By Lakhram Bhagirat
Sometimes finding the right word to ascribe to your feelings of intimacy and vulnerability are hard to find. Sometimes the words escape us and we are just left there with mouths agape and thoughts floating around in our heads.
However, for some of us that almost never happens. Some of us are well-versed in putting our feelings on paper and exposing our vulnerability for the world to indulge. Our words let them into our worlds and though they’re mere visitors to our isolated paradises, they quite often beg to stay.
Kelwin Gittens has been putting words to paper and baring his soul for the world for a number of years now. He does so through intricately written poems that are like mazes allowing us to navigate our own journeys. His writing invokes a sense of relatability and also takes us on his journey.
He bares his soul as he speaks about growing up in poverty in Den Amstel Village on the West Coast of Demerara. He shares with us the fond memories of a little boy who not only struggled but also found happiness in the struggles.
Kelwin’s writings tell us about a little boy who would enjoy every bit of his childhood. We learn of a little boy who would frequent the seawalls for a splash or just childhood games with his friends. We are told of a little boy who would enjoy every bit of his childhood with his friends whether they would engage in a game of cricket or football at the ‘ballfield’.
We learn of the struggles of his family as they battled poverty.
“One of the many challenges I faced growing up was the fact that I grew up in poverty. So, it was difficult financially for us,” he would reminisce.
One thing though, Kelwin never allowed what he did not have to limit him. He reached, and continues to reach to this day, for the stars.
“Growing up in poverty played out in a good way for me, because it made me work harder. A lot harder too. In difficult times and some of the challenges that I faced as I got older, poverty prepared me for those moments and I am grateful.”
Kelwin attended the Stewartville Secondary School and later ventured to the Government Technical Institute where he studied Land Surveying. He is slated to be sworn in as a Land Surveyor sometime next month after he completes his internship with the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
The young man got into writing as a result of the challenges he faced during his childhood.
“I did a few surgeries on my knee and growing up I could not be a part of much physical activities. It would have these football competitions and due to the challenges with my knee, I wasn’t allowed to be a part of those competitions. I realised that I could write and rhyme, and I started writing poetry. I currently go to Ebenezer Congregational Church, so every year we would normally get concerts and someone once heard I was rhyming and encouraged me to say a poem. So, I wrote one and got a lot of good feedback, so then I started writing. That was around the age of 12,” he said.
His style of writing is what we refer to as Spoken Word. The pieces do not necessarily rhyme and sound all poetic, but they are very important pieces. Those pieces chronicle experiences as well as speak to societal ills.
“I mostly do spoken word because I have very little training. As I said, I grew up in poverty and most of my poems come from how I grew up and some of the struggles I went through due to poverty. When I am going through stuff, I let it out. Like poetry is like my way of expressing what I’ve been through or what I am going through. When I am feeling a type ah way, poems help me let out whatever it is that is bothering me. Poem means a lot. Poems is one of the way in which I does communicate with the outside world. Instead of me going and sit down and talk to somebody I does just put it in my poems and people would understand exactly what I going through.”
Kelwin continues to inspire the younger generation and make his mark in the art world of Guyana.
