Dressed in suede shoes, a print button up shirt with rolled up sleeves and dark slacks, Amaker’s loosely pulled back locs spill out from beneath his newspaper boy cap. He exudes a vibe funky and chic. Then, he introduces himself with a poem that could make anyone appear anything but cool.
“I beat myself up the first time words bumped up against my breath, disconnected from the pulse inside my head. So I made beats alone behind closed doors instead.”
Amaker’s intro depicts a solitary boy who looks to music for a friend; a boy who stammered and stuttered and still stumbles as an adult. It’s a self- portrait so raw; it’s as if it’s drawn with crayons.
“I’m in a mode now where I want people to know me,” says Amaker as we talk downtown in Washington Park just behind city hall.
“I’ve been writing a lot about Charleston and social justice issues. I want folks to know me as well, and that is me.”
Charleston’s Poet Laureate Marcus Amaker Making a Difference | South Carolina Public Radio https://t.co/QwrFoeZLF4
— Victoria Hansen (@VHansenSCRadio) November 12, 2019