David Idemudia, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, performs two original spoken word poems at the 2022 SYT event. The first, ‘Six Years in the Making,’ uses sharp humor and vivid personal anecdotes to demystify ADHD, reframing the condition as a source of improvisational creativity rather than pure disorder. The second, ‘Spoken Unheard Words,’ shifts to a raw and serious tone, capturing the isolating silence and invisible suffering of mental illness and the stigma that muffles those who struggle.
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Transcript
[02:00:00] Can someone tell if she’s coming?
[02:00:03] No.
[02:00:04] I heard a keychain go.
[02:00:06] So clap, yeah, there you go.
[02:00:09] I don’t know if somebody wouldn’t go.
[02:00:11] I think she’s getting her now.
[02:00:11] You better not go get her from the bathroom, though.
[02:00:14] That’s come down.
[02:00:16] There’s also no soap in the bathroom.
[02:00:18] There’s no soap in the bathroom.
[02:00:19] Talk to the building people.
[02:00:21] Talk to complain to him.
[02:00:22] Complain to him.
[02:00:23] Like this is the perfect time to talk about that.
[02:00:25] No soap in the bathroom.
[02:00:27] Tell him lower our rent.
[02:00:28] Tell him lower our rent.
[02:00:31] Look at my studio.
[02:00:33] It’s all the way down there to the right.
[02:00:34] Oh, you acting like you got a studio now?
[02:00:36] I do.
[02:00:36] It’s here.
[02:00:37] It’s out there.
[02:00:38] I’ve been here multiple times.
[02:00:40] It’s.
[02:00:41] You once showed me your studio.
[02:00:42] Oh, facts, sorry.
[02:00:43] It’s right out there in the lobby to the right.
[02:00:45] That other door that don’t nobody go through, that’s mine.
[02:00:49] Is it locked up?
[02:00:50] It may not.
[02:00:50] She in there, so it may not be locked.
[02:00:52] She is in there.
[02:00:52] No.
[02:00:53] She not in there?
[02:00:54] She’s not in there.
[02:00:55] She’s.
[02:00:56] All right, look.
[02:00:56] Hold on, let me check if she in the resource room.
[02:00:58] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[02:00:59] It’s like, do a dance or something.
[02:01:01] Do a dance.
[02:01:02] Tell a story.
[02:01:04] I would like to thank all y’all for coming out here.
[02:01:06] This is such a great event.
[02:01:08] And yes, give it up for yourselves.
[02:01:10] We could not do this without y’all.
[02:01:13] I definitely was not doing a dance.
[02:01:14] Fuck that.
[02:01:15] No.
[02:01:17] But we like, but we do thank all y’all for coming out here
[02:01:20] and being brave enough to tell y’all stories and shit.
[02:01:23] Like, that is powerful that y’all are feel comfortable enough
[02:01:26] to talk to people that you may not even know.
[02:01:30] And combo is live stream, so it’s a lot of people
[02:01:32] you may not know that see it.
[02:01:33] So like, you’re brave enough to come up here.
[02:01:35] And that is dope as shit.
[02:01:36] So everybody that’s on this list,
[02:01:39] please give it up for yourselves.
[02:01:40] And everybody, give it up for them.
[02:01:42] Yeah.
[02:01:45] We did not find her.
[02:01:47] We can’t wait all night for your wife, but I’m a…
[02:01:50] I be…
[02:01:52] These are the same problems I be having.
[02:01:55] This is why I be late everywhere.
[02:01:57] She not in.
[02:01:58] Liar.
[02:01:59] And in Spanish, mentirosa.
[02:02:02] Come on, man, you lying.
[02:02:03] That’s why you’re late everywhere?
[02:02:05] And you’re gonna put that out in public?
[02:02:06] Yup, yup.
[02:02:07] As long as she not in here, that’s what I said.
[02:02:09] Okay, okay.
[02:02:10] When she come in here, I say different.
[02:02:12] Somebody’s calling her right now.
[02:02:14] Okay.
[02:02:15] Wow.
[02:02:19] All right, I’m gonna share a poem that I wrote real quick.
[02:02:23] This is Six Years in the Making.
[02:02:25] Oh, yeah.
[02:02:26] Woof, woof.
[02:02:28] It’s that one, it’s that one.
[02:02:32] Attention deficit disorder.
[02:02:35] A to the DD.
[02:02:39] It’s funny how people think it’s all about being distracted by squirrels.
[02:02:44] But you’ll learn losing your phone wallet and keys four to five times a week,
[02:02:50] it’s a personalized hell, you’ll see.
[02:02:54] Or when your boss has specific and important instructions that end up being
[02:02:59] more than three steps and all you can do is say, yep, yep, yep, I got it.
[02:03:04] But you look her directly into the eye, the left eye, and you think to yourself,
[02:03:09] I wonder if I ate all the Hot Pockets last night.
[02:03:13] I mean, I’m not even hungry like that, but I just, I don’t feel like I had two Hot Pockets.
[02:03:22] Anyways, you leave the room and you swear you heard words.
[02:03:27] You swear you heard her say words.
[02:03:29] But all that comes to mind is, my money don’t jiggle, jiggle, it folds.
[02:03:34] I’d like to see a wiggle, wiggle, for sure.
[02:03:39] So you decide, you’re just gonna wing it.
[02:03:42] Good luck with that.
[02:03:45] A to the DD.
[02:03:46] After five straight hours of watching YouTube videos,
[02:03:49] you realize you could be doing something more important with your life.
[02:03:52] Like two more hours on Instagram.
[02:03:57] Or when you have a to-do list the size of kingdom come,
[02:04:00] and you easily become distracted by searching, can germs catch germs?
[02:04:05] Or who would win in a fight between
[02:04:08] a taco and a grilled cheese sandwich?
[02:04:13] Or, everyone can relate to this,
[02:04:15] how can I get paid more without actually working?
[02:04:21] A to the DD.
[02:04:23] How the fine details are not as important as figuring out the reason Netflix canceled Raising Dion
[02:04:30] after three straight years of saying they will be back.
[02:04:36] Three straight years.
[02:04:38] Or how optimistic you are to start the five new projects you learned on TikTok.
[02:04:45] Let me, hear me out.
[02:04:49] What if we like, petition Michael B. Jordan to get the show Raising Dion back and just,
[02:04:57] it’s a good show, it’s for the culture, people, I prompt.
[02:05:02] Okay, next up.
[02:05:04] A to the DD.
[02:05:06] ADHD.
[02:05:07] ADHD’s less energetic brother that never got as much attention as HD
[02:05:11] because doing back flips in the living room and crashing into the glass table wasn’t an option.
[02:05:16] Because, you know, when you’ve been on page one for the same book for the last three days,
[02:05:24] just keep jumping the lines.
[02:05:28] A to the DD.
[02:05:30] Are my cups my cake?
[02:05:31] I never had a homework assignment that wasn’t turned in late.
[02:05:34] I live in a glorious sense of disorganized chaos,
[02:05:36] and I resigned to my fate.
[02:05:38] So I accept the A through the D.
[02:05:40] Because without it, there is no optimism, you see.
[02:05:43] I become immaculate in anything that is impromptu.
[02:05:46] You give me a mic and a stage and I just might surprise you.
[02:05:50] So you can go ahead and drop the last D for disorder.
[02:05:54] Because this is me.
[02:05:57] This is me.
[02:06:00] But I mean, seriously though, what if we got a collection plate going and
[02:06:04] somebody reach out to Michael B just for like, let’s bring this show back.
[02:06:08] Because two seasons and out just doesn’t sit well with my spirit.
[02:06:12] I don’t know about y’all, but like, damn.
[02:06:14] We out like that?
[02:06:16] Full of culture.
[02:06:22] Jasmine!
[02:06:29] You’re lying.
[02:06:30] She’s hiding.
[02:06:31] Finding.
[02:06:32] It’s not a witch hunt.
[02:06:34] I still got time, bro.
[02:06:36] Yeah, believe it or not.
[02:06:38] I got a quick one.
[02:06:41] It’s called Spoken Unheard Words.
[02:06:43] And I know that a lot of people…
[02:06:47] Do you guys want to hear it?
[02:06:48] Yes or no?
[02:06:49] Okay, good.
[02:06:50] I’ll be quick.
[02:06:52] Fight in a battle that no one else can see.
[02:06:55] It’s like drowning in an ocean without the sea.
[02:06:58] Or like living in a body without the me.
[02:07:01] Using every last ounce of energy to lift my head.
[02:07:03] A body starving and feeling left for dead.
[02:07:07] The stains of the stigma are so deep.
[02:07:09] Praying to the Lord God above or anything for my soul to keep.
[02:07:13] I screech.
[02:07:14] I yell.
[02:07:15] I yeet.
[02:07:16] The mouth opens and nothing comes out as if I cannot eat.
[02:07:20] The silence is so loud.
[02:07:24] I speak.
[02:07:25] I spoke.
[02:07:26] I used every word mom would have been proud.
[02:07:28] And still nothing.
[02:07:30] And still nothing.
[02:07:32] He.
[02:07:34] She.
[02:07:35] They.
[02:07:36] Me.
[02:07:37] We.
[02:07:38] Are all crying and trying to say something.
[02:07:41] And still nothing.
[02:07:42] And still nothing.
[02:07:43] Thank you.
[02:07:44] Give it up for David one more time, y’all.
[02:07:45] Yeah.
[02:07:46] She gonna pop back up later.
[02:07:47] We gonna save it for later.
[02:07:48] We surprising later.
[02:07:49] God bless.