Rachel Ann Haugabook was 15 years old when she started her first paying gig as a spoken word performer, presenting her interpretive skills at poetry shows at the Black Academy of Arts and Letters in Dallas.
“I was paid to perform two to three pieces every Thursday night,” she said. The venue served alcohol, so one of her parents always had to accompany her.
Today, at 31, Haugabook goes by Rah Kalon. She transformed her name—her initials to form Rah and the Greek word for beauty, Kalon—and she transformed herself.
She wrote her poem “My Self Worth” while a student at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Inspired by heartbreak, self-realization, self-worth and self-acceptance, she said she embraced authenticity and realized she had nothing to prove to anyone. Pretty high ideals for a 16-year-old.
“I’m an old soul,” Kalon said.
Kalon started writing verse around age 7.
“I have always loved expressing myself through words and through writing,” she said.
Kalon has a master's degree in clinical counseling and works as a life coach, helping people recover from anxiety, grief and self-doubt.
The poem “Mosaic,” she said, was inspired by a women’s retreat she conducts to promote healing from intergenerational trauma.
“My poetry speaks to an awareness of this infinite love that is a part of each of us,” she said. “And it speaks to connecting with the fact that you're never going to be who you were. So lean into who you're becoming and lean into it with confidence.”
How to see more from Rah Kalon:
- Instagram: @rahkalon
- Tiktok: @rahkalon
- Facebook: Rah Kalon