ursula rucker speaks
by nii parkes on sep 19, 2003, 00:10
ursula rucker reminds us of the simple grace and voice of language. known to most of us by her relationship with the roots, it was 'the adventures in wonderland' off the roots' 'illadelph halflife' album that opened her up to a larger audience. with the vocal talents of black thought and the extra raw dice raw on show it was this track, the last on the album, that took you by the throat:
"no milk and honey in this land/
'cos justice has been denied/
'cos it's play dirty or die by the hand/
that's holding all the guns/
plunge deep into religion was my first decision/
to save me and my daughter's lives."
('the adventures in wonderland')
a temple university journalism graduate, rucker's poetry has the determination of a good reporter but voiced with a grace much like the late nina simone and gil-scott heron. she has performed with both.
her soon to drop second album ‘silver or lead’ is a fitting description of her poetry, a whispering tone with a heavy heart. like her debut set 'supa sister' she has recruited a range of producers, jazzanova, louie vega and the roots accompanying her voice.
our own poet nii parkes caught up with the first lady of spoken. and they spoke thus…
you evoke some really stark images and situations in your work so i wondered if you have existed in the belly of these realities.
sometimes (in the belly). sometimes i don’t but i wish that i had because, you know, sometimes i wish that i’d had some of these experiences that i talk about that other people have had so i could really do it the ultimate justice when i write… translate it.
for instance, after september 11… maybe a lot of people felt this but don’t want to say it, but i wished i had been there. i mean like the people in new york who were right there… to feel that intensity. all i know is how i felt when i was witnessing it but there was this tv thing in my way - i wasn’t there.
does your writing help you deal with life?
immensely. sometimes it’s the only way i deal with life. when i’m feeling totally lost, poetry is all i have. i could do something… i could easily cross that line. i have an understanding of that (violence), that passion. writing helps me hold my temper down but it hasn’t gotten rid of it yet.
the roots. how did that relationship come about, and how has working with them influenced you as an artist?
this guy right here (holds up a magazine with ?uestlove on the cover) is the reason why. it let me know that i was able to climb outside of the box and take it there. i said, “how could you ask me to do this on your first really signed album? are you insane?” he probably is a little bit, but it’s been more than a nice ride.
i hate to think of what would have happened if i hadn’t done that. even more remarkable is the fact that he kept on asking me to do a track on their albums. he’s a real innovator. choosing to have a poet end a hip hop album, plus a woman at the end of an all-male hip hop group’s album…
almost subversive huh? who else has influenced you; poets, musicians, books?
whenever people ask me i just say the usual suspects; sonia sanchez, georgia o’keefe, the painter frida kahlo, assata shakur, you know… like you said, marvin gaye, so many people, i always forget… like heatwave.
damn, heatwave!
oh thank god you know them. a lot of people don’t. just before i came a philly radio station played 3-in-a-row from them and i was in heaven. I was doing my moves, singing, telling my sons “y’all don’t know”…
sounds like my dad and i on jazz. now he’s dead i just wish i could talk to him and say you were right.
yeah, that’s how i feel about my brother. he was killed. he was like a jazz collector. when i was younger i would be like, “turn that off, turn it down… ooh i don’t like it.”; and now i’ve become a lover of jazz and really wish i could share that with him. i think it’s because of him i came to have an appreciation of it.
music and poetry, do you think there is a boundary?
i don’t think in terms of boundaries when it comes to art. i learnt that at the arts centre that i worked at in philly for seven years. i saw that happen all the time; visual artists come in to install their work, but have some kind of text in their work etc. it’s about leaving things and seeing where they go. i think the best things happen that way.
from personal experience i know that touring can be tough on personal relationships. how do you find a balance between motherhood, marriage and your career?
i haven’t quite figured out how i manage to do that. i think it’s really by the grace of god i manage to do that because, i’ll tell you, it’s really rough sometimes. it’s very taxing, but my kids are really cool and understanding. I just maintain a level of honesty between me and them and my husband really holds it down. he’s actually my manager but he’s still behind the scenes.
how old are your kids?
8, 4 going on 5 and 15 months.
all boys?
yep, all boys. i’ve got to raise them up to be soldiers so they can get their armour together because they will come up against a lot.
what would be your dream for them? how would you like the world to be for them? if there’s one thing you could change what would it be?
(deep breath) you know what? i would slow down technology. let the kids know it’s ok to go out there and play and invent games instead of playing video games that have already been invented by somebody else.
i read in the papers, a letter, where someone suggested that instead of our arrogant goal of raising the standard of living in developing countries to ours, we should consider lowering our standard of living since it’s obviously not sustainable if expanded.
i hear that. i always long for the days of old when things were… i mean i don’t want to go back to the situation where they had signs saying “no coloureds allowed,” but the simpler times when we still added shit up without a calculator, or we kept peoples’ numbers in our memory. we have too much reliance on technology; that’s got to change.
do you think poets should consider it a privilege and a mission to change people’s perceptions about these things?
i do. any person, not just a poet, who has anything to do with activism or artistic endeavours that are visible should do it in the spirit of change and advancement. there’s a lot of trendy poets out there. it’s irksome. because you sit there and it’s like not only do you suck – simply put – but there’s no soul in it, just doing it because it’s the thing to do.
what about hip hop? do you think hip hop artists are doing enough?
i think there are a lot of hip hop artists that are doing a lot but they just can’t come to the forefront. nobody will give them any support. i just think it’s really, really fucked up; what has happened to our movement, to our people, our music, and the effect it has on other people’s perception of us.
these people that are doing it don’t care. they just say if they want to listen to it and they want to think that, fine. i don’t care… just doing my thing… just cashing my cheque. i mean i want money too, but not at the expense of my soul or the souls of black folks.
