When he was on TV4's "Talang" in 2021, he introduced himself as a "literature nerd". In recent years, Gift Blessing has worked as a leisure leader promoting reading for children and young people. Now he has a new assignment as the Swedish Arts Council's reading ambassador.
I have long wanted to reach the young people who are furthest from literature by promoting reading, I have been able to do that with the help of rap and hip hop, and when this came up I thought God, how fun, now I get to work on a larger scale.
Growing up in the suburb of Skäggetorp, Linköping, Eminem became his path into literature.
I had a great interest in languages and wanted to know how songs were written. When I was studying, I ended up in literary circles and with a lot of authors who I drew inspiration from.
Joyce and Eminem
Among these are James Joyce, Artur Lundkvist and Karin Boye.
I found lots of connections between rap writing and the modernists, for example. James Joyce lives with words in the same way that Eminem does.
During his audition for “Talang,” Gift Blessing got a direct ticket to the final with an Eminem-inspired rap in which he told the story of his family. As a pregnant mother of five, mother Divine fled the war in Congo and ended up in a refugee camp in Namibia where Gift Blessing was born.
In front of the "Talang" jury, Gift Blessing told how his mother was raped and how the family eventually received help from UNHCR and were able to come to Sweden as quota refugees. He was four years old at the time.
It is a story about war, violence and poverty, but it is also a story about how everything can go from darkness to light. It is a story that I think is needed in Sweden and I made sure to use the "Talang" platform to ensure that my mother was finally heard, for everything she has gone through for our sake.
Rapping lecturer
Nowadays he also writes poems and short stories, which he also sets to music and uses in his music. When Gift Blessing lectures at schools, he starts by rapping.
It is usually very well received.
As a newly appointed reading ambassador, he already knows what he wants to do:
We need to take this seriously and make sure that children get literature, but also that they become involved in literature, not just as readers but as writers or poets or whatever - letting young people write themselves into literature is very important to me.
Born: 2002 in a refugee camp in Namibia.
Lives: In Handen, Stockholm.
Occupation: Leisure leader, reading promoter, rapper, lecturer and the Swedish Arts Council's new reading ambassador. The assignment is for two years. Gift Blessing will be the eighth reading ambassador and the first to be a rapper. As a reading promoter, he likes to let children and young people approach literature through games, internet memes or other youth culture that they already take part in.
As a reading role model on the Reading Movement website, Gift Blessing recommends “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoevsky:
"A heavy book about what it really means to love your fellow human beings, and what goodness actually consists of. It transformed my perception of reality and lightened my existential burden by depicting how easy it is to love. That is when you find yourself."
