wāni Le Frère's very first spoken word performance was at an open mic, where he read his diary aloud at a friend's suggestion and moved audience members to tears. He then proceeded to fall in love with the artform via Tupac Shakur, John Coltrane and Nina Simone. Ahead of the Sydney premiere of Tales of an Afronaut at Griffin Theatre's Batch Festival, the Naarm-based artist speaks to Darren and Rhyan about the self, family, masculinity and what Nas’ Illmatic means to him.