It's frustrating me - that booty is gonna sag at some point. And if you allow enough people to come inside your physical space, they leave traces.

Everything starts with writing. I heard Nikki Giovanni and was blown away. I just thought 'wow'; she was writing from a black girl's perspective, and the imagery was so vivid that I started doing spoken word.

I've been around the world and I've had bras made in different places, and each time I'm experiencing the same troubles: the painful shoulders, the underwire cutting into my flesh.

Lately I've been going to all these high schools talking to the students, answering their questions, listening to what they have to say. It has been an incredible journey to be around them and try to give them what my mother gave me.

I think every individual has his or her own power, and it's a matter of working, taking time and defining what that power is.

Heartbreak was the impetus to me writing poems and music in the first place.

Soul music is about longevity and reaching and touching people on a human level - and that's never going to get lost.