THOUGH THE customary bonfire was missing, the poetry and music often blazed at Weekenz Bar and Bistro on Constant Spring Road on Tuesday night. Most of the younger poets dilly-dallied between sex and revolution.
The poets were backed by a group of musicians who often used well known rhythms to put music behind the music, matching the cadence and feel of the poetry. Though only a band for the night, the group played well together. It featuring Wayne MacGreggor on guitar, M'bala and Calvin Mitchell on percussions, Mario Lawrence on drums and Jason Worton on bass.
Raymond Mair, author of the collection These Days I Celebrate and one of the poets, mixed it up a little more. He began with a poem looking at Haiti in its 200 year and lamented the state of the nation. "Haiti I want to sing of you," the poem began. Rather than a song of joy, it was one which lamented the "bald hills" and questioned whether hope was dead.
Mair tended to prelude each piece with an explanation of what or who inspired it. As such before reading the poem 'Jerome', a poem which
lamented the loss of a "true blue friend" whose "laughter echoed like drums," Mair explained that it was written for a friend who had died mysteriously.
Likewise, when reading one of his oldest poems, 'The Jazz Singer', Mair explained that the poem was written while he was listening to a "beautiful" though "mournful" jazz singer. The poem 'Solare' was also inspired by a performance. The poem, Mair explained, was written in the dark while he was watching a performance by the National Dance Theatre Company.
While 'Solare' had toyed with sexual innuendo, the sexual content of the night's poetry was about to get more intense with the poets who followed.
Dianne Fontaine delivered a set featuring sex, love and revolution. She began with a piece declaring the need for true romance. "I want to be romanced!" she declared a line that would echo throughout the poem. The poem went on to declare the nature of this romance, and while it first began with cliched, romanticized ideas, it then moved through to frustrations with misrepresentations of the romantic. "I'm sick of people too eager to say I love you, without first understanding the sanctity of love," the poet declare.
POWER TRIPS AND POLITRICKS
The poem went over very well with the audience, one woman yelling "Yes, mi fren! You deh pon street again!" at the end of the piece. From there Fontaine launched into a look at what she described as "power trips and politricks" as opposed to real revolution. Criticizing the "Big Brother" role of the United States and the impotence of the United Nations she asked the question "So who is really rallying for revolution anyway?"
Though another of her poems would return to a more militant stance, Fontaine ended her performance with a poem which oozed desperate, unsure, and possibly unrequited love, as the lover sits at home wallowing in wine and loneliness.
The night also featured a reading from Samuel Gordon, who also mixed romance, sex and revolution. On one piece, Gordon asked McGreggor to give him an original composition, as the poem he was about to read was about "a woman". However, even after Gordon had finished, MacGreggor was clearly in his element and so refused to end until the song had come to its natural conclusion.
M'bala also delivered some of his poetry. He performed 'Wud Boom' a piece which played with the idea of throwing words and words being dangerous things. M'bala ended his poetry set with 'Jazzing in the War Zone'.
Other poets for the night included Dwayne Morgan, Connie Bell (who also hosts the event) and Kerry Jo.
