POET & MUSICIAN TO KNOW: CYNDI HOUNOUVI
CYNDI HOUNOUVI
Cyndi Hounouvi is a poet, musical artist, and model born and raised in Germany of Beninese/Togolese descent. She self-published her first collection of poems titled “17” to represent the often confusing and vulnerable experience of transitioning from being a teenager into adulthood. In addition to writing beautiful poetry, Cyndi is the co-founder and organizer of community project SistaTalk, a response to the lack of resources and spaces for Black women in Hamburg, Germany. Cyndi is also signed to German model agency, Modelwerk and is diving deeper into her music with an upcoming release of her single “Don't (Love Me)”.
Photography by Pascal Schmidt
SHEER: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
CYNDI HOUNOUVI: Heey, my name is Cyndi G. Hounouvi. I’m a 24 year old singer/songwriter, poet and model based in Germany. My roots lie in West Africa, mainly Benin (Dahomey).
SHEER: What was the first creative form of expression you fell in love with and how has that evolved over time?
CH: I’m not quite sure what creative form of expression came first, music or poetry.. I think they’re kinda interwoven. But I can definitely pinpoint when I started thinking I might be a poet. I remember having literature classes in 2nd or 3rd grade and my teacher announcing that the theme for the next few weeks would be rhyming and poetry. I was so excited!
Pop music had introduced me to rhymes already and I had formed a love for rhythmic language, so I knew I was destined to thrive haha. My teacher added to my confidence. She affirmed and praised me a lot for my writings. I kept on writing mostly for myself in diary entries.
Around the age of 13 I kinda stopped writing. I’m not exactly sure why. Probably wasted my precious creative energy on puberty matters instead of writing haha.. I do know that I was getting into modeling around that time too..
I picked poetry back up around the age of 16. My life experiences basically forced me to find a safe space where I can freely express myself. Poetry became my home once again and I started to capture my feelings, thoughts, knowledge and wisdom in it.
At some point when I was 20 I realised that it would be a wasted gift if I didn’t share my words. So, I created an Instagram page to share my writings and decided to publish a poetry collection. And here we are, talking to SHEER.
Photography by Pascal Schmidt
Photography by Pascal Schmidt
SHEER: How would you say your cultural upbringing impacted your path to becoming a creative, if at all?
CH: Great question. Creativity is so very much inherent in African culture. From the music, the fashion, the faith, to the words of wisdom, I was born into the essence of creativity. However, that essence definitely has been greatly suppressed within many people of the culture such as my parents who migrated to Germany and had to assimilate.
I’d say on one hand with my cultural upbringing creativity doesn’t really come as a surprise. On the other hand my cultural upbringing projected a lot of fears and dangers connected to living in one’s authentic creativity due to their history. Hence it has helped and hindered me at times. But mostly made me into the creative that I am today.
SHEER: You're involved in multiple creative practices from poetry, singing, songwriting, and you're also a model. How do you balance expressing yourself in so many ways and what ties them all together for you creatively?
CH: That’s such a great question. This year I’ve been thinking more about balance, what it means and to what extent it is attainable. Imma need to come back to this question in a few years when I’ve fully mastered it haha.
For now I can say: The more you do, the harder balance becomes in terms of navigating all the spaces with equal care. So far for me it’s really been about learning how to create sustainable structures and apply discipline. But at the same time understanding that not everything needs to be done with the same energy in every season. Giving myself grace.
To me, expressing myself in various ways is something so natural. I don’t really think much about if or how it makes sense. I just act on what feels true to me. Poetry and songwriting are so closely linked to one another because they are essentially forms of writing. Both tell stories with words. Songwriters are oftentimes poets with a melodic sense. If you have a melodic sense, you can easily further grow in your musical abilities. Music is melodic storytelling.
Modeling may seem out of the box haha but movement, postures, facial expression, clothing etc. are really great ways of storytelling too. I’d say all of it is tied together by its nature which is art and its ability to tell a story.
“Creativity is so very much inherent in African culture. From the music, the fashion, the faith, to the words of wisdom, I was born into the essence of creativity. However, that essence definitely has been greatly suppressed within many people of the culture such as my parents who migrated to Germany and had to assimilate.”
Photography by Pascal Schmidt
SHEER: Tell us a little bit more about your poetry book "17." What was it like publishing your first collection of poems?
CH: This year I officially published my very first (as I call it freshman) book “17 - A Poetry Collection”!
“17” stands for the age 17 and is the product of my late teenage writings. It’s about the confused and uncertain space many teenagers and young adults find themselves in “stepping into adulthood, navigating through oneself and the outer world, trying to make sense of it all.” It’s a book filled with lessons, thoughts and stories in the form of micro-poems.
The process of self-publishing was everything from frustrating, exciting, to overwhelming. I grew, was humbled, and learned so much from that experience. I published the poetry collection for the little me who always loved poetry but never really fully believed it was something she could do to a greater extent. Hence, I’m overall so proud of myself for having made the jump. It’s a beautiful feeling having your writings out there. A little bit scary haha because some of the things written are not fictional and reveal parts of my younger self. But that’s why I made the book public in the first place: to connect with people on a more vulnerable level.
From the feedback and reviews I’ve received so far from readers, the honesty and rawness of the pieces make “17” relatable. I really can't wait to hear more of how people relate to it.
Photography by Pascal Schmidt
SHEER: You're also the co-founder of Sistatalk, a project uplifting the self-expression of Black women in Germany. How did this project come to be and what have you enjoyed most about building this community?
CH: My babyyy SistaTalk! SistaTalk was brought to life by three Black women and myself as a response to the lack of resources and spaces for Black women in Hamburg, Germany. With SistaTalk we wanted to create a safe space where Black women from all over the city could come together and talk about topics or do activities that mattered to us. Basically for us by us. “Community. Conversation. Support“ is the motto. I’m super happy to see that we have grown not only into a local community but a digital one.
What have I enjoyed most? Connecting with new Black girls in Hamburg, creating Black visibility, being responsible for and witnessing carefree Black girl joy, reviving ancestral community traditions, watching an idea expand, watching myself grow in my purpose with SistaTalk, reshaping the German society as one of the first organisations of that kind. I could go on..
There’s so much enriching and enjoyable about this project and community. Reasons that make the not always easy process worth it. I give thanks.
“It’s a beautiful feeling having your writings out there. A little bit scary haha because some of the things written are not fictional and reveal parts of my younger self. But that’s why I made the book public in the first place: to connect with people on a more vulnerable level.”
SHEER: What advice would you give creatives on how to trust their journeys?
CH: Hmm.. there’s so so much. But I’d say first, stay true to yourself. Trust yourself. Learn to trust that everything you are and you have is enough. When you believe in yourself, more than half of the battle is won already. Challenges, oppositions, bumps in the road are part of the journey. With trust and belief in yourself you’re more likely to see them as part of the process and not as the end and continue to keep moving.
Second, the journey is really what you make it. You’ll get out of it what you’ll bring to it. So if you water your garden consistently, you’ll eventually get to see the fruits. You won’t get around work.
Third, stay committed to elevation and learning. Last season's level of skill might not suffice for this season. You gotta be open and ready for the process of growth.
Fourth, if you keep at it, things will unfold in divine timing. Not necessarily when you want to (that may be the frustrating part) but when God approves it.
Lastly, take the leap. Really go for your purpose. Become the person you envision for yourself. Be your most authentic self. You can research for all the wisdom and knowledge but it will only truly resonate when you don’t just listen to it but start to live it.
SHEER: What do you hope resonates most with people when they interact with your work?
CH: I hope that when people interact with my work, regardless of the art form, that they can see themselves. All aspects, the desirable and rather undesirable parts. I want to be a mirror and a catalyst for change.
Should they look at my life or work, I hope they can see and feel the goodness of God. The love, light, truth.. I mean I’m truly just a vessel.
FOLLOW & SUPPORT CYNDI HOUNOUVI BELOW
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FOLLOW & SUPPORT CYNDI HOUNOUVI BELOW 〰️
Photography by Nabila Wirakusumah
I first stumbled across Nia Winslow’s work, totally by accident, and there was a piece titled “Secret Keeper” which I couldn’t believe was entirely paper because of the intricacies and detailing of the bobos and barrettes that took me back to my childhood. While digging deeper into her catalog I was shocked to realize her art is entirely collage and paper-based. The level of detail and intention behind her work is so incredibly impressive and even more so once I learned she was self-taught and only started making art in 2019!! Nia’s collages connect the Black and African diaspora by portraying our shared experiences from the seemingly mundane to the more poetic while simultaneously using unique strips of paper to also highlight we are not a monolith and to honor our diverse range of cultures.