INTERVIEW
conducted by A.B. Jackson
How would you describe your art?
I describe my art as honest, sincere, witty and detailed. In all of my artistic endeavors, I attempt to go about it truthfully. Honest work is usually the stuff that others can relate to. My work is usually pretty intricate because I agonize over every detail. You can see it in everything I do, from the way I dress to the words I choose. For example, I’ll never write or say “Please be quiet,” when really I mean “Shut the fuck up!”. I’m an absolute stickler for making definite decisions down to the final detail. I’ve been accused of “overanalyzing” things. But, I like to call it “wit, intelligence and experience applied to observation” to make myself feel better.
Who influences you artistically?
I am constantly influenced by the bizarre occurrences that compose my everyday life… Usually, the more absurd I find something (no matter how positive or negative), the more influenced I am. For example, when I lived in Jersey City, I couldn’t get over how grown young girls look these days… like they are more developed than most adult women I know. And it’s sad because a lot of times their mature bodies send and receive the wrong messages in terms of men, how they conduct themselves, etc… So, I’ve written things about that subject, which I’ve yet to let anyone hear (with two exceptions…lol).
I’m also EXTREMELY influenced by music, particularly oldies and street/soul music. When I write “soul music”, I don’t necessarily mean affiliated with just Black people, but music that seems to come from a very real place within. Those types of artists include Alanis Morrissette, Luther Vandross, Dave Brubeck (jazz musician), TuPac, Maroon 5, N.E.R.D., Sade, Kanye West, Goo Goo Dolls, Phyllis Hyman, BG, Mary J. Blige, OutKast, No Doubt, Jay-Z and a few yet to be famous artists like 8th Won, Eric Hudson Jr. and Medina.
How did you get into writing?
I’ve always been a writer in some capacity since I was a child. I used to enter essay contests through school or my father’s job. In second grade, I actually won a competition by writing about how I once helped save my great-grandmother’s life when she had an asthma attack. Those kinds of boosts at an early age really helped fuel my confidence as a writer. That continued through high school when I met my former English teacher and present day mentor, Donald Delo. He was really the first person who made me realize that I “could”. He thought I was intelligent, witty, sincere and therefore capable of doing anything I wanted in terms of writing. I also have a solid grammar background, which of course helps on the more technical side of things. Rule #1: You must know the rules before you can break them!!!
What connections do you see between the world of acting and the world of Spoken Word?
I think the world of acting is a natural progression for poets because our material is so dramatic, humorous, sympathetic, and expressive of the human condition --- all things that are involved in acting. However, I don’t believe the inverse to be true --- poetry would not necessarily be a natural progression for actors... lol. Anyway, I’ve learned a great deal about myself as a performance poet from acting. I think some poets forget that your material could be incredible, but if you don’t deliver it well, then you’ve wasted your time and the audience’s. So, acting class has made me recognize my performance pitfalls and taught me how to go about fixing them.
What are your plans for the future?
My plans for the future are to ride this entertainment thing until the wheels and engine fall off! I have no present intentions on entering the corporate world or getting a “real” job, as my grandmother would say. Deep down, I aspire to have a career like Mos Def, Oprah, Will Smith, Queen Latifah, Eve, Jennifer Lopez, etc. --- all people who operate in numerous facets of entertainment and business mostly at their own discretion. I want to wake up one morning, and say, hey I feel like recording an album now. Then wake up a year later and say, maybe it’s time for a baby or time to write a film or whatever it is I want to do that day.
In essence, my plans for the future are to make my life so that I wake up every morning with the freedom to decide what I want to do in my career and personal life. That’s success.
How did you get your start in the acting world?
I’ve always been a performer. As a kid, I played about seven or eight sports, was a ballet, tap and competitive dancer, competed in forensics competitions, always spoke in front of class/groups, etc. So acting is just a natural progression because it’s just another way of performing. Not to mention, I’m an only child which is code for “a natural ham”.
How do you deal with writer’s block?
Not well, actually. In terms of my own work, when I experience writer’s block, I stop writing. Why? Because it must mean that I’m forcing myself to write about something I really don’t care about or probably haven’t experienced enough to write honestly about yet. I’m sooo not perfect! There are definitely times I try to force myself to write, what I call, “over my head” --- things that aren’t real in my life. For example, I’ve been trying to write about the wonderful aspects of when a man and woman are in love for a long time now. But, whenever I try, it sounds so forced and cheesy --- just awful. So, recently, a good friend of mine pointed out that perhaps I’ve never been in the kind of love I’ve been trying to depict. So now, the next time I’m moved romantically, I’m going to take his advice.
That’s not the bad part, though. The reason I responded “not well” is because when I’m given the topic, working on a deadline, money is involved, AND I have writer’s block --- that’s the worst! Particularly since I’m my worst critic, I’ve gone against a principle I try to live, which is: do not submit work that I am not one hundred percent proud of. But, if I did that, I’d be broke, so when writer’s block hits, I take a break and go out and do something completely unrelated to poetry. Then, I come back to the project, and usually am able to pull something out of my sleeve. I work best under the gun.
As a spoken word artist, it is almost expected for you to be socially conscious. Do you feel that same pressure in regards to your acting?
Yes. I actually feel more pressure to make more socially conscious decisions in regards to my acting. Let me use hip-hop as a model of myself to explain. Like hip-hop, the top dogs are always those who do what’s considered left for their time. I’m like that with poetry. Because most poets I’ve seen are so stuck on sounding “conscious” (a word I just gag at these days), I’ve decided to put a twist on my perspective and performance. That’s who I am anyway --- oh, everybody’s doing this? Okay, I’m gonna do that. And I don’t mean being different for the sake of being different, or simply to make a statement. I mean approaching things differently so I don’t lull the crowd to sleep. so I can get audiences, like young kids in the ghetto, the imprisoned, etc. who look at poetry as wack to listen. so I can save the world one audience at a time without talking over their heads. And if I told you my strategy for doing so, I’d hafta kill ya!
Anyway, as for acting, most roles for black women seem to fall into the awful stereotypes we’ve all seen a million times. The sad thing, though, is that I don’t feel as powerful as an actress as I do as a poet. As an actress, I’m handed a script with a portrayal in mind. I’m being told who I am. As a poet, I create myself. I decide who I am. And I believe you always have to be careful when others are in charge of who you are, because you have to deal with the consequences of that. You can become typecast, considered undesirable based on one bad role decision, etc. So, I’m very careful about how I think I might be portrayed…
If you could have dinner with anybody, who would it be and why?
It would be my father because I live in California now. So, I no longer have the luxury of sitting across from him at our kitchen table chatting about family, his childhood, bizarre events, life, etc…
What message would you like people to get when they read your work?
I would like people to become encouraged by my work. I would like them to hear my words or watch my characters and think, “Dag, if Sharae` can do what she set out to do despite certain hardships, so can I.”. I would like them to realize that honest stories are usually the best stories. If you live a life of lies, and you convey that in a poem, song, film, etc., that’s an honest, and usually more compelling, story.
for more information on me, please visit www.myspace.com/sharae_nikai, www.robinbrooksmanagement.com, or www.imdb.com
