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Your Six O’clock Report

I have to set some more time to just write poetry. “Ultimo Canto” is the last thing I’ve really written and I am not too happy. My other two poems need a ton more work and I’m questioning what they are really saying. There is this other lil ditty in the back of my head but it needs some more coaxing to come out.

“Latino Deli” was off the hook and a good complex read. On my female poets kick– Lucille Clifton is next after I finish Adrian Castro’s book.

The last Rikers class was sooo good. The fellas broke down this poem like a champ and they all had opinions and ideas about the authors intent. When we started with the poem they were all “I don’t get it” and that turned into “Nah! That’s not what he’s saying at all!” Especially good considering I had them reading a poem by Artress Bethany White written in the perspective of a defrocked reverend. Fish read one of the guy’s poem on the mic last Monday at 13 and it was da bomb.

Speaking of 13, Tony Brown was an excellent feature and a great audience member. He was listening like mad all up in the front row. His post-set interview was tight and informative as well. The Shappy vs Guy match up was all that and a bag of Doritos. Guy would’ve SO won if he had done what I told him to do… bring your kids with you on stage for the anything goes round. He didn’t listen to me and lost to Shap who brought his kids (Saylor/Mali) and won.

I just booked Acentos through till August with some damn good poetic talent and haven’t used the louderARTISTS since Sabrina’s feature and that is good news. Good to know that I still have Ray, Lynne, Rog and Marty in case things get tight booking wise but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen any time soon as I have a some good future plans that don’t involve them in the booking.

Def Poetry on Broadway is gone and know I feel bad that I just didn’t universally send everyone over to see it. My initial thing was “you could spend $65 to see what we do for $5” which isn’t false but the showcase they put together was tight. Mayda and Lemon were simply bananas up there. Stacyanne is one of the best features I ever saw at 13 and her DPB performance was just as hot. Beau is Beau. Steve Colman played up the lone white guy thing a bit too much but his duet with Poetri was just plain fun. Speaking of I thought Poetri was damn entertaining although I don’t really call what he does poetry. Ditto Georgia Me. Black Ice was way too preachy for me. Suheir was wonderful and her words amazing but I wish she had exploded a bit more on stage. DJ Tendaji was trying way too hard to hype a crowd with music when the focus should have stayed on the words. I’m still waiting to see what will be the counter programming for Def Poetry. If it will stay in the same footsteps or go into an entirely different direction.

Matrix:Reloaded is still on my mind and I am surprised at how so many people don’t like it. Some reviewers are going into full hate mode but I got my $9 of entertainment and a primer on some new philosophy. My friend Diane suggests checking out Foucault.

The Hulk is next on the movie hit list and it should be interesting to see how they take on big green. Peter David completely reinvented Bruce Banner in the late 90s when he changed the Hulk from a separate creature to a trapped part of Banner’s psyche. Seeing his father murder his mother as a child left a young Banner afraid of ever even admitting that he had any anger or passion for that matter. Thus, he becomes this uber geek that only cares about science in that it is cold and rational. Tapping into Greek tragedy, David figured that the more you run from your destiny the quicker and more powerfully you hit it and when Banner’s studies lead him to become the military’s most prominent nuclear physicist; he unleashes his repressed side which hates Banner for keeping it under wraps and thus has the maturity of a nine year old. Only through therapy(!) does Banner acknowledge his childhood trauma and integrates all three sides of himself—Banner, the Grey Hulk (his emotional side) and the Green Hulk (his anger) into one being which, of course, likes being 7 feet and 400 pounds of gamma brawn.

The Yanks are still on a roll. The Nets are rocking but will never win shit because at their core: they are still a bunch of Jersey losers. Thank God the Lakers are out and I am so pulling for Dallas! Don’t care about hockey if I don’t see it live.

Weather in NYC still sucks and I hope you remember that everytime you use hair spray.

And that’s all the news that’s fit to blog…

The Wrap Up

Semis and Finals are over and it’s a good time to look back over my performance this past season. “Mercy on the Battlefield” came into its own this year and I was able to ride its success into almost automatic entry into 13’s second round of Slam. Oddly, “MotB” never had great success at the Nuyorican and I can’t explain why. My second rounds at 13 saw me bounce back and forth between a pseudo-political/rant to a new poem to a bilingual love call and all had almost no success. “Ceviche” turned out to be the magic bullet and a non-sappy love poem was a welcome change from some of the angst on the Slam stage. Switching up the order proved to be the winning formula and my ticket to Semis. Reaching the third round only once leaves me with little to reflect on.

Semis saw me try to recapture the magic and use “Mercy…” to ry to find favor in the judges eyes and ride the wave into Finals. A shallow battle plan that ultimately revealed my lack of work and left me on the black&blue side of a poetic beatdown.

Final analysis: I wasn’t ready to Slam this year. Three poems does not a Slam champ make as I had deluded myself into thinking. I needed to work harder at writing and then performing. Will I Slam next year? If I can get more poems under my belt. Yeah. If I spend all this time in the administrative side of poetry and don’t give myself time to write, rehearse, perform, edit, rinse, lather, repeat then I can forget it. Next year someone else who has that time will come along and kick ass. I would love to be that person but what good will it do for me to keep using “MotB” all the time. It’s a great poem and I have a blast performing it but I don’t ever want to get sick of doing it and besides, poetry is all about love and falling in love with one poem limits your ability to fall in love with other poems. “Ultimo Canto” came at me like gangbusters and while I wish it had that feel good taste of “MotB” it is still a good poem and one of the most honest things I have ever written.

The biggest thing I have walked away with from Semis is the fact that Slam is not for everyone and that you need a great thick skin to compete. I have it but not everyone does. Those who don’t could find themselves frozen out of the Slam and that would be a shame. I will be much more careful about recommending Slam to people and make sure they have the thick skin and good poems necessary to do well in Slam. I don’t want to be the one responsible for a potentially fine writer finding themselves stuck in self-doubt because of my advice.

Practice What You Preach

One of the things I’ve been trying to improve on is my on-page performance which quite frankly, sucks. Memorized work goes along more smoothly for me but that is because I’ve studied the hell out of the poem and know all the nooks and crannies of the piece. Originally, I was under the impression that whoever reads from the top of their head was some kind of poetry god that could do all kinds of amazing things. I have three poems totally memorized and can fake enough of ‘Leticia’ to get by and they all make for real good performances but after seeing so many people rock the mic with paper in hand I realized that I have to step up that part of my poetic repertoire.

Seeing Jeff McDaniel was what really won me over to the page side of the debate and I try to picture him when I practice my page work. The workshops I have been attending and facilitating have also helped me get the best out of my voice when the paper is there. The rough part is trying not to take too many pause when the line breaks and imagining the author’s intent and then mimicking that with your tempo and tone. It should be pretty easy when you are doing your own work but there are a couple of stumbling blocks. (New poets, take notes) Always read with clearly legible work. If it’s printed, make sure you use a large type (for me 14 point works well) Write it in a book or tape the page inside a book. (The weight of the book will keep your hand from shaking.) Highlight or underline major points in the poem. Hold the book or page in front of the mic so that you are reading at the crowd instead of directing your voice to the page.

I’ve tried all these tips and still haven’t been able to translate that into my performance… until yesterday at the Asian American Writers Workshop. I go to support Jayme, who is reading on the Open Mic, and when I get there two of the organizers recognize me from 13 and ask if I’ll read. No problem. Then they ask if I mind going first. No problem. The host is almost saying my name in the intro when he remembers that the house rules are that if you’re not Asian you have to read an Asian poem first. Marc (one of the organizers) and I are frantically looking for a book and come up with one that is all Jesus poems. Why, in a workshop that is chockfull of books, we can only find THIS one is beyond me but that’s the situation. Now we have to find a suitable poem and I know enough to find one that is about a minute long (epics don’t work because the crowd gets bored and the reader gets bored/haiku and five line poems make it seem like you don’t care) I find the right length poem and hit the mic.

Reading that sucker like a pro. Clear diction and good flow. “Dear Anne…” it starts and I am doing great until I get to the part where the author compares his fascination with Jesus and his homoerotic fantasies. I just keep plowing through and finish the poem as if my life counted on it. Finish up and then hit the crowd with the “Ceviche” poem. Performed it well and got a good off stage reaction but little response from the crowd while actually doing it.

Afterwards some people ask Jayme if I was gay or not as their gay-dar said that I was straight but my passoinate reading of the homoerotic Jesus poem (Yes, the poem said the word ‘homoerotic’) left them confused.

Careful what you wish for…

The Friday Five

1. What drinking water do you prefer — tap, bottle, purifier, etc.?

tap… ima new york kid. hot summer days meant drinking it straight from the hydrant!

2. What are your favorite flavor of chips?

recently had some crab flavored ones from utz that shot straight up to #1 on my list but i cant seem to find them so i’ll say bar-b-q

3. Of all the things you can cook, what dish do you like the most?

penne with chicken in a tomato basil sauce with a ceasar salad and garlic bread

4. How do you have your eggs?

over easy preferably with some candain bacon

5. Who was the last person who cooked you a meal? How did it turn out?

my family for my sister-in-laws birthday… off the hook!

The Red Pill Please

caught the matrix reloaded at a 10pm showing at the whiteston last night. if you are from the bronx, you knw thw whitestone to be THE most ghetto multiplex in the bX and if you are not– know you now.

the movie was off the meat rack and the review is pretty simple– if you liked the first one, you’ll love the second one (mimicing my x2 review)

the universe that the wachowski brother’s is amazing and the mythos that they are adding to americana can not be easily dismissed and may well be the fairy tales of future generations. i have a ton of questions and opinions when it comes to this movie and would love to see it again to catch the nuances.

my one beef with the whole experience is that there was this group of kids that insisted on talking throughout the whole movie and during one of the climatic fight sequences i had a grown woman behind me yelling ‘ooohh’ at every punch and kick. for real, every fuckin punch and kick. i always believe this to be the same people that are amazed at salt. by the end of the scene i turned around and said ‘this is where you yell oohhh’ and also had some comments for the teenagers that were blabbing.

i just wished people would watch the movie instead of saying ‘did you see that!’ every other second

*minor spoiler* at the end of the credits is a trailer for ‘matrix:revolutions’ only stick around if you are a big fan because it aint all that