a collection of ghostly portraiture

NeNe' Izima

Open Mic Queen, Fierce defender of Poets, Charitable Sunshine

My first time ever attending The Avenue Cafe's open mic happened to be the first time Ne tried out stand-up comedy. I sipped a cheap, warming PBR from a mason jar from the bar and fixed my eyes on her (even though I was on a date and probably should have been striking up clever conversation, but as Ne would say, you should pay the fuck attention to the performers) I have to say that it made my entire night.

The Avenue Cafe's ambient lighting lit the stage up like a halo surrounding her presence as she joked about her dating life.

"I am Nigerian," she said. "I had a guy say to me once, 'Man I bet you seen some crazy shit!' " And she scoffed, "Yeah, man, I really miss my pet zebra."

A roll of the eyes as the crowd teared up. "I don't know what's up with people during sex sometimes.... there's a difference between kinky and serial killer."

"This isn't comedy guys, this is my therapy session."

The second time I had attended the open mic I had enough trashy beer to have the confidence to try and talk to her outside of the venue. Erupting into a compliment war, I asked to take her portrait and she was so much more excited than I had expected. I later learned that Ne actually co-hosts the open mic with her friend Mimi Fisher.  Which is held once a month.

Now Ne has been doing stand up for about a year. "My style is to simply tell the truth of the fucked up reality of my life sometimes. Shit, I talk to the audience like I would the homies."




Recently I had the privilege to interview with The Impact: The Under Current with Ne herself in which we got to talk about Spectre. Ne mentioned how she felt more empowered during her witchy/androgynous shoot with me, describing it as threatening and feeling more body positive. But Ne deserves all of the spotlight, in my opinion. 

She actually  models on and off as well as being a full-time mother, social worker at a great girls home, college graduate and part-time comedian. Quintuple threat, much?

"As far as body imagery goes, I used to be very down on myself. Being black in my community being thick is a thing. I'm petite so I used to try and gain weight. Since I have a son, I also have stretch marks. So I use to hide that," she explained to me on my porch after our interview with The Impact. "But after getting tired of trying to change for people that kept criticizing me, I learned to work with my imperfections." She used finger quotations around the word. "Laugh at them. Up them in comedy. More importantly, don't give a fuck."

During my second shoot with Ne, she expressed she had a specific look in mind for her outfit. Blazer, tie, harness bra underneath. Sporting the best of masculine and feminine fashion. "I rock it to the fullest. Being femme and androgynous, I mean. You can be a girl and sit with your legs open and have armpit hair and be desirable. You can also slap make up on and fucking slay. Beauty is beauty in whatever form."  

I love to ask people what their guilty pleasures are. She answered with, "I watch a lot of reality TV and crush on friends. They think we are friends but in my head, we really married." I'm keeping my fingers crossed here, guys.

 

If you ever go through Ne's social media, you'll see her absolutely dashing son, David, who dresses better than any grown man you've ever seen. "Ha, my kid is 5 going on 30," she joked, "He makes my parenting job easy. He's a soccer boy and he loves being on camera just as much as I do." And its true. There's a video of him dancing and singing a long to Hot Line Bling. Should've went viral.

Ne has an upcoming charity event at The Avenue Cafe this Friday, June 3rd. It's a 90's-themed Throwback Friday Benefit. All proceeds will be going to Eve's House and Haven House to help women and family's whom are victim to domestic/sexual abuse. She has gathered up some Lansing poets (including myself) and musicians to perform, including other shares from survivors. Ne will also be talking on a very personal level, coming out about being a survivor from the domestic violence in her past that had landed in the news. It'll be $5 at the door, but it's going to a wonderful cause.