| When Urbanlife met the Queen |
| Written by Andy Collins |
| Thursday, 09 June 2011 09:20 |
The lost interview. 2011-04-14Due to workload we’ve not been able to bring all you all the best Afro-Swedish news and interviews with the regularity we’d like but we’ve still been very active. Here is one of the interviews recorded on urbanlife's classic tape cassette player but never written with the incredible American Spoken Word artist Queen GodIs during her visit to Sweden.
 The power of the spoken word has been known since man was first able to speak, harnessed it can move a million people or break a persons heart. Today's shows generally consist of storytelling or sometimes poetry and can be incredibly funny, interesting or even strange! It was a cool April evening when I headed into Uppsala Stadsteater to see the renowned American - Lemon Andersen - host a show comprising of four spoken word artists also from the USA. In particular I am here to see Queen GodIs (how can you not warm to anyone whose name translates in Swedish as ‘sweets’?). Queen God IS (pron: kwen-god-iz) is more than a 'performance name', it is a statement declared by the artist's family during a traditional re-naming/rites of passage ceremony...inspired by African and Cherokee roots. As I sit in the bar waiting, a tall, attractive, smiling woman approaches me and reaches out a soft, slender hand. Only 20 minutes earlier I had seen her perform on stage in a dramatic and raw performance that ended with her in floods of tears. It was extremely powerful, deep and emotive with words skilfully and cryptically intertwined throughout. Urbanlife.se: Wow. What a performance. You gave a lot… a real lot Queen GodIs: "Yes, and I don’t know why!" she says with a huge smile. "Tears don’t just mean sadness. Nothing I was doing was sad. Sometimes I feel like I cry because there must be people around who can’t or something is so moving inside and it can’t come out as a bullet and tears don’t kill you!" "I think I was built this way. I call myself a performance artist but I don’t think that’s what I do. I’m certainly not an entertainer. Some people might be amused and entertained but I don’t think that’s what I do either. Just as art has so many different faces, sounds and styles, I feel I play a role in the energy of the space and sometimes that role of what I’m doing on stage is ceremonial, sometimes it is healing, sometimes it is balancing, it stirs things up, but all the time it invites people back into a place of spirit. And I think that all the greatest art forms have come from a spiritual place." You express this, as you say, in different ways, from rap to poetry and singing. Obviously this is hard, but could you define one that you would choose to do forever? "I think on any given day I’d say a different one. I started performing because I was exposed to theatre by my father and that was the place where I saw this otherwise a very quiet, stoic man become a comedian, a sergeant, warrior or a child, so many beautiful things in front of my face that I immediately knew loved this thing that allowed him to do that and it was called theatre. I can’t tell you the difference between rhyming or singing or doing a poem because it feels the same. The audience may look at me crazy if I start singing every poem I have but sometimes I feel like doing that, right now I’m in a place of singing…" At this point a lady interrupts us and quite movingly thanks Queen GodIs and says, "the show helped her breathe". How does that make you feel? "Poetry helps people breathe, performance helps people breathe. It’s super moving. It’s always special. It’s a full circle, you gave out everything, you don’t know who’s receiving it, and someone maybe everyone and then return it, it’s just like the cycle of life and it feels natural." I was thinking, when all you guys were performing I wonder how many people here are catching this because some of it’s very fast. "Humour translates very well and I am  ridiculously cryptic, and I love having something to discover, even for myself. I like to create things that will give the audience a little workout. I think I’m hilarious while others think I’m super serious and intense. I feel everything I say is a double entendre and I try to hint to the audience with a wink of an eye."Did your parents ever pressure you into following a life onstage? "No, my parents never did. In fact I put pressure on myself, always. I just had to do my best and be a good person and my mum always told us we were spirits in human form." So your mother and father were very influential in shaping you? "Yeah, because that was really all they had to give! No trust funds or loads of money, but you couldn’t put a price tag on the things they gave." Did you feel while growing up and writing poetry that the easier way to make money would be making rap and hip-hop records (rather than performance art)? You friends must have said ‘rap on this song make some money etc... "Yeah, people say that because I’m a great MC!!!" "No, seriously not many people have that conversation with me, people let me do what I want to do and maybe talk behind my back or amongst themselves. I think we could be here for a lot of reasons; you could be a lawyer and bin collector (but) at the end of the day you can choose a million things but the essence that is the thing for you. Our methods and or practices aren’t necessarily our purpose but many methods and practices can get you to your purpose. Since I was young, in some weird way I’ve had clarity and spirituality so I shape shift and do what I need to do because I'm not money driven. And that may mean I make a lot less money than a lot of people!" As a brief visitor to our beautiful Sweden and having grown up in New York, have you ever thought of living outside of the US or would you always need the inspiration that city life provides? "It’s hard to move from New York. I feel that people are antennas and I certainly feel like an antenna, and we all pick up different frequencies and signals and sometimes that makes us create happy things or makes us create fiery things, or comedy or things about love and in New York there is a lot of signals at the same time, so if you don’t have a way to be quiet and still, or sing to yourself it can be too much." Have you travelled much in Europe? "Yes, Paris, London, Amsterdam (to name but a few) and if I visit an airport for more than an hour then that counts as a visit! I like Amsterdam a lot and it’s a similar vibe here. As a black woman travelling you can tell immediately what kind of trip you will have and I’ve had some people greet me not so nicely, from the moment I’ve stepped off the plane." Were you aware of the Afro-Swedish community in Sweden? "I knew a little about Sweden as I have a friend who we all thought was crazy for moving here because we had no concept of what sort of life she’d have but now I don’t think she’s crazy, she’s actually kind of smart, (obviously) you don’t see people that look like you in overwhelming numbers but you don’t feel an eye sore either." What are you listening to at the moment? "Kanye West - Late registration Maxwell - Urban Hang Suite Nina Simone remixes Giberto Gil and Isley Brothers classics" I also ask her which is the most embarrassing song she owns but with a broad smile tells me she’s not going to tell me (though she later whispers "it’s one that says ‘vagina’ repeatedly"). Can you name three things that come from Sweden? - Yes, IKEA, please tell me if I’m not wrong. If I’m wrong this tape will self-destruct! - The invention of the word GodIs – which means candy, sweet and I’ve not seen that anywhere else. - Sweden has invented a way to keep the Easter egg in business. I have never seen the Easter egg done so well! America go the cheap way and dye them but Sweden go the Fabergé style – it’s on a whole other level! "This Walkman is gangster", she suddenly says and holds the Urbanlife cassette player in her hands. “See you can’t hit someone with an ipod but this thing would kill someone, it’s gangster!” I’m so glad I didn’t lose this tape. If you’ve never been to a Spoken Word show then you really are missing out and we recommend visiting http://www.spokenword.se/ to find events happening in your area in Sweden. www.auntiequeen.com  |