Poetry a unique way to tell stories in dramatic form
Q&A with slam poet and performer Siphokazi Jonas – By Carla Lever
Your poetry engages very deliberately with political and personal questions of identity. What kinds of ideas are you most passionate about spreading through it?
It’s all about the importance of autonomy in telling your story. I’m really interested in writing about and staging narratives which are not seen regularly, particularly about the lives of black women.
Do you think that there’s a space for poetry to reach people politically where newspaper reports or debate can’t? How can we all use or be open to that space? Absolutely – poetry has a unique way of humanising the players in a political story. There is room for publishing poetry in newspapers and other media which could widen the scope of who has access to our work.
We come from a long history of protest poetry – literature, storytelling, theatre and so on. But now it feels like there is a generational shift: a group of passionate young people who are ready to make their own political points outside of the traditionally political works of the past. Does this feel like a good time to be a young poet? This is a fantastic time to be a poet! The shifts happen as politics and concerns change. Poetry gives us a platform not only to wrestle with past and present but also to engage with an imagined future.
Sometimes, no matter how familiar we are with a work, we can still read something and have a strong emotional reaction to it. Can you give us a couple of lines of your own poetry that still hit home for you?
Sure. Here’s an extract from my poem Making Bread:
Every December, in exchange for Tupperware full of roosterkoek
Tried over coals, I present uMama with English poems
To match the decadence of the season.
(English, with its heavy hand of sugar, corrodes my vernacular,
English poems do not let me forget that the bowl I work in is borrowed).
It's always a challenge to get work out into the public, particularly as a poet. In 2016 you released some of your poetry in a very unusual format: a DVD. Can you tell us a little about why you did that and how it’s been received? The DVD was to capture the verve and fire of spoken word, which often disappears once you leave the stage. Though the work was well received, we didn’t quite account for the move away from DVDs and CDs – the best platforms for distribution are now online.
You’ve had some great successes in big slam poetry competitions. What has been the most exciting experience for you? Slam is quite a competitive format of performance and poses a challenge to the poet because of all the rules and time constraints placed on a performance. My favourite thing is how the slams tend to feel like collaborations instead of competitions.
I first encountered your work when you performed with the Rioters in Session poetry collective. Can you tell us a little about them?
I’ve had the pleasure of being part of a number of their performances, though I’m not officially part of their collective. In their own words, Rioters in Session was “organised [as] an intuitive community for POC poetry womxn to share their work in a soft and safe space with a gentle audience”.
Why is it important for poets, storytellers and performers to have spaces to share their work and for people to be able to share and discuss it? What does sharing stories do for communities of people?
We have an incredible history of storytelling and poetry in this country which has been integral as a way of archiving history, holding communities together, holding leaders accountable, protesting injustice, etc. I believe that we are seeing the same in the contemporary moment.
How can we encourage young people to get involved with poetry and storytelling? Are there resources you could direct them to?
The best way is to read poetry and also watch material online, follow poetry houses on social media such as Hear My Voice, Word and Sound, Poetry Africa, Poet in a Suit, Inzync Poetry, Grounding Sessions, Current State of Poetry, Words in My Mouth Poetry Slam. If there are no existing book clubs or poetry groups, start them right where you are!
● For more information about the Nal’ibali campaign, or to access children’s stories in a range of languages, visit: www.nalibali.org.