Author Archives: Oscar Bermeo

“Scatterlings and orphanages”

some new blogs i think y’all should be checkin’ out.

::nuyo nina is my home girl nina who can claim her place in acentos history by being the person who introdcued me to rich villar. if i say anything more, i may embarass her but keep an ear out for this poeta/abogada at an open mic near you

::mc siegel is not actually a ‘mic controller’ in the traditional sense but has made a solid impact on the 13 open mic the last few months. double love for makin’ the trip out to the blue ox. matt is always challenging himself and some of the talks i have had with him the last few weeks have made me laugh out loud and re-examine my politics.

:: galactus is not an actual acuaintance and, truth to tell, the blog has not been updated since his last visit to our sector of the milky way. still makes me laugh though.

:: the bambinos curse is why i have been one smilin’ bastard all day. lets face it– something supernatural had to have controlled grady little’s dome when he kept pedro martinez in for that long. just discovered this bad boy which is poised to get more interesting as the series continues. o.b.prognosticatin’… yanks in six.

“I hope you learn it note for note”

before acentos last night, i had my first creative writing class with

mind-builder’s positive youth troupe. it was more of a ‘let’s get to know each other session’ but it went well and i contributed some good ideas… so, we’re starting on the good foot.

unfortunately, the class went long and i had to call up fish to take over the hosting for me. i did luck out when i was able to acquire a car ride down to the blue ox and only missed a bit of the open mic. fish was in full host mode and handling things lovely which let me hide out in the back and make small talk with matt siegel, guy, ed garcia, and juan diaz.

ray asked if i would do “mercy…” with the music

o: ‘yell, ray i am really tryin’ to shy away from the piece and…’

r: “for my mom”

o: ‘ok’

the open mic got all synonymUS with ray lending musical support to holmes mchenry, rich, raul maldonado, and (in her final new yoek appearance till she gets back from the left coast) marty mcconnell. the open is also (emeril voice- on) bringing it up a notch (emeril voice- off) with jessica torres letting her voice bring out the contours of her written images and juan diaz making me feel like all this work is gonnz produce real special voices.

if i was still the same mofo i was a few months back, i would have been all over fish as to who is next on the mic and how the close is going to go… but i was so happy with the night i was ready to let it all happen as organically as possible. so when ray gets ready to feature i’m thinkin’ “if i hadnt shown up late i would be giving ray the best intro fuckin possible.” and thats when fish announces “i’m goona bring somebody up that can do this intro justice… oscar…” serendipity is a beautiful thing.

part of my intro had me bringing up the fact that ray is THE seminal Acentos feature…

-latino

-bronx born & bred

-excellent writer

-fantastic performer

-cutting edge in his work

-herald of a new movement

… so why hasnt he featured before? cuz it was TOO perfect to the point of cliche.

quote eric guerrieri– “what’s poetry without a few cliches?”

well said, eric. ray kicked it something fierce with the mutli-talented diva, abena koomson, bringin’ the trombone and vocals. all you got to know about ray is that he started off his set with a sonnet. say word!

add a dash of musical collabs, and a group piece and here is the recipe for an amazing Acentos feature and what will sure to be an incredible evening come the 25th at lehamn college with the Word! festival.

the waters are still smooth with the wind still firm at our backs…

‘Y sigo mi vida con risas y penas”

the smoking lovely tour officially kicked off at 13 with a jammed packed crowd. recipe for an amazing evecing– combine free admission, free snacks, all star “closed” mic, and perdomo reading. for a second, you might have thought it was a lost episode of acentos with rich, flaco, anthony morales, jayme, & john rodriguez reading and willie featuring but not really… what i am tryin’ to say is that whenever there is a louderJAM it gets kinda mixed together with what synonymUS was… not with this show. acentos has its own personality and just having a bunch of latinos onstage at 13 doesnt turn it into an evening at the blue ox. just sayin’.

even better was the late night dance jam that followed which had me trippin’ down memory road to the good ol’ days (how lonmg have i been around this scene again?) of celebrating spoken word with some good foot stompin’.

“Over foreign seas an’ breaking skies”

got out work on time friday, made all the right MTA choices, and got to cornelia street in time to catch martín espada feature. great reader which is never a guarantee for a quote-page-unquote poet. afterwards, i picked up *way* too many of his books which i made sure were all autographed.

espada seemed to have no recollection of seeing me at the neruda reading and had *no* memory of the acentos poetry series.

i wasn’t expecting him to drop his jaw and yell, “oscar, compai!” i am just getting a lil too used to this local notoriety in the corner of the nyc poetry fish bowl and espada was a good dose of strong medicine. running a series out of the bronx is nothing that hasn’t been done before. being part of the louderARTS project is only important to people that *know* what the louderARTS project is. i don’t even mention the term “slammaster” anymore and can barely say it with a straight face. there are only a few ways to catch a poets attention and ididn’tt get to cornelia in time to even get one of those opportunities; ‘the contributions to the scene’ way is out; leaving published work as the only way to go, for now. don’t get it twisted, my world isn’t changed but i think i have some newer, higher goals in this game.

the ego was back on the mend at bluestockings, the cabana cabal did great and even added an unofficial pinch hitter when juan diaz (also listening to martín at cornelia) told me that cornelia wasn’t exactly feelin’ him. figured he needed a crowd that was more receptive to a young hermano‘s words and let him have some spotlight during my slot. oh, back to the ego, mahina movement’s gabby gave me the best intro i’ve *ever* gotten (gemini, in da house!). the whole vibe at herencia latina was on point.

between this and the wbai gig, i am seeing a few new heads at acentos

wasn’t able to make manny xavier’s feature at the nuyo or keith roach’s book release but thats how it goes.