“Brave New Voices. Courages Old Souls.”
Queen GodIs is responsible for the title in this post. It is fitting.
I watched a video from the BNV 2010 DC team. It is the only one from our city but I am proud. This woman, though whispering most of the piece, has a voice so loud that it will be heard in the hearts of everyone that hears it. I was paralyzed by her passion and pierced by her transparency. This piece is the voice of many. My prayers go out to those whose voices have been muted by fear.
I’d love to hear your reactions.
iWrite.
Poetry & Theater
As I watched this piece for the umpteenth time, something in me that I had been dying to talk about for a while now was resurrected. Spoken Word poets are thespians. They step into characters that their words have personified. It’s almost as if they step on stage and become a completely different person. Brook Yung is great at this.
Watch as he silently prays before he transforms from B. Yung to Bianca, the blind young woman he brings alive in his poem. He spits the entire poem with his eyes rolled into his head. That is acting…at it’s best. Giving life to the script that his heart wrote. I never thought that I could do that. I never thought that I could captivate an audience with a presence that made them feel as if I was a completely different person when I stepped on stage.
Alexis Marie and Jasmine Manns are two incredibly talented young women who bring to life the characters in the poem entitled “Abortion Poem.” They go back and forth like the mother and the child that they speak of. They breath like them, talk like them, act like them. Jasmine has so much power in her voice that it becomes raspy and its as if she screams. These poets are amazing. I want to have that power behind my words. I want to walk away with a ghost of my poem still standing on stage, haunting the mic.
My dear sister friend, Farah Lawal, put an entire one-man show together last year with just her poetry. We watched her transform into different women as she quietly traced the edges of the stage with her footsteps. She was amazing. She is also an actress. I’m sure that her experience as an actress contributed a lot to her performance as a poet.
For my spoken word poets, do you consider yourself an actor when you step on stage? No longer yourself but transformed into a character depicted in your poem?
The “Youth Speaks”…loudly
Shift perceptions of youth by combating illiteracy, alienation, and silence to create a global movement of brave new voices bringing the noise from the margins to the core.
This is their mission. They are Youth Speaks, a California-based Literary Arts Organization responsible for the HBO series “Brave New Voices” and the annual slam poetry competitions that bring over 500 youth together in one city just to spit!
Complete with workshops, open forums, discussions and open mics, BNV is the Atlantis of spoken word. Every time I visit the site or watch the BNV DVD from last year I start itching for the stage. These young artists get access to some of the most talented minds and I, honestly, get jealous. They get to attend workshops and learn from people that some of us wouldn’t have the opportunity to learn from. Queen GodIs was the coach of the NYC Urban Word team last year and they made it all the way to the finals. Artists such as Brook Yung, Alexis Marie, Carven Lissaint, Joshua Bennett, Cynthia “Ceez” Keteku all have competed in this event. I’m not sure who will be there this year, but I’m sure most (if not all) of those names will be on a list somewhere in CA on July 19th.
In light of the 13th annual Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam Festival, I thought I’d feature them on diVERSEcity. I will definitely be following the competition from the East Coast. Last year they competed on my turf and I missed it, I wish I could be there this year!
For more info check out www.bravenewvoices.org and make sure you follow them on twitter @bravenewvoices!
V.O.W. – Queen GodIs
Queen GodIs – the true essence of an artist. When I tell you that this woman inspires me, she reaches the deepest parts of me and tickles my fancy until my soul smiles. She is GREAT. Everything that I want to be. A Poet, a woman, beautiful, strong, confident, RESPECTED. She coached the 2007-2008 Urban Word NYC team that went on to compete in the Brave New Voices slam poetry competition last year. She has a CD entitled “Power U” available right now (go cop that, cause I am). Her resume exntends far beyond the boundaries of this computer screen for she invests time in motivational speaking, teaching workshops and recording her second album. Please take the time to watch her in action. I promise, you won’t be sorry that you did.
