The City Speaks Through Shauntay Grant

The future poet laureate of Halifax was sixteen years old sitting on her dusty rose coloured sofa. Her eyes were focused on the television set in its wooden frame plunked in the centre of her living room. It was supposed to be just another night watching “Live at the Apollo” with her family.

Shauntay Grant had no idea that her life was about to change.

While the Apollo is known for its comedians and singers, Lauryn Hill and James Brown made their names on this same stage, it would be a little known poet named Jessica Care Moor that would change the trajectory of Grant’s life. Care Moor would introduce her to the power of the spoken word.

“She just said her message in her own words,” says Grant. “I was blown away by how human and real it was. It didn’t need endless runs or dramatic octave raises. She had something important to say and she just said it in her own voice.”

For Grant it was a revelation. She’d written poetry for library contests but those were linguistic tricks and rhyme schemes that had nothing to do with the way she talked. She wasn’t writing about her family and North Preston, which were the focal points in her life. It was that moment that she realized that, “as a writer your life is probably your best story.”

She was shaken by the realization that the most powerful poetry was in the way she naturally talked. She didn’t have to speak differently to reach an audience. It’s this message she stresses during workshops at local schools.

“By utilizing your own voice you can speak for yourself,” says Grant. “I wish someone had told me when I was a kid. I’m seeing the results when I talk to these kids. It’s mind blowing. I’m just amazed by what these kids can do at such a young age simply by explaining their memories of where they came from.”

Her life story could be summed up in a long series of impressive accolades from her first children’s book Up Home (Nimbus Publishing) winning the Atlantic Book Award for Best Atlantic- Published book to her participation as a member of the Halifax Slam team that won the national championships in Ottawa in 2008. But for Shauntay her story begins and ends in the communities she called home, the family that raised her and the friends that became like family.

Her tale begins in North Preston. At age three her family moved to Spryfield and weekends meant a trip to her dad’s mother in the North End. During summers she would live in Halifax’s North End, spending her days at the George Dickson Rec Centre. From the beginning her life was focused on music whether it was playing the cello, learning the piano or singing in gospel choirs. For Grant there are few parts of the city that she hasn’t made her home.

Her new children’s book The City Speaks in Drums (Nimbus Publishing) brings her childhood to vivid life by proving the common everyday music that makes up her memory.

“Music isn’t just about music as we traditionally understand it,” says Grant. “It’s the rhythm of child running a stick along a fence, the sound of their bubble gum popping and the skipping rope as it hits the ground. You find music in trying to capture that sound and the energy that comes from the city. The book begins at the George Dickson Centre with kids playing on the playground, moves down Gottingen, to the Commons where it eventually makes its way to the downtown core. The poetry is about the sights and sounds and experiences they have on that route. The barbecues, the buskers, what makes this city so unique.”

The beautifully illustrated children’s book, with striking artwork provided by the talented Susan Tooke, began its life as a CBC commission. Different writers were commissioned to write about their city and Grant was selected. It continued its life as spoken word poetry even when it became an illustrated children’s novel as Nimbus Publishing agreed to release a spoken word CD with every book. Her rapid fire cadence narrates the story behind the landscape that changed her life.

Shauntay Grant in Victoria Park, where she appeared for the 2010 The Word On The Street Festival

Halifax has also changed as a result of Shauntay’s poetry.

“Shauntay Grant has been the cornerstone of spoken word in Halifax and continues to challenge the poetry community to strive for excellence through expression,” says internationally renowned spoken word artist Martin Trimm, aka Native Son. “She is a trendsetter and devout community focused artist in which her passion shows in her body of work.”

There were humble beginnings to the Halifax spoken word scene that would one day develop into one of the strongest in the world. In 2007 and 2008 Halifax won the Canadian Federation of Spoken Word poetry championships in Halifax and Ottawa. Canada’s representatives for the World Poetry Cup were drawn from the ranks of Halifax’s poets including original Word Iz Bond member Izreal Jones.

These award-winning poets began simply as students hanging out at the Black Student Advising Center in Dalhousie scribbling in their notebooks in between classes. Barb Hamilton Hinch, their adviser, saw potential in the kids and wanted Shauntay to hold a poetry night with music celebrating African Canadian poetry.

The event was held at the Grawood.

It was called “Word iz Bond.”

A lot of familiar faces from the advising center showed up with journals tucked under their arms. Some did covers of famous African poetry. Most did their own pieces talking about the lives they led in their communities and the burdens they faced. Grant remembers being shocked by how many of the people she saw daily had this other life. Somehow she had been in a community of poets and had no idea.

What began in the Grawood would become a monthly event called Speak run by the Word Iz Bond collective, many of whom were at that opening show in March 2001. For years, every third Thursday of the month poets would gather at Gingers Tavern on Barrington Street in Halifax and share their words. With its closing they have found a new home at the Company House on Gottingen Street.

Fists are still being raised as artists take the stage and lowered as audiences shout “Speak.”

For Shauntay her ability to speak came from the same community she is now representing in her work. Comfortable in choirs and nervous with solos she found it nerve-wracking to perform by herself.

Shortly after the night where she watched Jessica Care Moor speak for the first time, Shauntay became involved with the Imani Women’s Artistic Project. It was a three month art performance program coordinated by Anne Marie Woods, who worked at the George Dickson Rec Centre.

Woods would push the seven young women past their comfort zone. At the end of the three month program Grant performed a piece by Maya Angelou and sang in front of a packed audience. At sixteen she knew that her life would be dictated by music and poetry.

The City Speaks in Drums makes it clear that Shauntay loves the city where she grew up, evident from the lyrics written next to the gorgeous illustrations and her impassioned rapid fire delivery on the complimentary CD. She has fused her two worlds of poetry and music into a book that traces her origins and encompasses all that she has learned in the city that formed her.

Now she is a creator and co-curator of the Halifax Jazz Festival’s Words + Music series, creating a permanent place to combine her two loves: poetry and music. The city speaks in drums and if you walk downtown you are likely to see Grant walking by, with her jambay in its carrying case.

"By utilizing your own voice you can speak for yourself," says Grant. "I wish someone had told me when I was a kid."