BAJAN SUN MAGAZINE
OCT 2014
SPOKEN WORD ARTIST
Idrees Saleem
I
drees Saleem hails from the beautiful twin island
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Though a Poet,
Actor and Director, for the past nine years, Idrees’s
passion lies in Spoken Word. An all time lover of
writing, Idrees deemed himself the class clown from his
many class performances at school. Later, when he
entered sixth form at the St Augustine Senior Secondary
Comprehensive School aka The Green machine; Idrees
joined the Drama Club where his talent and passion
further developed. When asked: What inspires you to
write? - Idrees stated “I'm not inspired by one thing in
particular. Sometimes emotion moves me to write. I'm
moved by the plight of the voiceless. But, I also write
topic based pieces and do jobs for institutions.”
Having performed throughout Trinidad and Tobago over
the past years in front of crowds reaching up to 600
persons in one sitting, Idrees is looking forward to
performing at the Regional and International levels very
soon. Only last year, Idrees and his drama group
completed a secondary school tour where they visited 30
schools along the twin island. Idrees’s talent has also
opened doors for him to perform at Government
Ministries, and at theatre productions directed by him and
others. As he would have us know, his performances are
usually well received; despite the times he
forgot his pieces half way through a
performance - doesn’t happen often though!
However, his performance of ‘My Midnight
Robber’ (a Trinidad folk character) is seen as
a crowd favourite. What’s more intriguing is
the responses to his nostalgic piece on ‘The
Mango’ which tends to be highly entertaining
and equally well received.
Idrees is also part of “The 2 Cents
Movement”, which is a youth run, Non-Profit
Organisation using the arts and cultural
expression for youth advocacy to address
issues. The 2 Cents Movement delves
primarily into the art form of spoken word and
aims to take this art form to the next level.
More interestingly, this movement is about
creating opportunities of self sustainability as
an artist through planning and development of
the artiste. It is also about ridding artistes of the stigma of
disorganization associated with the arts.
In his own words:
What do you think about performing in Trinidad and
Tobago?
Trinidad has recently redeveloped its appreciation for
Spoken Word Poetry and therefore it’s refreshing seeing
the walls being broken down. I'm always satisfied after a
theatre performance. But, the arts in Trinidad on a whole
have been a struggle where appreciation and support by
the Government is concerned. Nonetheless, due to the
upsurge by those who are doing it on their own; the
Government is now seeing its importance and therefore I
believe more resources would be pumped into the
industry.
Who are your mentors?
My mentors are many but a few of them are Muhammad
Muwakil (poet), Amir Sulaiman (poet), Lupe Fiasco
(rapper), Denzel Washington (actor), Tom Hanks (actor),
Meryl Streep (actress), Andre Dillon (director). Many of
my performing colleagues who are in my very age group
serve as mentors by the gigantic strides they are making.
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