The soul of a songwriter: India.Arie talks about reading, writing and stoking her creative fires

Black Issues Book Review, Sept-Oct, 2004 by Joy Duckett Cain

Still, despite her less-than-stellar academic efforts, some things--like writing--came effortlessly to her. From the time she was seven, she can recall writing and illustrating stories and giving them to a favorite aunt. India also recalls winning a schoolwide writing contest, sponsored by Bell South, while in junior high school. "We had to write an essay on where we thought we'd be in the year 2000, and I don't remember what I wrote, but I remember the energy of it being real strong and sassy," she says. "That's when I started to realize that I didn't have to try so hard--that words lived in me. It was a gift that I had."

India didn't begin writing songs until she was 21, right after she learned how to play the guitar. Originally, she attended the Savannah College of Art and Design with the intent of becoming a jewelry maker, but as the music became more important in her life, jewelry-making became less so. Eventually, she dropped out of college altogether. In 1999, a scout for Motown Records discovered India on the Atlanta club circuit, and two years later Acoustic Soul was released.

And someday india also expects that she will write her own book, although she doesn't know when, where or what it will be about. All she knows is that it will be another form of creation for her--another way for India.Arie to reintroduce herself to the world.

"I consider myself an artist, maybe even a poet" she says. "And what I mean by that is that it's not more about the words, it's not more about the music, it's not more about my presence nor more about my clothes, it's not about how I wear my hair--all of it is an expression of me. These are my ideals, these are my ideas, and these are the things I feel strongly about, the things I love, the things I can't stand m everything I do, I'm expressing me." Unique. An original. And still unlike any oTher girl you'll see in a video.

Joy DuCkett Cain, who frequently writes about musicians and celebrities for various national magazines, lives with her husband and three children in Westchester, N.Y.