Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Ras Rodd, who has a new perspective on poetry after trip to Holland. - ANDREW SMITH/PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
A TRIP to Holland late last year has been an eye-opener for poet Rass Rodd, who is a co-founder of the Dub Traffickers poetry unit.
"The national psyche of poets on the frontline, the phenomenon of 'poetry fi bus', is an illusion," Rodd said.
He spent five weeks, beginning in early November, in Zanvoort, Holland, on what he terms a "business vacation". While there, he performed in Amsterdam and Rotterdam.
Rodd defined the 'buss phenomenon' as it relates to the performing arts, "when you are known within all formats of the media and physically yu bling".
"This is not going to happen with poetry. Poetry begins to the knowledge society and to commercialise what belongs to philantrophic benevolence should not be disturbed. It is quite OK as it is," Rodd said.
As for his performances, Rodd said "the format I used was on a sound system. That format was chosen because part of the demand for poets locally is through the mainstream," he said, naming the sound system and radio as two such outlets.
COMMUNICATION
"Communication skills as it relates to language becomes the prime factor," he said. "To appeal to the majority of the people who are there, one has to communicate in an audible manner, even when speaking patois, with a careful mix of English."
"The demand for poets is not as much as you would find in Canada, United States, United Kingdom, in all languages," Rodd said. "Europe will not be the first choice now. Most of the activity is in Canada, U.K. and the U.S."
He named Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka and Oku Onura as the well-known Jamaican poets and noted that "in other languages there are poets who are doing well."
He sees the language situation as extending to the written word. "If you are thinking of books it has to be in many languages.
The demand is there, but when you go into the different languages that is where the division is," Rodd said.
In relation to Dub Traffickers, whose office at the Zac-A-Rama centre in Allman Town, Kingston, was closed over a year ago, Ras Rodd said "since we closed office, we have sought to develop a business plan for poetry to make it economically viable."
