The Big Interview: Zena Edwards
November 6, 2008
Performance poet Zena Edwards (pictured) is billed as the “cutting edge of contemporary urban writing and lyricism, with a sensuous, rhythmic style born from a diverse range of influences, from African music and storytelling to world jazz innovators via hip hop, and spoken word artists Linton Kwesi Johnson and Roger McGough”. Her credits include Bloodlines (BBC Radio 3) exploring blood, lineage, Africa and being Black-British in the UK, as well as hip hop musical Slamdunk (2003), and two CDs of poems - Healing Pool and Mine 4 Life. Her new show Security is at the Battersea Arts Centre from the 10 to 29 November 2008.
Tell us about Security and why we should come and see it?
Security came about from being fascinated with what people will do to try and make themselves feel secure in a world that is undergoing massive changes. The world is at war right now. People are killing each other over the planet’s mineral resources right down to stepping into the wrong postcode. Ordinary people of all ages are trying to cope emotionally, psychologically and spiritually with the negative energy this warring invokes. I wanted to look at provoking constructive discussion around knife crime, peer pressure, the inter-generational conflict and cultural difference. Also the show is a testimony to human resilience, how we overcome and change after undergoing great amounts of pressure.
To tell this story, I use five characters from completely different backgrounds. They are all real people with irritating and endearing qualities who an audience can care about.I tell the story in a fusion of forms - monologue, poetry, song, comedy, movement, dialogue - and this fusion is the only way this story could have been told as I have been influenced by a city, London, that is made up of so many elements. One dramatic or literary form would not have cut it. Theatrically the show is a rounded experience. It’s thought provoking, moving and funny.
How does it feel to be doing your first solo performance show?
A relief. Firstly, to get this story out of me and secondly because I have learned so much about the crafts of writing and performance. I feel I needed to do this. I’ve been performing for a while and there is only so much standing behind a mic doing spoken word I can do before I start to feel stagnant as an artist. I am also really excited about the possibilities of how much more there is to learn and the prospect of all the people I’m going to meet on the upcoming tour.
The show is also a tool to explore themes I feel strongly about and that need to be consistently addressed in an educational context. The workshop facilitation with students and sometimes hard to reach young people is as fulfilling as the development and performing of the show itself. It’s the creative process of writing and performance exploration that empowers young minds and encourages good personal management. And obviously great art is made coming from young and fresh minds.
What has been your career highlight to date?
My career highlight has got to be this show. I have performed for the President of Ghana for the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in Elmina castle - a main fort for the holding and trading in African slaves when shackle enslavement was at its peak. Feeling the presence of those ancestors in the holding cells was perhaps the most emotional experience of my career. In 1994 I facilitated workshops and performed in the townships of South Africa just after Nelson Mandela was made president. This was a turning point in wanting to take myself as an artist to the next level.
But as much as I am of African descent with a Caribbean heritage, I am also a Londoner. I believe the story of this show, in essence, is unique to London. The show is so current and so in me because this city is so multi-cultural, vibrant and full of contradictions. It’s through creating this story I’ve explored these contradictions for two solid years. There have been some valuable lessons learned in writing it.
What are your future plans beyond this show?
Another show. Definitely a series of books. Not all poetry. I have so much work that I’ve not shared and there is Zena Edwards the writer than performance alone. Performance poetry has been my life up until now but the writer has so much to say and share. I cannot wait for the space to sit down and do the books.
I’ll be doing more work that is music based too. A few recordings. Some straight up spoken word and some more musical. My influences are acoustic afro-jazz, latin, folk and funk with a closet blues-rock anarchist going on inside too. I’m co-writing with a guitarist called John Speedy at the moment.
I have a concept called Conversations which is music and spoken word in true dialogue. It’s fun for the artists involved and it’s musical storytelling in its element.
What is the best thing about being a spoken word artist?
Expressing what others can’t. There’s moments when I hear from the audience, “Mmmmmm.” That hum equates to “I’m feeling you.” or “You just spoke for me.” It signifies to me that I’m doing my job.
Its also the imagining new ways of being, conjuring up worlds and emotions and moments in time that remind us how to feel and of how its ok to feel things to their fullest rather than numb them down with material things or drugs, alcohol or sex. Words in a particular order are like potions. Plus they can just be a whole heap of fun too. I enjoy the play.
And the worst?
When you’re up nights because you can’t quite find the right words. Writers block is awful. It passes but it’s like a really REALLY bad toothache. You can’t rush creativity but it’s worse when there’s a deadline is looming.
What is your favourite word?
At the moment it’s ‘aquiline’. Love how it sounds.
Who would you say has been the biggest inspiration to your career so far?
I’m going to cheat to answer this question because there is no one person. Firstly, I have to say, the people who believe in me are massive inspirations to my career. They know who they are. (Does that sound like an award acceptance speech? Well, I had to say it.)
Then, from a writers perspective, I’d say reading Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude and Ben Orki’s The Famished Road. I’d sit for hours just thinking about their writing that not only moved in time socially, politically and historically but also moved in planes of consciousness. It opened up so much for me and affirmed me as person who believes we are more than just flesh and nerve endings.
As an artist, Maya Angelou’s reading In New York 2002 showed me that a high level of integrity and steadiness is essential to art and that to develop and maintain this takes a life time. I’d read all her autobiographical work and when I saw her speak and tell stories on that day, I calmed down and began the steady and persistent learning of writing and performance skills.
The Obama victory is also a huge inspiration. I got a mobile text today: Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Obama could run. Obama ran so our children could fly. We need to look to the children. This work enables me to do that.
If you could achieve one thing in your career what would it be?
To be doing this kind of work till the day I die.
For more info on Security, click here
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