Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Sonia Sanchez reads at the 2006 Calabash International Literary Festival in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, on Sunday, May 28. - PHOTO BY TANYA BATSON-SAVAGE
REBELS ARE often thought of as hardened revolutionaries, but on Sunday afternoon Sonia Sanchez pointed out that they, too, can be moved to tears while Martin Espada brought a mixture of revolution and laughter.
Sanchez and Espada were the two poets in the segment of the 2006 Calabash International Literary Festival, dubbed 'Soul Rebels', an apt title for poetry which combined 'soul' and revolution in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth.
Espada was the first of the two to take the stage. As he delivered his poems, his body jerked as though the words were attempting to rush up from his feet and explode from his mouth, jerking in tandem with the rhythm of his words. His jerks complement his rich, deep voice which often comes from its deepest levels to highlight phrases, providing an enigmatic and entertaining reading. He brought great energy to the morning that had begun on a subdued note.
He began with En la Calle San Sabastian, a piece which delved into the history, culture and music of Puerto Rico, before touching on Puerto Rico's colonised status with Coco Cola and Coco Frio. "One of the by-products of colonialism is a colonised mind," he said by way of introduction to the piece, going on to describe it as one of his "colonial imperialism on vacation poems".
TOUCH OF HUMOUR
Espada then broke the trend with a touch of humour with the piece My Cockroach Lover. He once again turned to seriousness with a poem that struck a particularly rich chord on Jamaican soil. With Companero Poet and the Surveillance of Sheep, he celebrated the work and life of Andrew Salkey as a friend, teacher and revolutionary.
He ended with two looks at the date September 11, the first from 1973 with the overthrow of the Allende government in Chile, and the second Alavanza in Praise of Local 100 for the service workers who lost their lives on September 11, 2001.
Sanchez began with a name chant which invoked the names of people dead and alive, ranging from TuPac to Pablo Neruda; Nkrumah to Oprah Winfrey; Chinua Achebe to KRS1 and Bob Marley to Edward Said.
Her poetry was polyphonic, combining scats, words and clicks, sometimes in a sonic boom of words. She delivered pieces for past students, Toni Morrison and her father and brother. She spoke of peace, abuse and attempted suicide.
Sanchez first approached tears when she delivered After the Spanish, a piece written for a student of hers who had married young and later attempted suicide. She was, however, able to hold the tears at bay. Later, when she spoke of her father, the tears refused to be stayed.
She blamed some of them on the sea, which was happily licking the shoreline just behind her, and the Middle Passage. "The sea brings such joy and at the same time such pain," she said, explaining it as a reaction to memories of the Middle Passage. The audience encouraged her to push on through.
"I hope I haven't gone far over my time," she said after a while. She had, but the audience seemed uninterested in such trivialities.
