Album Notes

It’s different than rap, It’s different than hip hop, It’s different than R&B. As a matter of fact it’s all three rolled into one to create a new genre of music with the same lyrical hype as MCLyte. Its SpokenWord and the newest poet to dot the music scene is POETIQUE!

POETIQUE was born Montia D. Gardner on July 7, 1980, the second child of Pastor Dwight and Sharon Gardner in Gary, IN. She grew up listening to all kinds of music but it was her first introduction to Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman that sparked her poetic appetite. As a youngster, POETIQUE and her sisters would memorize lyrics to songs by Micheal Jackson, Prince, and New Edition and then put on shows for their parents.

One Sunday evening her family sat down to watch a movie. It was Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”. “ I just fell in love with the character. It was like I put myself into the movie and that’s where I wanted to be. I loved to read and so did she, I loved to write and so did she.” The next week Dunbar Pulaski Middle School where she attended as an 8th grader held a poetry writing contest. “ The morning of the contest I went into the bathroom where my mother had a plaque with the copy of the poem “IF” by Rudyard Lipling. I copied the poem and tried to pass it off as my own, not knowing that this was a world reknowned author and a world reknowned poem”. Needless to say POETIQUE didn’t win the contest but it was her teachers words that helped her decide that writing was what she had to do. “Ms. Starling told me, “This is not your poem, but I’m not angry because you copied it, I’m angry because you were too lazy to write one of your own”.

When POETIQUE entered high school she began to read more and more and familiarize herself with literary poetic functions. Her Theatre teacher entered her into a speech contest and she won first prize for her original essay “My people will perish for lack of knowledge”. This was the beginning of her winning streak and before she graduated high school had won over five speech contests.

While a student at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois she received her first chance to share her poetry with an audience after a fellow track teammate from Nigeria was accused of raping a caucasion woman on campus. This enraged her, and the only way she knew to express herself was through her writing. The students loved it, and everytime she was inspired to write, they would be her audience. After receiveing her degree in Seconday Education/ English she began teaching Poetry and Drama, English, and Social Studies in Matteson, Illinois. Her inspiration became her students and as they would share their trials and tribulations with her, she would share her poetry with them.

One day at a parent teacher conference, one of the parents who was also a music producer asked her to share some of the poetry that his daughter had come home talking about. Not knowing that this would spark a musical relationship that would put her poetry in the ears of the entire nation, she started reciting.

On December 9, 2006 POETIQUE became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Gary Alumnae Chapter. Soon after crossing she had the disinct opportunity of presenting Soror Nikki Giovanni with a poem “ What do I know about Nikki?”. This still remains one of her fondest memories “ It was like a dream come true, to sit next to this poetic giant, a twig among a timber of a woman”.

On July 7, 2007, ironicaly her 27th birthday POETIQUE will release her debut album “Live, Breathe, and Write”. It is her greatest accomplishment and her most cherished possesion. It is her life on CD!