The Creative Edge

Magnifire may be short in stature but that man's talent  & heart propel him to lands even giants dare not step. I was fortunate enough to interview the young man. This is the interview below: Why spoken word? Why spoken word? Rather why not spoken word?? It’s the purest and rawest way to artistically communicate. It’s direct and as a spoken word artist, on a stage with a mic, I have the opportunity to be a voice—voicing God and people. Doing it fearlessly cause am able to say stuff most are scared to say. WHEN DID YOU START WRITING? I've been a rapper longer than I've been a poet. Wrote my first rap in 2001, at 11 years old. Wrote my first poem in 2003. So I've been penning stuff down for a minute now. Which artists most inspire you, local and international? My hugest influence poetically has to be Nas. Nobody puts the "poetry" in "rhythm and poetry" better than he does. Other International acts I find inspiring are, Lupe Fia

Forget the clichéd pleasantries, and the tedious list of excuses for not blogging often…I will just get into it. So, if you had a feel of the Lusaka social scene, it’s hard not to have noticed the explosion of ‘spoken word’ that has threatened to envelope the whole town. From the branding of Bittersweet, to the fiery tenacity of Please Don’t Snap (PDS), to the underground rawness of Cross-Factor, and the mushrooming of many spoken word acts, it is nearly impossible not to fall in love with poetry all over again. Gone are the days when poetry is looked at as some archaic, impersonal, snobbish caricature; designed by boring Literature teachers to cage pupils in a cell of academic torture. It has changed. The rules have been dropped. Organic, raw, creatively seductive, it yearns to be  moulded , adapted, and redefined to the glory of art and relevant refinement. Many, vigilant supporters of the vintage works of poetry from Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Edgar Allan Poe; might find this