Poetic Vibe, January 11, 2021

D. Colin as always our host started us off, once folks got settled in on Zoom, with a re-write of an earlier version of one of her poems dealing with an assault, that began with a quote from Sister Sonia Sanchez.

Jeanne Johnson from Pittsfiled read a poem about a cat that leaves,“The Dubious Benedictions,” a meditation on fresh snow & love & blessings on election day, then the cat comes back.

One of the charms of these Zoom events is seeing the poets in their home environment, sometimes doing the mundane things of daily life, like Marie Kathleen painting her nails, she read 2 related poems, “Healing is a Practice” trying to do it daily, & “What I Mean When I Say Healing is a Practice,” explaining depression, both brave poems.

I read, again, my most recent poem “My Last Poem” which I expect/hope it’s not.

Rio Riera Arbogast’s poem was a descriptive sonnet, a love poem to the beaches of Miami. 

Luis Pabon pondered what many of us were thinking during the riot last week at the Capitol “If They Were Black,” then a piece titled “Grinder Is” (it’s a term for gay men).

Jacqui read a piece in which she was aching for a way out from what she, we all are going through, but with the realization that we are growing. 

Ngoma read a new piece also on the assault on the Capitol “The Real Amerikakaka,” a flowing, then to a lyrical autobiographical manifesto “I Didn’t Come Here to Tap Dance.”

Jeanne came back with another piece, in rhyme “Word Salad & Other Just Desserts.”

Danielle returned with, as she does each week, a cento composed of phrases, of lines from the open mic, a grand poem in itself looking back at tonight’s poets. 

Tonight’s featured poet was Baub Bidon, Haitian poet from New Haven, CT, ran the spoken word series there Free to Spit. Danielle explained she wanted to have Baub here in January because January 1 is Haitian Independence Day, & January 12 is the anniversary of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in 2010. He did his pieces from memory which led to the occasional gap/pause, but like any good performer he persisted. One of the fews piece with a title, or at least the only titles he shared, was his first piece “Born a Woman” an epic tribute to immigrant women. But most of the pieces were about himself, his poetry like “my poetry be digging deep…” what his poetry is & the power of it, all in with a hip hop rhythm, half rhymes, affirmations, “Black like black moons…” energetic strings of words, on religion, in black surrealism. One piece “Beat Box” he began with imitating a didgeridoo in homage to Ngoma who read earlier, a mentor, who often used a didgeridoo in his performances. An energetic, celebratory performance.

In a brief Q&A with Danielle, Baub said his writing happened with a high school crush (sounds oh so familiar), that he had started out doing stand up, even shared some of his impersonations, but was inspired by the voice & rhythms of Ngoma & by his didgeridoo. He also talked of his collaborations with the “Black Out” collective & the production of What Iz, The Wizard of Oz by way of The Wiz.

You can find Poetic Vibe most Mondays on Zoom, get the link from the Poetic Vibe Facebook page.