This article is part of a weekly feature we will be running for the weeks to come, highlighting one of our contributors here at Troubadour 21. It is our hope that we may give you a peek inside the lives of the artists who create the art and the poets who create the poetry you see here on the site.

Our feature this week is Karma QSaay, the owner and proprietor of the Sweet Epiphany Cafe in Detroit. Sweet Epiphany is a unique venue for poets and poetry lovers to come together and bask in the flow of poetry. Karma’s poetry is some of the finest I’ve seen in the Detroit area, and I, for one, am looking forward to watching his poetry soaked existence blossom and prosper.

T21: How long have you been practicing your art? Was there a moment or moment(s) you remember helping you BECOME a writer?

Karma: I would say I have been practicing poetry, since about the Fifth Grade. I got into poetry around 7 years old, but I did not write my first poem until I was 11 years of age. I believe it was he first time I read Edgar Allen Poe’s Tale Tell Heart. For a child just really learning to love to read, that was a pretty heavy thing to read early. After I read it, I knew I wanted to make people feel like I felt when reading that particular piece of work.

T21: How would you describe your style? What do you want your poems to say about your viewpoint on the world? What do you want your reader to come away with when he or she reads one of your poems?

Karma: I call my style “Shakespearean Spoken Word.” I want my poems to show how my viewpoint of the world is real and pure. I do not candy coat life in any manner or situation. I want he or she who reads my poems to come away with the message, that humanity could have done more, I was proud of my culture and heritage, no matter how we misrepresent it at times, and that fantasy, was not my forte.

T21: Who is your favorite artist/writer/poet?

Karma: The Last Poets.

T21: What is it that attracts you to his/her work?

Karma: Their style of poetry, coupled with revolutionary ideas and the struggle of black life, is what made me want to be a spoken word poet.

T21: Whose poetry have you studied recently that inspired you, caused you to think in new and different ways?

Karma: I have recently had the privilege of studying local poets and their work, like ‘Dimonique Boyd’, ‘William Burkholder’, ‘Valencia Numi Vanner’, ‘Black Tie Collective’, ‘Lite Shineth’, etc… These many different styles of poetry has caused me to see poetry and my poems in a new and different way.

T21: Tell us something quirky about yourself.

Karma: I  am the typical starving artist! I actually stay awake days upon days, working on poetry. How cliche is that? QUIRKY!

T21: Is there anything about you that people might not suspect? How does that come out in your work?

Karma: That I do not believe in god. I am so passionate in my poems, some people actually see me as preaching, but I have no concept of a belief in a god. It translates into my work, by me reminding those who read my work, that a god who cannot help us in crisis, who does not care enough about real liberation for the oppressed, nor shows up at the time we really need him, is a god not worth having.

T21: Who is your favorite band and what is it you like about their music? Do you find yourself emulating lyrics, rhythms, musical beats in your poetry? Whose music do you listen to when you’re writing, after you’ve finished a piece you’ve struggled with, when you feel you are blocked?

Karma: I am the biggest fan of ‘Dead Prez!’ This hip-hop group surprises me album after album, with lyrics of sublime thinking and the struggle we face, even today in America. I find myself writing my poems to lyrics, rhythms, and musical beats. The music I listen to during moments of writing varies depending on subject. I can write to Hip-Hop, Hard Rock, Classical, and even, old African American Spirituals, sung by the likes of Mahalia Jackson, Paul Robertson, and Harry Belefonte.

T21: What are the major themes you deal with in  your writing? Have you added themes, changed direction, or played with new themes as you change and grow as a writer?

Karma: I deal solely with real life, from every angle. I can capture love/love making, racism, education, poverty, hope, and even war. The most common thing I have added to my life in growth, is more compassion for others. I think the world is opinionated enough, but compassion, we seem to be running a little low on that.

T21: When you are gone, what would you like the world to remember about you?

Karma: I did it ALL, my way!

T21: Where, other than Troubadour 21, can our readers find your work?

Karma:
www.facebook.com/sweetepiphany
and @ The Sweet Epiphany Poetry Cafe
13305 W. Seven Mile Road
Detroit, MI 48235

T21: What do you think of the answer to the great question, as expressed by Douglas Adams in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

Karma: 42 will do.

Thank you, Karma, for taking the time to share your thoughts with our readers. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we have!

Check out Karma on T21 at www.troubadour21.com/author/karma