Toni Stuart is an amazing young woman. That’s what those who turned up to last Thursday’s Read, Relax, Recharge! special were left thinking after listening to Toni’s unique poetry reading.
Naive child / cradled in an old soul
We were delighted to welcome Toni to GWL as part of her tour with Commonwealth Poets United, an exciting programme of ‘poet exchanges’ delivered by the Scottish Poetry Library as part of their celebrations for this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Toni took the opportunity when in the library to check out some of our archive collection. (Well, who wouldn’t?)
But about that poetry reading. ‘Reading’ doesn’t do justice to what Toni does. I was expecting a performance-type poet, lots of verbal pyrotechnics and quick-fire tongue acrobatics, but that is as far from what Toni delivers when she performs her own work as her native Cape Town is from Glasgow.
The first line of her poems is as likely to be sung as said, and even when she slides seamlessly into spoken word, her voice seems to follow a melody, the delivery further enhanced by beautifully elongated vowels and seductive rhythms. She writes from the female body, about the female body, delivering words that live up to her own evocative lines when she describes a dancing girl as a ‘naive child/cradled in an old soul’.
She also talked about her poetry journey, and how she almost stopped because she felt what she wrote was ‘self-indulgent’. ‘So, indulge yourself,’ an older woman poet told her, and Toni, thank goodness, realised the sense in that. The results, though written from her personal perspective, achieve that connection with others, that universality of meaning, that poets have always strived for.
Toni loved visiting GWL, ‘I hope to come back again,’ she said when she was leaving. And guess what? We hope she’ll come back too!
Magi Gibson, Reader in Residence
If you’d like to experience poetry at Glasgow Women’s Library, then come along this Thursday 10th April from 1 – 2pm when another Commonwealth poet, the legendary Tamil Indian Salma, will be reading her poetry and talking about her amazing life journey. Salma was taken out of education at 13 and confined to the house by her strictly religious family. Against the odds she has become a vital and inspiring voice, using poetry to win her freedom.
And if you’ve never been to Read, Relax, Recharge! then it’s time you made a first visit. The group meets most Thursdays, from 12.30 – 2.30 as well as from 5.30 – 7pm. Bring a bite to eat and relax while you listen to some of the amazing women’s writing from the shelves of GWL.
