Boonaa Mohammed
Yo, recently I had a performance at University of Toronto at an event titled “Night of Xpression” as part of the festivities for Xpression against Oppression. A great evening it was which performers showcasing pieces that addressed oppression through their artistic narratives. Closer of the night was the talented Boonaa Mohammed who was super duper late. In my time as a Spoken Word Artist there’s not much people who can impress me more than Boonaa. I remember when I started my friend told me about Boonaa and I see him in a old flyer for When Brother’s Speak 2008 show, a photo that made him seem like he was a 30-something year old, 6′3 brute of a poet. I later was in on the bill as him at show titled OutSpoken and got to meet him— a no more than 5′7 skinny kid East-African kid who was crazy funny. Damn, Boonaa commanded the stage with appealing presence and powerful poetry. It was almost like deja vu to see him do it again. He captured the good with two pieces, one dedicated to his Oromo heritage and another one showcasing his love for is Islam faith.
So I got up with Boonaa, ask if to an interview, cuz I guess I’m trying to broaden my blog. I got out my delicious Voice Notes application for my BlackBerry and we chopped it about his growth as an artist, Travis Blackman, changing underwear and other stuff.
Scardy Cat – Hilarious Piece
Tell em’ who you are.
My name is Boonaa Mohammed, people know me as a storyteller
You refer to yourself as a storyteller?
Yea definitely, I think storytelling falls into many different categories that you can understand. For instance, I’m also a film student, I’m also in the process of writing a play and I’m also a teacher. I’m someone who tell stories in many different ways. For example, if you say are a spoken word artist that means something different to so many different people. If you say you are a poet, that means something different to so many different people. If you say you are a storyteller, it means nothing. It means nothing and everything. Photographers and Painters are storytellers. So I put myself in that broad classification
You’ve grown alot as an individual likewise as an artist. Can you comment on that?
I think you as a person and you as a artist should be the same thing. So when you changed the person, the artist change theoretically as well. To say that I change, yeah, change is running on time. We are always changing. I never met somebody who was the same as a year ago. That would be weird. A lot of ways I feel like I changed in life, I changed friends, I changed underwear. I changed alot of things. We are always changing, I know for me, I put out an album three years ago. I cannot listen to that cd today. If you play it I will run away.
What has been the key to your maturation?
Very good question. I don’t know *chuckles* I don’t think I’m qualified for that answer.
If you look back at the person you are, the changes and all, has there been a catalyst to help you progress? Or is it just life?
Honestly there might be many different things on the surface that many people might think like religion or whatever, but you really you just change. I got older…
Do you remember you first poem you wrote?
… Yea, I do and I don’t. My first poem, I didn’t know was a poem until somebody told me it was a poem. Actually I used to rap back in the day–who didn’t? So I was serious about it, this was in high school and I was working with this producer, he was kinda big and I wanted to show him a verse and I did it not much much and he was like “Yo, yo, that was some tight spoken word piece” I was like “For real? What’s that?
Would you still perform that first piece today?
Hell no! Are you kidding me? No.I would burn it if somebody even handed it to me. I think that a healthy thing to say, yea it was a phase in my life but as a artist you always want to do better. Even when I’m looking at my journal at thing I scribble down, I be like “No! NO! NO! Are you stupid? You’re so ugly”… Maybe it’s not that healthy but it works
First Spoken Word piece you heard? Inspiration?
You Travis Blackman? Yea that dude is an Ol’ G. He was like my inspiration growing up. He had a site that was under contruction and it had a poem playing in the background—it was funny, witty and rhymed. I was like “what the heck is this?”… Even til today I think my style flow resemble his. Maybe I would’ve different it was someone else
Green Card – Great Message
You love it when the crowd….
Pays
You hate it when the crown….
Doesn’t pay
I want my words to be….
Paid
I don’t want my word to be….
Jacked…. You know what, do whatever you want with my words.
Say Word!
Coming back to Toronto [From 4months trip in Egypt and Ethiopia] living the ‘third-world’, going there with a foreign perspective…Going there and being like “Yo, you guys live kinda backwards”… caming back to Toronto and be like “Damn we live EXTRA backwards” Say word, we were really behind like that. These people have nothing and they are happy. We [Toronto] have have everything and we’re miserable.
Say Peace!
…Islam phobia, the whole war against Islam…
Upcoming Projects.
Release of second cd, live album recording titled “Stranger In This World”.
Also, I’m working on a play with Weyni Mengesha, using alot of poetry and dialogue about a friend of mine who died in 2007. He actually started writing it, sent it to me and then died. So yeah, I gotta finished that.
For more Boonaa. Check out www.boonaa.com
Priorities – Moving piece about Faith
