Interview with d'bi young

“D’bi. Is a Jamaican wombanist-warrior-artist; internationally celebrated for her unapologetic explosive consciousness on the mic.  A second generation dubpoet whose mother, anita stewart, is one of the pioneers of the genre, d’bi’s lyricism emerges from the roots of dub, entwined with the rhythms of dancehall reggae, hiphop, punkrock, & dubstep.” 

 
Your poetry is very politically charged and provocative, could you comment on this? 
poetry is the people. poetry re/presents the people. poetry is of the people. poetry mirrors the people. poetry challenges the people. poetry emerges from the people. the people make poetry. the people are poetry. I am a microcosm of the people. I reflect the people. I am a poet. I am a person. being a person is political. everything is political. the personal is political. the political is personal. politics is of the people. politics emerges from the people. rubbing up against & into each other the people cannot help but create sparks and other imaginations that fly. this we call political. the people create politics by being. being is political. I am a political being. we are all political beings. political beings are connected beings. we cannot help but be connected. our lineage is an unbroken chain of dna back to what we believe was ‘the beginning.’ I breathe out you breathe in. I breathe in you breathe out. we all breathe in and out together. to be alive is to share space, whether we want to or not. to be dead is to be transformed, returning to the collective energy in some way, shape or form. everything I do has an effect and is caused by something. with this deepening awareness I choose to tell stories that cause an effect. being a microcosm of earth, I tell stories that explore my own self-knowledge. if I know about myself then I know about the earth and the beings that inhabit it. I am called to truth-telling; truth-telling as ex-periential and inner-speriential knowledge. this truth-telling may be described as politically charged and provocative.

Do you feel that the provocative aspects of your spoken word act as a catalyst to pull attention to your social and political causes?

my responsibilities and accountabilities as a storyteller are to call the members of our villages to sit by the ancient sacred tree of life and listen to stories of times gone, stories of present times, and stories of times to come. as a feeling and thinking being, we collectively want to uncover the answers to the questions who are we? how are we? and what is our purpose? we spend our lives on magical/painful/ecstatic journeys in an attempt to uncover these truths. I am on the same quest. everything is a social issue; everything is a social cause. and we live in societies that we have created. we have created the rules by which we play this game called life. we have created the boundaries. we have created the myths. all of these innerstandings are stories. we are the story-makes, the story-tellers, the story-believers, the story-propagators. so what stories have we been told about who we are and who other beings are on the planet. which of these stories do we believe. which of these stories do we reject. which of these stories do we perpetuate/propagate. my stories desire to remind myself and my village that the god/dess we seek are indeed within. this truth does not mean we do not also recognize the god/dess within each other, within the environment. within the universe. within the multiverse. within the omniverse. recognizing that we have indeed created the world we see allows us to take responsibility for the collective and individual choices we have made and continue to make. it means that we become accountable for changing what we choose to change. that includes ourselves. the stories I tell want to be a constant reminder to us that we are the ones we are waiting for.

“we all have the potential to oppress and be oppressed. there is vulnerability in talking about one’s own self-image, one’s insecurities, one’s humanity. “

Does your poetry come to you with immediacy, or is your writing process more labored?

I create whenever I feel a deep desire to create, to say something, to intervene, to offer a different perspective, to (self) reflect, to analyze. this creative process branches itself into different wombanifestations such as orature-poetry, monologues, journal entries, blogging, literature-poetry, songs, incantations, chants. I create when I am inspired to. sometimes after channeling the initial catalyst I review what I have created and edit it. mostly I edit on my feet so my creative works make it onto the stage and with the support of a community it goes through a rigorous redrafting process. more and more I take my art works through my sorplusi methodology to ensure that they are indeed being accountable and responsible to the community. my villages play a crucial role in the growth of my work. I love to take my poetry and theatre to the community and engage in a talk-back process that invites them into a critical dialogue. all of my works have benefited from these communal talk-backs that create a safe, positive, and loving space for conscious critique and analysis.

Do you prefer the performative aspect of poetry to its written component?  Do you feel that spoken word has much more strength to inspire political empowerment?

growing up in kingston jamaica I was surrounded by storytellers from every nook and cranny of life. starting with my mother, who is one of the pioneers of dub poetry (she told me stories from the time I was inside of her womb), to listening to the womben and men playing dominoes at the corner shop, to going to school and witnessing the stories of my friends and teachers, to going to the market place and observing the market womben make stories of their transactions with other buyers and sellers. I was surrounded by storytellers. these stories were primarily vocally and physically articulated. they were integrated into every aspect of living. story as life. life as story.  storytelling is active and potent and has always inspired social change. when we witness each other perform the potential for change, this potential for change is realized in our consciousness and then can be actualized in our visceral realities.

Gender seems to be a major theme in your art form.  Do you often draw inspiration from your own identity and self-image while writing your poetry? 

I love to talk about gender and identity especially how to investigate and transcend them. I fundamentally believe that the storyteller must use our own reality, as a catalyst for social dialogue. when we implicate ourselves in conversations/actions around social change we model a particular perspective for members of our communities. we also minimize the risk of talking at people instead of with them since we speak from experiential knowledge. when I speak about my own negotiations around gender and sexuality I invite others into a dialogue where no-one is trying to fix anyone else but rather look collectively at what boxes ail us and trap us; oppress and suppress us. self-implication also allows us to collectively take responsibility for perpetuating these same boxes onto each other. we all have the potential to oppress and be oppressed. there is vulnerability in talking about one’s own self-image, one’s insecurities, one’s humanity. there is much room for humility in this process. deep within humility is the space to have real dialogue on how we are all feeling and what to do about it.

If you were to compile an audio anthology of the greatest Dub Poets, Slam Poets, Singer-Songwriters, who would they be?

anita stewart

miss lou

tracy chapman

mikey smith

nina simone

saul williams

oko onoura

jean binta breeze

peter tosh

linton kwesi johnson

mutabaruka

otis redding

michael jackson

bob marley

Have these poets been inspirations for your own path in poetry?

I was and continue to be raised by communities of people who are near to and far from me. all the storytellers I mention above have had a profound impact on the art that I make. they model courage, self-knowledge and integrity in different ways and so I learn from them, how to be my most honest self as a storyteller.

Do you find many intersections in the various art forms you juggle and work with?

I consider all the art forms I juggle to be different branches of one tree of storytelling. my purpose is to bring healing to myself and to the planet through a rigorous love-o-lution which begins within.

Do you have any advice for aspiring dub and slam poets and their performances?

the advice I have for everyone is to ask (y)ourselves these 3 questions as often as you/we can: who am I? how am I? what is my purpose? and to breathe deeply as often as you/we can. be thankful for the breath and remember that deep within (y)our own breath is the bliss you/we search for outside of (y)ourselves.

Could you explain to our readers what the Sorplusi Method is and how it can be used to empower those experiencing oppression in a small region like Corner Brook and the Bay of Islands?

the sorplusi method is a personal and creative development methodology I originated based on the dub poetry theory work of my mother, pioneer dub poet anita stewart. the methodology is founded on eight guiding principles which form the acronym sorplusi: self-knowledge, orality, rhythm, political content and context, language of communication, urgency, sacredness, and integrity. these principles are explored through five bodies: the physical, mental, emotional, creative and spiritual bodies. sorplusi culminates in biomyth artistic creations that emerge from the practitioner’s lived experience which undergoes a mythologization process to produce the final artistic piece. ultimately the method is concerned with the individual’s self-actualization through sorplusi’s process of personal exploration. each principle in the methodology challenges us to not only be self-invested but to (re)position to the centre of my micro and macro communities, being both accountable and responsible (able to account for and respond to these communities). I fundamentally believe that my art mirrors society, encourages its self-critique, and inspires its self-growth.

creating a methodology and context through which to understand and develop my work as a storyteller allows me to continue to measure my growth by my own standards and I believe that that is a crucial process for all of us experiencing oppression and consciously or unconsciously proliferating oppressive behavior. just like looking in the mirror and seeing myself beautiful as an antidote to what I was taught growing up, I see my self through my own eyes. storytelling allows me/allows us to repeatedly remove ourselves from scenarios that may compromise our ability to be empowered. self-determination is essential in identity, self-esteem, and community building. we are all responsible for telling our own stories and creating the means by which to tell them. we create. we live. we dialogue. we change ourselves and our families and our lovers and our friends. the sorplusi method  provides tools towards achieving these goals.