Performance poetry is giving more depth to poems – Salamatu Sule
How did you start poetry? I started writing poetry from a tender age more as a squiggle. I did it for fun and would often play with words. I never felt it was perfect though so each time I wrote a piece of poem, I would shred it before it became a finished product. However, […]
How did you start poetry?
I started writing poetry from a tender age more as a squiggle. I did it for fun and would often play with words. I never felt it was perfect though so each time I wrote a piece of poem, I would shred it before it became a finished product. However, in 1999 I was privileged to have represented my school in a poetry event that took place in Minna, Niger state I still remember the title of the poem given to us was, ‘Receding Light.’ This was all I needed as it explode and awaken the passion for my writing poetry. I knew after that particular event, I would one day summon the courage to write and document my poems so, In 2011 I started to write poetry proper.
You will be representing Nigeria in Frankfurt. Could you tell us about the event and what this means for you?
I feel honoured and happy to be representing Nigeria at the forth coming Frankfurt Book Fair scheduled for next week. This means I will be going to learn and gain experience about the world’s largest book festival. It feels good that for every event such as this, one always comes out better and hopeful to give back and share with my immediate environment the enormous wealth of knowledge and experience gathered.
For me only after this, I can begin to review our own existing platforms to see how certain structures can be fixed as there are so many challenges facing the Nigerian book industry at the moment. Frankfurt Book fair is the most important and largest book industry in the world. It is a platform where you get to meet publishers, agents, film producers and so on.
For me it is the beginning of exploring new ideas and how to shape the existing platform including how to overcome the challenges with the hope to receiving partnerships from the networks in the near future.
How would you describe your kind of poetry?
First, I don’t write romantic poems, (laughs) because I get inspired by events around me. My poetry reflects our socio-political, education and economic condition. Recently, I wrote a poem titled ‘Roses of Chibok’ to mark the global week of action in commemoration of the missing Chibok girls. I’m looking forward to publishing my first collection of poems titled the ‘Orchestra of Her Last Rites.’
What inspires your lyrics?
When I ask my pen to go summon poetry to my court, I am usually at the time armed with lyrics that can best convey the message of the subject matter. I don’t kill myself over how rhythmic my line flows especially if the issues am writing on is critical in nature. I write a poem every person can understand and relate with while hoping that someone gets the message. I hope to work more on the Haiku form of poetry soon, as I am very interested in that area.
Who have you been most influenced by and what is it about the person that influenced you?
I love everything literature and because of that, I have different literary persona. For example, in the area of poetry, I find poets like Alexandra Pope from his work on ‘Essay on Man’ highly inspiring and Oswald Mitshali for his ‘Night Fall in Soweto.’ In the area of literary criticism, is always Roland Barthes, he is the reason I am into book reviews. For fiction I have Zainab Alkali.
How well would you say poetry sits among other literary genres in Nigeria?
Unlike other genres, poetry is the most complicated as students of literature tends to focus on the other genres. People like to read novels and short stories than buy poetry materials. The good news is that poetry is beginning to gain currency in Nigeria as performance poets are taking poetry to another level.
There are different trends with poetry today like performance poetry and some others. Do you have a flair for any of these? Why, if you do or if you don’t?
I do have flair for performance poetry and have tried to record my poems in this regard too. I was involved in an audio collection of performance poetry by performance artistes under the auspices of ‘Raising Our Voice.’ This is evidence of my love for this trend because whether we like it or not poetry must be rendered in thought before being put down to paper.
Do you think these trends water down or take away from poetry?
Performance poetry complements the written form and brings people to appreciating poetry as a genre because honestly poetry had never been given the kind of attention like other genres of literature receive. So, if the performer poet uses his medium to bring people to appreciating poetry, then I can only say it waters it for people to key into it for better understanding of the genre.
What subjects do you like to reflect in your poetry and why?
My poetry usually reflects various subjects such as moral decadence in the society, politics, and religion. I was opportune to be part of a poetivist movement on verse up against women and children from all forms of abuse. We were through the group, able to come up with a full collection of poems from poets all over the country about women and children who sadly are the most vulnerable in our society.
As secretary of ANA, what is the most challenging part of your job?
This is a million dollar question. (Laughs) well nothing comes without its challenges, and ANA is one big family where you find authors from different works of life under one roof striving for one goal; changing the society through the mouthpiece of their pen. The most challenging part of my job is the issue of getting a suitable reading venue and funding to run the secretariat. You see, the Association can always do better than it is doing now when it has source of income for a smooth running of its secretariat. Though the Savannah Suite Hotel has been doing tremendously well as every first Thursday of the month it is usually given to us at no cost. But we still need a venue to run our critique session and other funds for a creative writers’ programme for young writers. Also, our efforts have been frustrated due to the fact that we are still battling to get a secretariat. All these make my job difficult.
When you are about to write, how does a poem begin for you?
I invoke my pen, so it just flows. I do not like to edit my poems as it turns out to be something else, content wise.
With regards to poetry, how do you describe yourself?
I like to describe myself as a poetivist, although I do not know if the dictionary recognises that yet. All I know is that, those who use poetry to enforce effective positive change should be poetivist just like you have with the activists.
Why is poetry important?
A lot of people often ask if poetry matters as there are other literary genres that communicate more details. Poetry sometimes can be a personal affair but poetry is deeply human too. I don’t know the language I can best use to describe my mood, feelings happiness and anger if not through poetry. Poetry is the only one I can summon as I wish and which will respond without further delay. I need your number to call you and pray that you pick the call. This is not so with poetry as it brings you happiness and takes you out of your dilemma.
A lot of poetry is in strict form. How do you choose the form of your poems?
I wouldn’t say my form are really strict, I don’t just see myself writing romantic poems until the mood gives room for it. My poems usually are run on line which in the poetic parlance is called enjambment and people can easily read my poems except that they sometimes find it severe.
Are there any forms you haven’t tried but would like to?
Yes, sonnet. I tried to deconstruct it once but not really got at it. I hope to do more of the Japanese Haiku form of poetry using traditional African content and narratives.
What conditions help you with your writing process?
Mood and muse helps me with my writing process most of it usually drawn from anger of the unending negative events that lurk around every day; the biggest being corruption, violence in the name of religion.
Where do you write?
I write in the kitchen, my room and while travelling by bus. Three lovely places I tell you.
What is the relationship between your speaking voice and your written voice?
Cordial, I speak to my pen and it responds with a different voice, very different from my usual conversation voice. When I am writing usually, I am like a character you read in a book and while speaking I am just me. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you.
What do you see as the role of humour in poetry?
The role of humour poetry is to cause readers to laugh and be happy. But sometimes, humour poetry can be more of mockery than just the usual – bit extraordinary if you ask me.