Captivating and energetic, Kavon Jones (better known by his stage name, Kj Prodigy) is a poet, teacher and host of the popular Tuesday Open Mic night at Miramar Theater. He also organizes events like “The Eclectic Experience,” which was recently held at the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts and featured musicians, comedians and poets from a range of backgrounds.
What first made you interested in pursuing poetry?
It was back in seventh grade when my friend Kwabena Nixon and Muhibb Dyer came to my school, Dr. King Elementary, and did this poetry performance. I didn’t even know what poetry was. They wowed us. I was like, “Who are these two strangers?” One had an orange jumpsuit and a jump rope, and they were telling prison stories and reciting poetry to the rhythm of the jump rope. I’ve got to give props to Kwabena and Muhibb for inspiring me that day. Seven years later, January 9, 2014, I meet Kwabena at Woodland Pattern at a poetry reading. I got to meet the guy who got me into writing poetry.
Your poetry seems spontaneous but at the same time has a lot of structure to it. Do you write it out beforehand or is it freestyle?
It’s written out. I say my poems a number of times in my head before I actually say it verbally. Memorization is an important part because I don’t want to just say my poems, I have to perform them. I want to use my hands, my facial expressions; I want the crowd to really be into what I’m saying. Even though I’m just putting out a small topic, I want them to see images, everything with my hands and body. If I read off paper, I’m going to be stuttering and stopping, but when you know it’s in your brain and you trust yourself, it’s like an “on” button for me with no way to stop.
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What are your poems about?
I write on everything from fried chicken to being a 1980s baby to losing my friend to cancer. I like to be eclectic. To me, you can’t categorize me; all styles of writing are what I do. You got to know your audience and what poem to do; you got to pick through the Rolodex of poems in your mind and be like, “That’s it, I should do that.”
What would you like to do in the future?
I just want to be a teacher that can inspire kids to do poetry and teach them how to be different; don’t be so status quo. In the slam poetry realm, it’s always poems about feminism and “black lives matter,” sexism, LGBT, which is cool; I write about those things too, but you’ve got to branch out and surprise me. Do something different for a change. People get stuck in writing in that same style and get a big “wow” and cheer out of the crowd and their minds are just stuck writing like that.
