Poetry / Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa
Award-winning Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa on how Bristol inspired her
Now based in Leeds, British-born Barbadian poet, choreographer and award-winning national and international spoken word artist Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa traces the roots of her career in performance poetry back to Bristol.
“I actually started poetry out of a dare,” she recalls. “The host Malaika Kegode who runs Milk Poetry encouraged me to continue.
“I was not so interested at first, but then I learned more about the craft. And it was Danny Pandolfi who runs Raise The Bar who first allowed me to dance on stage with poetry.
is needed now More than ever
“Not long after that I spent time in New York and really learned how to be a performance poet.
“But it was definitely Bristol where I first fell in love with poetry, so it is always going to be a special place for me.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CeqQMXotdWW/
Safiya will be returning to Raise The Bar in December, to headline a night of poetry and music.
In the interim, she is publishing her pioneering debut collection Cane Corn & Gully, a fusion of choreography (appearing in the book as labanotation) and poetry.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa, Cane, Corn & Gully – photo: Out-Spoken Press
The work arose from a creative desire to embody the lives of Barbadian women from the 1600s to the present day, and give voice to untold stories that were conspicious by their absence from the archives.
Themes of femininity, race, classism and Barbadian history were explored in Safiya’s research, as well as physical re-treading of the soil on which enslaved women once stood.
“I danced on the same plantations, gullies and markets where many of the narratives took place to ensure my records were sincere,” she reflects.
“I invented a new method to archive Black diasporic dance in a way which encapsulates the non-linear cadence of our dance history, which is constantly evolving.”
This choreo-poetry, in which dance and the poetic form appear almost as expressions of one another, is a celebration of forgotten women and “a vindication of the rebellious acts of black women past, present and yet to come.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CkdJESXtpPM/
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa: Cane, Corn & Gully is published by Out-Spoken Press and supported by Out-Spoken Press, The Barbados Museum & Historical Society, Apples and Snakes, Jerwood Arts and Kauma Arts.
Raise The Bar is at Arnolfini on December 16; Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is joined on the bill by fellow poets Arji Manuelpillai and Stefan Mohamed, with music from Bellatrix. Tickets are available via www.headfirstbristol.co.uk.
Main photo: David Kwaw Mensah
Read more: Former Bristol City Poet Vanessa Kissule features in new anthology of Black British poetry
Listen to the latest Bristol24/7 Behind the Headlines podcast:
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
