By Autumn Rendall
The way Houston freestyle poet Tiffany Scales, a.k.a The Wordmatician, lights up when she talks about the power of poetry can only be compared to the way a hopeless romantic glows when they gush about the love of their life. Poetry is the way she learned how to read, the space she feels safest in, and the tool she uses to build a brighter tomorrow.
On October 19 of this year, Scales’ first album, WRDMTCN, will be released into the world. This project is a collection of 14 poems, only two of which were written before the recording. Like the rest of her performances, Scales freestyles directly from her heart. “It’s a passion,” she says. “I want you to feel something. I want you to leave and be pulled.”
By age five, Scales had memorized her first poem. It was an excerpt from a Rudyard Kipling book that was a staple in her family’s home library. Scales constantly found herself getting lost in encyclopedias, epics like the Odyssey and the Iliad, and any other book she could get her tiny hands on. “It’s so powerful how people can just pull an energy out of you,” Scales says. “I can’t think about me as a poet—or me as a person, period—and not reflect on all of these strong, empowering people who helped me feel safe.”
By kindergarten, Scales had also published her first book at the Young Authors Conference in Alabama, the copies of which she lost to Hurricane Harvey flooding. From there, her writing evolved. It was in high school that she found herself turning in poems instead of essays for her required writing assignments. She performed in her first poetry competition in D.C. at age 19, where she read pieces she had written in the fourth grade.
Scales attended Texas Southern University (TSU), where she majored in communications. It was during these college years that she was forced out of the closet by her basketball coach. One of her teammates found out that she was a lesbian and told their coach, who proceeded to tell Scales’ mother. But to hear Scales speak is to have a wave of kindness wash over you. She has nothing but nice things to say about her coach, and wishes no ill will just because they’re from a “different era.”
In 2010, Scales’ positive attitude took a long hiatus. Her best friend had just died, and Scales was utterly heartbroken. She didn’t know how to continue, and she stopped poetry altogether.
After being pestered by her friends, Scales was dragged to a poetry open mic night. There, she met speakers whose messages were so honest and empowering, she was changed forever. Scales talks about this night as if it were yesterday, still in awe of everyone’s words. “It was so inspiring,” Scales says. “I thought to myself, ‘I want to do something like that.’”
Scales stresses how necessary it is to have a safe space where you can be your most authentic self—which is why she’s so in love with the Houston poetry scene. “The fact that we have spaces to go to where you [don’t have to] be afraid is so important to me,” Scales says. “I always know I have somewhere to go.”
At one point, she was going to an open mic event every night of the week. “I feel more useful in the audience—to be the ear to listen, the arms to receive,” she explains.
That first open mic after the passing of her best friend was also the push Scales needed to start her non-profit, Toiletries for Families. The group provides hygiene products for families who otherwise would not have access to them, and since 2010, they’ve reached seven countries, 17 states, and helped over 30,000 people. “It’s a bridge-maker between needs and provisions,” Scales says. “I don’t want there to be a need for hygiene items.”
The group is still working on disaster relief from Hurricane Harvey, as many families are just now getting back into their homes. Last year, Scales ended up in the hospital because of how exhausted she was from using every free moment she had to help others. “I was so busy loving everyone else and not myself,” Scales says. “I really had to reflect on that.”
When asked about the creative process for her upcoming album, Scales giggles. “I really didn’t think about much,” she says.
Scales had applied for a job in North Carolina, but wanted to make sure she left something behind in Houston. Thus, the idea to create an album was born. She says she went to the studio, took a deep breath, and just spoke from her soul. “I’m so proud of myself as an artist to be so vulnerable and open, but I am so moved as a person by what God gave me to say,” Scales says.
Cover art for Scales’ first album, ‘WRDMTCN,’ which will be released into the world on October 19, 2018.
Scales’ friend Bernard James created the music for the album after hearing just the poems themselves. He took the feelings that Scales’ words invoke in listeners and put together songs that went hand-in-hand with their tone. When Scales heard the completed version of “Authenticity,” her personal favorite off the album, she cried. “It was like he took my canvas that I had just scribbled on with pencil, and painted it into acrylic,” she says.
Any money Scales makes from WRDMTCN will be divided between Toiletries for Families and the making of her next album. When asked what she hopes people will take away from the recordings, Scales says quite simply, “Healing. I hope it heals.”
WRDMTCN can be found on iTunes, Tidal, and other major music sites starting on October 19, 2018. Tiffany Scales will be hosting an album release party at 9 p.m. that evening at The Industrial Arts (10901 Brooklet) in Houston. Reserve your tickets here. For more updates, follow Scales on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
