You are a poet, writer entrepreneur. Is entrepreneurship creative? Poetic? Or just plain business?
I am a poet, and I have been writing, performing, managing workshops and poetry shows for five years now. By profession, I am a journalist with Malaysia’s leading English daily, Star newspaper, and an entrepreneur (running my own new age book store for the past 6 years). I’d say I’m a literary entrepreneur. I work with words, on various levels.
Entrepreneurship for me is a creative business. As both creativity and business, go hand in hand for success to take place. Because it is easy to start a business but differentiating it in a saturated market is not a simple feat. In the creative industry there are various kinds of businesses that focus of profiting from the arts. However when an artist becomes an entrepreneur there is an emotional tug of war between keeping the art sacred and making it more marketable.
Over the years I’ve learnt through publishing other works and also selling books that there has to a point where the artist/writer lets go of his work and allows it to have a life of its own.
In spoken word poetry we believe that once a poem is performed on stage it no longer belongs to the poet but to its audience. In the same way I believe that creative entrepreneurship is only successful once the artists is able to wear the hat of a craftsmen and a businessmen at the same time.
If you were to describe yourself, how what would that be?
On stage and page I am a poet who writes about everything her mother told her not to do. Of course I play various roles. I am daughter, sister, poet, journalist, Malaysian-Indian person. And the list goes on. But the core of my identity rests on me being a woman. Every word that I articulate comes from my feminine identity and outlook on the world. I am constantly trying to better myself at understanding what it means to be a lady. As you can see from my poetry I derive a lot of inspiration from mythological female characters such as Draupadi and also women of yesteryears like my grandmother (Paati), in order to craft stories for growing girls.
This has always been a driving force when i put pen to paper as in what would a ten year old child read or understand what I have to say. So if you ask me to describe myself in a few words I will tell you that I am a work in progress.
What have been milestones in your life? What could be your next milestone?
Every poem is a milestone. With every line and verse I am learning to articulate the world around me. In terms of resume or portfolio I have performed in ten different cities across five countries, published my first poetry collection and completed a Masters degree by the age of twenty-five.
But a dear friend and fellow poet once told me that in everything I do it should always be milestone after milestone.
Even if I have opened stages for great poets such as Sarah Kay and Amir Suleiman or even if my poetry book has reached the bestsellers list of Malaysia’s largest online bookstore (MPH), there is always more to do.
Melizarani T.Selva is a spoken word poet, storyteller and journalist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Her rhymes are drawn from her wild curiosity in taboos. Comforted by reviews of her poems being “unafraid to be Indian” and “unapologetically Malaysian’, her spoken word elements is also garnered from her deep academic interest.
Who has influenced you most in your life? Why?
My father, T. Selva. My father has been a journalist for the past thirty-six years at Malaysia’s leading English daily The Star, published six books on VasthuSastra and has given public talks in order to propagate the ancient science around the world.
Everything I know about success and succeeding I learnt from my father. Poetry-wise I draw immense inspiration from the works of Maya Angelou, Frida Kahlo, and my grandmother’s stories.
Are you ambitious? If yes, have you chalked out your life? Does planning help?
Well yes, I am an ambitious woman and artist. Each year I chart out what I want to achieve in the coming year. 2015 was about getting my first collection of poems Taboo published.
Along the way I also focused on getting some of my poems translated into Bahasa Malaysia (Malaysia’s national language) and also into immortalized in painting and film. I focused a lot of my energy into designing a poetry book that would serve to comfort and interest anyone, of any age.
This year, I also created Kuala Lumpur’s first bimonthly poetry open mic called ‘If Walls Could Talk’ and a poetry workshop series titled ‘Poets in Progress’.
So, yes, planning is significantly helpful in guiding my move forward. But of course there are some things that happened to me which I did not plan. Like TEDx Gateway was a wonderful surprise that I welcome with open arms.
In the coming year, I want to focus on growing the Malaysian poetry scene further. Besides the ongoing poetry open mic night and workshop series, I intend to create more poetry specific avenues, platforms and anthology publications with poets from all around the world. I believe there needs to be an exchange of talent, meaning more poets from India, for instance should travel and have their work featured in Malaysia and vice versa. As such, I believe in building that bridge.
And who knows, maybe a second book too.
How have you tackled setbacks in life? What keeps you going? Have you ever wanted to give it all up and do something else?
I will never give up on poetry. And if I do pursue something new, I’m pretty sure it will find its way to be poetic. You do not let go of an art that looks after you. You look after it.
Yes there have been tremendous setbacks. Across the board, from financing this pursuit to sustaining the energy for it when times get tough. Regardless of the challenges I may face I believe in showing up. Whether I am having a difficult day juggling a full-time job, family obligations and exhaustion I believe it is my duty to show up for people and the stage when I am required to. There is no giving up.
