Kurt Lamkin makes 'Magic' with the kora and his poetry

Kurt Lamkin is a musician, a poet, a spoken-word artist and much more. He's in touch with his ancestral roots and enjoys picking up African instruments and learning them.

Lamkin took time to sit down with Preview and talk about his love for music and for poetry.

Q: How does writing poetry affect you?

A: Poetry gives me a great sense of power. Mostly through listening. It opens me up to what's going on in the world, in the people around me.

Q: Tell me about your latest poetry collection, "Magic Yams."

A: This collection focuses on the relationship between a fisherman and a woman who grows magical yams.

Q: Tell me about your love for the kora.

A: The first time I heard the kora in West Africa, it seemed to me that it was an instrument that did more than speak; it was also eloquent. Once I learned to play it, it became an integral part of my life, my inner life particularly.

Q: You were a producer of "Living Proof: Contemporary Black Literature," a series of radio programs. Tell me why these programs are of importance to you.

A: I was surprised at how simple and flexible poetry could be on the radio, for the poets and the audience. All one has to do is bring on excellent poets like Sekou Sundiata and Safiya Henderson and it would be like listening to a different kind of newscast, divine news in a way. Much fun.

Q: What projects are you working on?

A: I just built a new instrument, which I call "jinjin." It took almost a year to make, and all the while I was doing the physical labor, new poems kept coming to me. So this spring, I am touring part of the country with the new instrument and the new poems.

Q: If you could work with one poet or spoken-word artist, who would it be and why?

A: I would like to work with Amadu Bansang Jobarteh, a master kora playing djeli from West Africa. I heard him perform when he was in his 80s. He sat on the floor with his legs crossed and played with such grace and ease that his voice saturated the theater, while his body relaxed so much that he was almost limp, like a baby breast-feeding. I would like to know how he could surrender so completely yet live for so long.

Q: What advice would you offer fellow writers in the area?

A: My advice would be for all the writers to listen to and read other writers in the area who are most unlike themselves. And be ready to embrace some wonderful discoveries. We have a marvelous collection of writers in the area, but we still have to get past a kind of intellectual segregation to appreciate the contributions they are making.