Bubblegum Club

Tag: poet

  • Detroit’s Marcus Marcus is a poet not a rapper

    Detroit’s Marcus Marcus is a poet not a rapper

    Detroit-based artist Marcus Marcus doesn’t describe himself as a rapper. “I’d describe myself as a poet who has a fairly good ear for music,” he states simplistically. While the earliest Marcus Marcus releases can be traced back about 7 years ago, he struggles to pin down when the artist was born, as Marcus Marcus is a true expression of who he is as a person. “I really think since birth because all of that has to do with how I approach music, what songs I pick, who is producing music.”

    Both the city of his birth and the family that raised him have had a marked impact on his journey as an artist. Musically this includes his older sister exposing him to the likes of Jay-Z and Master P, to him discovering homebred ghettotech from the likes of Blade Icewood & MC Reid, the pioneering work of Detroit techno producers, and the unique flows of Detroit rappers. “If I could name names it’s tough but rapping wise first MF Doom showed me the work it takes to write rap, Lil B showed me you can just be yourself and eventually the right people will catch up”. Marcus Marcus recalls adding that the groundbreaking work of composer and artists Julius Eastman has also had a major influence on him.

    Describing his approach to writing as instinctual, he traces his first encounters with poetry to middle school and an amazing English teacher helped spark his love for the language. “It’s this intuition, this beam of light from, I dunno, the universe, ancestors, and I just start writing. The moment I hit record usually doesn’t have a lot to do with what I’ve written, and what I’ve written may turn into something later or it just may never come up.” This approach is evident on 2012’s “THE NEW Audio Album” which he describes as a lyrically spontaneous album, with everything recorded as a 1-take freestyle rap.

    His latest release is a compilation of tracks created between 2013 – 2015 and is a collage of the music he was listening to at the time, and the words they inspired. “I spend hours really looking for new music or further researching, going into back catalogues of artists that I really admire, so people like Oneohtrix Point Never, there’s a James Blake thing on there, Thom Yorke had dropped this crazy, free album that you could torrent. So I chose to do that because I made it a point to listen to music that didn’t have words. Words come to me when I hear something that’s different and it just kinda connects with me”.

    ‘D I S S U A S I O N’, Marcus Marcus’ May 2017 release is one he views as his most cohesive to date. Rather than just a record, it is an art piece and a reflection of the moment in time in which it was created. “It’s not a comfortable record at all because we’re not living in comfortable times. At that moment when it came out, that’s how chaotic things seemed, that’s how peaceful things seemed, that’s how cohesive things seemed, that’s how disruptive things seemed,” explains Marcus Marcus. Purchase of the piece includes not only the digital release but also context around the piece. “You get all the lyrics, you get how I approached the music, you get my thought process, it’s me literally in the moment, typing, letting you know my thought process the whole time.”

    2018 sees Marcus Marcus focusing on bringing the physical representation of ‘D I S S U A S I O N’ to life with installations and performances planned. “I’m planning on doing installations, I feel like with such a wild record it needs something else to meet it. To make it make more sense. If you listen to it, it just sounds like a crazy guy maybe. Yelling and going crazy but also if you really listen to it, you feel it.”’

    “Self-discovery, self-knowledge & self-love,” says Marcus Marcus of what he is trying to convey with his music. “Those 3 are exactly what it is. A little bit cryptic if you listen to my music, but if you really listen and take your time that’s exactly what it is. Because I think it’s about bettering the world around you but it starts with yourself and just pushing the limits and having fun as well.”

     

  • Modise Sekgothe // Performance poet, actor, playwright, vocalist, and instrumentalist

    Modise Sekgothe is a multifaceted Johannesburg-based artist with multiple titles. Performance poet, actor, playwright, vocalist, and instrumentalist. Each title is representative of a world that he has created through the mastering of his pen. The foundation of Modise’s worlds is writing, which is seemingly a need.

    The urgency to write began when the verbose poetic nature of Underground Hip-Hop “happened” to Modise in 2008. This genre of music is congested with information, which caused Modise to pick up a dictionary, a thesaurus, books and do extensive research in order to understand and exercise his own personal skills during cyphers. “I was just going at it…for a solid two years, every single day for at least an hour, I was doing that and it was bad, it was all bad, but it was a kind of chaffing away at the muscle because I had naturally found that by the time I was getting into the poetry space in UJ (University of Johannesburg) in 2010, I knew how to put words together, what to throw away and the muscle of writing was much, much stronger.”

    Photography by Nokuthula Mbatha

    In 2014, Modise’s poem To Die Before You Die, won the Perfect Poem at the Word n Sound Awards and the “pressure from the natural journey as a fickle human” the achievement was “a sort of shadow” afterwards. “There is a period when the weight of what you’ve done sort of interferes with what you’re able to do moving forward but if you are good for yourself, you can see the toxicity of that and you can wake up as quickly as you can.”

    Modise’s awakening to the abundance of creativity within him has been successful. Alongside multimedia projects like Metropolar and Mirror Me, he has also combined his poetry into a musical live context as Children of the Wind, with kindred musical creative.

    Most recently as Modise journeys towards an album, he created an EP, DIPOKO tsa DIPOKO. The title of the EP hauntingly uses the words ‘poems’ and ‘ghost’ as these chilling musical compositions and soul-stirring vocals bring life the ghosts of poems / poems of ghosts / poems of poems / ghosts of ghosts.

    You could find Modise and Itai sharing their gifts at the Curiosity Bagpackers in Maboneng every Sunday afternoon or find out more of Modies’s upcoming works and performances Twitter or Instagram.

  • Katleho Kano Shoro: ‘Serurubele’ poetry collection take off and the writing on the wings

    Writing can take many forms and take people on multiple journeys. South African-based poet, researcher, project manager and content editor, Katleho Kano Shoro, recognises the reflective and transformative power of words. I interviewed her about soon to be released book, Serurubele, published by South African publishing house Modjaji Books. Katleho also shared with me the metamorphosis of her personal relationship with writing.

    Tell me about the relationship you have with writing and how it has evolved over the years? Do you have a particular relationship with poetry that is different from other forms of writing? How did this come into play with Serurubele?

    I need to write. I keep a journal where I go through my thoughts, emotions, ideals and plans with myself: my level of honesty, analysis and healing through this kind of writing has grown from when I first kept a journal. As an academic within the social sciences, I am basically trained in reading and writing. And although writing my Master’s dissertation was one of the hardest pieces of writing I have ever had to produce, the process taught me discipline and perseverance where discipline falls short. I learned to understand my own writing processes, as well as the importance of writing with integrity. Oh and the more I write in general, the more I appreciate the value of editing and then of learning to let go once I have written in the best way I can. So maybe I can say my relationship with writing is one that teaches me basic life skills too.

    I have come to embrace my need for writing in order to stay sane – particularly where poetry is concerned – so the relationship has strengthened. This means that I am actively learning more about poetry and I am doing more research about the things I write about. The newer poems in Serurubele are a reflection of my growth and an embrace of this kind writing. I am in the caterpillar stages of playing around with form and learning to tame English (in the Chinua Achebe and Ntate Keorepetse Kgositsile sense) within my writing.

    Also, poetry is more than writing to me. Besides using it to reflect on the world, poetry has allowed me to speak through more than words, i.e. through performance. This, in turn, has made me more aware of presence – mine and others – within poetry spaces. This awareness feeds my writing and reach for narratives with integrity.

    ‘Serurubele’ is coming out in August 2017. Would you like to share the creative journey that you went on to put this work together?

    For starters, the journey has taken years! I had to begin seeing poetry as more than a cathartic process. I had to begin respecting the craft and profession and work on it. I am glad it has taken so long though. It has taught me to work towards goals but also be patient – especially with myself and life’s timing. Serurubele is coming out at a time when I have learnt to trust that I too am an intellectual, and that there are other creative intellectuals who have been here…who are here. This publishing journey has had its hiccups and twists; through them, I am beginning to expect that people treat me (as Motho) and my craft with respect. I too am learning to be a creative who gives poetry its due respect.

    When putting ‘Serurubele’ together did you imagine a particular reader in mind?

    At the beginning it was simply fellow poets, creatives and academics. Then it was my gran because she represented the elders I was trying to make proud. Now, I am hoping that some of the poems resonate with people who do not particularly go out searching for poetry as well as the friends (or rather age group) of my nephews and nieces. The idea of having poetry conversations with people who are not in the creative and academic industries seems like a necessary part of Serurubele’s life (as well as the poetry industries general growth).

    What are some of the themes you have covered in ‘Serurubele’? What journey can people expect to be taken on through this book?

    Well, of course each reader will have his/her own journey with the collection. But if I were to lead a tour, I would ask the reader to note that there are explorations of performance, writing and poetry throughout the collection. We begin the tour by being present and acknowledging that we carry the knowledges of many. We then move into a space of grappling with (and reaching for) different parts of identity – particularly black, African identity. Here, language, histories, pan-Africanism and masculinity are themes. Fatherhood is present. Whim, bliss and colour feature too. Then we reflect on mourning loved ones and return full cycle to the idea of not doing this life thing alone.

    Anything else you would like to mention about ‘Serurubele’?

    The name “serurubele” means “butterfly” in Sesotho. Nevertheless, the collection is mostly written in English, salted with black, African sensibilities (from my experiences and understandings) and peppered with Sesotho. You tell me if the meal works…

    What are some of the themes you like to explore through your words?

    Broadly speaking, my words and work are rooted in my understanding that creativity and art are an important space where intellect thrives. My work mostly centres on African intellectualism. Unfortunately, we are still at the point where we have to remind ourselves, as Africans, and others, that we too are intellectuals and hold many kinds of knowledge. Also, as full humans we are complex and layered. All other themes in my work tend to stem from these understandings.

    To find out the details for the launch of Serurubele or to pre-order the book, check out Katleho Shoro on Facebook or follow her on Twitter.

    Photography by Theodorah Ndlovu

  • Jéad Stehr // FUTURE 76

    Born at the turn of the century, eighteen year old chocolate-ice-cream-eating and mom to seven cats, Jéad Stehr captures her reality through the photographic lens. In between working for a record label and the occasional episode of American Gods, the young artist explores social and gender issues through her practice of poetry and photography.

    “At about the age of nine or ten I started writing stories and poems, things like that. I also started entering them in competitions.” Instead of putting the traditional pen to paper, “I like typing things”. She often stores an entire anthology on her cell phone. Initially writing down her stream of consciousness and then engaging in a rigorous editing process afterwards: carving out the words until a poem is fully formed.

    Two years later, Jéad began her photography career after pocketing her dad’s camera. “After I took my dad’s camera…one of the videographers came down from I think Nigeria. He saw me playing around with the camera and he said ‘nah girl, you need to learn how to use this camera properly.’ So he like sat me down and gave me a whole day for the basics on how to shoot and change settings on this camera. Then I just felt so committed to it.”

    Thematically, her work revolves around the notion of self-narration. “I focus a lot on the things going on around me. Majority of the work is a reflection of what has happened to me…A series I did called Femme looked at the duel sides of femininity. In masculinity there can be femininity – the two shouldn’t be separated from one another. It was a whole video project as well as a photo series…I painted the entire room pink, it was the first concept shoot I ever did. Like I stole cactuses from neighbours in the middle of the night – I wanted to create an image by filling the whole space.”

    “That’s what I love doing, tying all the concepts to my own life.” Through this project and micro-residency she hopes to, “inspire other people to take the youth seriously and invest in local talent as well.”

    Photography by Jéad Stehr

    Untitled:

    thank you for telling me what to feel.

    who to be. what to do.

    working together can be a learning experience. we both get what we want.

    you need me to do a task i perform it. carry it through. create life from dry husks.

    fix. refix. adjust. simplify. capture. waste time.

    “it’s easy work”

    “i promise it will be quick”

    “i need a favor”

    “i need you”

    words that seduce you into it.

    working relationships with you will never be equal.

    in your eyes i can complete everything you want.

    in your eyes you also see me bound to the work.

    never asking for gratitude, a reward. something in return.

    in your eyes you’ve earned the privilege to demand miracles.

    you expect it to be done.

    in your eyes i’m both reliable and unreliable.

    crucial when needed, forgotten ignored when the task is done.

    i fall into the trap of the servile nature.

    the answer to the

    “how can we make it work?”

    “who will do this?”

    “i have a vision but can’t complete it.”

    the answer to questions not even asked.

    i become so use to it.

    i think 10 steps ahead.

    i offer help. i take the blame. the insults.

    the difficult parts that

    “no one else could do”

    expectations are constant.

    don’t meet them. fail.

    i caused you to fail.

    accusations. understanding is for others, but for me there will be none.

    our relationship so ancient in its chains of obedience.

    one way talk.

    “you have not been recognized.”

    “you have not said that.”

    ideas grown from my brain, branded with another name.

    shift blame. who will be next?

    take this. carry that. work. harder. push yourself. worn out.

    “you have no reason to be tired”

    eat healthier. have fun. enjoy your life.

    “what else could you possibly want to do?”

    “you would be bored at home”

    bored. boring. synonymous with peace.

    a lifestyle i wish for.

    sacrifice your boredom for the profit of others.

    expect nothing in return.

    so that when they thank you it’s a surprise instead of common courtesy.

    did you really think they would see you as anything more than a step, mule, tap, slave.

    remember respect is for others not you.