Raw Pillars Steal Limelight At Poetry Show
Spira Tlhankane | Monday September 10, 2018 13:20
Of course they may not be the only local bards to recite their poetry to music accompaniment, but the way they do it is so unique.
Led by a talented singer and guitarist Maru, the beats and sounds enhanced words, almost to the point of songs. They first hit the stage when they accompanied one of their talented poets called Phenyo Thebenyane.
With a guitarist and a violinist, Thebenyane highlighted the idea that poetry and music are root and stem. The way he delivered his verses was somewhat a means of connecting with the audience through music and poetry.
Raw Pillars of Art were not done, but they soon hit the ground running when they accompanied a talented poetess named Tshiamiso Makole who wanted the stage warmed before she could show her magic. Makole later impressed the audience with a poem called Ke Motho. “Ke motho wa bahaladi ba ba ganneng go hala dipitsa tsa batlhami. Ke tlhapi leleme phethekge, kgakgamosi ya dipitsa tse di sa fuduiweng,” she belted out her Setswana lyrics.
The power of language in poetry soon surfaced when one of the group’s members J Nathan took spoken word and performance to another level with his Kalanga verses. With the most crispy and powerful voice on the day his words were about tenderness, love but the music still fitted easily into the show’s poetic atmosphere.
Although many could not understand a word of Kalanga, they loved the way he articulated the language with love and precision.J Nathan gave the audience an outstanding interpretation of Kalanga in a way that any normal speaker would not.
His voice commanded the way and for those many Kalanga words people did not understand the latter did not question it but it stuck with them. “Lerato o ntshietseng ke sale monnyane. Se sa feleng se a tlhola, tsame dikeledi tsone di tlhola di sa eme,” he translated one of the verses to Setswana. If J Nathan was the cake, the icing on top later came with another one of their members called Sam Kush.
The poet lyricist was aggressive from the beginning and he did not want his words to be heard but he demanded it. He collaborated with Thebenyane in a poem called ‘Who am I’.
“I am a scared man. Women and children whose ancestry is engraved in slavery misplaced by hate and greed so much that every page of textbook history glorifies our misery,” he said.
His words made social commentary that articulated black people’s experiences. Sam Kush then showed his music side as he sang to express himself artistically in various ways. Listening to his song gave a viewer somewhat an endless fascination of the power of words and music.