Interview with Jayda David

Jayda David is a 23 year old Spoken Word Artist, Facilitator and Youth Mentor from London. Her poetry is raw and authentic, bringing to the spotlight current political issues including Black Lives Matter, the Windrush scandal, Justice for Grenfell, and the Palestinian struggle. Her work also has personal connections, as seen in her pieces that question her identity in both a nationalistic and geographical context. Jayda is making waves with her work, after being crowned winner of Poetic Unity’s Annual Black British History competition in 2019. Since then she has led workshops, appeared on London Live in February 2020, and was commissioned an opening spoken word performance for the Oscar-Winning film ‘Judas and The Black Messiah’. In this interview I asked Jayda about the inspiration behind her work, her thoughts behind a couple of our favourite pieces, and her plans for the future. 

LW: How has your background shaped your identity as a poet?

JD: My background has had a big influence. A lot of my poetry is really political and centred around race and class. As a child I was really aware of class systems and my position within them, but I wasn't really aware of my race until I was a bit older, like nine or ten, when I started performing with the Royal Ballet School and I was the only black girl in my dance group, and nobody wanted to work with me or pair up with me. I'd go to auditions but hardly ever get a part. It was a really hard time for me and I never noticed that I was black until then so I've just been trying to explore my place since, and I do that through my poetry. 

LW: Your series: ‘Aint Shit Changed’ reveals your interest in poetry from a young age; was it your intention from the beginning to pursue a career as a spoken word artist?

JD: Definitely not. I always used to write page poetry and I was really kind of private with it, I would only share it with my mum and she would be like “Jayda this is all really dark, like don’t show anyone else.” But yeah, I had an introduction to spoken word I’d say through Kanye West actually, and Def Jam poetry. But I’d never heard any British spoken word artists so I kind of thought all spoken word was American and had to have flair with it, and I just thought I can’t do that myself… When I was about twelve or thirteen my mum showed me Suli Breaks (the British spoken word artist), and when I could hear a British person doing it and that it had a completely different kind of style I thought, oh okay, maybe this is something I could do. It wasn't something I knew I always wanted to do, I just ended up falling into it. 

LW: So, talk us through your creative process.

JD: I don’t have a cool one. I feel like a lot of poets have a cool creative process, but for me it’s normally when I’m on the move. So I get on a train and because I have nothing to do and because it's the time I have to myself I’ll end up writing two or three poems on my journey and then that’s it. But if I’m at home, trying to sit there and write a poem, I just can’t do it. I feel like I need to be moving to write a poem, like sometimes I’ll be walking down a road and an idea will come to me and I’ll be like “ah I’ve got to write that down right now!!” The first spoken word poem I wrote, I actually wrote at a concert. I was in the middle of the concert and an idea just came to me. I don’t have a very formal creative process, anytime an idea comes to me I’ll get it down as quickly as possible. 

LW: Last year you named ‘Resist’, your first spoken word piece, as your favourite poem. Has this status changed since producing other work, such as your commission to go alongside the film ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’?

JD: I thought it would, but the ‘Resist’ poem is my favourite, just because it covers all the things that I am passionate about, and all the things I want to change about the world. Because it was my first poem, It’s like my baby poem. I feel like that might always be my favourite one, but I do have some close runners-up that could potentially compete. 

LW: Identity seems to be a recurring theme in your work. I particularly like ‘Not going back’. Could you speak a little more about your thoughts behind this piece?

JD: The idea came from when you get into a general altercation of some sort with somebody, whether it's on the streets or online, and they tell you to go back where you came from. My response is “well I come from here so where do you want me to go?” I do have a very mixed background and if people tell me to go back to my own country it’s like well my mum was born here, her dad was born here (white British), I’m here… there’s nowhere else for me to go. It just came from the frustration of that, and I just wanted to make a claim that I’m not going anywhere; no-one should have to go anywhere just because people can’t accept when other people are different. So that’s kind of why I wanted to write that, and I did make it really personal because I just felt like it had to be, I suppose.

LW: Have you faced any challenges with your confrontation of political topics?

JD: Yes, I expect it a lot when I do my poems that are centred around race, but I haven’t had too much confrontation with that. I do have a poem about the disparities between how the working class and ethnic minorities are treated within the missing person system, as opposed to white, rich children that go missing. It’s called ‘I found Madeleine McCann’ which is quite a shocker for some people sometimes, but then when you actually listen to what I’m saying it’s not actually about Madeleine McCann, it’s just about how police and stuff treat things differently. I do get some people that are just kind of like “this is fully out of order…” I think sometimes some people just miss the message, but yeah there has been some confrontation around that one sometimes. 

LW: Why do you write?

JD: It’s literally just catharsis for me. I feel like people go to therapy and counselling and that, or talk to their friends, but for me if something makes me upset, whether it’s personal or to do with the world in general I just have to write it down because it’s the only way I can free myself from the emotions and just put them into context. Sometimes I’m feeling a certain way and I don’t fully understand how I’m feeling until I write it down. It literally is just my own personal therapy where I can guide myself. 

LW: I really love your video ‘Growing Pains’, and your collaborative project ‘The ends Justify the Means’. Is the incorporation of visual media into your work something you plan on doing more of in the future?

JD: Definitely. As a child I was actually really into photography, but my camera got stolen at one point and I couldn't afford to replace it so I just decided to move onto something else. But yeah, I definitely think that spoken word especially is so detailed and explanatory, so having visual images to complement that is so cool. I feel that especially with the themes that I touch on, when it comes to ends and identity and where we’re from and that, having visual accompaniment just brings everything together. It can also introduce people to spoken word who may not be interested in it. Seeing that visual side of things can entice them in by having images to resonate with too. 

LW: Throughout your years as a poet and spoken word artist, what would you say is the most valuable thing you have learnt?

JD: I’m going to sound like a hypocrite because I’m totally not confident at all but I think that it is just believing in yourself. It sounds really cliché but literally just believing in yourself and not holding back and doing something for you rather than for the external gratification of what other people are going to say and how people are going to receive your work. If you feel you have something to say or something to give to the world or something to share, then you should go for it because if it touches one person or resonates with one person then it’s a great thing. Obviously if it resonates with more people that’s even greater - you just don’t know who you’re helping just by speaking your mind and speaking your truth.