By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
A-DZIKO SIMBA was a winner twice over at Redbones the Blues Café on Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, on Tuesday night, taking the two main prizes at the cafés 4th Annual Writer's Awards (Poetry).
With originality counting for 45 per cent, content for 30 and performance constituting 25 per cent of the marks from judges Yvonne Brewster, Gina-Rey Forrest and Trevor Rhone, Simba topped a field of seven poets, winning both 'Redbones Poet of the Year' and 'Poem of the Year'.
Chandis, the Poetic Princess of the Pum Pum Posse, was second and the poetry quartet Nomaddz third. The other poets who performed at Redbones on Tuesday night were Glenford 'el Angel Pluma' Laughton, Princess Love, Christine Neil-Wright and Novlette Surjue, all poets doing three poems each.
MAN OF MANY INSTRUMENTS
Ad-Ziko Simba, accompanied by the man of many instruments, M'Bala, opened her trio of poems with At Least, a cascading tumult of a writer's search for the correct order of firing synapses to get to that place 'where coagulated blood rushes out/like words/small words'.
Her second poem, Lamentations was 'dedicated to that certain part of the media that is really unhealthy and brings unhealthy images into our homes'. M'Bala played a deep flute as Simba delved into the lens of the newsmen on gory scenes, observing that 'no private eye escapes the TV/we see everything/exposed/laid out bare'.
It was her third poem, the title track from her recently-released debut album, Crazi Ladi Dayz, that won her the 'Poem of the Year' and the accompanying cash award, matching the award for being 'Poet of the Year'.
Simba performed with restrained intensity in her arm movements and superb voice control, becoming a thumb-sucking child and a frantic, head-clutching, screaming woman at will in Crazi Ladi Dayz.
It was an ability to illustrate the poem, yet not overpower the words, Yvonne Brewster commented on in the judge's remarks, where they gave brief assessments of the top three, Trevor Rhone agreeing with her that Simba would make a good actress. Brewster said that Simba brought out the 'internal emotion of the poem'.
Brewster pointed out the specific nature of poetry, saying "you can't write little playlets and think they are poetry."
HEALTHY DOSE OF DRAMA
It was a comment that was
relevant on a night when there was a healthy dose of the dramatic from Princess Love, who utilised props such as road signs and representations of children's bodies in Tribute To The Children, a plea for drivers to watch out for children on the road, complete with screeching tyres and siren sound effects. Princess Love, the only poet of the night to use recorded rhythms, used the full breadth of the stage as she danced to Beautiful Jamaica. Christine Neil-Wright also employed the dramatic heavily, in voice more than body, in doing Shadows on The Wall.
Chandis, the only person in the top three who did not use musical accompaniment, was complimented on her second poem, Pum Pum Speak, which referred to 'dark-coloured coils of allegory'. There was strong applause for the poem, which asserted 'my bush is divine'. "If you write one good poem in your life it is an achievement. Poems are not easy to write," Brewster said.
Chandis won lunch for two at Redbones.
She complimented the Nomaddz on handling the technical difficulties at the start of their presentation well, especially as they were first on stage for the night. Their presentation of Walk Away and Silent Tears, complete with guitar, choral speaking, singing and a brief bird sound, earned them a bottle of wine.
Laughton went from race with Blacksploitation to his sensuous side by inviting someone who was just quitting smoking to let him "be your next craving", ending with insight into is insecurities and ego with The King.
And Novlette Surjue was the last of the nominees, selected from Redbones' 2004 stagings of its monthly 'Evening of Contemporary Literature', to present a trio of poems on Tuesday night. Silence, a slew of stanzas from a trip to Paris and Shy, about an experience with a man that started from a glance ('and somehow we knew/our hearts had been interrupted') ended the presentations for the judges.
After the announcement of prizes, however, A-dZiko Simba and M'Bala returned to deliver more poetry and music at Redbones the Blues Café on Tuesday night.
