Devonnte DeJarnette first got involved with poetry at the age of ten. The poem had to be about someone he idolized and he wrote about Michael Jordan. Dejarnette won a 1st place trophy and a free meal a Denny's with this poem. He also entered an online poetry contest which he won as well. The poem he wrote was called "Drunk". The poem was based on an intoxication of love. His poem was published in a book.

Dejarnette is now  19  years old and works at Fire Historical And Cultural Arts Collaborative. Dejarnette wishes to continue to influence others  and to publish his poems in a book one day. He became inspired to do this after seeing his mother perform her poems for others. His mother was a care provider for disabled veterans and worked another part time job at a daycare center. DeJarnette said he liked poetry because his mother could motivate others and make them feel good through her poetry.  
 
DeJarnette, at aged nine, and his older sister Takita, then aged 30 moved from California to Kalamazoo, Mi. DeJarnette says he moved “because I was having  conflicts  with my parents”.  A year later his parents moved to Kalamazoo and Dejarnette moved in with them, putting aside the past. After about six years, his parents were not employed and weren't enjoying the cold winter weather that Kalamazoo was having, so they decided to move the family to Allen,TX. Once there, Devonnte graduated high school and was hopeful that the family would find more opportunities there.

Things weren't going well however, so after 2 years DeJarnette moved back to Kalamazoo with another sister. This time DeJarnette her returned to work in a non-profit that he had previously been involved with at Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative where they do many different programs such as poetry, recording, arts,  talent shows, event coordinating, and more. DeJarnette says he first became interested in Fire before his move to Texas because he was very passionate about poetry .        

Michelle Johnson is the executive director of Fire, where she met DeJarnette. Three years ago Dejarnette was introduced to Fire by Javon a talented young man who worked there. Javon was working on a two week summer project called On Fire where a producer by the named Pharlon Randle came to record the youth at Fire. That’s where DeJarnette's rapping talent as well as his performing talent got introduced to everyone at Fire. "DeJarnette was very quiet and shy normally, but would be very funny one on one" says Michelle.  DeJarnette has a lot of talents such as being a poet, a leader with great goals for the world, a believer in social justice, a journalist , a media specialist, and a rapper. These are only just a few of the talents he uses on a daily basis while working at Fire.

DeJarnette is interested in  and gets to learn more about journalism through Fire by writing articles and doing projects that they offer. “Since first working at Fire at the age of 15 he's matured and become more responsible now, from coming in late everyday, to now coming in early, and focuses more on work tasks, “ says Michelle. 

Denise Miller, Public Arts Director at Fire says “DeJarnette is a good poet”. She met Dejarnette at an open mic event at Fire. She said “Since meeting DeJarnette, he's become more interested and concerned with political , economical, and environmental issues, and more comfortable with others than before working at Fire”. Miller feels that others can be inspired by him since he's a high school graduate with dreams and hope to do better. Miller  said “I admired how he left Allen,TX to come and work all the way in Kalamazoo at Fire”. DeJarnette said I want others to take chances to achieve their goals and dreams.  Dearnette's thankful for Fire because it's showed him how to bring his talents to the highest level and would recommend for others to go to Fire. He's glad to have kept hope for all these years for Miller and Johnson. He said, “I don’t know what my life would be like without Johnson and Miller. Thanks to them I pursed new passions and talents that I didn’t know I had.”