Freelance Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
TUESDAY NIGHT'S meeting of the Poetry Society of Jamaica was as much a discussion of what exactly dub poetry is as a reading and critique of poetry.
It was a smaller and more compact meeting than usual, as rain prevented the use of the regular spot, the round of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts on Arthur Wint Drive, St. Andrew. A classroom inside the Drama School proved quite adequate and perhaps even more fitting for the nature of the meeting.
With the International Dub Poetry Festival slated for Jamaica in 2006, after being revived in Canada in 2004 and slated again for that country in 2005, Society president Tommy Ricketts emphasised that a 'wicked army' of poets was needed for the festival.
"Every now and then I have said what happened to the new batch of dub poets. Some people don't even want to be called dub poets. When we went to Canada (for the 2004 staging of the Festival) a some professor a write dub," Ricketts said.
As rhythm was being discussed, one person pointed out that sometimes when he writes he is not thinking about performing and when he returns to the poem in two or three days there is no rhythm in it.
When Ricketts asserted that the last - and first - set of great voices were Oku Onura, Mutabaruka and Jean Breeze, regular attendee and poet Jaga pointed out that there are good dub poets but sometimes they go to places where they are overlooked. To that poet Cherry Natural said the Poetry Society does not promote dub poets - a task that Ricketts said is not within the mission of the organisation.
MARKET FOR DUB
When asked if there was a market for dub poetry, Cherry Natural, who will launch her book 'Earth Woman' next month, said that inside Jamaica it was limited, but outside the country there was a market.
There were suggestions that persons such as retired university professors Mervyn Morris and Edward Baugh should be asked to help pin down the elusive definition and Ricketts emphasised again that in 2006 "we want an army, but not just some man whe look like dem a struggle at the craft. We want some master".
With the thorny argument postponed, if not settled, it was time for poetry. A slew of previously heard and brand new voices contributed their verse to the evening, to feedback from the listeners in the customary 'grill' segment. Jaga started the ball rolling with "it was made in stone/it can be broken/iron is much stronger/steel won't last forever". "Me no know whe oonu a sey bout dub poetry, but that is my rebellious poem. Change is possible," Jaga said.
Okino read of Conflict and a woman who was about to leave without reading her poem was collared on her way out. She stopped to speak of "a river that flows in one direction/southward". A touching poem of "children dodging AIDS/yet dying for a lack of love" followed, with regular attendee Barry saying he was giving a taste of what dub is. He did a rhythmic rendition of "so-so Harry was flat foot brother/never used to worry bout tings like making a dollar". "That's what it (dub) sounds like," Barry said, going on to do one of his 'university poems'.
When asked if he was a dub poet Sage said he was not sure, but it has to be sold as dub because that is how it already has been set. "I am going to put down my cross and plant it/make it grow a little nature," Sage said, advising that he would be "watching knots grow wisdom".
Andrew Miller read the outstanding Speaking In Tongues, which started out "all my poems begin in 1987". That genesis proved to be a Pentecostal meeting, where sounds were words were sounds. "What word is it itself/they are all invented," Miller said, concluding "each poem waits for its day of Pentecost".
FRESH VOICES
Barry returned to read a poem to a blonde-haired woman and an invitation for fresh voices was answered by a man who spoke extensively of 'natural' before chuckling and saying 'forget it', The Real Me and Roots, the latter a poem of celebration for independence, coming from a young woman.
Tioma's Genesis ("now swallow me whole, my ocean/I am healed" was, as she said, not dub, but was appreciated.
The discussion of what is dub poetry continued to intersperse the readings, Barry proposing that "one of the reasons there is this split in Festival is dub poetry. Dub poetry has this strong dramatised thing, this strong expression element. However, later a young man from Campion pointed out that "poetry is in words, not in performance. I do not believe poetry rests in how you read it". And the phrase of the night, for when people try too hard with poetry, came from the Campion duo as well. "Pretty garbage," he said.
Abebe ended the night's readings on a wonderful note, opening "me knock pon door an me no get no answa-. Whe did welcome mat me a stan' up pan fa". "No matter how yu grip mighty/the vanity always fade away," Abebe continued, ending "even fas' cyar mus' stop eventually - I will put my money where my mind is" to enthusiastic applause.
And, as Ricketts had pointed out earlier, "we have the opportunity to redefine dub poetry, just by being here".
FILE
Mutabaruka performing one of his 'dub' pieces.
