HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. This week, we
report about poetry and jazz because April is a special month for both arts in
the United States.
Poetry Slams
The United States is celebrating National Poetry Month
in April. There are large events, like
the three-day Austin International Poetry festival in Texas. There are small events, like Poetic Voices, a
performance by the best teenage poets of Cass County, Missouri. And there are
poetry slams. Mario Ritter tells about
these competitions, the slammers and the poems.
MARIO RITTER:
![The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York The Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090506032215im_/http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/nuyorican_cafe_w_16apr09_se.jpg) |
Nuyorican Poets Cafe |
A
poetry slam is a competition in which poets perform one of their pieces in
front of an audience and judges.
The poem can be no longer than three minutes and is
rated from one to ten.
Most
slammers are very theatrical in their performances. The poems can be about personal subjects or
world events. Two weeks ago, sixteen
year old Stacy performed a poem about the attack on the World Trade Center in
New York City in two thousand one. The
slam was held at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York. Here is part of her
performance:
The black death
demolishes civilization. Now we're
making foundations for the recovering patients, cause for some reason we can't
find any explanations for the contaminations.
Whether it's the
Plague or AIDS; STDs or HIV; there are no answers. And we can't find the cure for cancer so…
Ashes to ashes we
all fall down. Operation cremation without any consolation.
A blind architect
doing renovations on a historical creation.
Double jeopardize thousands of innocent lives; trying to buy avowal but
could barely keep themselves alive. Leaving only a handful that survived.
Flight Eleven and
One Seventy-Five with the illegal medications that overdosed our population,
led us to receive a leave of absence for an unnecessary vacation and we became
addicts. Developed unheard of addictions; unintentionally using needles
shooting up intoxications; popped pills laced with devastation; sniffing lines
of contamination; hallucinations of peace in our nation; unwilling levitation
meeting heaven before expectation.
They called the
cravings 9/11; I call it violation; molestation; split the towers like a virgin
and seduced her with sensual conversation.
Eighteen year old slam poet Safia Elhillo
deals with another serious issue in her poem, "Immigrant City." The poet read
it at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.
I saw you
Disembark at Metro Center
Transferring to the blue line, preparing
To board your third bus
Back to Skyline Towers:
The commute from
Metropolis to Immigrant City
Cheekbones sculpted like Sahara dunes
Lips chapped to mimic sidewalks
Of this Promised Land;
Oh, how they tricked you.
They tricked us.
Shoulders stooped, broad back
Bent with weighted expectations from
Umi, Khaltu, Fatima and Baba
Eagerly awaiting your return, the
Conquering hero
With Big Macs
And blue jeans
For all
They tricked us.
Friday night prayers in
Ramshackle mosques, I watched you
Stiff in your new collared shirt
Ankles rubbed raw by pleather loafers
Hair shaved carefully close to camouflage
The giveaway kinks and curls.
I saw me in you;
Like how we both exaggerate
The twang in our r's
To outweigh the okra and rice
Laying heavily across our tongues
Forcing extra syllables
Painfully turning b's to p's
Rolling eyes in exasperation at those
Homely folk back in the old country
Arrived with open arms
Open eyes, open hearts
Ready to receive our
Honorary title as Americans
Instead shoved into closet-sized apartments
Watching our PHd holding brothers
Drive taxis
Our law-student sisters
Mop floors
Our bright babies
Repeating grades
"Sharp mind, but he can't go anywhere
'Til he gets a better grasp on the English language"
I saw you
Eyes alight with recognition upon
Hearing the familiar falter in my accent
You are not alone
But our togetherness makes us
All the more outcast
As we board our third bus
To Skyline Towers
Destination:
Immigrant City
We may not be home, but
Stop by sometime
For mint tea and palm dates
Stories of Omdurman sands and
Khartoum rickshaws
Compare notes on the experience
Of sandal-clad feet upon concrete
Chuckling far too loudly, as is
The Sudanese way,
Long into the 'Isha hours
Safe from metropolitan disapproval
Of the Arabic interwoven in our jargon
They may have tricked us,
Equating broken English with
Broken spirits
But they underestimated our safe haven
In each others' arms, each others' hearts
Right here
In Immigrant City
![Safia Elhillo Safia Elhillo](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090506032215im_/http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/myspace_safia_Elhillo_w_16a.jpg) |
Safia Elhillo |
Safia
Elhillo was born in Rockville Maryland.
Both of her parents are from Sudan. She now lives in Washington, D.C.
with her mother and brother. Safia says she wrote her first poem for a high
school English class three years ago. But she says she grew up around poetry. Her mother enjoys reading
poetry, especially poems by Rumi and Khalil Gibran. Safia says she also likes poems by Nikki
Giovanni and Suheir Hammad. Safia gives
special praise to all the young poets she has met during the past two years she
has been writing and competing in slams.
Safia Elhillo says writing poetry will always be a part
of her life. She says performing her work has helped her defeat her severe
nervousness. She hopes to attend college at New York University and study art
therapy.
Here
she reads a poem about her best friend, "Malik:
He stepped off the sun,
Sweat of the islands still glistening on his brow.
Man-child, all grown
Squinting into the horizon
Maps etched into his calloused palms.
Gilded boy spilling
Golden glow onto cracked sidewalk
Outside the corner bodega;
He's here to heal.
Child of the cosmos,
Mind traveling through
Warm sands and subway tracks
Humming lullabies in broken Arabic, like
"Ahibak, akhi"*
(*ahibak, akhi: I love
you, my brother)
And
it's been far from easy
On my clumsy days;
Caught me, placed me upon a broad shoulder
Atlas manifested but I
Called him Midas
The golden king.
Swinging my legs in time to the
Verses we conjured:
Jabao Jibaro,
Sergeant Saffron,
Brother Bear,
Yes,
Ahibak akhi.
Voice rumbling from the planet's core
Face upturned; see
Children of the universe,
They shine in the night;
And we do.
Cracking jokes, grins,
Long past the crack of dawn
Like
"How long will you be up?"
"Forever."
Yes.
And
Your name is in the title,
'cause I've learned, and
Don't dedicate time, energy
And poems
To what's not built to last.
Jazz Appreciation Month
HOST:
April
is not only a time for poetry. It also marks the eighth yearly Jazz
Appreciation Month. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American
History in Washington, D.C. started the event.
It is now celebrated in all fifty American states and in forty
countries. The aim of Jazz Appreciation Month is to bring public attention to the
rich past and present of jazz music. There are special programs on jazz at
museums, schools, colleges, libraries, concert halls and on public
broadcasting. Jim Tedder has more.
(MUSIC)
JIM TEDDER:
![Benny Goodman Benny Goodman](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090506032215im_/http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/goodman_benny_w_16apr09_se.jpg) |
Benny Goodman |
That
was "Jungle Blues" by the famous bandleader Benny Goodman. The Smithsonian is
observing the one hundred year anniversary of Benny Goodman's birth.
There
have been several discussions and musical programs about "The King of Swing"
and the musicians who played with him.
This month the museum is also releasing a collection of one hundred ten
jazz recordings that help tell the history of jazz.
Jazz
Appreciation Month is also honoring musician and composer Chuck Mangione. He has released thirty
albums. Mangione is best known for his
Grammy Award-winning single, "Feels So Good."
(MUSIC)
John Edward Hasse is the curator of
jazz at the National Museum of American History. He says jazz has been called
"America's classical music," "the sound
of freedom" and even "the sound of surprise." He says whatever you call it,
jazz has played a huge role around the world in opening up musical creativity.
![Ella Fitzgerald Ella Fitzgerald](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090506032215im_/http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/images/medaloffreedom_EllaFitzgera.jpg) |
Ella Fitzgerald |
One
reason the Smithsonian picked April to honor jazz is because many great jazz
artists were born this month. They
include Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lionel
Hampton and Herbie Hancock. Here is Ella
Fitzgerald singing "April in Paris" with Louis Armstrong.
(MUSIC)
Countries
around the world will also take part in honoring jazz this month. For example,
in South Africa, Cape Town's jazz festival included performances by more than
forty international and African jazz performers. The Estonian capital of
Tallinn will hold its own jazz festival. We leave you with a song by the Cuban
saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera who is to perform at this event.
(MUSIC: "Miami")
HOST:
I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.
It was written by Dana Demange and Caty Weaver who was
also the producer. For transcripts,
MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com.
Join
us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special
English.