BY KIMBERLY KARIATI
MUSICIAN-cum-spoken-word-artiste Tanaka Chuma says his art seeks to give hope to youths who are determined to find space in the world of art.
In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style, Chuma said his dynamic, highly-entertaining music and poetry was a calling to motivate others.
“My music is a symbol of consistency, persistence and patience I have had with my talent. The discipline and God’s grace that carried me through the learning process of first, second and now I am on third album, all is represented in the sound,” he said.
“Having evolved from poetry which I joined with music, my vision is to be one of the greatest poets to ever touch the hearts of many Zimbabweans and beyond through cultural exchange experiences.”
Chuma said spoken word had given him the opportunity to captivate his audience with longer performances.
“From the beginning of my career, my first album title was an introduction to my musical journey. The second one is an inspirational album giving hope and advice on patience. I think every talent should have room for growth and a chance to evolve so marrying music and poetry is a step further,” he said.
“I used to perform five-minute slots without beats until my album got nominated for an award. I can entertain the crowd for an hour, so to me it’s a chance to take poetry to the mainstream.”
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Having performed on several art platforms Chuma believes that poetry has contributed in shaping careers of a lot of musicians.
“I have performed at the Lafarge Poetry Slam first edition and won second prize. I have been performing at different big and small stages. In 2016 I was a StarBrite finalist. Poetry has always contributed to the arts sector in different ways,” he said.
“We have poets that wrote songs for big musicians in Zimbabwe. Music itself is spoken word because it’s written down before the instruments are played before confronting the studio, it has always been the formula.”
Meanwhile, Chuma is set to release his third album next month.
“I am working on releasing my third poetry and music album titled Seiko Chaunga. My first album Ndabuda Mugaba got a special mention in 2018 at the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama), the second one titled Chomunzira Famba was nominated for Nama awards in the 2020 outstanding spoken word artiste category,” he said.
“So it is a huge thing for me to be representing the poetry scene in Zimbabwe for the third time.”
- Follow Kimberly on Twitter @lizellekimkari
