On the Word Witch podcast, host Domenica Million interviews her friend Kimberlee “Kim” Nicole Smith, founder and managing director of the Tenacious Rose Project, a creative lab producing digital content to elevate socially engaged artists and “creative-minded change makers” working toward social justice. Kimberlee expands “artist” beyond traditional mediums to include educators, organizers, researchers, and entrepreneurs, describing entrepreneurship as creative problem-solving and a way of being. She highlights poet and nonprofit leader Hannah Drake’s “Release the Names” riverbank installation in Louisville, honoring enslaved people who crossed to freedom, which prompted descendants of enslavers to share names. Kimberlee shares how she supported Drake through talent management and confidence-building around negotiation and value. They discuss performative storytelling, audience interpretation, Kimberlee’s reluctance to write a book due to revisiting painful memories, and writing as a potentially healing practice.
00:00 Welcome And Introductions
01:36 Tenacious Rose Project
02:37 Who Counts As Creative
05:54 The Creative Calling08:19 Entrepreneurship As Art
09:40 Change Maker Story Hannah Drake
15:09 Supporting Artists Behind the Scenes
19:24 Pricing And Artist Value
22:38 Kim Journey To Integration
25:34 Storytelling And The Book Question
26:43 Stories That Connect
27:53 Finding The Lesson
30:20 Crafting A Stage Story
32:12 Regular Black Reveal
33:53 Audience Hears Differently
35:57 Why Writing Feels Hard
37:51 Coaching Through The Block
43:25 Cosmic Joke And Courage