Melissa Kiguwa is a jazz musician and a poet who sees words in melody. We caught up with her and she explained how there is always a jazz lyricism that goes along with the poetics of the words.
Who is Melissa Kiguwa the person, the performer?
?I know I am a writer, but sometimes it?s a bit difficult to give words to things that are so deeply burrowed away. As a performer I want people to think! A wise friend of mine says, ?God gave you a brain! Don?t insult Him by not using it!? So if I can provide a safe space for people to interrogate what they see as ?normal? or a ?given,? then I am doing my job.?
Do you think your upbringing influenced your life?
?Most definitely! Much of the confusion from my personal experiences comes out in my work. For example, I write a lot about the disappointments that come from believing stories that are not true. What happens when you land in America and find yourself homeless or unbelievably lonely and isolated or unable to get the economic progress you thought it would provide for you? What are the stories of the Ugandan men trapped in London prisons? What do you do when you?ve given your child all the things you could never afford and they come back having lost the values you wanted them to maintain? What happens when you are displaced and the international organization that is supposed to financially help you stops sending money and support?
Such are the experiences I focus on because they are the real stories. Those other stories of golden bathtubs and dollars falling from the sky like manna? Those are for the movies.?
Why poetry/jazz?
?Actually jazz is poetry to me. And poetry is jazz. I think it?s unfortunate that jazz culture is seen as inaccessible. Yes, its roots are in Black American culture which for some may seem very distant and far from their present reality?but there is still a universality to jazz. I mean, look at the call and response that is embedded into many genres. Or the way jazz celebrates improvisation, which is really the celebration of creation, of flinging notes together and making something beautiful. And isn?t that what most of us are doing? Taking the messiness of life and trying to make something beautiful with it??
If there was anything you would do different, what would that be?
?I?d be more organized! I look at people who submit their work a week or two before the deadline and I?m like, ?Man, which planet does this person come from, and how do I go there???
What inspires you?
?Laughter. Positivity. Dancing. People fearlessly loving themselves and those around them. Bold assertive women. Sensitive men. The list is endless.?
Where do you perform?
?I perform at events that are in line with my philosophies. Events that celebrate creativity, that seek to build community and that promote social justice. But I am definitely available for shows. People can reach me at melissa.kiguwa@gmail.com.?
How would you describe Melissa in three words?
?Loving. Growing. Building.?
Any last words to remember you by?
?There?s a line from a story-poem I am working on:
?I am looking for the holy. The beautiful. The rhythms between the spaces in these words. The ghosts mirroring the fear in the words I never say. The words I never had the courage to speak out. I?ve been trying to speak them out. The words. The ones caught in the hallway of my throat.?
May you find the holy. The beautiful. And the words that need to be heard.?
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