Welcome back to Brittle Paper Spotlight, a monthly series featuring emerging writers whose work have been published here on Brittle Paper. Our November Spotlight star is the Zimbabwean artist, Chioniso Tsikisayi, whose poem, “I Want to Fall Apart Quietly”, was a breath of fresh air in our busy 30 Days of African Writing. In the midst of October’s poetic accounts of grief, politics, and social issues, Chioniso brings us light-hearted soulfulness with colourful pop culture references and beautiful nostalgia. As if the poem was not charming enough, Chioniso gifts us her lilting voice with her reading of “I Want to Fall Apart Quietly”.

 

Chioniso Tsikisayi is a spoken word poet, writer, singer, and filmmaker from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. A member of the ZimHipHop award-winning multimedia creative hub Cottage47, she has graced events such as The PiChani, a Pan African lifestyle networking event for African creatives and entrepreneurs. Chioniso has also performed at The European Union Film Festival’s opening ceremony in Bulawayo 2021. She occasionally writes for Doing it for the Kidz (DIFTK) magazine, which is a socially conscious youth-based charity organization that focuses primarily on uplifting struggling communities within Zimbabwe. Their work includes the DIFTK Book Clubs where young people volunteer to teach the children of Ngozi Mine to read and write. In her spare time, our November Spotlight artist enjoys attending poetry slams and listening to RnB music, which brings us to the themes of her interview.

 

Brittle Paper

The first question is always the same so tell us, when did you first start writing and what inspired you to take up your craft?

Chioniso Tsikisayi

I think it must have been second grade when I first fell in love with the idea of writing. I didn’t really know exactly what it was then or that it even had a name. It seemed more like a frivolous pastime than a serious craft. I have one distinct memory of these writing exercises we were given in class called “NEWS” where we were tasked to write about any interesting events or activities we got up to over the weekend. I guess I really liked the idea of telling my teacher all the little random details about my life. It felt cool and made me feel important that a whole adult actually cared to know what was going on in a six-year old’s mind. A good story is like ice cream on a hot day; rich and creamy, sprinkled with delicious toppings and held up by a good foundation – the cone. When I was about ten or eleven my appetite for reading grew and each book I fell into led me to a world outside of my own bursting with sights, sounds, and smells I could only imagine. I loved that feeling, and the older I grew the more I felt within myself a deep sense of urgency to create similar worlds for other people to escape to. When I read it feels like I’ve been given a gift, and when I write it feels like I’m passing on the gift I’ve been given.

Brittle Paper

Building on that early period of your writing, which authors would you say you look up to? Which ones were influential to your artistic upbringing?

Chioniso Tsikisayi

There are a number of authors I look up to and they are mostly women. Tsitsi Dangarembga, whose first literary offering, Nervous Conditions, transformed my world when I was sixteen. It was the first time I had come across a black, Zimbabwean female protagonist. All of the other literature I had read was centred on the worlds of girls who looked nothing like me – blue eyes or blond hair or pale skin like Bella in Twilight. Most recently, I stumbled across Ugandan novelist Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. Her literary voice is so unique and refreshing. She dabbles with spirituality and modernism in such a beautiful way. I love Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s work, and I have a particularly soft spot for the late, incomparable Dr Maya Angelou. The beauty of her story, the resilience of it, and the lifelong impact she had on pop culture and literature through her poetry are truly magical. She also reminds me a whole lot of my late gran, and it just so happens that I became the writer in the family.

Brittle Paper

You dabble in more than just writing so, as an all-rounder in the creative community, name three series that you turn to when you need an escape.

Chioniso Tsikisayi

I just finished watching Moesha on Netflix, all six seasons. It’s a 90s show, go figure, that follows the life of an African American teenager Moesha Mitchell whose dream is to become a writer one day. She often recites poetry at the den, the local kids’ hangout spot. I resonate with her character deeply, and I’m grateful for the creators of the show, Ralph Farquhar, Sara V. Finney, and Vida Spears. It first aired in 1996. I wasn’t even born yet but somehow it feels like the show was written for me. The two other shows on my list are Blood and Water and Sex Education.

Brittle Paper

You have three pieces on Brittle Paper. The August essay, “Sesame Street: Musings of a 20 Something Year Old,” September’s poem, “Planting is a Heavy Thing,” and October’s “I Want to Fall Apart Quietly”. All three pieces have a light-heartedness to it that somehow still have an intensity beneath that pulls at the readers’ emotions. What feelings do you intend your work to evoke?

Chioniso Tsikisayi

I’m not sure if I ever fully understand my own intentions when I write. I think that, first and foremost, I feel deeply, and I am pleasantly surprised to find that my feelings are simply echoing a universal ache. James Baldwin sums it up perfectly when he said: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”

The light-heartedness of my writing is an ode to my inner child who chooses to see beauty in the midst of chaos. I think the literary space is already saturated with great, sombre pieces of writing, but as a young girl navigating the world, I don’t want everything that I read to be too heavy.

Brittle Paper

Your essay, as well as the poem published recently, hints at a deep knowledge of pop culture, particularly the nostalgic kind of your youth. Would you say this is the main influence of your craft?

Chioniso Tsikisayi

I grew up around a lot of music, especially RnB from the 90s. I discovered Aaliyah when I was fifteen, and Boyz II Men and Jodeci were introduced to me by my dad on our early morning car rides to school when I was still a tiny tot. My mom’s old photographs as a teenager are nostalgic of that time, her style of dressing, the cute shorts and dungarees, big platform shoes, and boyfriend jeans. A lot of it pours into my writing because I believe that the only way to draw people my age into the world of literature is to write about things they care about too. Most of the people surrounding me aren’t exactly avid readers so I keep them in mind when I’m writing. I just want young people to know that books are just as cool as social media. It’s the one place you can go to without having to filter your thoughts.

Brittle Paper

Alongside writing, you also have the creative outlets of filmmaking and singing. How often do these creative roles overlap? And do you find it challenging or helpful to be involved in different creative spaces such as these?

Chioniso Tsikisayi

The glue that holds all of my creative disciplines together is writing. I write my own songs, and in essence music is poetry married to melody and I love that. The only issue with crafts like music and film are the technical aspects of it. When I feel like birthing a story or a poem it’s just me and my computer but when it comes to the other two mediums of storytelling it involves a lot of collaborative processes i.e. going to the studio and working with a producer, writing a script, pitching the film concept to production companies, working with actors, procuring cameras and equipment, and so on. It’s a lot of work and I’m only at the grassroots level but by the grace of God one day I’ll come back to this interview with a couple of Emmys and Grammys under my belt.

Brittle Paper

We looking forward to that day! Now, we always end with the same question. Apart from writing, what is one thing about yourself that you want to share with our readers?

Chioniso Tsikisayi

That I am a shy girl and that there’s space for introverts in the creative industry. You can’t allow fear or the symptoms of imposter syndrome to immobilise you from truly delving into your purpose. Allow yourself to be human as you create.

Brittle Paper

Thank you, Chioniso, for a beautiful interview and for being our November Spotlight artist.

 

 

Check back in on Friday when Chioniso’s new poem, “The Last Time You Went To The Supermarket”, is released.  

 

If you missed our October Spotlight with Eniola Abdulroqeeb Arówólò, it can be found here.