Interview : Ducarmel Alcius
“Ça, moi, surmoi”, “Lavi Facebook” or “Élan de cœur”, these are some titles of the Haitian slam poet Ricky Fou Conscient who sometimes makes a diagnosis of society, sometimes some criticism of the individual in his human relationships. Ducarmel Alcius, one of the twelve winners of the 34th Prix du Jeune Écrivain de Langue Française (Young French Language Writer Award) from Haiti, had the great pleasure of meeting this social actor who are the second artist to have a slam album in Haiti. He sent us this interview.
Kariculture.net : Who is Ricky Fou Conscient ?
Ricky Fou Conscient : Ricky Fou Conscient whose real name is Ricardo Louis was born in Port-au-Prince, in a family of seven children of which he is the fifth and grew in Petit-Goâve (his favorite city) . He studied law, psychology and oriental ontology. My name (Fou Conscient) comes mainly from the fact that, in our country, we tend to call “fou” (crazy) the one who goes against the current and refuses to follow the crowd while accepting his difference. I think it’s better to accept and since accepting is becoming aware, so call me “Fou Conscient”!
Kariculture.net : Why did you choose to do slam?
R.F.C. : This is a question that I still have difficulties in answering… I think you should ask slam why me, preferably? As I wrote it in a text : “I did not choose this life, I was caught off guard” and, since this moment, it is a beautiful love story, a great surge of synchronicity… That’s all !
Kariculture.net : What do you think of life in slam?
R.F.C. : I realized that life always ends up taking us to our own road of realization, that the “real self” always ends up prevailing beyond the patterns internalized by our “ideal self”. And I think that my meeting with slam is a good example!
Kariculture.net : You are the second artist to have a slam album in Haiti. What does it bring you to be a voice for youth, for society?
R.F.C. : When we are in our true place, we do everything with love and, in the end, it always brings us the joy of serving, the joy of doing what gives us pleasure! It allows to meet people (mostly young people, like me), to talk to them and develop social relationships… It’s exciting!
Kariculture.net : Jaume Cabré, this Spanish writer who speaks Catalan, shares the idea that true art is always born of frustration and from happiness we create nothing. What was your frustration to do slam?
R.F.C. : I share! Art is the expression of the soul. It is for me, a vehicule of liquidation of disputes, intra-psychic conflicts, frustrations of our injured inner child. So, it was on stage that I learned to mourn for my father and to pour out my rage for having lost him when I was eight years old. It is still on stage that I learn to sublimate my many emotional disappointments and family crisis.
Kariculture.net : What is happiness for you?
R.F.C. : I take happiness as the humanist psychologist Abraham Maslow understands it : he first advocates the satisfaction of our various needs that brings us to the stage of self-actualization. Happiness is, for me, to be in harmony with oneself and to thrill in unison with the cosmic vital field, beyond the worries supported by our various needs.
Kariculture.net : Little greeting to your poet friends?
R.F.C. : I think there would be too many brothers and sisters to greet… But, I want to send a special greeting to Adelson Élias, this humble poet friend that I admire a lot for his very strong sense of humanity! Thank you very much for the talk!
