Ursula Rucker: It Is What It Is

When the world first heard Ursula Rucker it was because of the brotherly love given by drummer Questlove of the Roots, who invited her after another poet could not be reached to conclude their album. The shy Philadelphia native seized the opportunity and continued to conclude the majority of the Roots albums. Facing another fear Ms. Rucker the mother of four sons decided to produce her own albums and books and she has been universally been very recepted. She is inspired by the same things that inspired her as a youth only she’s now inspired through the eyes of her children. Ursula is here to help us remember, celebrate and at times mourn America and all the beauty, truth and corruption that exists in it.

Scheme: When did writing become your love, passion and then your life?

Ursula Rucker: Man that’s a good question, I would say my first couple of years of college. I found that writing was not just an adolescent thing but for me that’s what it was. A way for a teenager to find out what the hell is going on. So really just making that transition from childhood to being a teenager. While I was in college I was taking it more seriously and I met up with another poet named Major Jackson who has become a good friend of mine. After talking to him and him sharing some of his work with me I decided that this is what I wanted to do for life. I don’t know if I want to get paid for it or if it’s going to be my career per say but I definitely wanted to do it for life. So I had a defining moment in college.

Scheme: What was that defining moment?

Ursula Rucker: It was meeting Major Jackson and he was putting out a book with Wadoud Ahmad, and they were self publishing and doing their own thing. They had a book reading at this jazz club that I really liked and would have my first reading with a band and it was a beautiful thing. It was in it’s place and it felt good and it really inspired me and I thought this is what I want to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to do anything with music but I think poetry was going to give me that feeling.

Scheme: What was it like growing up in Philly because when people refer to Philly now they talk about how violent it has become, what was it like for you?

Ursula Rucker: I have such a love and commitment to Philly and I’m a long way from giving up on it. I’m more than a little dissapointed with the direction that it’s going in, and the violence and the not so good stuff but I love this place. I think the hard edge of it and what a lot of people don’t realize is the this was a place that was the capital of this country, so there is a lot of this country’s history in this city. Amazing architecture and such good art has come in and out of this city. Artists from other places have settled here for a while like John Coltrane and Paul Robeson and they created their art and activism here. So there is so much power and it is not a Hollywood place where it’s glitzy and glamorous and flashing lights it really has a hard edge to it which I like, and I’m used to it, some others may not be used to it. I don’t like the high murder rate, but I’ve always liked all the other stuff I’ve just mentioned and people just work hard here. People struggle and survive and try to make a living and the neighborhood has changed and in a flash you blink your eye while riding down the street and your in a completely different neighborhood which is something that is really unique about Philly.

Scheme: When did people start recognizing the name Ursula Rucker?

Ursula Rucker: When I started to do my little performances at Zanzibar Blue and people would come just on a small scale. On a grander scale when I did the first Roots piece I think that’s when I started to get pick up.

Scheme: How did that collaboration come about?

Ursula Rucker: Ahmir (Questlove) called me when I was working at the art center ( Painted Bride) here and Shazacki Sinder was supposed to do the piece but he couldn’t catch up with her because she was out of the country. It was funny because she actually lived in an apartment behind the art center. So when Ahmir told me I was really intimidated and I was like, “why are you asking me, I’m just a box office girl at the Painted Bride Art Center and you want me to do the poem?” He just believed in me and that was it.

Scheme: Once you did 3 plus Roots albums did you ever have a sense of fear coming out with your own album?

Ursula Rucker: Yeah, I still have senses of fear when I venture into another area. I think unless your totally honest with yourself and your exploration is really deep and you know what kind of fear you’re dealing with; I’m never quite sure if its a fear of success or just plain old fear. I always have a sense of trepidation but in the end I pretty much say f*ck it and do it.

“We’re really poets and we’re comitted to this and its not just a grandstanding thing just so you can get on HBO or hold a microphone or put something on cd and wax philosophical and try to impress people which is none of the above which I do. So for me I would really like to keep it in a place that is pure and good…”

Scheme: Besides the Russell Simmons Def Poetry mass media really hasn’t pick up and try to really market poetry to the mainstream, why do you think that is?

Ursula Rucker: I’m really not sure but I really don’t want to question it to much. I’m going to tell you the God’s honest truth, I really don’t want poetry going to the mainstream too much. Of course it would bring some of us struggling artists who are committed to this art form some money to feed oursleves and our families and that would be great. I also think it would cause a lot of problems. With just Def Poerty it’s a little “iffy” (laughs). I think a lot of people feel that way. We’re really poets and we’re comitted to this and its not just a grandstanding thing just so you can get on HBO or hold a microphone or put something on cd and wax philosophical and try to impress people which is none of the above which I do. So for me I would really like to keep it in a place that is pure and good and as corny as that may sound I think when people get into that main river of things, things start to get tainted and I hope that doesn’t happen.

Scheme: Do you still get nervous when your on stage performing your craft?

Ursula Rucker: Please…that night at Black Lily I thought I was going to lose my mind (laughs). Even though I was only doing two pieces it wasn’t my normal thing that I do. I’m not stuck in my ways because I’m very open to do different things; performing with different band members although I may have known them I don’t normally perform with them. Man I was so nervous.

Scheme:What is the difference for you from hip hop lyricism and poetic lyricism?

Ursula Rucker: I do my work to music and I rarely do my performances where I’m just reciting and I miss that actually. I’m used to doing the performances with bands which is beautiful but they are both beautiful in their individual forms. The same goes for true hip hop. There is such a fine line, if you want to talk about the lyrics in poems and hip hop there really the same thing. If it’s true and real you don’t have to be talking about anything political or socially conscious but if it’s from the heart and not some bullsh*t it’s poetry, and it’s really an extension of that art form.

Scheme: Do you find the same things that inspired you when you first started out are the same things that inspire you today when you write?

Ursula Rucker: Pretty much, I have children now and a lot more of them (laughs). That kind of puts a different frame on things because I look at things through their perspective now that I’m raising four Black boys in America so what I may have been looking at before I’m still looking at but I’m looking at through the eyes of my children as well. The same sh*t if going on and there is never going to be a shortage of things to address, talk about and be inspired by. It could be something as simple as a sunset, I think people think that I’m not moved by things like that because I may get what people consider a little bit harsh with my work, but just being awake and looking around can inspire me as well.

Scheme: What part about your work do you love more, is it the writing part of performing in front of hundreds of people?

Ursula Rucker: Actually the part I love the most is the instant that something comes to me. Even if I don’t write it down at that moment, if I retain it and keep addressing it in my brain, it’s kind of like this viseral thing when you are an artist of any sort I believe when an artist at that moment is whew! If you can be that type of person that can function, operate like that and have this gift from God, that’s how I see because sometimes I don’t even understand it. Like why do these things affect me like this and make me feel this way. Why can’t I just hear something, look or find something and that’s just it!

Scheme: What are your plans for the rest of 2007?

Ursula Rucker: Well actually I’m working on a book with one of my best friends. He’s a photo-journalist and I’m writing an epic poem and it will have photos and it’s all about New Orleans and it’s kind of like an honoring, dedication and a mourning and just a whole mix of things that I know many other artists done, but this is going to be our contribution to the universe so that people remember and never, never, never forget New Orleans and what happened, is still happening, and what could happen in the future knowing how this country is.

Scheme: What is your ultimate scheme, have you reached it, or do you even have one?

Ursula Rucker: Nah I don’t have an ultimate goal I’m open, even though I’m a virgo I’ll over analyze anything you give me to the death At the end of the day I was try to go with the flow it always comes to Ursula it’s going to be what it’s going to be.