By Memory Mudzani
Leben Panashe Kabete who performs under Street Poet Zim said poetry is a voice of the streets and uses it as a mouthpiece for the less privileged people.
Kabete said that his desire to have a voice, speak for the vast group of young people who grow up with less and also to speak for the modern day youth in the streets made him venture into poetry
He added that his aim was to represent the youths from their perspective and make the world understand how things are for the young people living in a third world countries that is Africa.
He started writing poetry in 2016 but by then he was only doing page poetry and it was in 2018 when he ventured into the art of spoken word thus when he started performing and his brand started taking shape.
“I’ve been performing and doing spoken word poetry ever since 2018 I have one titled Ifa Uzvionere, I performed it at Nash Tv last year and its social commentary dealing with the various issues we face as youths socially, economically and spiritually” said Kabete
Kabete said he have seen massive impact every day as people reach out to him giving feedback on his work and how it helped them reflect on various issues and to see things in different light.
He said that things were tight when the COVID19 induced lockdown whereas poets could not perform and could not move thus it was very hard to produce work.
“ things were tight when COVID19 induced lockdown where we could not perform and could not move thus it was very hard to produce work ,however as time went on we found ways around the system Last year when people were not allowed to go out I decided to do a poetic comedy skit series titled Baba naMai Noku ,this was to keep the audience entertained while in the comfort of their homes and it dealt with some prevalent issues related to lockdown like the issue of gender based violence” said Kabete
He further said that he competed in various poetry competitions that were held online namely the Afronifiescent Republic, the Vongai Mujakachi Poetry and also the Mining and Tax Justice Poetry Slam.
He also encourage those with zeal to start doing poetry to follow their dreams and not be afraid to experiment and try out new things.
“The poetry industry is fast growing as an entertainment industry especially with the rise of the new generation of spoken word artists and the rise of new media”, said Kabete