By Megan Rickman.

The first time I heard Soulful Jones it was on a MySpace page for a poetry venue I was going to which would later become my grounds for cultivation, Slam Richmond. The first real Slam in Richmond, SR has sent teams to the last three National Poetry Competitions, Took third last year at the Regional poetry competition Southern Fried, and consistently introduced the city of Richmond to poets capable of changing the world. Marshall “Soulful” Jones is one of those poets. When I heard his poem “Mother’s Day” I was 3 months pregnant, alone, and more scared than I had ever been. I was questioning would I be able to raise a man in this world on my own. His poem addresses just that, speaking to his mother’s ability to step up and take both roles. I listened to this poem over and over, and waited patiently for his show at Slam Richmond. The first time I saw him touch the stage I immediately knew Soulful was one of those rare artists who possesses the ability to transcend from Performer to Pastor, an artist able to effect change with his words. That being said, I won’t waste your time this month with a fluffy article. This month we’ll jump right into the interview.
Soulful will be coming to do a mini tour in Virginia in the month of November, so this month, Magazine33 sat down with him to talk poetry, politics, and inner peace.

33: Who is Marshall “Soulful” Jones?
Soulful: “Wow, who is he? I would begin to answer that what he is, a producer, writer, singer/songwriter, poet emcee...I guess I could say that the “what’s” and the “who’s” are together. I feel like myself, outside of my music and my craft, is me, whatever comes from in there, whatever I bring out is who I am on the inside. The energy that’s transcribed through me is who I am, and that’s something that is constantly evolving and changing as I go deeper into what’s going on inside me. I could never answer that question the same twice, who I am now, is an explorative, introspective individual, looking to find his place and purpose in the world through his craft.”

33: You transcend very easily between poetry and music, finding success in each. If today someone held a gun to your head and asked you to choose what would it be? Poetry or Music?
Soulful: “Poetry or Music? The thing about it is that for the person holding the gun, it would be a trick question, and me, being clever enough to know music is poetry, technically, could chose poetry and I could still do both. Poetry is not this box. Take a lot of Shakespeare’s work, being that it’s written in iambic pentameter, is very lyrical. If I write a song, it’s a poem. I just happen to be singing it. If I compose music, it’s still using the vibrations of my voice. The ebbs and flows can be considered poetry because it is all about the intent. Beowulf is a long ass story but it is an epic poem. The Odyssey is a long ass story but it is an epic poem. It’s a matter of intent behind whatever it is that you consider poetry. I don’t think Stevie Wonder thinks of himself as any less of a poet than he thinks of himself as a musician because they both are intertwined. They both coexist with each other.”

33: Your poem “Redemption” deals with suicidal ideations. At the risk of sounding cliché, did poetry save your life?
Soulful: “You know... Yes, and I don’t consider it cliché at all. It’s not just that poetry saved my life, it gave me a new one. I was at a spiritual retreat and the person I was speaking with was saying that when people have these near death experiences like a car accident where they should have died, that there is an alternate reality where they did die. So there is a part of me that believes that off the Brooklyn Bridge I did jump, so the part of me that’s still alive now is post that, in this reality here. The poets that were poets the day I saw them gave me a reason, a new purpose and a new place to express a new hope, so I don’t think its cliché at all. There are so many people who have seen spoken word as some sort of redemption for them and at the root of spoken word is undivided attention, which most people don’t get. You never know how those three minutes of un-judged speaking can affect anybody. We live in a world where people are just trying to get a word in edgewise, I had the opportunity to just talk and flush it out and I’ve flushed out so much. Stuff I just used to yearn for people to talk to about but in a more poisonous way, ‘cause then, I just wanted to heap my problems on them. With spoken word it’s the opportunity to transform it into something beautiful. It’s not just oh-look-at-what-happened-to-me, but all these things happened to me and I’m still alive. So if I can be here, I just hope that I can have that same effect on someone else, that I was a poet and I was brave enough to stand on stage and talk about it, maybe they could be brave enough to go and talk to a friend or family member.”

33: You are often praised by the feminist community for the portrayal of women in your work.  Even in the raunchiest of erotic poem, you manage to pay respect to women. Where did this rich appreciation come from?
Soulful: “There are a few things. Watching my mom go through the things she went through, I never wanted to put anyone else through that, even though me and my mom have had a crazy relationship, that’s my Mom, and it began there. Also, as a sexual being, I believe that sensuality is a matter of divinity between both partners. God made equal so it is about the engaging in that, and really focusing on the pleasing and exalting of women. If all the women were to close their vaginas and say they weren’t having babies anymore there goes the human race, and I think that that is something that is not considered. Like what are we gonna do? Chain them down and make them have children? At the end of the day, there is so much power in women, so much energy, so much that I still don’t even know and I don’t claim to understand it or to fully comprehend it, but I do know that there is something about women’s energy, and finding that energy within myself gives me the power to be who I am now. It is a constantly evolving understanding. Women’s role in society helps a man become a man, because that helps him define himself in his manhood.”

33: Speaking of powerful women, you came up through a very thick scene in New York City, battling through a generation of phenomenal poets to come out of The Nuyorician and Urbana scene. What is it about Soulful Jones that makes you stand out?
Soulful: “I think for myself, I have always looked at who do best at whatever I am trying to do and I watch them. I compare it to Bruce Lee. He studied many different fighting styles...boxing, fencing...his punch is designed from fencing. In fencing, you keep the sword out straight to keep your opponent as far away from you as possible. His footwork and constant moving came from boxing. I saw a lot of amazing people. I can run down a smorgasbord of talented individuals, and I watched what they do. How they use their energy to get their point across, how they put together their punch lines, where they pause, where they move, and then I applied, adapted, and added my own personality. So that is what stands out, who I am. I think it’s been my subliminal pro and con. I’m always on, but this is who I am, and as I continue to be myself, I continue to set myself apart.”
 
33: You preformed for the former President of the United States, George W. Bush, at the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. What emotions did you go through before you took the mic?
Soulful: “First, I was freakin’ exhausted. I’d took the bus down to DC at midnight, got there at like four thirty in the morning, slept for maybe like a half an hour. So I was done. Second, I was nervous as all hell, but I will go as far as to say I am always nervous before every performance. Yes, this is my little secret. Marshall “Soulful” Jones is always nervous before a performance. But I think the day you stop being nervous you go down, because then you have no energy. I call it pre-performance adrenaline, stirring up, getting prepared to go out and speak. So I go out and it’s like easily six hundred people, maybe seven, and I was like “Okay,” and once I started, any nervous feelings I had were gone. As far as it being for Bush, politically I have a thousand opinions about his policies, but I wasn’t doing a poem for him, it was commemorating Leon Sullivan, and commemorating his work, just because he was there, there was like no feelings for him as a president, the biggest feeling I had that day was the gratitude for that experience.”
   
33: You will be hitting the Virginia/DC area in November. Tell us a little about those shows and what someone can expect when coming out to see a Soulful Jones set?
Soulful: “Well, what I always like to do is break down and build up. I have a very set feature to accomplish that. I am working on some new projects, so there will be some surprises here and there but for the most part, just a lot of fun. I love to touch on a range of emotions if I can, make people feel. I never want to be considered a type poet, a “fill in the blank” poet, an erotic poet, a socially political poet, or a comedic poet. I never wanted a box. So don’t come expecting a box. Just come expecting to feel. And if you can just close your eyes, I am going to start doing that for certain shows, for certain pieces, because I try to write my poems so you can use your imagination. I don’t have to do much on stage. I like to do stuff on stage, and be the imagination up there, but I want people to experience and feel the experience of the poem and know that I go through these things too. I’m human. So just come expecting me, expect Marshall Jones. Expect the unexpected, but expect nothing. Come in with an empty cup, and know that when you leave it will be full with something.”

33: So where can the people find more Marshall “Soulful” Jones?
Soulful: “You can find me in a few places and those places are starting to grow. I do production work. You can find me on Oveious Maximus’ new track, “Tomorrow Wonder.” Shanelle Gabrielle also has a new project that’s coming up, and it’s fire. You can find me online...Facebook, Myspace, Reverb Nation: /IamMarshallJones (the slash is the same for all three, but Reverb Nation is really where I am focusing a lot of my attention, and Twitter is the next MJ). A lot of people think like oh he’s trying to be the next Michael Jackson but no, I’m thinking Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Michael Jackson...just those initials have blessed many individuals, and I’m very thankful they’re mine ‘cause I plan on honoring them to the fullest, and I do tweet enough to warrant being followed, so come check me out. Follow me, find out where I am. Coming soon to a planet near you.”

33: Okay Soulful, well thank you for sitting down with us for this interview, any last words you’d like to leave the readers with?
Soulful: “It would summarize everything I was talking about earlier, be the box that you think outside of, so that every thought is an out of body experience.”

Marshall Soulful Jones will be at the following locations throughout the VA area over the next month:
11/16 - Busboys and Poets, Arlington, VA   BusboysAndPoets.com
11/17 - Busboys  and Poets, Washington DC, VA  BusboysAndPoets.com
11/20 - Touch Ov Soul Poetry, Richmond, VA   14th N 18th St  8p.m.
12/18 - Hampton University, Hampton, VA
For full Press Kit and Schedule:  ReverbNation.com/iammarshalljones

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