As artistes we work for peace, development

Natacha Muziramakenga is a poet, spoken word artiste, actress, blogger, and senior copy writer at an advertising agency in town. In brief, she is a well-rounded artiste. Moses Opobo sounded her out on each facet of her professional life. What is the difference between poetry and spoken word? Poetry is not limited by what one writes. For me it is more about the way you look at things around you— the things that live or die inside you. It is the beauty of everything and anything. It’s everywhere; you just have to see it. I saw it in my biology class, I saw it in the math class...actually I see it a lot in science. Spoken word is more about allowing you to be in touch with your audience. I love it because it makes poetry accessible to everyone rather than making it something for the privileged, the ones that read. Spoken word is poetry that is written to be performed on stage. It is a modern form of poetry, fun and contemporary, it is story telling which is so important for us who have had oral tradition for most of our time. What drew you to poetry? Poetry was always there, in the questions that I unknowingly turned into beauty, in my thoughts. However the first time I met it inside of me, I was 12. A cousin of mine triggered it off by asking me to write something about mountains, as an exercise during the holidays. I never stopped since. I have a poetry blog, wordscanvas.blogspot.com, where I post some of my work. It is mainly in French..., my poetic language. What does your job as senior copy writer at ION Rwanda, an advertising agency, entail? I write copy for adverts, mainly radio and TV. It’s really team work, the creative team is made of a creative director who channels all the ideas into concepts, the art director turns them into visuals and I turn them into scripts...but each of us can come up with a concept at any given time. It is a lot of work, and fun and stress and I love it! I feel blessed to be able to do a job that requires me to use my talents. It is home for me, I belong and I am able to use my potential to the fullest and I am paid for it! It is a good feeling at the end of the day. In your view, what is the role of an artiste in society? Our work is mainly to observe, interpret, and touch audiences; to look for a reaction, and possibly an action. Everyone should be who they are, in order to work at their full capacity towards some kind of development. We work for peace and development as much as any government agent. Some countries live off the investment in their art and culture. With the right investments, the returns can really be great. What is the most frustrating thing about being an artiste? Most people do not realise that it is a job and not a hobby, and that you need to be paid. Artists have bills too! What is your all-time favorite quote? I am a true fan of Albert Einstein’s quotes, and my favorite is: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” What do you like most about acting as a career? For me it is an amazing job. It has taught me to take time and understand people around me, their motives and motivations in life, before judging them harshly. There is a lot of analytical work to do with the character before you can interpret it, and this is my favorite part in acting.