LAST TUESDAY night at Weekenz Bar and Bistro, Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, saw a mix of poetry, prose and fashion.
It was a small audience that gathered for the regular Tuesday night event to be entertained in turn by Mutabaruka's musical selections and the artistes who took command of the microphone intermittently.
With his hand-printed fabrics, Stone Man brought a combination of fashion and philosophy. "It's all about realisation of civilisation," Stone Man said to explain what his brightly coloured works were depicting. "I would like all of us to respect the womb before we move on to the woman," he continued.
THE 'ABUSEMENT' OF WOMEN
Stone Man explained that he was sharing his realisations of the 'ethics of the womb' to promote an end to the 'abusement' of women.
"I am a chosen one who come about through reincarnation," he said, before going on to explain that he is a real 'don', not one who promoted violence,
As a part of his presentation, and in keeping with his philosophies, Stone Man presented a blouse and sarong to a woman identified as Kadia, whom he explained had inspired them.
THE QUEEN HITS OUT
Shortly after Stone Man left the stage, Queen, an African-American poet, was brought to the stage. The blazing bonfire was no contest for the heat of her condemnation for the world she saw around her. She stated that she was promoting 'laws of the universe, principles of blackness'.
Through her poetry and her words, Queen declared that Black people were going against the natural order in both what they ate and did, which she equalled to excrement.
"Stop eating all the do-do," she said in reference to the use of dairy products, salt, pepper and onions. Queen also found the use of make-up and oral sex to be against the principles of 'Blackness'. "When are we going to be truly our African selves?" she lamented.
In keeping with her performance, at the end of her presentation, Mutabaruka struck up India Arie's Video in which Arie refers to herself as a queen and denounces the need for what Queen had styled as 'fake-up' and 'make-up'.
When the new day started making its approach Andrew Miller was invited to the stage. He began his performance by reading Kamau Brathwaite's Stone.
When the stone fall that morning out of that johncrow sky
I couldn't cry out because my mouth was full of beast and plunder
As if I was gnashing bad words among tombstones read Miller. 'Stone' laments the death by stoning of dub poet Mikey Smith, who was killed on Stony Hill in 1983.
After delivering the poignant piece, Miller went on to his own work. He started with For the Bus Driver Accused of Not Wearing His Uniform. He noted that the poem referred to a man who had appeared in court to answer to the charge of not wearing his uniform and pled guilty to half the offence.
It seemed to be a night of true stories for Miller, because from there he moved to An Apology To The Trinidadian Woman Who Exclaimed Then You Does Do It In the Light.
After reading a piece of the short story Read Out Sunday, Miller ended his performance with a poem of goodbye, noting that he would be leaving the island later in the year.
