Above: Simone Bryan shines on-stage at 'Poets Rush The Mic' poetry competition, put on by Root Cause. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer ON TUESDAY night, Simone Bryan walked home in possession of $50,000 after winning the grand finals of the first 'Poets Rush The Mic' poetry competition, put on by Root Cause. The competition took place at the Weekendz Bar and Bistro, Constant Spring Road, over 10 weeks.
What was clear about the night was that all kinds of poets had made it through to the finals. Their topics, styles and ages all differed. Bryan earned her prize with the poem interestingly titled No Poem or Love Song. She had earned her place with the poem Tribute To The Wounded which had since been spun on several nights by Mutaburuka on 'The Cutting Edge'. During her enigmatic delivery of No Poem or Love Song the venue went almost eerily quiet, with the talking only starting up once more half-way through the piece.
Sabriya, who had been one of the crowd favourites for the night with her hard-hitting poem Mr. Religious, went home with the second place prize of $10,000.
For third place there was a three-way tie, which meant that the three poets had to split the $5000 prize. The three-way tie went to Andrew Miller, Caroline Stevenson and Orville Hall.
METAPHORIC BEAUTY
Andrew Miller, who came to the stage towards the middle of the proceedings, unleashed the metaphoric beauty In Dream Country. Unfortunately, his delivery of this masterpiece was not quite up to scratch. Hall, who is less familiar to the poetry scene, gave a very dramatic and well-timed delivery about the debacle on 'Dancehall Night' at Sumfest 2001. In this piece he impressively used the words and antics of the island's top deejays to criticise their behaviour on the night in question. Stephenson's poem was an untitled piece which was quite impressive at points but was sometimes hard to follow through its many convolutions.
Tuesday night's finals featured 11 poets, along with guest performances. The venue was filled with patrons from early in the evening as many came to see if their favourite poet would win and some came simply to listen to some very good poetry. The night did not disappoint.
Ten of the finalists had each won preliminary competitions over the first nine weeks, earning $5000 for each win. In week five, Simone Bryan and Kingston College student Christopher Gordon tied for the first place and so both proceeded to the finals. The final week of competition also saw two poets going through to the finals. The night's winner was Glen Laughton. However, it was decided to grant the runner-up, Miguel 'Steppa' Williams, the chance to make to go through to the grand finals, though without prize money.
The other poets who had made it through to the night were Ricardo Barrett, Neto Meeks and 14-year-old Garfield Thompson, also of Kingston College.
GUEST POETS
Despite the good show of the competitors, it was the performances of the guest poets which took the show to another level. One of these, the performance of Stacey Ann Chin, was filled with controversy. Chin's performance became something of a battle of wills between herself and some members of the audience, who did not want to hear from a homosexual.
The performance of Roger Bonair-Agard, however, brought nothing but pleasure. The Trinidadian poet, now living in Brooklyn, wowed the audience with his lyrical dexterity. He performed How The Ghetto Loves Us Back, Weusi Alphabeti, Melba's Thing, What Teachers Are, Love In A Time of Revolution is Hard Work (Poetz), and Song for Trent Lott.
The night also featured performances by DYCR and Lymie.
