Meeting of words and minds at Crop Over Read In !

by Heather Barker

A WIND THAT was warm and welcomed in the midst of a season that is carnival wove her way through the outskirts of Bridgetown last night. A fantastic lime and meeting of words and minds was the result.

The CMMB Crop Over Read-IN! saw the word take its place as an activist for change, a thorn in the flesh and not solely a means to entertain. The word was redeemed through innovative poets and writers, complemented by a cast of dance, tuk and jazz on the grounds of the Barbados Museum.

After a stirring tuk rendition of the National Anthem by the Pompasetters Tuk Band and music from the Pride of Wilson Hill Folk Group, author and creative writing professor, Anthony Kellman intimately shared an extract from his epic poem of Barbados – “Limestone”, accompanied by the tuk band.

Popular performance poet DJ Simmons reminded in one of his pieces that: “No matter where you come from there was a poem and the word was there in the beginning.” Sonia Williams was expressive in her delivery of “Fatology”, a teasing piece that shared how we see and treat ‘fatness’.

Winston Farrell successfully engaged the audience in Edward Kamau Brathwaite’s poem “Rites”. He took on the persona of a cricket fan reflecting on the glory days and drew the audience into participating. Free style rapper Sun Rokk was energetic and evoked laughter but some could not make out all of his words.

Ghanian-born celebrated Spoken Word poet, Heru grew up in the United States. In a re-interpreting of the symbolism of the American flag, Heru told a story of its colours - A red man met a white man and his life become blue. His work also sent out a universal caution and touched on themes of the environment, identity and enlightenment – “I’ve seen what they’ve done to the earth so I’m rooting for the Martians.” He also admonished the audience to, “Stop listening to rappers who talk about killing you.”

MC and Spoken Word artiste Adrian Green made a brief but well-received tag-team appearance during Heru’s performance. He took a stab at the carnival of flesh, of meat and of body parts sacrificed to high(way) altars before encouraging the audience not to give up but rises up from the ashes.

Last on stage was Zimbabwean poet Comrade Fatso. He painted a haunting picture of his homeland interspersed with dry wit. Engaging patrons with anecdotes from his life Comrade Fatso said, “We struggle to make a living. It costs a trillion dollars to buy a beer; we’re a nation of poor millionaires.” In one of his pieces, Fatso said, “I love you like a riot loves a petrol bomb.” And in “City City” he took the audience on a journey from the high hills to Harare that went through “road block to road block, corrupt cop to corrupt cop.” It was pity that some could not hear all of the words.

The evening was rounded out with musical renditions by the Pride of Wilson Hill Folk Group. Musical/spoken word performances also came from Amanda Hoyos-Cummins with “Avatar” and Trina Headley featuring Sun Rokk. Renee Blackman brought a spirited dance to a reading of “South”. Az-Man performed a piece that was a potpourri of rap, dance, comedy and played nicely on the theme of the show’s first half “Don’ care where ya come from”. C4 did an excellent job in backing the performances as did backing vocalists Indrani and Rhesa Garnes.

Images compliments Clearly Content www.ClearlyContent.net