A good poet can evoke your emotions and can instigate feelings that were never there. It speaks to you; can instantly change your mood and awaken your senses almost as gently as a breeze.
In the words the great poet Rita Dove, ‘Poetry is a language in its most distilled and most powerful’.
What if I told you that I have found a remarkable young woman who is crafty with her words, who can even make you envy her pain as she expresses them vowel by vowel?
Barbara’s work redefines modern poetry and uncovers the frauds. Her work puts feelings that we have, those that are too deep into words, uniting pleasure and the truth.
What I am basically saying is that her poems are the very language of life expressed in its eternal truth – an effort that beckons for attention. She started the art of performing in the year 2007 at the ‘Power in the Voice Competition’, a British Council sponsored event with a piece of short prose.
We managed to have a one on one with the remarkable young lady, Barbra Breeze Anderson, a treat for all Poetry enthusiasts.
MC: Who is Barbra, and what’s behind the name breeze?
BA: I am a poet, a writer and Designer. The name Breeze comes from my interest in the wind and how it moves things around it.
MC: When and why did you start performing poetry?
BA: I started performing in 2009 but I’ve been writing since early on
MC: Why poetry?
BM: It’s able to grasp in a few lines my perspectives and opinions.
MC: Any notable role models or Inspirations?
BM: I look up to women writers like the late Freedom Nyamubaya and the American poet Sylvia Plath because of how they could capture their emotions in words.
MC: How many poems have written so far?
BM: A lot, maybe 60 or so.
MC: What genre or main themes are presented in your poems?
BM: Mostly when I write my poems I put myself forward as a writer who is a woman and an artist, l talk about being African and I look at what my country and the continent has faced in the past and how the present has turned out. I also have a big connection because l always remember in my mind that l am the person writing it and l always acknowledge how each poem makes me feel.
MC: Besides from poetry what else do you do?
BM: I am a designer, I launched my bag brand last year. I make personalize fabric bags for both women and men
MC: Would you encourage other young women to pursue poetry and creative arts?
BM: I would because writing is a therapy and a way to say the things that others would not be able to. Especially in this harsh environment in Zimbabwe it’s important to be able to find a way to express a lot of feelings and experiences.
You can Like and Follow Barbra Breeze Anderson on Facebook or email her here.
