‘Stop asking artists for samples’
Iryn Namubiru
What you need to know:
- “Has a journalist in an interview ever asked a doctor for a sample surgery? Most of the people asking artists, comedians, poets for samples forget that they have to prepare first. Samples discredit the amount of preparations to produce works of art.”
If you have keenly followed TV or radio interviews involving artists and performers, you should have noticed that they always end with a performance.
A poet will be asked to recite a poem, an artist will be asked to sing and a comedian will be asked to make people laugh. Often, the artist will sheepishly laugh and then perform a verse if it is a song, a short poem, if it is a recital and for comedy, things are usually very complicated because well, comedy is a complicated art in its own way.
Most artists do not want to give impromptu performances because they usually discredit preparations and the work they put in to produce great art. While artists hate these impromptu performances, it takes them getting to a certain level as performers to say no to these kinds of arrangements.
For instance, you will not hear radio presenters asking Julianna or Iryn Namubiru to give them a sample, yet, when it is a new artist or a different performance form such as comedy, poetry, there is that one presenter who will ask the artist for a sample.
“I was invited for a talk show with one of the media houses, we were talking about poetry and somehow during the show, I was asked for a sample, in poetry there is something we call a free verse, it is more like a freestyle,” Mark Gordon said while launching his book, Day Dreamer on March 30, at Forest Cottages in Naguru.
Free verse poetry, also known as free-form poetry, is a form of poetry that does not adhere to a set metre, rhyme scheme, or other traditional poetic structures, instead relying on the natural rhythms of speech and imagery. Sample is a poem Gordon wrote after that experience in the studio. There is a lot he questions in the poem, but his disdain for impromptu performances cannot be over emphasised.
“Most of the people asking for these forget that a recital is an expression someone has to prepare for,” he observes. Mark Gordon Mugasha is a poet, event producer and the founder of Ladu Poetry House. Over the years, he has been part of many poetry slams in a producer role that people in the poetry circles did not even know he performs. His book launch was followed by a recital by different poets, some of his mentees, wellwishers and his friends.
The poems in the book are a journey the poet has taken for years and thus many of these are about his life and experiences, from love, his struggle with weight loss, relationship with family and above all, mental health. His poem on being asked for a sample, is one of the few that he performed himself and in respect for the art, he rhetorically asks; “Has a journalist in an interview asked a doctor for a sample surgery?”
Hosted by poets Maritza and So Severe, Gordon noted that he will be hosting DayDreamer events often and he also plans to take the recitals to schools soon.
What he says...
Poems from the heart. The poems in the book Day Dreamer, are a journey the poet has taken for years and many of these are about Mark Gordon’s life and experiences, from love, his struggle with weight loss, relationship with family and above all, mental health.
