Rap Lyrical: Word Up! on LightNight
This Friday, as part of LightNight, Liverpool’s Writing on the Wall festival (WoW) invites two artists from different sides of the Atlantic to perform under the stars in a celebration of spoken word. The Skinny talks to Shayshahn MacPherson and Blue Saint
Shayshahn ‘Phearnone’ MacPherson and Daniel ‘Blue Saint’ Sebuyane have both transcended the boundary between musical artist and ‘man of letters’. MacPherson is a Bronx-born musician and spoken word artist, a chameleon who is an accomplished violinist (performing at Carnegie Hall at the age of 12), has a history in film acting and also runs his own business, Phearnone Entertainment. Blue Saint is a Liverpool MC and lyricist, who began his career with Writing on the Wall (WoW)’s Young Writers programme.
As part of Liverpool’s LightNight festival – where cultural institutions across the city come together for a series of performances, exhibitions and light projection – MacPherson will be performing original pieces and covers with his violin and voice, while Blue Saint will entertain the audience with poems from his personal repertoire.
[Blue Saint]
Blue Saint heralds from the Democratic Republic of Congo and has lived in Liverpool since he was six years old; now 20, he describes writing as an important, if not essential, journey of personal development. Meeting The Skinny at a bar outside of Liverpool city centre with the seemingly inescapable décor of exposed brick walls and leather upholstery, Sebuyane describes his creative process as one inspired by free-flowing thought, the local environment and family history – but mostly “just general boredom.” Sat with his arms and legs crossed, leaning back in his chair and gazing into the corner of the ceiling, he says, “creativity is a great way of not only expressing myself, but developing myself as a person.” He pauses. “It’s kind of a way for me to push the envelope, or whatnot…” He refocuses. “Do you know what I mean? I just don’t like constricting myself. I go with the flow and know that I can always fix what I’ve written later.”
When we later catch up by phone, New York-based MacPherson sees his work in a tacitly different way. For him, the journey of the audience acts as the engine for his performance; he uses music as a means to communicate personal thoughts and feelings in the hope that this will stimulate a change in the listener.
[Shayshahn MacPherson (Phearnone)]
Both agree that music is “another language”; aside from the safety of word-bank clichés, there is a sense that both of these artists want to contribute something meaningful to the international conversation of ideas.
Listening to MacPherson talk about his work, it’s clear that he wants his experience in Liverpool to be one that forces people to recalibrate their relationship with the spoken word. “The experience of connecting with people who I never saw before from different cultures, [and] seeing how they react to my work, is what allows me to take my work to the next level,” he says. We can’t see his face down the phone, but we imagine that he, like Blue Saint, is looking thoughtfully ahead.