I'm a relational being - Leshie Lovesong
Thalefang Charles | Friday August 15, 2014 17:08
When the courteous Fego Caffe waiter approached with the menu, she paused and without checking the menu, asked for one glass of Fegoccino Cioccolato. Fego Caffe is located next to the Gaborone High Court, where Leshie Lovesong trades as Lesego Nchunga, an attorney from Dow and Associates. Leshie Lovesong is a stage name born during rehearsals back in 2008 when together with her poets mates were singing Sara Barailles song titled Love Song. Before then, she was just 'Leshie,' - an adaptation from Lesego.
She came on to the spotlight during the glorious years of Gaborone slam poetry, the Exodus Live Poetry (ELP) days when Kenneth Cutrite Moeng, Tshireletso Motlogelwa, Tjawangwa TJ Dema, Andreattah Drea Chuma, Kefhentse KK Kefhentse, Phil Rotz and Malcom 'Luiet' Champane still had the collective fire and time to recite poetry. She was part of the ‘new kids’ on the poetry block who were groomed and passed the word button. Together with her best friend Mandisa Mabuthoe, they are the lastborns of ELP.
But ELP did not make Leshie Lovesong. It however nurtured the poetic seedling that was long planted by her mother Hilda Nchunga before Lesego was born.
“My grandmother told me stories of how my mother used to read the Bible when she was expecting me. My father is a pastor and guitarist. Recently I also came cross a poetry book that my mother had written for my father. I come from an artistic and philosophical family,” she said
She says her mother encouraged her to read at a tender age.
“I was only exposed to TV when I was in Std four. My mother used to read for me quite a lot.” When Lesego was old enough to read and write she kept a “craft book” where she crafted her maiden poems.
Like a true child of the Kgalagadi Desert, her first poem was about water. She wrote Water while she was doing Std Three at Legae Academy but she does not recall the words of the poem.
“My mom then started collecting my poems and taking them to her best friend who used to type them and produced a neat print-out. This encouraged me a lot. There were not many computers then and I thought, ‘this is so cool’ and continued to write many poems,” she recalls.
As a teenager poetry was her escape. Leshie Lovesong says at high school she wrote a poem called Society You Failed Me, which was a rejoinder of a poem of her best friend Wame Letshwiti who had earlier written a lovely idealist piece in commemoration of Women’s Day.
In 2006 she discovered Yarona FM poetry show and immediately fell in love with reciting of poetry. She later got introduced to ELP sessions at the Village Cinema. She was crowned the Slam Champion on her first competition at ELP. This is where she first performed one of her popular pieces, Omphile’s Boy.
But Leshie Lovesong was not only a slam poet. She was a singer too. As a typical pastor's daughter, she started singing in church. Later she started singing along to Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears, India Arie, Lira and Freshly Ground. She then moved away from contemporary music and preferred artists such as Nina Simone.
Leshie Lovesong remembers the day she auditioned for ELP festival at Tshireletso Motlogelwa’s house with Kaone, Cookie, Abbie and Josh. On her first show as the new members of the ELP, Leshie Lovesong forgot the lines of her poem midway through the recital. “But most people didn’t realise it, because everyone was saying ‘wow, your poem was so touching but too short’,” she remembers. It was this unfortunate incident that forced her to take reciting poetry seriously.
Leshie Lovesong's fusion of poetry and music has since become a towering edge that separates her from most poets. She acknowledges Kefhentse KK Kefhentse who suggested the fusion style as well as the strict Cutrite Moeng, who challenged her to “come up with something different.”
Leshie Lovesong has since introduced theatre to her brand. She was part of Aldo Brincat’s 2012 production of Passion Play One. She was also part of the regional activism play by Southern African Regional Environmental Programme (SAREP) for the sustainable development programme of the Okavango Delta. SAREP had commissioned a play called River Cousins written by Bontekanye Otumile comprising of people from Namibian, Botswana and Angola. She has also performed in Zimbabwe and South Africa.
An observation onto Leshie’s work shows some rebellious trend. Just from her piece, Society You Have Failed Me, which was an unconventional rejoinder to a rather feel-good poem on everything good about women, to her defiant stance against doing lucrative corporate gigs.
“I want to write my poetry. That’s how I have stopped doing corporate gigs because corporates usually want to script it for you,” she said
After some time focusing on theatre, in 2013 Leshie Lovesong decided to revive her poetry by going into studio to record an EP titled Sunflowers and Strawberries. Before she could release and distribute the EP she realised she needs to build a market because she had been off the poetry circles for too long.
She then decided to stage a first performance called Falling in March 2014 at Moving Space in Maruapula. Falling was a sold out.
“With Falling, I wanted it to be intimate. I wanted to feel my audience and them to feel me, that’s why I didn’t put a stage,” she said.
The cast of Falling comprised of Mandisa Mabutloe as Joeshia King and Atmos both on backing vocals, Bosky on percussions, Flow on guitar, Lex The Boxcutter on beatbox, Steady Onks and Kgotla Molefhe on theatricals. Kabelo Rapinyana was the stage manager, Aobakwe Molosiwa of Gilded Sands was the stylist, and Tefo Paye did the set.
Leshie says Falling was also meant to “let her seven year old pieces to take flight, to fall and give space for new material.” She said Falling told a story of 'falling' in love and not being in control.
Her second show came in August and was called Breathe.
“Breathe was about looking back. Nostalgia. Remembering how all these love moments happened while Falling was about expectations and projecting, ‘things you expect when you fall in love’,” she said.
Breathe was staged at Maitisong and the show included new cast namely, Sibongile Phiri and Sthembiso Shamabobo. She also brought in two of her cute mentees from Maruapula School Bame and Manje. Tefo Paye came in as the lonely lover.
Leshie Lovesong revealed that she will stage the finale show, which will complete the trilogy of Falling and Breathe early next year. But before that, there is a small matter of a five months fellowship programme she would take up at the Cincinnati University in USA. She leaves this week.
Leshie says her main inspiration is love.
“I’m a relational being,” she adds. She still reads, mostly fiction. She talks highly about her good friend Mandisa. She regards TJ as a big sister and mentor. Her current favourite poet is a South African called Gabeba Baderoon. She suddenly turns groupie about Baderoon.
“This woman is crazy. She is insane,” she says.
She grabs her phone and shows off one of her poem titled Fight; “In the silence you wish to take two steps back inhale your words”
After two and half hours, Fegoccino Cioccolato was finished but Leshie was still oozing with words. She only got tongue-tied when the interview switched into personal life.
Do these poetic love songs enhance your love life? She did not have an answer but just rare shy smiles. We agreed to defer the answer and close the interview.
She grabbed the Ladybird Serurubele keys and dialed some numbers on her bright pink covered iPhone before she rushed to a lunch appointment with her uncle. No small talk.