AINSLEY BURROWS Born in Kingston, Jamaica. Breathing poetry since his second ...
Y BURROWS
Born in Kingston, Jamaica. Breathing poetry since his second year in college, 11 years ago. Represented Nuyorican Poets Cafe in the 2001 National Poetry Slam. Uses his words as a ticket to go global, learn and absorb. Poet.
What is the job of the poet? On a certain level, it's to get people to think. People very easily get caught in tunnel vision. There's so much bullshit out there telling you, "You don't need to involve yourself with what's real or what is the truth, what you really need is 10 different ring tones and a VCR on your phone."
Explain genius. Somebody who is able to tap into the simple things around everybody everyday, and make them more than simple.
How much of art is a craft that can be taught and learned, and how much comes from within? There's a place where poetry comes from that is inside everyone, but some people are afraid to open that up. When you're closed off from that, even if you're a good technical writer, it's like a closed circuit.
What's the difference between poetry and prose? With prose, you have the ability to develop the skeleton, place arteries and ligaments, put on the flesh and make it into a whole being. Poetry is the bare muscle of language. It is what makes something move. You could tell someone's whole lifetime in just one word. Or explain a whole era in just a sentence.
What have you learned of the artist's struggle? Art is what this world is run on. We're like the fuel of the world, but we get burned out before we get where we need to go. The artist feeds the whole world, whether it's spiritually or psychologically, but the artist never gets to eat.
What do you carry with you throughout your days? An alertness. I'm always alert because I know the littlest things affect the world.
What do you wish you could leave behind? My school loan. They send me letters, give me calls, and I'm like, "I told you that I do not believe in paying for education. It's my religion." I think in a country like America, no one should pay for education. If this generation needs to lobby for anything, we don't need to lobby against terror, we need to lobby for education for every single person on this planet.
Burrows' CD is available at poetcd.com, ainsleyburrows.net or at the Nubian Heritage Bookshop in downtown Brooklyn. His poetry home in NYC is the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, where you can find him talking to girls and saving the world on any given Friday.