A few words about your artistic career
I started slamming at the Vendredi Slam and Krefour Poetic evenings, before publishing my first collection of poems, OXYMORIQUES. I've run a number of introductory slam workshops in prisons, schools and cultural centres, and performed on a number of local and international stages.
How long have you been an artist?
I've been an artist for 6 years, in fact I started slamming in 2014.
Why did you apply for this scholarship? How will the scholarship support you?
I applied for this grant because I didn't want to remain inactive despite this period of crisis, but also because I wanted to work with Africalia to develop a new alternative project. Finally, because I wanted to make my voice heard via the internet and set myself new goals.
What are your concrete artistic objectives after this residency?
My artistic aims will be to put my INTRO project online, make my slam accessible to Internet users and master the use of digital tools.
What did you achieve during this creative residency? What is the result (work created)? Who was involved in the creative process?
I completed my INTRO project thanks to Africalia's creative residency. I was able to make 5 slam sounds and record 1 jingle and 5 poems as part of my project. All these works together make up my 5 podcasts. I was also able to put my website online with the help of the grant so that I could benefit from a digital platform for disseminating my work. I also did a photo shoot for the project's covers and posters.
During my creative residency, I involved my manager Atibou Diallo, who coordinated the project. I also involved Stéphane Pambou, who composed the soundtrack and did the recording, mixing and mastering. The MCU Dakar (Maison des cultures urbaines de Dakar) was also involved as a partner, as we occupied their recording studio throughout August. 4 instrumentalists and a traditional singer took part in the creation of the music: pianist Fructueux Laurel, korist Bayla fall, tam-tam drummer Symenouh Laurel on drums Joe and Awa Ngoyane on backing vocals. Audiovisual production company Yoodivision was also involved in the project, shooting the visuals, covers and posters.
How do you think these activities help us to think about the world today, in relation to the COVID-19 crisis, and/or about building for the future?
The activities in my project allow me to reflect on the world today. Indeed, through the themes addressed, I have tried to highlight the fact that the world is more interconnected than ever and that it is important to question ourselves in these times of crisis.
Firstly, with the eponymous track 'Intro', I take an introverted look at who I am, where I live and the urban poetry I make. Then, with the track 'Noir et Blanc', I try to depict my immediate environment and all the difficulties I faced before the advent of the Virus, which have now increased tenfold. The project is also a hymn to hope, encouraging future women artists and ordinary women to speak out, thanks to the sound "Ras-le-bo", where I explain that it is more important than ever for women and young girls to accept and assert themselves. I can't finish without saying that my project is also a hymn to crazy, over-the-top, unique love, with the track "Tambourin de mon Cœur". In these times of crisis, it's more important than ever to show your love to the people you care about.
Finally, the track "Outi" (to fetch in French) deals with building the future, which cannot be done without young people. Unfortunately, some of these young people tend to believe that the grass is greener elsewhere and sometimes want to take illegal and dangerous routes to get there.
How did you feel during the residency? And afterwards?
During the creative residency at home I felt good, free to do as I pleased. At the end I started to feel a bit stressed because I was afraid of not meeting the deadlines, and above all I was afraid of being criticised for the work I'd produced, even though I listen to it over and over again every day with immeasurable pride. This is because I approached the themes I wanted in the way I found most appropriate, and the musical universe corresponds exactly to the whole, which for me provides a poetic response to the 'Here and Now' theme.
[(
I.N.T.R.O
)]
EP
Intro
From the window of my dark bedroom,
I see a black veil shrouded outside, then,
I'm trying to introduce it because, as an introvert, I'm trying to introspect,
Inhaling and exhaling poetry, between four walls, I write,
I'm trying to introduce here and now
Introduce, Introspection, introvert
Intro
Introducing a text is hard when you don't know where to start,
of life, erasures, pages torn out and syntax errors
At 13, I drowned myself in poetry so as not to drown in my tears
Much later my inkwell dried up even more than my heart
breathless with the weight of my fears now drawn in a handful of love
Above all, I lacked the determination to say fuck life and take it head on.
Set aside comfort zones and turn your skin into a playground of discovery
And stop spending most of your time kicking in doors that are already open.
I preferred writing to praying the exercise of lucidity, ceasing to make myself believe
That I was groping around in the dark when all I was wearing were blinders
even if chanting true words remains for me the most beautiful of litanies
Since then my night has been endless,
I dream my nightmares and arouse suspicion
But I make the stars twinkle with the sound of my voice
I dream my nightmares, I arouse suspicion,
But I make the stars twinkle with the sound of my voice
I've sailed between hatred and mad love
between illness and blurred death
knees in the mud I crawled
in the rain the wind the storms
hardening my pout
Wary, because some people like to kick a man when he's already down.
Whoever has the big wheel of problems is likely to hit the jackpot
So it's important to keep your spirits up in the face of the sea
No matter how hot the fire, it will never light the water
Even if my memories remain vague in the face of adversity, I arm myself with amnesia
Without suspecting that lethargy would come to erect
Introducing is hard,
When we remember that our best moments are in the past
That we don't try hard enough to survive life
Let the most precious present remain the present, because the future is today.
I dream my nightmares and arouse suspicion
Even if chanting true words remains for me the most beautiful of litanies
Since my night never ends
I dream my nightmares
I arouse suspicion
But I make the stars twinkle with the sound of my voice
I dream my nightmares, I arouse suspicion
But I make the stars twinkle with the sound of my voice
Black on white
Don't lose sight
Let everything pass
Time, rhythmic music
Takes us on a journey through life
Where we learn every day
A new dance step
Foot blisters
The waltz continues
Tossing and twirling
With only breaks
Les slows Éphémères.
So we try, as best we can
Black on white, on paper.
They say life is beautiful
They say life is simple
While we can no longer distinguish
The unreal of the real,
Life is a never-ending restart.
The tears of time ooze out,
Silently, deaf, they believe they are eternal,
They tell us that here lies Great Men,
The sum of their benefits could protect us for life
because
They tell us Senegal is sacred ground
But why? How is it that
The prayer arsenal of this false peace is defused
In front of our roads Tarred by the blood of so many victims
Anonymous true contemporary martyrs
Playing the lottery with the lives of the poor
Fatal sheep in the king's court
And when the unimaginable happens, we still dare to say "ndogalou Yallah la" (it's God's will).
While dirty hands
Doing sleight of hand
Under the well-stocked tables of this class
People who, for something or other, grumble
They are corrupt
Hearts that have broken with the dignified beat
Bodies broken and inhabited by vice
People who are full of superfluities and who steal
The means for their policy on life, wind
Faced with a stronger force than themselves, they bow their heads in shame,
While some women's hearts stop beating
by giving life on carts
while little girls
paint the sand red
with the soles of their feet
along the miles
Separating their homes from the well.
TELL ME...
On what blessed land do people die?
Like cattle in hospitals?
They say you have to pay first
As the last breath is drawn from the patient's body
But my heart's pounding
When I think of the hypocritical family
Who will come to do his masquerade
Make it rain banknotes at the funeral
Under the haggard gaze of their true loved ones, who will be gritting their teeth
Because we are Senegalese, we do the masla
We wear masks all day long
We judge, we gauge, we criticise and that's that.
Easy indignation innate inaction
No notion of the common good, the neighbour is always the idiot
And they rage in front of their screens
But when faced with money, these same sacrifices become amnesiac.
Playing the same old record
Change remains a luxury they can't afford
The new rich are looking for new poor
On whom their power to exercise
It's a vicious circle where everything revolves around
The possession and domination of others
The humiliation and enslavement of others
A class struggle, a brotherhood struggle
A struggle between castes, a struggle between ethnic groups
yesterday's rebels become the griots of today's king
They anaesthetise us with the folk syringe
Empty heads take centre stage
They tell us that with a 100-franc connection, there's no stress.
But we're not,
They don't know the heroes in the books,
Which remain closed and gather dust on library shelves.
Instead, we prefer to laugh at nothing while eating watermelons
And cry all winter long
Because mud swims with our remaining dignity n
But they will never solve the problem of flooding in our neighbourhoods.
This is because
The roofs of their homes don't leak!
They do not know
The suffering of the peanut seller
even less
That of the doughnut seller
It's only around election time that they'll come to our cities to do penance.
Tambourine of my heart
Do not let the light go out,
Hope out loud.
Transcribing heartbeats into verse,
Let the stanzas drum
Never be afraid to love again!
Crawl, crawl, crawl,
But never stop moving forward
The only constant is change...
Say it loud and clear
That I'm not wrong
To let my body
Crying out desire and longing
let our instincts do their worst
feel alive
living our dreams
get out this flame that's messing up my guts
Let's make tonight our best trip yet
Let's explore all the lands
Our skin
Of our erogenous zones erected firm
Let's put an end to prevarication
Let the seed blossom
Which contains our mad love,
Our totem.
This evening,
Let's kill Morpheus together
Before the organs die
Tonight, to turn them into mortars
to the immortal comings and goings
This evening,
let's live in the moment until the dark circles start to fade away
far from taboos
Away from the differences that we touch with the tip of our tongue
a far cry from empty words
away from the smouldering heart
carnal pleasures
seem so unreal
When desire and love intertwine
and the weary night is about to set in
under this repetitive onslaught of
so many different gestures
from so many hands
that defy the law of time
in so many incongruous, unknown spaces
and all at the same time
fire and fire
burns pore by pore
outside,
hearts are dirty
reports are inhuman
but, between 4 walls
our bodies are being torn apart
wanting to touch the beating of hearts
at your fingertips
until the erogenous zones erected firm
reveal dark circles
Say it loud and clear
That I'm not wrong
To let my body
Crier en vie
living our dreams
get out this flame that's messing up my guts
Let's make tonight our best trip yet
Let's explore all the lands
Our skin
Of our erogenous zones erected firm
to put an end to
let the seed blossom
that contains our mad love
Our totem.
Let's combine our bodies in the half-light
Turning our 2 shadows into a single soul
let's use love as our only weapon
to pull off the heist of the century
robbing all the stars in the sky
fit them into every pore
and leaves goose bumps glistening with a thousand lights
dancing to and under our lights
dancing between and within our light shows
Dancing in front of and outside our light shows
Playing with the light of our dance.
Tonight
Let's kill Morpheus together
Before the organs die
tonight to turn them into mortars
To the immortal comings and goings
Fed up
For a long time, the word of man was taken to be the universal truth and the highest expression of intelligence, just as the male organ was the noblest expression of sexuality. Today, women must speak out. And that other women - and men - want to hear this cry. Not a cry of hatred, hardly a cry of anger, because then it would turn against them. But a cry for life........ " Benoite Groult
knock knock knock
May I come in?
no, I'm joking, the answer doesn't matter to me
I tag my voice with verses I try to slam my wishes
even if I have to tear out the word to do it
because I'm tired of these role-playing games
and hide-and-seek with this company
Soon to be 30, single, no children
and never has my voice counted for so much
because I belong to that world
and I poetise change
beyond verse and figures of speech
I poetise the possible
when I see on every street corner
the stupidity of Racine
dehumanisation gleams in people's eyes
the damage runs deep and there's no stopping the machine
which is in full swing, fuelled by a weak and sick world.
These unhealthy thoughts
fanatics who say that everyone must follow the same path
while the destinations are not the same
and all hands can earn bread.
Didn't recite suras or paragraph numbers to me
didn't pull out the Bible for me, let alone the Torah
Didn't talk about atheism or the Buddha
All I see is the law of the jungle and rutting animals
faith out of stock in black hearts.
Men raping mentally ill women late at night
Unfinished buildings bear witness to lives torn apart, smothered and speckled with droplets of loose seed
but you should know that my voice has never counted for so much
set this disastrous scene on paper
sweat blood from my inkwell
this world has made me so jaded
that I'm afraid that if I give birth one day my kids will be eaten up
Because injustice doesn't just happen to other people, it should be fought by everyone.
it spreads like a weed
but why doesn't anyone weed under their feet any more?
I belong to this world
I poetise change
beyond verse and figures of speech
I poetise the possible
when the executioners are protected in the family courtyard
and you see the circle that was supposed to defend you accusing you
you the victim
who knows
maybe you would have teased him?
as if
something could justify rape
No!
No, your life has been stolen
your right to say no
No!!
your body is not an object
you have the right to dispose of it as you see fit
and no!
you are not responsible for your family
or its reactions
she should support you and take action
because you're their daughter, not a doormat
you have the right to dress as you like
to express yourself and, above all, to say no
and yes
girls and boys need to be educated
let's stop shifting the debate
who can condone having sex with a 4-month-old baby?
Tell me something?
by chance
When will we turn off our cameras?
when are we going to stop behaving like villains
to collect and share personal data
when are we going to stop undermining human dignity
stop filling the social network attic to the brim
nothing can be erased forever
once it's in, it's hard to get out
Society needs to be looked after
she no longer enjoys all her mental faculties
she's tired and her heart's made of metal
is rusting away
the boat is rocking
but when people are hungry
they give the cat the tongue
because they are no longer afraid of dying by drowning
the damage runs deep
its roots go out into the world
and its seeds have even blossomed
in the king's enclosure
while Panurge's mounts
browse
Ignorance and indifference in spades.
I belong to this world
I poetise change
beyond verse and figures of speech
I poetise the possible
Outi
Step back
See
Accept
Waiting for everything
De soi
The answer
The light
It's all inside you,
Close your eyes
See
Hear
Feel
These waves
These crackling sounds
so close,
interiors
They shout
They scream
"Stop looking so far!!!"
They scream,
"Stop looking so far!"
Lyrics in Wolof featuring a pensive man sitting in front of the sea. Here the artist uses a metaphor imagining a fight between this man and the sea, since the former is ready to brave everything to go to the West. This poetic journey shows that despair, unemployment and lack of family consideration can drive a man to anything, sometimes at the cost of his own life.
Podcast
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