Koi Nikole is highly personable and motivational. Although she has no qualms sharing life lessons based on her own, it’s not accurate to define her as an “open book.” It’s more apropos to say the poet/author is a manuscript opened privately years ago that’s evolving with new chapters of self-discovery.
Last week, Nikole was spotlighted on KMOV’s “First Alert” for the debut of her coloring book collection designed to “uplift Black children.” The male coloring book is titled, “Bruh Be Amazing,” the female one is titled, “Sis You’re Amazing.”
Released during Black History Month, her new coloring books with stunning images reflect Black culture and provide positive affirmations and mental health exercises that encourage youth to recognize their potential, manage emotional intelligence, log their dreams and, most importantly, see beauty and brilliance in themselves.
“In a lot of spaces, especially with African American boys, we don’t have those visuals for them,” Nikole told news anchor, Melanie Johnson. “Those are things that I really wanted my sons to see.”
Nikole went on to say: “You don’t know all the greatness that’s in you…. keep being creative, keep using your imagination, and the sun is not going to stop shining on you.”
Few knew she was summarizing the footsteps of her own journey.
Nikole said she lived a sheltered life. As an only child raised by a mother she described as “book smart” and a father who was “street-smart,” she was gifted with attributes from both. Nikole was an outgoing, excellent student who took to tutoring her cousins with their school assignments. After high school, the young lady-who had limited religion in her life-became religiously active. By the age of 25, she was married and, on her way, to mothering five children.
Life up to that point, Nikole said, didn’t really challenge her; didn’t force her to come face-to-face with who she was or who she really wanted to be.
“I was really working hard to make it good on the other side (marriage and children), not on my side. I was doing what I was told I was supposed to do as a good mother and a good wife.”
A divorce after 14 years from “a controlling marriage,” Nikole said, became her accidental liberation and doorway into herself. Before her marriage dissolved, she was a stay-at-home mom and homeschooler. Most of her time was spent preparing lessons for her children and participating in their sports activities. Divorce, however, meant getting a full-time job and transitioning her kids from home to traditional schooling.
As a homeschooler, Nikole recognized that she had a gift for communication and psychology-techniques she used in her children’s lessons. She decided to enroll in college and eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in corporate communications and a master’s in communications, with an emphasis in training and development.
While at times working two jobs, while attending classes, Nikole said she got the “inspiration to write” about her experiences. During breaks at work, she forced herself to write 15 minutes a day and, little by little, chapters of a book began to emerge.
In 2013, Nikole published The Phoenix Awakens, a book of 50 or so poems with 30 color photographs that she described as “an escalation of one’s power.” One of the pieces, “Good Girl Blues,” could be narration from her actual experience:
“I know you trying to just be right…And you didn’t anticipate the fight…Naïve that everyone is just like you…Honest, hardworking, committed and true…Karma got your blessings and new walking shoes…Abundance if you learn how to overturn Good Girl Blues.”
“It’s about the parts of my life where there was an issue and l learned something from it,” Nikole explained. “Every poem presents an issue and how I resolved the situation. And, for the reader, it invites them to think about those issues and resolutions.”
Similarly, her coloring books invite readers to be introspective; to not just color pages but absorb words and phrases that focus on “excellence, entrepreneurship, stress reduction,” getting to “the better qualities” of being a young man and a young woman and more, she said.
Nikole, who had found enviable success in the corporate world of communication, was unexpectedly laid off last year. She said it was emotionally draining but after a couple of months she was able to “recalibrate herself” and focus on things that “make me high.” The coloring books are examples of finding her “best resonating self” she said.
Nikole is currently working on a book based on the values she wishes for her four sons.
“The working thesis is about the things I want them to know so they can grow up to be men that women respect,” she explained.
She may return to the “corporate space,” Nikole said, but, for the moment, she’s enjoying producing material that uplifts; sharing motivational messages and experiences on her social media platforms; selling merchandize, motivational speaking and “empowering others to be their best version and using their talents to inspire,” she said.
The future may be unknown, but she will be in command of its direction. Purposeful or not, Nikole’s work carries the continuing theme of self-sufficiency.
“I believe things happen the way they’re supposed to happen, but you can change them,” she explained. “Your choice, your mindset really makes the difference. If you accept that you have power in all this, then you know and can say, ‘this is not happening to me, I am getting ready to happen to it!’”
Sylvester Brown Jr. is the Deaconess Foundation Community Advocacy Fellow.
