Back when Saul Williams was a student at Morehouse College, he envisioned being the next Denzel Washington.
Instead, the acclaimed indie film actor, noted poet, musician and performance artist discovered that being the next Saul Williams was much more interesting.
Williams, who came up through the poetry slam movement of the 1990s, first gained international acclaim with his portrayal of an incarcerated young man who finds freedom and purpose through poetry in the movie “Slam.” The film won top honors at the Sundance Film Festival and Cannes in 1998.
Bred on old-school rap, Shakespeare and folk songs, Williams — who turns 40 on Leap Day — went on to work in film and television, including a recurring role on the show “Girlfriends.”
His fusion of spoken word, hip-hop and hard-edged punk music caught the attention of Trent Reznor, who brought Williams on as the opening act for the 2005 Nine Inch Nails tour.
His new movie, “Aujourd’hui” (French for “today”), was featured at the Berlin Film Festival this month.
On Saturday, Williams will perform songs from his latest CD, “Volcanic Sunlight,” at the Masquerade. Here, the Newburgh, N.Y., native talks about his path to creating a career like no other.
Q: You just finished speaking at your old high school earlier today. What did you tell the students?
A: Newburgh still has the highest murder rate [per capita] and highest drug trafficking rate in New York state, more than New York City. So it has always been the most intense place ever, which is why growing up I was so eager to escape.
What I saw today were students with artistic dreams, with dreams of getting out of there, and I was trying to point out that it doesn’t necessarily take finances, but it does take courage and a bit of willpower and focus. And I told them about the naysayers, because when I majored in philosophy and drama at Morehouse, I can’t tell you how many times people asked me, “What are you going to do with that?”
It’s so important to silence those voices, even if they come from home. Like my father, who said, “I’ll support you as an actor if you get a law degree.” When I was in college, I was thinking I would go to law school to have something to fall back on. Then I realized that I shouldn’t be putting my energy toward something to fall back on, because that was like I was anticipating falling back. I considered that bad advice, but some bad advice can come out of love.
Q: Your father was a minister, and both your parents were involved in the civil rights movement. How did that influence you?
A: It made me realize that with every opportunity there was a great deal of potential to relay ideas and messages. And I grew up with artists with a political vibe. Odetta would visit our church a lot. Pete Seeger was a member of my father’s church, so I’d have this old man come to my dad’s church singing, ‘If I Had a Hammer,” and I’d be like, “What is this? Why is he singing the songs we sing in school?” Not realizing that he wrote them.
So there’s no way I can look at an opportunity to record an album or make a movie without seeing it as an opportunity to relay a message. But ... you don’t want it to become preachy.
Q: It’s hard enough for a performer to get steady work, so given that position, how do you find work that meets that standard?
A: After “Slam,” as an out-of-work actor, I recorded and published. There were the typical things where you’re asked to be the funny black guy next to the handsome white guy. But recording and publishing ended up being more interesting to me. ... I went through stages as a kid when I just wanted to be famous, but when I was 12, begging my parents to take me to an audition for “The Cosby Show,” they said, “There’s no need for you to get into that world yet, but we’ll pay for acting classes.” And I went to acting classes, and that shifted me from wanting to be famous to wanting to be good.
Q: You’re known for spoken word, but you’ve never recorded a spoken-word CD. What inspired this latest one?
A: My relationship to poetry came from my relationship to music. And what a lot of people don’t realize is that I make the music for my albums. So ... a lot of the experimentation that I’m doing is not so much based on language, it’s based on sound. “Volcanic Sunlight” is the first album that I wanted to make that did not come from anger. I wanted to find a way to maintain the edge and the urgency in my music without having to come from anger. My friends have never thought of me as some angry political poet. So I just wanted to make an album that reflected fully who I am.
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Concert preview
Saul Williams
9 p.m. Saturday. $15. The Masquerade, 695 North Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-577-8178, www.masqueradeatlanta.com
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