Gospel artiste, Janette…Ikz says her journey into poetry was not particularly easy as her church was not in support of the nature that her poetry took.
Speaking to Channels TV, she said that her messages which usually tended to lean towards her past struggles with sexual, physical and verbal abuse seemed to make the church uncomfortable and ultimately, almost led to her quitting the craft.
“It kinda (kind of) got to a point where it was like they didn’t really want me to cover the subject matters I was covering.
“The church wasn’t talking about those types of issues, so they told me I could do other poetry but I couldn’t do my poetry, and it really hurt”, she said.
She, however, added that she found encouragement once again when her brother and his friend took her to Leimert Park and began to expose her to the possibilities that lay within the craft and the extent to which poetry could be appreciated.
“I remember seeing a lady and she was doing a poem about D’Angelo and she said ‘I just wanna run barefoot through his cornrows’ and at that point, I was like I need be good at my craft. You don’t wanna be whack and represent Christ.’
She stated that her journey towards improving her craft met with several obstacles but she pulled through because she humbly took the discouragement and channeled the energy towards doing more.