Poet Keith Ferguson: Christian Spoken Word Artist

On his Christian spoken word track, “A New Creature,” Poet Keith Ferguson announces, “The Bible says, ‘Let everything that have breath praise ye the Lord.’ We must be able to express ourselves, so if it takes rapping, poetry, making beats, whatever it takes to get your feelings out, just pray.”

TBGB first met Poet Keith Ferguson at the Gospel Music Workshop of America last summer and this month spoke to him by telephone from his home in Fort Worth, Texas.

Tell us a little about yourself.

KF: I am married with three kids, and serve as minister of music and organist for my church. I’ve traveled all over Texas with my poetry.

What inspired you to write and perform Christian spoken word poetry?

KF: It is a gift from God. I never wrote or read poetry before. I never was interested in it, but I had gone through a lot of tough times, and writing became therapy. At the time, I didn’t know that what I was writing were poems. But I went to a poetry workshop and I saw how poets were going through problems, too. They were writing about their problems in their poetry. I looked at my writing again from that perspective, and that’s how I came to be in poetry.

For the uneducated ear, how is a Christian spoken word artist different from a Christian rap artist?

KF: Christian rap artists are more limited than spoken word artists because of the timing. Rap, which means “Rhythm And Poetry,” has to bring the message to a hook. As spoken word artists, we can write everything we want to say without the limitation of eight or sixteen bars. With poetry, you are free to express more than you can in rap.

The downside is that people may be more interested in rap because it has that beat and the majority of spoken word is straight up performing. Some of my pieces have a beat, but they don’t have cutoffs here and there. I’m basically trying to give you the feeling of what I’m feeling when I write. Seventy percent of the performance is presentation.

Honesty is what spoken word is all about, being honest to yourself and encouraging people through your life and your writing.

Your track “Child Abuse” has a particularly compelling message. What inspired you to write and record this piece?

KF: “Child Abuse” was inspired by an incident in which my first cousin left her three-year old child with her boyfriend at that time. Turned out the guy was on some strange drugs. He got tired of hearing the baby crying, and he punched the child 33 times in the stomach. The baby died right there. The boyfriend called the police and said the baby was dead. He ended up going to jail.

Who is the female vocalist on “Child Abuse?”

KF: The female vocalist on the track is Adria Green. She’s a local gospel artist who is working on her own project in the studio now.

Songwriters talk about the process of composing songs, whether it’s a discipline of sitting in a room for eight hours and writing or being inspired on the spot. What is your process for writing poetry?

KF: When I see something, when I am out somewhere and God is speaking to me, I’ll go back home and write about it. Maybe I’ve been to a poetry session, and I get a revelation. It’s not like I can just sit down and write a poem about “Jesus loves the world.” I write when I’m inspired.

Inspiration comes from things I see or live every day. Like my poem, “Suffering.” There was a time when I was going through something and I heard my pastor say that we Christians think we can have this free style life, but suffering has to be part of our walk. The Bible says so. No matter how much you have, you have got to go through something.

Do you think that the larger audience is where they need to be when it comes to appreciating spoken word poetry versus gospel singing?

KF: The audience is definitely growing. We’re seeing more churches opening up to it. The hardest thing has been to get poetry into the churches, even though we are doing poetry everywhere else. We want poetry to grow more on the spiritual side, because our first goal is to minister, whether in a club or church.

What other gospel artists – and specifically spoken word or rap artists – do you listen to or admire?

KF: For Christian spoken word, it’s GF Soldier – he’s a real powerful brother from New Orleans. I look up to him, but we learn and share a lot with each other. We check out each other’s work.

And Kirk Franklin, he’s from the same city I grew up in. I admire his writing skills and I like his slow songs more than his fast ones. They have more meaning to me because they take you straight to worship. We play a lot of those worship songs. My ultimate dude, however, is John P. Kee!

What do you want listeners to feel when they hear your poetry?

KF: I write for two different types of people: Christians and sinners. I want to give conviction to sinners and send them to the light. I do this piece called “The Last Days,” which basically says, “This is it, come to Christ. He’s giving you the warning.”

Unlike preachers, lay members and poets can go into the nightclubs. I’m not going into a nightclub to look for a woman – I’m married – but the group of us who go into the clubs offer up Jesus. The people are drinking, smoking, and when we get up on stage, you can hear a pin drop at the back of the room.

One time, a guy at a club said to me, “You are the only God we got.” That meant more to me than any award because someone said that I brought God into the room. That was an awesome thing. We even had an altar call at a club!

On the Christian side, I write to inspire. Suffering…child abuse…why are we doing this to our kids? I want to deal with subjects that aren’t being dealt with in church. I’m telling you things the preachers aren’t. I want to bring out the subjects that are not being discussed in church.

If someone wants to hear or purchase your work, where do they go?

KF: Go to my website: www.poetkeithferguson.com.

Do you have a regular program? Where will you be performing next?

KF: We sponsor “The GUMBO” – God’s Unique Ministry Becoming One.” GUMBO brings in one of each of the different styles, poetry, mime, a live band, and we offer Christians something to do in Fort Worth, something outside of the church so they can worship God in a different atmosphere.

There will be another GUMBO in June and you can check out the website for more information.

“My purpose is to keep the beat…let the beat continue!”