By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
TUESDAY NIGHT'S poetry session at Weekenz Bistro & Bar, Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, evolved a step further in its latest staging.
Instead of the regular guest poets, it was a straight open-mike set-up. Persons who wished to read their work were allowed to do so. In addition, there was no cover charge.
Host Connie Bell told The Gleaner that the open mike will be held every other Tuesday, alternating with the regular format of guest poets, mixed with singers and other performers, for which there will be a cover charge. She said that the open mike will be an audition of sorts for poets, with those who show promise moving on to the guest poet night.
ENTHUSIASM
The open mike participants turned out early, and when The Gleaner arrived five had already read their work, this at a time when things would normally be getting warm at the poetry jam. There would not be many more persons stepping up to the plate for the night, with one Horatio, being a singer.
Working without music, he did the Tyrone Taylor classic Cottage In Negril, moving from cover version to original and lovers' themes to ancestry as he sang:
I know,
My father's history
I know.
A change has got to be...
We are children of kings and queens,
We are children of the high supreme.
Connie Bell carried a few books along with her and, in between selections by Mutabaruka, she read Summer 89 by Jean Breeze, which the selector backed up with Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone.
After a beautiful remake of the Junior Murvin classic Police and Thieves, the correct guitar version of Maria Maria and a foreign language remake of Buju Banton's Destiny, Connie Bell was back to read Rejection Song, which lamented:
You know how to push my buttons
But refuse to play my game...
My heart is just a toy...
My flesh just seems to adore you
While my mind bores you..
Mutabaruka advised all to Stand In Love, courtesy of Bunny Wailer, followed up with poetic knowledge of why the caged bird sings, went humorous with Don't Touch Me Tomato and then dropped Waterfalls.
After a Dennis Brown rendition of Spanish Harlem, Connie Bell was back to read from her book of poetry, going with the love play of Frolicsome, which detailed a woman's delightful tumble down a hill at the touch of her lover.
The first alternate Tuesday show, next week, will also feature Mutabaruka on the turntables and Connie Bell as host, with Quizz, Kai Waikling, Sachoy, Yvad, Siim, Ingel Chanta, Amanda Saultar, Brian Heap and Taji slated to perform.
