Jasmine Swanagan has a way with words. She recently showed her skills with a spoken word poetry performance in her hometown of Owensboro, including reciting several poems that she has won competitions with nationally.
Swanagan, who performs as Cocoa Flo, said she fell into being a speaker, writer, and spoken word artist collectively as they all go hand-in-hand.
“I’ve been a writer all my life because I’ve always been a reader,” she said. “I used to write letters when I couldn’t express what I wanted, which morphed into spoken word.”
Swanagan graduated from Owensboro High School in 2009, then received a bachelor’s degree from Kentucky Wesleyan College and a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati.
During a poetry class in college, as students were exploring and performing the art, her style was noticed. It was longer than others, and she referred to it as page poetry. While she didn’t know much about spoken poetry then, when she moved to Cincinnati for graduate school she began thriving because she had a name for it – and many performers to watch.
“That’s where it all started,” Swanagan said of her performing. “The rest is history.”
Swanagan focuses on poetry and storytelling with the subject of empowerment and introspection. She is aware that some of her subjects are not relatable to all, but she finds power in her words.
“People tell me I am relatable,” she said. “They say by telling my story, not someone else’s story, I have power in my delivery and am authentic.”
Those words are important to Swanagan.
“Simply knowing if I keep these stories in my community, nothing happens,” she said. “Why not tell – let there be sympathy and empathy – say ‘Hey, I go through this, too.’ Emotions are universal. This keeps me wanting to share and not be safe.”
Cocoa Flo is recognized in the poetry slam world, a competitive event before live audiences and a panel of judges, and she continues to win honors. In 2023, Swanagan was champion in the Cincinnati Poetry Slam “Winner Circle,” Kansas City’s “Rite of Joy,” and Greenville, South Carolina’s “Queen of the South.”
During the pandemic, she paused because she didn’t like the online format since she thrives on audience participation.
“I was just quiet and part of that was fueled by my moving back to Owensboro; there isn’t a scene here for slams, so now I have to get back to it – it’s time to travel,” she said.
Swanagan believes she is still young in her artistry — only having seven or eight years in performance poetry — but she has grown her artistry in performing at open mics. She has won four national-level competitions along with a couple of regional events. She also hosts workshops and has been featured at festivals, much like the Through Sleets Eyes event in Owensboro in January.
For that festival, she wanted to perform something related to Sleet but said there was no formal process for her, as it is with all of her writing.
“I was just sitting at a friend’s and started writing – not in final form, just a bunch of lines,” she said. “Oooh, we got a little base here – if I was the audience, would this make sense? What do I want the audience to feel? Then I think about pace, body language, tone, and emotion.”
The poem, “Dear Mr. Sleet,” encapsulated what it would have been like to photograph in the Civil Rights movement while also being part of the movement as a Black man. Knowing the audience at the event would be a “mixed bag,” she considered how it would be to hear about it the sound of Civil Rights
“My job is to show up,” she said. “I know the importance of voice, of sharing stories cross-culturally, and how that moves the ball for us all.”
Sharing other original poems including “A Note to my 23-year-old Self,” “Korryn Gaines” and “Pledge of Allegiance,” Swanagan received a standing ovation for the words she shared of her experiences.
“That’s what it takes to move a community forward,” she said. “It’s bigger than me. I’m just a little piece in a big, old puzzle. I can see the bigger picture.”
Swanagan said she is a spiritual person and that this gift of speaking is not for her “to sit on.”
“Someone is waiting on me to say it so they can step into their greatness – a million ways, but that influences me to continue,” she said.
She said she has a good memory, which is what allows her to perform the roughly 3-minute-long poems that include words that give depth and body; and performing feeds her – slamming, specifically.
“There is something in the competition,” she said. “[Others] won’t know if I am scared because they always get the same me, but there is always that in the back of my mind.”
In the past year, she has been speaking at more events and wrote a book, “Twitter Fingers,” a collection of tweet-inspired poems and thoughts.
“The sky is not the limit,” she said. “There’s so much more.”
For more of Cocoa Flo, visit her website where there are links to her poetry and book.
