Kadder switches from music to poetry
SHE may have stolen our hearts as one of the few female kwaito musicians in the country but Kadder has now set her sights on poetry and her newly found niche has landed her as a finalist in this year’s edition of Starbrite.
Kadder who initially had no plans to partake in Starbrite said entering the competition was an impulsive decision that she made while going about her business, but one that she does not regret at all.
“I did not plan to be on Starbrite. I just stumbled on the auditions when I had gone to collect my laptop at Sekusile Shopping Centre in Nkulumane. By then I had one poem to recite; I did not know it well and I did not know if I was good at reciting or performing.
“As an opportunist, I immediately thought of publicity and exposing myself to a broader market. Therefore I decided to launch my poetry career there and then. I forgot my lines during my auditions and I thought it was the end of my journey before it had begun but Mr Barney (Mupariwa) gave me a second chance to recite and I am now a finalist,” Kadder said.
Traditionally known as a singer, Kadder said she felt poetry gave her a louder voice and a
chance to express herself in ways that music does not allow her to.
“Poetry to me is a form of therapy and an expression of my experiences mostly,” she told Sunday Life. “I discovered that I am too angry, too broken and too frustrated to be anything less than a poet. So poetry is the perfect outlet for me, and instead of bottling it all up I decided to write my feelings down and mend my broken self. Also I realised that I write poetry better than I write music. I am more at home when I do poetry,” said the 26-year-old.
Speaking on her Starbrite journey, Kadder said it had been an amazing experience for her that helped grow and nurture her love for poetry as well as rediscover new sides of herself that she formerly was not in touch with, with some people even suggesting that she should venture into comedy.
“Being on Starbrite has really changed me. I have advanced from writing about personal experiences only to addressing various issues since sometimes we are given directives on what to work on. It’s more than just a competition for me now, it is a platform for self-discovery. Starbrite has taught me to rise above every occasion and to be diverse in my art. The exercises we did at the Boot Camp taught me endurance, thinking on my feet and delivering fully at short notice,” she said.
Although she is already a fairly well-known artiste, Kadder maintains that since poetry is quite new to her, she holds no advantage over the other contestants, highlighting that she is not participating in the trade that she is known for and people who have heard her music might have different reactions to her poetry.
The Starbrite finals will be held at Bulawayo’s Mpala Events Conference Centre on 6 and 7 January 2017 and Kadder urged the public to come in numbers and participate in the building of the commercial arts
industry.
It is not easy to be in a male-dominated industry. So many people think it’s a “guy thing” to rap. They associate rapping with being promiscuous or lesbianism. They question your qualities as a woman. I used to feel so out of