By Mel Cooke, Freelance WriterWESTERN BUREAU:
THE SIX finalists who turned up at the Weekenz Bistro and Bar, Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, on Tuesday night for the finals of the Poetry Klash were given five minutes each to make their presentations, in which they could do more than one piece.
With the order decided they proceeded, recorded music selected by Mutabaruka filling the break between poets. Ishion Hutchinson was the winner, with Samuel Gordon second and Leslie-Ann Wanliss third.
1. Leslie-Ann Wanliss: The only female of the night, she opened by saying "I am not about to make any excuses, but I am doing the mourning process, so there are no new pieces." Wanliss started out with Drug Mule which observed donkey neva move so faas/as yutes who swallow a pill/to pay a bill.
She continued with a poem of many titles Vestiges/Small Vessels/Mona Passage (AIDS and IMF have her hooked on poverty...), ending with an emotionally intense declaration to end this pen and paper resistance. The searing look at child molestation (woulden even mek har force ripe) looked at present and past, commenting if massa took our women/who is to say he never took our men/and children.
2. Patrick Davis: With rhythm in his voice, Davis opened with the combination of desire and poverty which is the story of Jamaican music, saying me waan fi sing one song/but de price fi di riddim too high. He started out semi-singing and then settled into the dub, outlining how nature itself becomes his rhythm then they call it a capella. Davis moved on to Who Am I, stating oppression makes them dumb/but they shall be released/with the rhythm of the bass and the drum."
3. Rudolph Thomas: Thomas started out with The Browning Syndrome, which took a look at the curse of bleaching. There were liberal doses of humour, as he said me nah watch no face/me only a change it and ended no matter how me try/de mout part cyaan get white. Lazy Daisy looked at society and Thomas finished with Naughty Deeds, which looked at sex and exploitation and was very current, what with remarks on schoolgirls on buses that "have hole in dem pocket."
4. Ishion Hutchinson: Hutchinson began with Pen and Paper Revolution, which commented is like everybody have a popularity complex/or a crash a Hummer buy a Hummer complex. He continued with Daisy, a love poem to a woman of that name, and finished with a poem which moved from dance and politics to the wider Caribbean, saying like the politician learn the dance/before Elephant Man invent it/cause look how long dem have de people inna de riva drowning/while dem dey pon de bank.
5. Samuel Gordon: The only poet to read from paper on Tuesday night, he looked beyond self and extended a poetic hand to Wanliss, saying that her loss took him back three years ago. He started with Family Tree (father resembles strange fruit blossoming), which was not for the competition. Nakumbuka traced from self (I was born with a spliff in my mouth/Babylon taught me lessons, I blew them back out) to past (massas wind chimes were bodies hanging from trees), moving on to a long, very intense love poem which encouraged the woman to curve your back/along the curve of me.
6. Black Velvet: Velvet started out with a poem he wrote for a particular woman. It got a bit intense, as after running through a series of sexual positions Velvet said he would stop it there. Velvet moved into a piece that he declared was not poetry, but is a certain reality most Jamaican are not exposed to. "But it is real," he said.
Poetic or not, the harsh reality of being trapped in the ghetto by dons and 'want to be' dons was harshly and starkly related, Velvet's strong emotions coming through in his voice, flashing eyes and mannerisms, as he demanded of the 'shotta who claimed to be protecting him' yu no realise de only reason my life inna danger/is because you roun' me?
Velvet ended with a declaration of freedom, yet asking teach me how to love again/teach me how to make a brother out of a friend.
