The Poet - Kadhim Shubber

Eva - You were Felix editor last year, you organise Felix Music Nights, have a show on IC Radio, set up Kensington poetry nights... why did you decide to get so involved in the arts at Imperial?

Kadhim - It kind of started with Felix. I learned last year that it’s quite straightforward to organise things. I think that probably arises from doing a paper every week; since that experience it seems a lot less daunting. I guess generally I’m quite interested in the arts – I wish I could make music or draw, which I can’t.

E - Well you can write…

K - (Laughs) I can write…

E - Does studying Physics in any way influence your creative pursuits?

K - I don’t think so at all. I’m not saying that they’re separate; a lot of stuff is connected. I live in a “geeky” society so the jokes that I make or the things that I write are influenced by that.

E - Do you think we live in a bubble because Imperial is a science-only university?

K - Yes, but not in a unique sense: I think that art students live in a bubble; I think politics students live in a bubble. I mean people criticise the government because they’re all PPE students from Oxford. I do wonder what my literary interests would be if I had studied English, or what my art interests would be if I’d known a lot of artists...

E - So you don’t half regret having studying science…?

K - Whenever it gets to exams I sort of remember why I love science and it frustrates me because I spend the rest of the year being distracted and then when you revise you realise that you love it but you haven’t given yourself enough time to understand it.

E - You’re graduating this year! Are you going to do Physics in the future?

K - I’m not going to do Physics, and it’s not to say that I wouldn’t be interested in it, but I think I’m not smart enough. If life expectancy continues to increase, people our age are likely going to live to 100 so there is a lot of life ahead. I‘m thinking I want to relax a little bit. Journalism is what I’m working towards, and I’ve got an internship this summer at the Sunday Times. I have a friend in America who says we should do a road trip. I’m trying to do a lot of stuff. I don’t want to settle, yet. I think a lot of people at Imperial want to settle as soon as possible and it’s a bit scary.

E - When and why did you start writing poetry?

K - I started writing poetry in the second year because there was a girl that I fancied. She wrote poetry so I wanted to impress her by writing poetry as well. 95% of anything I write is just absolutely awful, it makes me cringe! It sounds pretentious – is the word pretentious? – but it’s really not. I’ll write it, I’ll go “that’s really good”, and then I’ll put it on Facebook. If I read it a month later, I’ll hate it.

E - You’ve started up a monthly poetry evening – Invisible Poetry...

K - There is a poetry night called Clinic in South London. Turns out my friend from school was friends with the girl who runs Clinic. As soon as I knew about their night I though it would be cool to give that [running a poetry night] a shot and it worked out better than I thought it would!

E - The atmosphere there is really great; is it part of what you wanted to create?

K - Yeah. I think it comes from the fact that I don’t see my poetry as amazing. So, when I am up there reading all my poems I’m not treating it as if it’s awesome. It’s meant to be a relaxed inclusive atmosphere; everyone who goes is friendly and open to other people

E - It is a little community of poetry and pub lovers.

K - It is one of my favourite nights. To start with 95% of the people there were just my friends… the last night we had there were a lot of people that I didn’t recognise.

E - Are you – or anyone else – continuing it into next year?

K - I don’t know actually. I’ve been thinking about this. If I’m in London...

E - It’s a bit sad that we finally get some kind of art event in South Kensington that we don’t have to trek out into East or South London for and then it disappears again…

K - Events happen where people live… I read this article about a guy who runs a vinyl-only DJ night in Peckham – it’s just someone who lived in that neighbourhood and found a venue – which in their case is a snooker hall – and put on an event. If you do that in your community often your community will come. If you try and do an event where you think that event should be no one will come.

E - Apart from this one girl, who inspires you in your writing?

K - This is like my guilty secret… I don’t read poetry very much.

E - So you don’t have a favourite poem?

K - I do have a favourite poem and it’s called Morning Sex, by Dean Atta. There is also a guy, Ross Sutherland, who does this amazing poem with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He reads this poem with the Fresh Prince intro on silent repeating behind him. It’s a poem about life and death and repetition; how by repeating a situation you can understand it – it’s just incredible.

E - Do you ever write prose…fiction?

K - I did the creative writing course at Imperial. I really enjoyed it but now I read the stuff and am like good god… I wrote the most pretentious bullshit ever.

E - Would you like to?

K - I mean everyone wishes they could write novels. Everyone wishes they could be like Jonathan Franzen but I realised when I started writing short stories that I didn’t have the spark for it. In terms of writing fiction, I haven’t written nearly enough of it to get all the crap out of my system.

E - What would success mean to you? It would mean recognition. I acknowledge that that’s not the same thing as happiness.

E - When things are difficult how do you console yourself… because I drink tea?

K - What do I do? I listen to music and I wallow.

E - What qualities do you look for in a person?

K - I’ve thought about this… a sense of humour is up there and just people who enjoy other people I think is the main thing for me.

E - Do you ever project yourself into the future?

K - Yeah I do. There are lots of them. In one I’m on the front page of Time being called the Great American Author...

E - Would you rather everyone be extremely crazy or totally normal?

K - I think I would choose mad; but I don’t think that’s so different to how world is. If you listen to what you say to yourself you realise that everyone is actually mad.

E - I’ve been told you would be able to produce a short poem on the spot? Is this true?

K - Clearly not true.

E - A line, two lines… ?

K - This interview… this conversation between me and you was completely ruined when the cardboard Imperial Walker was torn in two.