{"id":4272,"date":"2021-09-21T16:29:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T16:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/?post_type=spotlight&p=4272"},"modified":"2023-02-21T16:09:04","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T16:09:04","slug":"safiya-kamaria-kinshasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/2021\/09\/21\/safiya-kamaria-kinshasa\/","title":{"rendered":"Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa"},"content":{"rendered":"

No one complains there are too many poems about the moon, but when it comes to poetics in the Black community, my people are pressured to question what they should write about. And when we are invited to write, we are usually asked to write on trauma as though 571 years (and counting) has just been pain.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

1. Describe yourself in 3 words\u2026<\/span><\/h5>\n

Multidimensional stylish geek<\/span><\/p>\n

2. What inspires you?<\/span><\/h5>\n

I was recently reminded there is no \u201ccentre\u201d of the universe & no end, there is just an ever-growing expanse of infinite possibility. I find this so fascinating. I love applying this to poetry & life in general. Imagine that, believing anything is possible because nothing is over & there are no \u201ccorrect\u201d answers.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Tell us about your worst ever gig?<\/span><\/h5>\n

Through self-love I have learned every gig is a lesson. I am still a \u201cperfectionist\u201d in the sense I have ideas about how I might like to execute things, but I appreciate I cannot control audiences & things beyond my control. I always give the best of myself & I am more than enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. What\u2019s your number one poetry pet peeve?<\/span><\/h5>\n

No one complains there are too many poems about the moon, but when it comes to poetics in the Black community, my people are pressured to question what they should write about. And when we are invited to write, we are usually asked to write on trauma as though 571 years (and counting) has just been pain. So our women weren\u2019t chopping off massa\u2019s heads? So our laughter didn\u2019t cause the tide to change direction again? And our titans\u2019 toenails weren\u2019t replaced with seashells? Like nah. I\u2019ll write whatever moves me\u2026 literally.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Whose words do you love at the moment?<\/span><\/h5>\n

Jean \u2018Binta\u2019 Breeze effortlessly transformed storms into a cool breeze & vice versa effortlessly on the page & stage. You can\u2019t teach that. I never met her, but I love the fact that her legacy is also in the happiness she inspired in others. It\u2019s cool to know a great poet can also be a great person.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?<\/span><\/h5>\n

People won\u2019t always understand you, sometimes their words may hurt; when this happens, remember your unique way of seeing the world is your greatest strength. Autism, ADHD, LPD & dyslexia is nothing to be ashamed of, they are not disabilities – they are abilities. You so damn cool, keep going & don\u2019t look back.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, no need to cry about that guy who made you feel bad, put yourself on the pedestal you put him on. He gonna see you in a new hairdo and be all like damn I was an idiot then you gonna be like who you again?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not gonna lie I\u2019m talking to present me too.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. If a movie was made of your life – what genre would it be, and who would play you?<\/span><\/h5>\n

My life needs to be portrayed as an adventure\/ drama\/ romcom with slow mo, special effects & dance scenes. The best playlist. I should be played by a new actress so she can get her big break. She will need to be half British half Barbadian so she can do my accents. Americans are so bad at accents. OOOOOO and she must be close to my height and skin tone. The producers better not do to me what they did to the Nina Simone film.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Follow Safiya: Instagram<\/a> | Twitter<\/a> | website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No one complains there are too many poems about the moon, but when it comes to poetics in the Black community, my people are pressured to question what they should write about. And when we are invited to write, we are usually asked to write on trauma as though 571 years (and counting) has just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4274,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_surecart_dashboard_logo_width":"180px","_surecart_dashboard_show_logo":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_orders":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_invoices":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_subscriptions":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_downloads":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_billing":true,"_surecart_dashboard_navigation_account":true,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"article_type":[116],"class_list":["post-4272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-as","article_type-artist-spotlight"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":49,"label":"A+S"}],"article_type":[{"value":116,"label":"Artist Spotlight"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Safiya-web-banner-1024x576.png",1024,576,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Fiona Simpson","author_link":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/author\/fiona\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":49,"name":"A+S","slug":"as","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":49,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":192,"filter":"raw","term_order":"0","cat_ID":49,"category_count":192,"category_description":"","cat_name":"A+S","category_nicename":"as","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4272"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/applesandsnakes.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=4272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}