The Artist Formerly Known As Cassaundra

Even dressed for her jobs at and , Cassaundra Dian'ee Bingaman is striking. But if you ask for her by that name, few will know her. She goes by Yo' Sista, the petite spoken-word artist.

"I have been managing Shane's and Moe's since I was 20 years old," said Yo' Sista, now 23. "I call it 'the other side of Cinderella'—behind a broom by day, behind a mic by night." 

She always dreamed of becoming a spoken-word artist. She just didn't know that's what it was called until she was 15.

That's when she watched a poet named Georgia Me on a DVD in the basement of her Maryland home. Yo' Sista was riveted.

It would be seven years before her vision would become reality.

* * *

Yo' Sista's parents split when she was young, then she split when she was 16.

"They got married at 17 and didn't understand," she said. "They didn't have a manual, ya know?" 

She lived the life of a vagabond for a while, living here and there, doing this and that. She ended up at her dad's in Canton in 2004 and graduated from a year later.

Canton is where Cassaundra Bingaman became Yo' Sista.

"The name 'Sista' was given to me by a man named Johnny Willis, (a Canton native) who just recently passed this year," she said. "He and his wife gave me a place to live when I was homeless. I want to honor him."

Homelessness wasn't her only detour. In 2008, she was arrested for driving with a suspended license and possession of marijuana, charges that were expunged after she served 65 days in the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.

While there, a woman from in Woodstock visited her. Sister Dorene pressed her with the same question every time she came: "What has been one thing constant in your life?"

"It was that vision," Yo' Sista said. "That picture of me, a microphone and a crowd. I've had mommas, stepmommas, dads and stepdads, stepbrothers and sisters. All that has changed. But that, that was the one constant."

* * *

Her first performance was in 2009 as a featured poet at Londzell's Martini Lounge & Restaurant in Roswell. She performed for eight weeks straight, then weekly with a live band. Later, with the same band, she was the solo spoken-word artist in a show at Center Stage in Atlanta.

A creative writing teacher from in Stone Mountain was in the audience and invited Yo' Sista to perform for her students. That teacher introduced her to another spoken word artist—Georgia Me.

"I was blown away," she said. "There she was, the first artist I ever saw. I felt like I'd come full circle."  

Yo' Sista's vision has expanded beyond a microphone and a crowd. She plans to produce a 'Poetry in Prison' tour.

"I'll go to any prison that will have me and uplift the inmates through my poetry," Yo' Sista said. "I also want to open a Yo' Sista Foundation in Canton for children and teens, and partner with the probate courts to give an option for community service in Cherokee County."

And now you've met Yo' Sista.

YO' SISTA'S PERFORMING NEAR YOU

Feb. 19: Open mic night at My Corner Office in Canton

Every Thursday beginning summer 2011: Urban Grind in Atlanta