Student poet Jebsen discusses her eclectic background

Poet Mara Jebsen shares something with her art-a unique background.

For the poetry, it's the jazz, blues and hip-hop music that play behind her voice as she recites and sometimes sings her words to her audience.

For the Trinity senior, it's a childhood spent in two countries in West Africa-Benin and Togo-as a member of a biracial family.

Jebsen had never performed her poetry when she arrived at Duke, and she made her debut at one of the first open mikes of the Blue Roach poetry slams her sophomore year.

This February, just two years after her first performance at Blue Roach, Jebsen was selected as the venue's featured poet-an honor usually reserved for a nationally known artist.

"[Jebsen's] blend of music and rhythmic variations, singing, personal experiences... the way through which she conveys her meanings... it moves you," said her close friend Stan Williams, a Trinity junior. "A lot of performers just say things that sound pleasant to the ear. Mara provides images, tastes, smells, sensations-both good and bad-and her style, combined with that fact, makes her an artist that is spellbinding."

Jebsen is currently working on a book, A Riot Invisible, and a CD project, Fireflies, with the support of Phillip Shabazz, the artist in residence at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

Jebsen said that although she never intended to be "feminist," her poems often feature women in difficult relationships and situations.

"Togo had a dictator for more than 30 years," she said. "It's supposed to a democracy now, but it's basically a facade. About 90 percent oppose the political machine, but they don't want to get into a war."

Jebsen applied to the University after one of her high school teachers dropped the brochure on her desk. She thought it looked "cool and foreign."

When Jebsen first arrived, she was blown away by how easy everything was for students.

"We didn't live in great conditions in Togo-we didn't have a washing machine," said Jebsen. "Here, everything was basically taken care of for you; you just needed to study."

Since her Blue Roach premiere, Jebsen has dedicated herself and her summers to performing her poetry.

She has read at open mikes in New York and Boston, and at Duke, she has performed at Arts in the Ark and with the Tibetan Monk Choir. She will take the stage with a modern dance ensemble at Ark Dances in April.

Her participation in the Blue Roach poetry collective, a group of student artists started by Shabazz, has provided her with a creative atmosphere which she calls extremely helpful.

Jebsen visits the center two to three times each week to share her new work and bounce ideas off other collective members, many of whom have become her close friends.

"We influence each other's work with our own style and by recommending poets," said Trinity junior Yvette Fannell, the artistic director of the Blue Roach and Jebsen's close friend.

Fannell said she has attempted to incorporate Jebsen-style vocalizing into her own work.

Although Jebsen, an African and African American Studies major, said she hopes to be a professional artist, she is not looking to go mainstream.

"I think people interfere with your freedom and your direction if too many people become involved in the production of your work," she said. "Even though I'd like to have a lot of people hear me, it's not my ambition to be in all of the CD stores or on MTV."