By Lineo Segoete
Emilio Villa writes “Poetry is to forget forgetfulness. Poetry is to separate self from self. Poetry is what’s completely left out. Poetry is emptying without exhausted”, now combine that with a live band and equally talented featured guests and you have “Demons Exposed” by Siphiwe Nzima Ntṧekhe.
Siphiwe is not conventional; hers is not the kind of poetry you read in High School. She will not stand in front of you and sentence your mind to a recollection of Mzwakhe Mbuli or Lebo Mashile (as seen on TV). She might shock you, anger you, make you smile or even confuse you, but she will not leave you unaffected.
This is a poet who strips naked before the whole of society and lures its attention not through her naked body, but through the music in her voice. She vacuums the things that form a lump in her throat and bleeds them out on paper, she assembles the things that exhilarate her and tames them on paper and she draws you in through her theatric and yet sincere narration. You cannot help but listen.
Her album title Demons Exposed instantly implies something along the lines of Usher’s Confessions. It is personal and risky, revealing to the world her life experiences, her wake up calls, elements of self discovery and even rebellion.
A poet’s work is not done unless he/she can shake you up both emotionally and mentally. Siphiwe does justice to the cause. Demons Exposed caters for the Jazz fanatics, the Hip Hop heads and the suckers for powerful vocals. The point is not to bore people with ceaseless whining and abstract metaphors after all, the point is to share, build and entertain.
Poems to look out for: Demons exposed and King’s Way.
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