GRIOTS REPUBLIC - AN URBAN BLACK TRAVEL MAG - OCTOBER 2016

GR: TELL OUR READERS ABOUT YOUR
MOST MEMORABLE TRAVEL EXPERI-
ENCE IN ENGLAND.
Jerry Gant: I was in Brixton trying to get
my poetry chops up and I went to a comedy
club and I was told to sign up to do a
piece, so I did. Well, the announcer comes
on and sets my time on stage up as me
coming from nowhere and about to do
some mediocre stuff in comparison to what
they are used to. So, I walked on stage to a
stone-faced (almost Apollo Theatre-esque)
crowd. Essentially, he had set me up to fail
but by the time I got to my second piece,
the audience was transformed. Their looks
of admiration and the applause told me
that I had surpassed their expectation.
The same cat who set me up, ended up
asking me back. So, I encourage anyone
who is hitting the stage, to travel outside
of their comfort zone to a place where the
language, jokes and colloquialisms are
different and rock it. If it makes it there,
you know you are onto something. Later
we crashed at a friend of a friend’s flat in
exchange for doing a set on a pirate radio
station. We get on there, did a two-hour
slot and rocked that!
GR: TELL US ABOUT YOUR FASHION
MOVES.
Jerry Gant: Well I know you know because
Griots just did a piece on the Lincoln Park
Music Festivals and how that was a by-product
of night-life culture. My age-group is
post disco but one thing that stuck was
the importance to be seen and recognized
when you went out to a hot spot. Your attire
is something to be taken very seriously.
You could not be seen in the same place
with the same outfit. Don’t come rocking
the same thing you had on last week.
So, not being wealthy, we had to be creative
and make our stuff. We changed our