She Speaks

Celest “Celest Divine” Ngeve is the Director at Rutland Academy, the founder of SheSPEAKS Academy Mentoring Program, a motivational speaker, poet, community activist, spoken word artist, author, therapist and life coach. She's dedicated to helping individuals reach their full potential via education and mental/physical/emotional/financial wellness in order to help them become their own risk managers and take full control over their own lives. She works with all populations, however working with youth via therapy and education over the past 15 years has been her proudest accomplishment. She also focuses a lot of her work on women empowerment as well because her philosophy is that when you empower a woman, the entire universe benefits. She's about to release her fifth book, Calming the Chaos (Who Heals the Healer?) for educators, therapists, social workers, parents, bus drivers, physicians, caretakers and anyone else that prioritizes others' wellness before their own which leads to burn out, stress, mental breakdowns and physical issues. Calming the Chaos includes experiences, practical interventions, self-care strategies and effective ways to decrease stress and increase quality of life.

Full Bio

Celest Ngeve made her grand entrance into the universe in September of 1981 as an old soul full of wisdom and energy. Though she spent most of her life in Athens, GA, her roots extend to Cameroon, West Africa. She was birthed to be a poet, motivator, educator, therapist, yet writing was always her initial therapeutic release. She tapped into the art at the youthful age of 8. At the age of eleven she was featured in an anthology of poetry for her poem, Now I See. 
Celest fell in love with spoken word when she was asked to recite a Black History event at her high school in 1997. She owned the words that danced in her throat and performed them with that exact passion. She wrote about everything; bluntly chronicling progression and regression of African people, love, pain, struggle, sacrifice, motivation, life, death, and became particularly fond of writing about women reclaiming their lost identities. Inspired by the poetry and prose of legends such as Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, Sonia Sanchez, bell hooks, Alice Walker, Pearl Cleage, she wrote everything she could. She’s performed in living rooms, coffee houses, open mic spaces, major venues of thousands as well as more intimate spaces of twenty or more in the crowd, weddings, empowerment summits, birthday celebrations, funerals and on any stage she was booked for /invited to that made her feel a connection. A beautiful full figured woman that's comfortable in her own skin. 

In college, Celest became very involved with several open mic and spoken word venues. She also landed roles in plays and monologues that made her love the art of spoken word even more.
 

In February 2004, Celest self-published and released her first book of poetry, You Don't Know Me (Poetry of a Diva Under Construction), and a 2nd book, Butterfly Revolution: She Speaks Again, in February of 2007 along with her long awaited cd, Wisdom Pimpin,' which included "TODAY (I'm Not a Poet)," "Perfect Imperfections," "No Response Necessary," and "Addicted." In 2008, Celest Divine released REAListically SPEAKing which was heavily inspired by her growth and role as a teacher, therapist and children's advocate. She joined the soul collective, African Soul-a blend of soul music and spoken word with group member Drena Williams in 2010. They're debut cd, Eclectic Gumbo, was released in February of 2011. She excitedly played the role of Eve in the stage play, A Rhyme Deferred, with many other talented actors and actresses under the dynamic directorship of Scotty Gannon in 2014. On September 13, 2014 (Celest Divine's Born Day), African Soul released their sophomore project, Agape and are currently working on new music. During the summer and fall of 2015, African Soul along with amazing spoken word artist, singer and guitarist M.Lewis toured several cities for The StoryTellers Tour with opening acts such as poets, K. Chante' and Bridgette Burton. Celest's first novel will be released in 2017. 

Celest believes that knowledge through education is the key to progression. She acquired a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Sociology from Albany State University in 2004 and went on to get Master Degrees from American Intercontinental University (Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction) and Argosy University (Master of Community Counseling in Marriage and Family Therapy). She's joyfully employed as the Director in special education where she manages a great staff and works with the coolest kids, facilitates meetings, professional learning, crisis management and implements therapeutic support and crisis de-escalation for children with severe emotional behavior disorders. 

The clever poet and educator founded SheSPEAKS Academy Mentoring Program for girls between the ages of 9-12 as well as the Queens Empowerment Sessions via her #SheSPEAKS empowerment brand which are monthly events that utilizes therapeutic strategies and interventions to assist young and adult women with self-growth, self-love, self-awareness, self-care, self-advocacy, problem solving skills, self-esteem building, interpersonal skill building and all facets of mental/emotional/spiritual/physical wellness.

Celest is one of those humble famous folks that's comfortably imperfectly perfect. She is talented, passionate, hardworking, and very loyal to making positive changes in the community and the universe through her involvement in community organizations and she's a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. For BOOKING info, please contact Celest Divine via email at cngeve@hotmail.com and follow her on Facebook @CelestNgeve as wellTwitter and Instagram @CelestDivine.