Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Poet, M'bala - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WHEN SERVED right, poetry can be heady business, and on Saturday a six pack of poetry was dished out at the Sugar Daddies restaurant. The evening featured readings from all six poets in the Calabash Chapbook series, first reading and then signing their work.
The audience was light, but in many cases some heavy words were delivered and each poet brought a different style and flavour to the reading. With the rain, and general Jamaican lateness, the reading got off to a later start than scheduled as the audience slowly trickled in.
It began with music-flavoured poetry as M'bala, with various instruments in hand, took the microphone and called down 'Water Fi Di Fire Bun'a Dem'. The call for water was followed by its opposite in 'Fire'. M'bala took most of his poems from the pages of his chapbook Light in a Book of Stone.
Twice he stepped off the page of the chapbook, first to deliver End Sound and later for instrumental piece 'Bird, Bees, Beatle, Bat, Cricket'. "Is not really fi oonu people," he declared of the piece. "Yuh cyan listen if yuh want but is not fi oonu." For his final piece he returned to the page with 'Pbpp'.
STRONG WORDS
It was then time for Nikki Johnson to deliver heavy words whose poignancy allowed them to hang around long after they left her lips. She began with 'Iron Anniversary' an awesome piece. Johnson's stint was quite short and she read 'Believe Not', 'Breaking Camp', 'Oh Void', 'Weights and Measures' and 'Ocean Story'.
The third poetic shift came with Andrew Stone's readings from In Disguise. Whereas Johnson's work was flavoured by the personal, Stone's work reflected various facets of society. He began with 'The Revolutionary' which tackled those who wear revolution but neither live nor understand it. 'The Holy Man' followed and 'Reflections on An Apology' the first piece to tackle male/female relationships came shortly after. Stone also read 'Blue Morning', the haunting 'A Woman Walking Home From Work', 'In Papine Square', 'Enigma', and 'The Market Muse' before ending with 'Shining One'.
It was then time for Blakka Ellis to once again reveal the poet in him, showing that deeper shade of Blakka that comes through his poetry. Ellis was in large part reading from his collection Gateman a proceeding which seemed to have quite excited him. "Why do I write?" Ellis asked, "Because it's the best thing I can feel good about ... next to that other thing."
Despite his joy at reading from his collection, he began with 'History Anancy Story' which is a part of his poetic dramatic work 'Tick Tock'. The poem used childish doggerel to analyse history and how it creates the present while highlighting the role of the artist in transmitting and preserving culture. He would end his performance on the same note with 'Tick Tock' which turned its gaze to the emaciated humanity created by history and poverty. Between those two poems Ellis delivered 'Crossing', 'Post War', 'Definition', 'Come Eat', 'Adam and Juliet', and 'London 2002'.
The readings were rounded off by Saffron who read from her book Soft Flesh and the youngest poet in the group 'Ishion Hutchinson' reading from Bryan's Bay. Saffron's topics varied from bulimia to war to Marilyn Munroe. She read 'Self Prayer', 'Soft Flesh', 'War Dollars', 'Man Child' and 'Marilyn' among others.
Hutchinson delivered 'Home', 'Hanging by the Sun', 'For Hope, For Kingston', 'Sliced Mango' and ended with the title poem 'Bryan's Bay'.
