Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
( left )American poet Amiri Baraka takes control of the microphone during the 'Two The Hard Way' session of Calabash 2005, in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
( right )Linton Kwesi Johnson reads from his selected poems during the session 'Two The Hard Way' on Day one of Calabash 2005, in Treasure, Beach St. Elizabeth. - PHOTOS BY CLAUDINE HOUSEN
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE FIFTH Calabash International Literary Festival hit high gear on Friday night with Amiri Baraka and Linton Kwesi Johnson in 'Two The Hard Way'.
The enthusiastic applause from the substantial audience gathered under the tents beside Jake's in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, was an indication of high expectations. And the standing ovations each received after delivering their poetry confirmed satisfaction of those expectations.
The two were both topped off by hats and read relatively long pieces, but that was about where the similarities stopped. Baraka, who went first, was a sometimes music humming, head-bobbing, growling, almost panting, then suddenly calm figure, while Johnson kept to an easy pace and posture throughout, giving background information to the poems he read from the Penguin Collection Mi Revolushanary Fren.
"I bring you greetings from the Afro-American people in the U.S. and the progressive people in the U.S., since you do not hear much about them," Baraka began, to applause.
He started his deluge of images with #35 YMCA and started out with singing. The words came thick and fast as Baraka worked his way towards a description of 'an original western holocaust slavery'. Then his voice rose near the end as he said, "At the bottom of the Atlantic there is a railroad, built of human bones."
Nightmare Bushit World started with humming from Stevie Wonder and the thought that "There was once the belief that we were stronger than the devil."
EXTENSIVE EXPLORATION
Then there was extensive exploration of those who "Could sneak in as dressed up nothing King," and a mention of "Oh President, named after a reefer" and this "backward dog that thought he was god." The next piece, Jungle Jim Fails His Screen Test was a severe, repeated slashing of muscleman turned movie star turned politician turned Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Baraka ended with the poem for which it was advocated that he resign as New Jersey Poet Laureate. There was quiet as he started low with "somebody blew up America," then continued with:
All thinking people abhor terrorism/both domestic and international/but one should not be used to cover up another.
Then Baraka went into an extensive and exhaustive series of questions about 'Who?', like "Who lives on Wall Street, the first plantation", "Who stole Puerto Rico", "Who forced opium on the Chinese?" and "Who made Bush president?".
And he asked, "Who told 4,000 Israelis working at the Trade Centre to stay home that day?". "Who is the ruler of hell?" Baraka asked, before ending in a howling hoot like an owl in a frenzy over its missing young.
Johnson read from three decades of his verse in Mi Revolushanary Fren, saying that the first two poems represent my earliest attempts to find my voice as a poet by drawing on my Jamaican heritage. They were written in 1972 and were part of four pieces called Notes on Brixton. His pre-poem patter was in English, the poems in Jamaican language, and he started out with Yout Scene, then moved on to Five Nights of Bleedin.
"I know I could not come to Jamaica and do a poetry reading and not do this poem," Johnson said, the announcement of Sonny's Letter sparking applause.
He moved into the 80s with Reggae Fi Dadda, written in 1982 for his dead father, who stayed in Jamaica while he moved to England with his mother as a child, sending him home with 'galang go smile in de sun'.
The beautiful pair of the love poem Hurricane Blues and the sad Reggae Fi Bernard for his mysteriously killed (by a train in a subway station) nephew marked the '90s, before Johnson ended with Top Notch Poet.
The close of the event the host of 'Two The Hard Way', Kwame Dawes, called Baraka and Johnson back to the stage for a final appreciation, noting that the moment was 'big history'.
