When President-elect Barack Obama asked a Yale professor to recite a poem at his historic inauguration, the request plucked this rich, powerful craft from the recesses of artistic obscurity and placed it onto the international stage. Which is where poetry should always be, if you ask Karima Tunnell. For this mother of six, poetry has long been perched in a prominent place within her consciousness.
“Oh yeah, I need poetry. It’s an outlet. Poetry is therapy. It helps me get through and has always taught me to get through,” she says after treating an audience to her powerful prose at the Philadelphia International Art Festival. “I have six children, so when I first started my first spoken word piece it was pertaining to my six kids. And I thought then, that when I first started writing how serene it was to release this inside of you and it just calms you down.”
Tunnell, a poet of 20 years and spoken word artist for 10, said she began speaking in front of audiences to help edify others seeking truth and provide a temporary haven from the adversities of the world.
“My main thing is to speak to the audience to try to get through to them. I feel as though as I have a purpose to fulfill for the Most High,” says Tunnell, who is also a member of the Panoramic Poets society. “Most of my poetry is real and it’s based on that we are living … in these last days and times. It’s based on the violence and how we can seize the violence and elevate the peace. I try to reach the audience. And I try to feed them.”
