh before we get any further, I just wanted to go make sure that people know that Javella is available for gigs, um, doing poetry through her um typewriter, which I thought was pretty cool because who has a typewriter these days? Like, how long have you had your typewriter?

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Um, I want to say about six months, I want to say.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

Six months?

SPEAKER_03 3:26

Nice. Six months. Maybe a little bit more than that. It's a pretty recent thing, but I really love using it.

SPEAKER_04 3:31

That's awesome. Can you tell me like about the gigs and the typewriter gigs, like what you do?

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Yeah, so you can book me for events, um, and you can have me go to your events. I can do typewriter poems on the spot with whatever prompts your guests or you have for me. And you can have all these keeps, all of those poems from your events, all written at the moment, about whatever you would like. And if you feel like maybe you're not sure what you want it to be about, I bring my own prompts as well as suggestions. So, yeah, you can just celebrate your events or whatever it is you would like to book me forth in poetry.

SPEAKER_06 4:05

That's amazing. So I'm kind of jealous because I've tried to do that myself, like what you just described, and nobody ever wants any any of my poems. So I'm just like, yeah. It can be tricky. It's uh it's devastating.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Yeah, you gotta have a pretty thick skin, like you're gonna be able to do that. What um what got you into poetry?

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Um, so it's a long chain of different art forms. Um, so I have always been more so inclined towards different creative outlets. So I started pretty much drawing first when I was like two years old. Story with that. Um my mom really fostered that in me after I drew on the entirety of Pro Ball as a kid.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

And then um from there, um I always really loved music. Eventually I um studied music in La Guaralina de la Música in Puerto Rico, where I grew up. Um, and then throughout all of that time, I really loved reading. My mom always fostered reading in me a lot as well. Um, I really loved poetry when I was in school, but I never really took it seriously until I got to college. I started taking poetry courses, and from there I really discovered this absolute adoration and love that I have for the craft. And that has led me into all the different outlets that I currently move in.

SPEAKER_06 5:25

That's a whole thing. Was your mom always like super supportive of you?

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Yeah, yeah. I feel very lucky in that regard. Um, I was um raised by a single parent, and throughout all of that friendship, um, she was still always very supportive of whatever creative endeavors I had. Yeah. So I feel very lucky when we got to that.

SPEAKER_06 5:45

Because like with that mural story, like it's very like a make it or break it kind of moment, you know? It's like if she keeps it like if you got an artsy parent, if you don't, yeah, you gotta do like taxes or something, you know?

SPEAKER_03 5:56

Yeah, yeah. She uh she was always very supportive, and yeah, that was a make it or break it moment. But her solution was literally just paint the wall again, but this time she put up like a little paper on the wall, like this big wallpaper, so I could draw all whatever. So to this day I still really love illustration. Um, but yeah, that kept me wanting to continue being creative throughout the rest of my life. That's awesome. Shout out to mom. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:26

Everybody should call their mother one of these days.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:29

Say hey. Shout out Brian Du Bay. Um, so listen, um, your poetry is really good. I think that a lot of uh listeners, if they if they want to take their time, and I think they do, take a look at uh Jamille's um uh Facebook Instagram page, and you were doing like Instagram poetry, like probably last year, I guess it was, but it was very like they talked talk about like your hands and like atoms moving in them, and I just thought, whoa, like this is really this is really deep. Like it's just you tend to go and like really get to the depth of like the entire subject and like you sound like you know what you're talking about, which is that's the voice, you know, like you got that poet the poet's voice. Um you also do slam poetry as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

Yes, um, so I started doing slam about two years ago with um Pure Inc. Buffalo's local slam organization. Um, so yeah, I started doing slam about two years ago with Pure Inc. Um, and that eventually led um to me competing in So Fride in both 2024 and 2025 with the Pure Inc Slam team. We've represented Buffalo. Um and yeah, I absolutely have loved getting into the world of Slam. Very different world within poetry. Um you just interact with the audience in a different way. It it is competitive.

SPEAKER_06 7:46

Yeah, it's almost like battle rap or poetry panel?

SPEAKER_03 7:49

You yeah, it's pretty similar. It's pretty similar to battle rap.

SPEAKER_04 7:53

Um you ever made a disc poem?

SPEAKER_03 7:55

There are many disc poems. Me personally, I don't do disc poems. Like me personally, I'm just like, I'm in my own lane, guys.

SPEAKER_04 8:04

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

I'll just try to chill.

SPEAKER_04 8:08

Um, how did you how did you get into like spoken word poetry? Because I mean, you know, it's one thing I do I write down poetry every so often, but most of it stays in my notebook, never gets out there, and it certainly never really gets talked like spoken that much. Like what did you when did you start doing that? Like performing your poetry.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

Yeah, so whenever I approach my poetry, I do think about it in regards to what is going to be on the page, what is going to be spoken. Um I don't think that I ever necessarily have ever drawn a hard line between writing for the page and um performance so much. Um, as I mentioned before, when I got to college was when I really started taking poetry seriously, and I just realized that I really wanted to keep doing that. Um throughout those courses that I took, a lot of it also involved pretty much more recent poetic movements, right? You get the black arts movement, you get the New Rican poets. So regardless, my writing kind of already wanted to go within the style of what would be considered spoken word. And while I really enjoy poetry for the page as well, I just I love both so much that whenever I write, I just kind of automatically want to make sure I can do both with one piece. Um so spoken word for me just kind of came naturally. Um I grew up on a lot of hip-hop as well, grew up on a lot of rap, and that like spoken word, rap, hip-hop, all of that influences each other. Um, all of that is interconnected, so it kind of was already in me to kind of want to write, uh, more so within that bang. And like I still do see this thing. Um it's rare when I ever make the full-on distinction when I write. And I guess like my Instagram poetry, that one, because it's so visual, it's intended to be on Instagram. That one will that one is definitely written kind of like with the page in mind, just because it's exclusively meant to be looked at on Instagram. So that one is what I would say, those are the only works that are more specifically for that rather than for both.

SPEAKER_06 10:32

When you make a poem for Instagram, do you like do you enjoy doing it, or are you just like, oh, I gotta do this for Instagram?

SPEAKER_03 10:38

So I so yes, it's routine, but I do enjoy it.

SPEAKER_06 10:42

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

So like I mentioned, I don't necessarily write thinking like this is gonna be for the page, this is gonna be performed exclusively most of the time. But when I sit down to do like my Instagram poetry, I make a distinction for that one because I am doing it in fact to have content on my page. I am doing it in fact so people can have a sample of my work. Um, but I do enjoy it because it's kind of like an exercise form, a weekly exercise of exploring with different forms on the page that maybe I wouldn't do spoken just because it probably wouldn't flow the same way.

SPEAKER_06 11:20

Yeah, that's a great that's a great uh perspective on the grind set, you know, that you gotta keep turning this stuff out. So I appreciate your positive like uh spin on it.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

Yeah, like I I enjoy like for me it it also has to do with craft. For me, it just has to do with this was part of my weekly writing routine. Um so it it's almost like it's almost like I'm giving the template looking at my Instagram a glimpse into my weekly writing routine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Very cool. And and your spoken word poetry, I it's a very deep and very, very strong. Can you tell us a little bit about like in just general, what are you hearing poetry about? Like, do you have like a general like uh we had um not supposed to bring up other guests and perfectly guests, but like Dallas uh Taylor came in and he he talks about how his poetry is moving towards helping people feel or relate their own feelings, which is not something that men are really encouraged to do very much throughout their lives, so it's it's valid cause. I'm wondering if you have a certain cause or some sort of drive that like, yeah, go on.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Uh first off, shout out to Dallas, amazing poet, my current teammate, shout out to Dallas. Oh, really? Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, great poet, amazing local buffalo poet. Um, yeah, so when I do my pieces, I always write them thinking about pretty much just being human and everything that that encompasses. And I know that that's just very wide, that's very broad what I just said. Um, I'm gonna take some time now to to be more specific about what I mean with that. Um so when I say being human and everything that encompasses, that includes heritage, that includes family dynamics, that includes just what is it, what are all those little bits and pieces that make us human and make up our lives? And pretty much making almost a portrait painting for people to be able to look at and feel seen through that. I especially love it in regards to pride in yourself and in your heritage.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:21

Um I, you know, I am proud to be a black and brown poet. I'm proud of my heritage, I'm proud of both of my cultures. I it shows up on my Instagram, proud black Rican Polet. Yeah. And um I really design it with just thinking, be whoever you are unapologetically. I want to make poetry that makes people go, you know what, I'm proud to be who I am. I grew up from being made to feel like I shouldn't be proud of my heritage, of who I am, where I come from. And that is such an integral part of forming your identity as a human being. It is not everything that you are, but it is a part of who you are. It's like a cornerstone. Exactly. It's it's a part of it. It's a very important thing. It helps you sort out things. It helps you sort out how you move in this world. It gives you context. And when you have clarity, when you have clarity in regards to that in your life, there's a lot of things that suddenly just don't matter to you anymore. Things just become clearer, things become more like, you know what? I'm me. This is my country, this is my heritage, this is where I come from.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

So what? So I really want my poetry to make people feel proud. I want them to feel like, wow, I'm proud of myself, but also of my ancestors. Celebrating the people that came before us and celebrate everything that's gonna make us who we are now and whoever we're gonna become in the future.

SPEAKER_06 14:52

That's awesome, and that perspective is like essential nowadays, you know, with all the stuff that's going on. So absolutely. Supervalued, man.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Yes, absolutely. A lot of my work recently revolves around making sure that no matter what, we're not gonna be afraid to show people. No matter what, we're not gonna stop showing the culture, we're not gonna stop showing up, we're not gonna stop saying, I am who I am and I'm just kind of awesome.

SPEAKER_04 15:17

Very cool. Um what do you think about uh Buffalo, our fair city here?

SPEAKER_03 15:22

So I think Buffalo artistically is very interesting.

SPEAKER_06 15:25

Um that's one way to put it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Yeah. Artistically, very interesting because I feel like Buffalo is simultaneously a big and small city. Yeah, so it is big enough to create this giant landscape of different artistic communities that just function completely differently from each other, that have completely different aesthetics of mind when they're creating, but it is small enough for all of us to know each other. So I think that that makes it so Buffalo has the potential for incredible collaboration and to produce very unique works of art just because you know, like I said, big enough to have this wide variety of aesthetics, art movements, all of these different moving parts, small enough for all of us to be able to connect with the quick.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

Well, what kind of what do you what do you get into in Buffalo, like as a fan or like a follower or uh you know, a listener?

SPEAKER_03 16:23

So besides being a poet, I'm also a musician, so I interact a lot with musicians here in Buffalo. And yeah, I absolutely love the work of Bumble. He is um also an amazing poet for those who don't know. He is also an incredible poet.

SPEAKER_06 16:41

Oh, I didn't know he does poetry too.

SPEAKER_03 16:43

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 16:44

Shame on me, he does everything else, so why not? Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Um also knows, absolutely love. Shout out. I love Soy Fruit, Jezebel.

SPEAKER_06 16:54

Shout out Soy Fruit Jesus.

SPEAKER_03 16:56

They're just incredible at their craft, incredible musicians. I love the passion that they have in everything that they do.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:03

Um seeing them perform live is such a treat, and I do that too. They're just incredible people to know and also to love them.

SPEAKER_04 17:10

100% agree. You play the bass? What is it called? Upright bass, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Yes, I mentioned um earlier when we were speaking.

SPEAKER_04 17:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:18

Yeah. Yeah, I do play the upright bass. Very cool.

SPEAKER_04 17:22

Um, if there was a song that you could hear from one of these artists, what would it be? And well and maybe we can make that happen.

SPEAKER_03 17:29

So I think about Earth's newest release in 2026. So released I Can't Lose is on Spotify right now, and yeah, it is just stereotypical, incredible, earthy, just ethereal vibes that Earth always puts out with her music, and like, yeah, I expect to film less for them.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

So awesome.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Well, let's hear a clip of that skin.

SPEAKER_07 19:06

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SPEAKER_04 19:42

And we're back though. Was it Earth? Um, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about how you actually got started with the upright bass. Because and that's what's kind of a burning inside because you're not a very tall person. And like you're you're like I I'm just saying, I'm saying. I'm not trying to be offensive or anything. I'm just saying that like some instruments are meant for different people. Like when you look at you and I'm just like upright bass players. It's not that it didn't cross my mind until you meant understandable.

SPEAKER_03 20:12

So um, there's a lot of musicians on both sides of my family. Okay. And when I was in Puerto Rico, I grew up in Puerto Rico, and um I was, you know, I was in school, and I'm like, you know what? I really want to pick up a specific instrument. I'm not sure what yet. Thankfully, I was able to get into La Escola Libre de Música. It is a public music school in Puerto Rico. Um, there's various of those um schools, various campuses around the island, around the archipelago. Um, I went to the one in Bayagüez, and uh it was the day where all the students, we were all rounded up in the auditorium, and all of the music teachers were doing a short demonstration of the instrument that they teach, so we could pick then which one we wanted to do. And I saw the upright bass teacher just playing the upright, and I'm like, you know what? That is massive. That is what I'm gonna do. This is what I'm gonna do for the rest of my time in this school, and that's pretty much it. It's not deeper than that. I was like big instrument, yep.

SPEAKER_06 21:23

It got your attention.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

It caught my attention. I went, I tried it out later that day, and I was accepted into that program.

SPEAKER_06 21:31

Oh wow, oh wow.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

So I did yeah, all in one.

SPEAKER_06 21:36

It was meant to be.

SPEAKER_03 21:36

Yeah, yeah, it was meant to be like that. Like my upright is my baby. I I love my upright. Um, so yeah, that was when I was in high school that then happened. So I spent all of my high school years um in that school studying the upright face. Um, and then I did one of my um one of my bachelor's in upright. Based performance. Um, so alongside the slide. So it's both writing and music have been a huge part of my creative life for years now.

SPEAKER_06 22:10

Have you ever just been messing around the upright bass and then you just get like an idea for a poem?

SPEAKER_03 22:15

Yes, yes, I have. Various times. Music shows up a lot in my poetry. Typically, uh when I perform, I tend to almost kind of sample songs. At times I like singing certain parts that are like kind of like snippets depending on the poem of other songs. Music plays a huge role in how I can see a poetry.

SPEAKER_04 22:38

Um maybe you can tell us a little bit about your heritage and how what that what that means to you. I know it's like you try to have other people talk about their heritage, but um for you yourself, like how how do you blend that into you know your poet at a game, like Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

So um I am black American and I'm Puerto Rican. And for me, both of those things are equally important. One does not take more importance than the other in how I conceive of my identity and how I move around in the world. So both of my cultures have always played a huge role in how I view myself, how I view the world around me, um, and it influences my heart. Um I am proud of my heritage, I'm proud of where I come from, but I also know that there's a lot of pain and a lot of hurt in both of those disorders. Um I grew up on the archipelago and grew up seeing a lot of things that people contain and don't see. And I grew up seeing a lot of injustice, and then of course the injustice of being associated with an Afro-identity to any extent. Um so a lot of what gets into my poetry is my desire to just see my people, both of my peoples happy and free, and just I want to celebrate us. I want us to know that we are that we are here, that our ancestors were here, and that they struggled and made a lot of sacrifices, but we are still here. We're here carrying out their legacy, and we're building our own legacy as well. Um so a lot of my heritage just shows up as just this absolute love that I have for my people, both of them. I love my folks, I really do.

SPEAKER_06 24:29

It's awesome. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 24:31

I if I want anything to be remembered about my poetry, it's how much I love life, how much I love people in my life, and how much I loved my heritage. Both of them.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

That's good. Well, I mean, what kind of plans do you have now? I mean, are you staying in Buffalo for the time being at least?

SPEAKER_03 24:52

Or are you going to Yes, absolutely staying in Buffalo for the time being? Um Yeah, I currently I just want to start um looking to publish a bit more, be more active as a performer as well.

SPEAKER_04 25:07

Um You just published in the Variety Pack, weren't yes. By the way, uh listeners, this is uh February 1st, and we are in Spot Talking Elmwood, in case you were wondering where we were. Um you were just talking about how you were published in Variety Pack this month. Awesome.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Yes, my piece, Dear Fatha, was published on Variety Pack. I'm very grateful for that. Dear Faba is a piece that I have about my great aunt on my mother's side, and it explores um her life as a Puerto Rican woman that migrated to New York City in the 20th century and then went back to the archipelago. But the main purpose of it is a celebration of women like her that are just ignored in history, that their stories just don't get told. They snip the cracks of black and white photographs, of textbooks, and their actual stories of these real women just don't get told. So the poem is both a mod of her, but also all of the women that just never get spoken about, and they are the backbone of our society.

SPEAKER_04 26:12

Well, um, but I I was wondering it would it be possible for you to um perform a poem for us today by any chance.

SPEAKER_03 26:20

Absolutely, I would love to.

SPEAKER_04 26:22

Um I said you brought your notebook?

SPEAKER_03 26:25

Yes, I brought poetry journal.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

You're always prepared.

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Yes, I try to be.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

Alright, well, as soon as we take a short break and we'll be right back.

SPEAKER_07 26:36

After a long day, it's hard to turn off. That's why I go to Mammoth Cannabis on 212 Ohio Street. Their stuff will have you laid out flatter than a mammoth foot. From flour to pre-rolls, vaporizers to concentrate. You can rest assured that something big is waiting for you at Mammoth Dispensary. Just keep in mind, if you smell cereal from the General Mills factory nearby, they can't help you. You have to go home and get a bowl yourself. It's a dispensary, not an eatery after all.

SPEAKER_04 27:09

Hello, listeners, we are back. Let me talk to you. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:20

Thank you. Let me tell you about Borderlands. See, I've only ever known about worlds in between my hometown, one boat ride away from the Dominican showered in mangos, a freezing city in the northeast, home to a peace bridge to Canada. I know a thing or two about no man's land, and it's that no land belongs to one man. But oh, I live knowing truth. Every damn corner of this rock in space is a borderland. Let me tell you about dreams. See, the American dream is real. It's just not what America would have you believe. The American dream is stolen dignity, an amalgamation of looted treasure failing to create the illusion that this is not a borderland. People do not come here to achieve the American dream. They come here to retrieve what America's dream stole from them. Through banana republics, political coups, bombings, and inhumane production lines, mines, industries, but oh, I live knowing truth. The American dream is not to be worked for. Darlings, it's our birthrights. From the suburban child riding their bike to the urban child skipping down their block to the refugee child ready to restart their childhood. Now, let me tell you about greatness. I lay on a blanket at the park, and the summer's day is beautiful. In front of me, a group of women in Burkas prepare their picnic, and next to them, two women in bikinis sunbathed. And I think to myself, you know, this place has never been great. Because it can't see what could make it great in the first place. True freedom, choice blessed the park that day. This land has raced to amass weapons of mass destruction simultaneously. Its true means for greatness grew with every new intersection. Oh, I live in truth. So I'll tell you, the listener, figure out what I'm saying about greatness. This place dreams of reacquiring its greatness to the witch hunt of its interceptions. But here's the truth. We could make a new dream. We truly could be one of the greatest borderlands in history. Te amo mi gente. Estamos aquí in amor, dignidad y fuerza. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 29:45

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 29:50

Alright, alright, listeners, thanks for tuning in to another episode of Buffalo Music Players. Uh peace, and see you next time. May the songs be with you guys.

SPEAKER_07 30:10

No matter just a player, we'll help you well. Don't believe in gatekeeping. We all gotta eat and this is our way of helping Avengers. Okay, we got where you gotta podcast. Everybody got to be quite honest. I'm gonna jump in there for us, but I'm gonna run up. I'm too pretty dumb. If you're rocking, can do it. I sure can. I've never fought the school. So I got the upper hand. If your rogue can do it. I sure can. I've never fought the school. So I got the upper hand.

unknown 31:06

It's the B and B pocket. It's the B and B park.