Wordsmith. Change-Maker

Vivienne Niessa Prungu, a.k.a Lady Black is a veteran Namibian poet, writer, motivational speaker, singer, choreographer and director.

There's just something about the way that Lady Black tells stories about love, loss, joy, grief, beauty, and racism, among other things. She explores self-love, self-celebration, and healing.

Lady Black uses captivating words to express herself and give hope to her audience.

Her poetry hits deep, adorned with punchlines and metaphors. It speaks volumes! She writes in a way that conveys all the emotions she wants the poem to hold.

I have witness the "Becoming of Lady Black" or Vivienne as I call her since she was a 12 year old shy writer who wanted a chance at serenading her poetry to the world.

She applied for the Spoken Word poetry rehearsals in Namibia, Windhoek many moons ago. But what she didn't know back then was that the so called "rehearsals" were in fact a live Spoken Word show.Thats how she was thrust into the limelight and the rest is history....

Lady Black holds a Diploma in Contemporary Dance and Drama.

She describes herself as spontaneous, passionate and spiritual. She is inspired by the mundane but also by the abstract and taboo.

Currently Lady Black is working on the publication of her 2 books, one is an anthology and the other is a collection of scripts and diary journals.

Her hobbies are spending time in mother nature, reading, writing and learning about different cultural and religious beliefs. She is a human activist and strives to be the voice of the underdog.

Below I have posted a few of her poems for your reading pleasure.

Contacts:

+264 81 7810032

Facebook: Vivienne Niessa Prungu

I RUN IT

I run it through my mind,

is it incentive or intention?

That regresses the steps of doubt and a lack of self-true love…

In the essence of information delegated to nations to cause confusion

No double takes, I am the raw in-mate within your prison cell

The one that constantly gives you hell, hell, hell

Distant pin-pals but distant relatives

Like Nas and Damien Marley, fugitives of the underworld city

A lack of knowledge on our genealogy has summoned this technical era, echo

and I run it through my mind

Faithful mishandled by the gangs of scientists, denying the Bible

By creating spaceships, our matrix has left our reality subject to ruin

So, we run it through our minds, treading on earth ground

Reconciling the voices that go through our minds

Tired soles, down mountain roads,

swerves, speed bumps and curves

Tedious tensions of a life sentence, instead of the likes of Nelson Mandela

Our leaders are extra, extra, - terrestrial, terrestrial

So, we run it through our minds, trying to save time

I run it through my mind, I run it, I run it

I run it through my mind

I AM WOMAN

I wear my femininity in between my legs, padded with pride as I sway my hips to the sound of my inner-most song

Unapologetic about the magic of my presence, I demand the fulfilment of all my desires, to be stroked and touched with hands that move with precision and purpose

Therefore, my womb makes me woman,

in a world where to be soft and gentle is viewed a weakness

I am a woman born of a woman, Lady Black

The debris of the essence of my soul cannot be cloned

In Egyptian embroidery, he sits on a throne

Thinkinthat he is king but he forgets that I am a Queen and I sit up every night

Gone in the wind but held in its breeze, to gain momentum,

to arise, to uplift

To emerge triumphant despite

The extinction of my dynasty is his wish but I am wrapped in rose light

And the moon is laid over me like a million men

Because I am woman, I am woman

I am woman and I am loved fiercely

Eviction Notice

They don’t want me to speak no more

They don’t want me to breath no more

Is that why they want me to put on my mask and hope no one really sees me laughing behind the fabric?

Who would of thought that a touch from your next of kin could mean the imprint of the Chip?

Wolves masquerading underneath sheepskin,

They talk numbers like mathematicians, experts at telling me how much I’m worth, what time to sleep and all hell breaks loose when I don’t follow protocol

Tell me, how did we come to this idea of dimming the sun?

I am on a holy rampage because what they are trying to do is blasphemous

Signed, sealed and delivered is the Judah’s kiss, will a man rob God?

I guess I know now that I have betrayed and been betrayed, why does it shock me that it is the closest ones that can truly hurt?

They want to sit on my table, they want to share my bread

When all along God has exposed their poison in my bowl!

The fruitful man has perished from among the earth, and there is no one upright among men

They all lie in wait for blood, every man hunts down his brother with a net

HOMEWORK

There was once upon a time,

when I chose the seemingly easier and more worldly way

I used to drown my pain by having drinks all day,

staggering in between the lines but here I am

Reconciling with my past in the night,

that is calm and curiously silent

I used to think that I was the life of the party

little did I know that the joke was on me

My own desires led me astray and the more I drank

The deeper I sank, into the earth

like drums beating against the heavy dust

Like a doctor, I administered my prescription

Alcohol was my addiction but there was too much life wrapped up in my voice

And there was a pulse in my pounding heart,

imagine choking and drowning at the same time

gasping for air, waiting on God to wipe the slate clean

waiting on God to break up and bleed out the lifeless

rigid and worn out

The world may place my heart at the bottom of its shoe

And be too pre-occupied with bright city lights

And front-page headlines but here I am, here I am

With shoulders back and head held high

Lucifer

Lucifer, Son of the Morning

Mr Creep, tell me how do you sleep?

Paper bags you fill with bowls and guts

Revenge in your world is bitter -sweet

I get it okay, I need to bring my A-game because

You do not operate within the bounds of mercy

He that is within me is stronger than he that is in the world

I spit the truth and make your pyramid fall

So, tell me Mr Creep,

Do I turn around and give you my other cheek?