On most Wednesday nights you can catch me in Bohemian Caverns, in Washington, DC attending Wednesday Verses. Verses is an open mic night that originated in Richmond, Virginia at Tropical Soul Restaurant. As our longest running venue, Tuesday Verses has, and will continue to define the spoken word movement in Richmond. Anyone who is anyone from Virginia has earned their stripes at the small venue on 2nd Street. So when they added the weekly venue in Dc to their roster, I had to take the trip up 95 to see what talent would wander in, Curious if the energy that I had known and love could be packed up and transported to a new venue, in a new city, with a new crowd.

As I attended what was only my second Wednesday Verses I was contemplating who would be the first subject of my article here on Magazine33.com, What artist would encompass spoken word well enough to introduce the rest of the world to what is quickly becoming a global underground scene of performance poetry.  The question rolling around in my brain was quickly answered when a familiar face walked through the door. A man who had not only defined the 757 movement putting Virginia on the map, but had truly taken our craft to another level, Mr. Marquis Mix, known to the world as 13 of Nazareth.

I watched him sign the list, take a seat and wait quietly for his turn to speak. I often find myself with butterflies flapping around my stomach when I know 13 is going to take the stage. Every time I have been blessed to see him it is a new experience, every performance leaves me shifted in new ways, questioning the world around me with fresh eyes, 13 has never failed to move me.

It’s hard to remain true fans of fellow poets in the industry. Something always ruins the magic, something takes away from your ability to still sit in the front row, close your eyes and just listen. But 13 is the exception. That rare moment when an artist manages to balance longevity with relevance, consistency and growth. Although he has yet to receive the commercial success most folks in the community agree he deserves, ask almost any of your favorite poets, their favorite poet is 13.

In a graphic T, ripped jeans and long dreadlocks, 13 doesn’t fit the description the Bible or history will give you of a prophet. He rarely calls much attention to himself or sticks around too long after his set to soak in the adoration of fast fans, immediately drawn to his natural speech and easy manner, but it’s not a stretch to say he’s prophetic none the less. Managing to speak awareness into action, mixing God with common sense, delivering a desperately needed message to room full of folks just looking to be entertained. Maybe it’s his lyricism that allows him to get away with giving a lecture on self motivation disguised as a poem, but every time I’ve been blessed to witness 13 on stage the crowd always reacts the same, hanging midair, a reverent silence falling over even the rowdiest of patrons at the bar, all eyes are fixated and all ears are open, and for three minutes spoken word spots transform into sanctuaries. After a performance at Wednesday Verses we sat down to talk about his new project, the life that lead him to the stage and the future of spoken word.



Magazine33.com: First, tell me who you are?
13: “I am 13 of Nazareth, My given name is Marquis Mix, My goal in life is to inspire people to inspire themselves and others, that’s me in a nutshell.”

Magazine33.com: In an industry where most artists drop their stage names after a year or so in the game, You choose to still go by 13 of Nazareth, why is that moniker so important to you?
13:”I think a lot of people who drop their stage names drop them because they out grow them, they realize that the person that they were when they chose that name is not the person who  they are now, It was a timely thing, I on the other hand have been growing more into the name 13 of Nazareth.”

Magaizne33.com: What does 13 mean?
13: “My grandma gave birth to my mother when she was 13, my mother and grandmother both died when I was 13. My birthday is the 13 of September, my first and last initial are the 13th letter of the alphabet the list goes on and on. The more that I live the more I see things that reflect the number 13 in my life. The Nazareth portion deals with the statement from biblical scripture saying something good would come from Nazareth, If I were able to lay out my life for the world, or a group of people who had never heard my work, never heard me speak, had had no interaction with me personally, they would look at the series of events that composes my life experience, more often than not, they would assume, it would be impossible for anything good to come from it.”

Magazine33.com: One of your most famous pieces “fall out shelter” deals with your struggle with epilepsy,
13: “Back in 1994, I was in a car accident, I fractured my hip, I hit my head on the windshield of the car, my hair was matted in the windshield, like ALL my hair, I had an afro at the time. 6 months later I had my first seizure. I’ve been having them on and off since then., So that piece talks about the actual experience of the first seizure and the couple of years afterwards which actually lead to me becoming 13 of Nazareth“.

Magazine33.com: You are considered by your peers within the community to be one of the greatest writers to emerge from this decade, why do you think you have not achieved more commercial success within the industry?
13: “I think it’s probably a two fold reason, 1 being that for years I have wrestled with the issue of self promotion, as a result there are very small things I could of capitalized on, if I would of just got beyond my own issue of self promotion and over my own introverted nature. And just said, I am a poet  or I have CD’s. The other thing being, I’ve come to see that many of the people who initially appreciate my work are also artist themselves, a great deal of them are artist who do this full time, where as one person might have a great deal of fans who are not poets who will in turn spend some of their time promoting to friends or family members, with my fans being artist they spend their time promoting themselves, so they can eat, and take care of themselves and their children. I think its more the self promotion aspect then the word of mouth of my fans.”

Magazine33.com: Your spiritual side is often reflected within your work, what exactly are your religious beliefs, who is “God“ to you?
13: “Well my understanding of God is ever evolving understanding, the more I come to know, The more I realize I know less. Initially my entrance into the realm of spiritual understanding came through Christianity, that was my first step, I studied every day, prayer, meditation, it lead to me having more questions as a result of all my questions I started to look into other faiths. So then my understanding of God began to supersede any particular faith, as well as the fact that my relationship with God had changed, there was a reverent respect that is still there, but it has gone from me being in a position of just praising God, to being in a position of trying to be an embodiment of God, so that in my  interaction with people that’s what they experience, their experience is beyond me personally to the point where its not even about 13 or Marquis Mix. The name that you call me is irrelevant as far as I’m concerned. It don’t matter what you call it as long as you get it.



Magazine33.com: You once said “God's qualities exist in man as the Ocean's qualities exist in the drop of water. the difference is of quantity”.  On September 15th, The day before this interview, in Charlotte, NC, a pregnant 15 year old girl was fatally shot waiting for the school bus. How do you stand by that belief with things like this and all the negativity present in today’s society?
13: “The negativity that is present is as far as I’m concerned is due to not knowing, I think that most people in the world have no idea or any concept of God, I think that people spiritually exist at different levels, they operate in the haze based on what they know and what they experience, the way that the human mind operates is you can only act on what you know, there was a period in time where if you could know the man that I was, the young adult that I was, between the ages of 18- 20 then see me today you literally would not recognize who I am. So people who are in those negative or violent states of mind, I understand because I’ve been there, I’ve been in that form of darkness, but now I’m at a place where I can look at the most negative and destructive aspects of our society and still see God present in them that what allows me to make that statement and stand by it.”

Magazine33.com: Your wife is a fellow poet Kanikki Jakarta, how do you make a marriage with touring and the stresses of the industry?
13: “The industry doesn’t live with us. So when we walk into our home we’re home, that’s it, we’re both very private people, the world outside is just that, it’s the world outside, there are people within the world of spoken word who are very dear friends and even family to us,  they get to be included at a greater level, than poetry overall, I mean of course we talk about poetry we talk about poetry a lot because we both love poetry, But at home I am me, my house is not a stage, there are no fans on my couch.”

Magazine33.com: Your most recent project was titled “Stained Glass“ , Explain the title to me?
13: “Stained Glass is on a very small level a response to the statement that I’m too deep, promoters would want to book me they’d say I was talented, but were afraid their audience wouldn’t get me. I’d be too deep. Stained Glass got me to thinking If I am trying to reach people and inspire them, and get them to see the divine when they look in the mirror and when they look into the eyes of other people I have to be able to communicate with them at a level they understand, I’d been speaking at them in the language of divinity, and so with stained glass I’m speaking to them in the language of humanity. In ancient times Stained Glass was the poor mans bible, a lot of the population was illiterate, they couldn’t read the Bible for themselves so the priest would use spoken word and the stained glass to teach them the scripture. There’s also the concept that stained glass does not work unless the light is shining through it, I want people to be aware that what they are seeing, the only reason they can see it is because the light of God is shining through me. Everything I am it is possible for them to be and more, but they have to do it in their own way. There is a light in me, if you can see it, it can shine through you, and then radiate to others.” 


Magazine33.com: You are one half of Great Publishing, who puts together The Annual NUSPA’s. Can you explain a little more about that?
13: “The National Underground Spoken Word and Poetry Awards, was basically put together as a means to show our contemporaries how much power we had as a collective within our own art form, it is our way of showing them we appreciate them, of pushing each other to produce the best product possible, and we want to do that while the art form is still in our hands, eventually mainstream is going to stick their fingers in it further than they have, they haven’t yet cause the cant figure out how to market it how to make money from it. Until then they’re going to dabble, try to pimp one or two people, then back away , a lot of our material clashes with the mainstream so they don’t want to put money in it anyway. The NUSPA’s are our way of acknowledging and celebrating the art while it’s still ours.”

Magazine33.com: So where can our readers find out more about 13?
13: “Where can’t you find out about 13 of Nazareth, but nah the best place is, 13ofnazareth.web.com, that’s my website, it has all my links to everywhere else I am online, you can buy CD’s, it has up to date calendar of all my shows, etc. everything they need. 13ofnazareth.web.com”

Magazine33.com: Any final words you want to leave with the people?
13: “Look in yourself, for all of the answers to all of the questions you have about life and know even though I may not know you personally I love you, not just because I love you, but because love is all I know how to do.”

 

By Megan Rickman.

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Comments(1):

1. Correction on website

   13ofnazareth.webs.com

   Friday, October 02, 2009 Megan