The Spider's Lair

Poetry Show Review
By Janice Mather, The Tribune (Nassau, Bahamas)

For lovers of lyrics and fans of thoughtful rhythms, A Life Supreme proved to be the most satisfying poetry event of the season. Visiting artist Larry Knight, and his smooth spoken word works, many of which came from his CD, also entitled A Life Supreme, lived up to every bit of promise the album had suggested.

Knight’s delivery – confident, impassioned, and powerful – was flawless, from the first note of The Myth of Tomorrow to the final poem, which evoked an encouraging message of spreading wings preparing to take powerful flight. Mirrors Beauty Therapy and Spa, where the show was held Sunday night, may seem like an unlikely venue for the summer’s first solid show. But, with a commanding voice that needed no microphone, and words that demanded – and received – complete silence from listeners, Knight transformed an ordinary room into the wide crossroads of an old Southern road, painting word-pictures of a piano-playing, soul-singing queen – and of hose and dog-controlled civil rights uprisings, and lynched black boys “slung from southern trees/rhythmically swinging/like macabre metronomes.”

Before Knight took to the stage on Sunday evening, home-grown poets set the pace in an open-mic segment with a level of quality that would have suggested that performers had been scheduled. Bodine Johnson, a comedian-style poet, got the audience grinning with rhymes about a hypocritical church deacon whose sins find him out, while Nadine Thomas-Brown bent genre boundaries, straddling poetry and reggae with rhythmic chat. Carlton Watson mused on the shoddy state of “black love”, then spanned the globe with world-commentary poetry that questioned why Rwanda’s genocide has been largely forgotten while 9/11 remains pre-eminent in many minds.

Then the lights dipped, and, from the back of the room, a sonorous song reminiscent of old spirituals began the performance. Taking listeners whirling through the American South, Knight used words to pay homage to musical greats Nina Simone and Miles Davis and to evoke painful pictures of activism and Civil Rights struggles. Interspersing spoken lyrics with bouts of song, he tackled the haunting lines of Strange Fruit, which bitterly describes lynching, then later teased listeners with just a few lines of Eyes on the Prize.

Between power-packed spoken – and sung – word spat out with a fervour often only seen in the Sunday morning performances of many a Baptist preacher, Knight also spoke of love, and of growing up in Louisiana, assuring audiences that while his work is strongly grounded in the US South, his themes are no stranger to the Bahamian shores, or to anywhere.

Speaking about the poem On Being Black in America, he told the audience “The title could be erased and it could be applicable in the Bahamas... Because I’ve been here for two weeks and I’ve seen a lot of stuff . . .”

Knight, who said in an earlier interview that he expected his material to be applicable to Bahamian audiences despite its very Black-American content, wove local references into Chaos in E Minor, a powerful rant that contrasts classics like John Coltrane and Nina Simone with the contemporary “roar of an audience as they sit/ waiting, with guts churning, hearts racing, palms sweating/ for announcer to sing ‘ladies and gentlemen, we proudly present for your listening enjoyment this evening, the one, the only/ Brittany Spears.” The original version then describes a young, undiscovered black girl, in contrast, singing somewhere in a house in Jacksonville; for the Nassau audience, it was aptly – and successfully – adapted to “a young girl in Fox Hill stands in a bathroom and sings heavenly into a hairbrush”. As well as describing classic Black American musicians, Knight broke out with a recollection of “Ray Munnings making Nassau a little bit funkier, singing ‘Nassau’s got rhythm, Nassau’s got soul!’”

“I know the fourth verse too,” Knight laughed, to approving whoops and claps from the audience.

“[I wanted] just to connect with the audience and to let them know that no matter where the piece was written, it’s still applicable wherever it’s being performed,” explained Knight, after the show. “It was just to give the audience the opportunity connect, and establish that link.”

Even without tangibly reaching out to Bahamians with familiar names, his content and strong delivery guaranteed that the audience would relate. If the applause was anything to judge by, the audience was pleased with the power-packed performance that combined fury at the past, passion for positive fights, Miles Davis-style ear play, lyrical story time, and old-style spirituals with new-time commentary. Only one question remained after the show: when next?

That remains to be seen. But, says Knight, “Definitely, I will be back.” And, if word spreads, it’s likely that next time will be another well-attended treat for ears, heart, and mind.

Published Wednesday, June 20, 2005 by The Tribune

SEX

Nadine Thomas-Brown 



Black man feed me with your words
eat me with your eyes
give unto me the recipe of love
we created
bind me up tightly in the security of your manliness
stroke my imagination with your thoughtful intercourse
lick the sweetness from my overheated ripeness
turn me every which way but loose
place me in a position of mutual love and consensual submission
unclothe my aching loins and turn me into fertile ground
teach me the purpose of my womanliness
Seduce me, revere me, extol all of
my virtues or lack thereof
play my libido like a finely tuned piano
and try to match my sensuous motions.
Black man i will follow if you lead or
lead if you will follow
just free your mind of all inhibitions
and let me come with you
to a better place,
a place filled with potent sensations,
passion filled vibrations, mental elations
and us intertwined
bodies and minds combined and satisfied.

Re A life supreme

Larry Knight if you read this your show was dynamic.

some o' dem

D.espicable, detestable,distasteful baby makers
making pregnant young minds, with false promises
broken cherries and unwanted foetuses.
completing the cycle that started seventeen moons old, with their despicable, detestable,distasteful daddies.

U.ndying webs, mythic labyrinths of foul untruths.
oh what a tangled web we weave...
hunks of lying meat, trappers of the female soul
kings of the world,rulers of hearth and home.

M.asculine ineptitude in matters of emotion and commitment
masters of our discontent, the "big stick" policy rules your every waking breath.

B.rothers defending each other...
the stench of your abandonment pollutes generations
and interrupts progress.

commentary on iraq

By: Nadine Thomas-Brown


The desert blooms
as bombs fall over Baghdad
Macabre red blooms
which gives off the fetid smell of
Burning flesh.

The skies are beautiful
as rockets light up the oppressed night
over Baghdad.
explosions of blood red, white and blue

The city is alive tonight
as fleeing parents huddle
their children ever closer
avoiding falling pamphlets
and U.N. aid.


A dictator is on the run tonight
running for his life
so he can run again to run his people’s life.
Bet he has the runs.

Soldiers are dying tonight as fat politicians
talk bullshit from the safety of their offices
aint life a bitch?

Most Embarrassing Moments As Told By Women

Gaffe, blunder, faux pas, boo boo.. These are just some of the names that we assign to life's little embarrassing moments. We have all belched or let loose some wind at some inopportune moment. These are the defining moments in our lives when we wish to God we could vanish into oblivion.

The first embarrassing moment that I had was at 5 when I wet myself on a class trip. Of course like many of us, it was not to be the last time that I was totally humiliated. The following stories are from women who have recovered from these awkward moments and can now laugh about them. These are true stories and the names have been changed to protect the deeply embarrassed.



Charmaine's Story: I was in a packed church one night when I realized that I would have to get to the bathroom rather quickly. Now I had no qualms about getting up from the back of the church to walk all the way to the front where everyone could see how cute I looked in my new dress fresh from New York. I could hear the cryptic remarks and feel the disapproving looks as I sauntered through the aisle. Getting up and moving about was not allowed while the pastor was giving his fire and brimstone sermons. However I did not care. , Those jealous cows I thought smugly, adding just a little more swing to my hips as I passed each sneering member. Well, I got to the bathroom unscathed by the venomous, disapproving looks that were thrown at me especially from the female members of the congregation. Nevertheless on my way pass the pulpit, I tried to avoid the pastor's steely, bloodshot gaze. After about thirty minutes of prepping myself for my re-emergence as a gorgeous butterfly amidst those common moths, I started back to my seat.

As I passed the first pew I heard a titter but ignored it. I was too high on my cloud of self esteem to care. As I continued down the line of pews the tittering grew till I could ignore them no longer. What is happening here? I thought to myself. Did I miss some joke that the pastor had regurgitated as he so often did? All of a sudden I realized that everyone was looking at me. They were pointing, and yes, laughing with their mouths opened wide. Others just stared in amazement. Horror of horrors thought to myself what could the matter be? Well it seemed that in my haste to make an entry I had not adjusted my clothing properly therefore the hem at the back of my dress was tucked snugly into the waist of my stockings and my very revealing underwear-which I always wear to enhance my inner goddess- was on display for all seventy five members of my church to see. Embarrassed is not the word I would use to describe my feelings on that day. I guess I had gotten all the attention I thought I deserved. To this day I still believe I was taught a divine lesson and from now on I will pay more attention to God's word and less to myself- that is whenever I find a new church.



Lorraine's Story: I had spent weeks upon weeks telling my friends about this handsome guy with whom I was always flirting. The brother was fine. He was ripped and cut in all the right places and he had no problem flirting back with this sister. My friends and I always ate dinner at a certain Cafe' every weekend. We would catch up on all the juicy gossip of the week that had gone. He too frequented the Cafe'-this is where he first caught my eyes. Every time he was there He was always accompanied by some very pretty girls. So the fact that he saw me any at all was very flattering. I mean some of these girls were Calendar material. One day he invited me on a date and I told every one of my friends about this date with the 'man of my dreams. That night he came to my house not a minute after the time we had planned to meet and he had a single red rose. I almost died. I knew I was in love. However I was a little taken aback when he said he had changed our plans and wanted to take me to his apartment instead. He explained that it would be more intimate and he wanted to focus all of his attention on me. I did not even give it a second thought. I was his, hook line and sinker. Needless to say we ended up being intimate and the only thing left for him to do- I thought- was to propose to me and swear his undying love. Of course the next day when we congregated in our usual spot at the cafe', all my friends were treated to a blow by blow description of my night out with my 'Mr. Right I made sure to embellish all the details to make my friends drool with envy. 'He is in love with me, I said smugly. 'He told me so I said conspiratorially.

I suddenly realized that my friends were not really listening to me but instead were watching the entrance to the Cafe' while trying not to look at me. I turned curiously to see what had so engrossed them. What I saw was totally incomprehensible.

Wrapped around a calendar type babe was my man of the past night. He was kissing the playboy bunny-esque creature like there was no tomorrow and there had been no yesterday -with me that is. I wanted to crawl into myself and die. He looked in my direction briefly, our eyes locked and he did not even blink. My friends looked on sympathetically. I was frozen in disbelief. When I recovered from the shock I bravely took my things and made a quick getaway. The Moral of this story is simple. Know what you are getting into before making assumptions. Also keep some of your secrets secret. I probably would have been less embarrassed if I had not gone about spilling every detail to my friends.





Lorna's Story: My very immature boyfriend embarrassed me so badly that I finally worked up the courage to dump him. I was in nursing school and he in College when I decided to pay him a visit. Now the college he attended was very strict with its rules regarding women visiting the dorms. All female visitors had to leave by 9pm on week days. So it was that I was stretched out in my boyfriend's bed at ten thirty on a weekday enjoying his 'ambiance. Suddenly there was a loud pounding on the door and the deep male voice of the warden rang out in the night. How was I to know that they checked to see whether females stayed on the dorms, I had never stayed that late before.

I had no idea where to hide as the box of a room contained only a single bed and a closet which resembled a coffin turned on the short end. To say I was frightened was putting it mildly. He would be in serious trouble if I was discovered. I could not allow this to happen. I threw a trembling glance at him. He seemed as if he was about to lose his lunch. To this day I have no idea how I got into the closet. I only recall the scent of smelly gym socks and the overpowering scent of Kentucky Fried Chicken don't ask. I must have stayed squeezed in the closet for at least five minutes trembling like a fat girl in a room full of cannibals.

When all of a sudden there was a loud chorus of laughter. I peeped through the crack and discovered that the tiny room was filled with every male on the dorm. It took a few minutes for me to realize that I was the butt of my stupid boyfriend's prank. He laughed the loudest and longest. He had called everyone to show them his girlfriend stuffed into the coffin-like closet with one of her nurse's shoe sticking out for the world to see. I can now laugh at the absurdity of the situation but at the time I was livid. He became my ex-boyfriend very soon after that incident. I see him now and again with new girlfriends and I really hope that he has grown up somewhat since that moronic prank.



[Email your responses about this and other articles by this writer to: alainebrown@msn.com]

Minus Love- Ode to Bodine

when he condescends to grace her with his presence
she melts like wax under a hot lamp
he has burnt her a million times
and she has never become immune
to the third degree burns he leaves like footprints around her heart.
Yet like a moth, she cannot resist the undeniable charm of his flame, the onesided attraction that binds and winds, hypnotizes
and pulls her slithering like a snake;
-belly to the ground, face in the dirt-
to her loss of rightness, of self,
of sanity...

miscarriage

VIEWING ME AS
HOSTILE TERRITORY
MY ANGEL FLED
IN A SEA OF RED
AND ALL I HAVE TO
REMIND ME THAT SHE EXISTED

IS A SMALL RECTANGULAR BOX
WITH TWO HORIZONTAL LINES.

Hypothetical

I want to come over to your place
touch your face
play with the long silky dreads flowing down your back.

I want to hold your hands
and listen to the musical intonation
of your indrawn, withheld, exhaled breath.
I want to watch the interplay of sunlight on your skin and note
the differences in our skin tones

I want to look into your eyes as we find a rhythm all our own
and set the night on fire.

Yes

I want to bathe you in sweat
then bathe you in exotic oils

I want to listen to your music as you serenade me
with love songs.
Then we will eat, have fine wine and fine conversation.

You'll say you love me
I'll say I want you
then we'll end the day
the way we started it
in each other's arms.

Ghetto Life

Ghetto Life

By Nadine Thomas- Brown

Remember the days when chicken was a treat
when wi lived in a tenement pon nine union street
and di rats and di roaches
and di sound of gunshots
at night?

Remember di night dem seh rolling calf
(mi look back now and mi haffi laugh)
set Mr. Stapleton fowl coop pon fire?
roast chicken fi weeks…
remember di move ‘pon di back of di truck?
wid wi few belongings most a dem bruk up…
belongings few, but wi did have each other
fatherless but wi had wi mother
who always managed somehow to keep hunger at bay.

then the concrete jungle where male lions prowl
wid metallic paws that spit fire under the sun’s high beam,
and the night wi see di man under the tree
hands clutched ‘round the submachine
and the whores getting beat up outside our bedroom wall

remember the days we used to walk to school
and walk back home in the hot afternoon
and pray she dinner did done cook
cause hunger was a teacher and welfare was not happening.

and the longing and the praying and the hoping and the doubting
and the hunger for a better way of life( a pipe dream)
cause daddy got kicked to the curb, licked to the curb or just
sitting on the curb doin’ nothing.

Remember when the gas station fire claimed plenty friends
and police fire crush plenty ends
and the growing up little by little everytime acid put an innocent soldier six feet under

den the night mi bredda show me a gun
and the night mi start mi own gang
(black spiders) forever cause badness was the lick of the day
remembering the blood guts and gore
and knowing what I know about ghetto lore
I can’t believe how far I am from the ghetto

den di growing up den di starting over
den di looking back pon how far mi come
how some a dem never mek it dis far
how some a dem still stuck in wars
and some in limbo……..

Hell mi can’t believe mi get ‘way from the ghetto.

Killing him cleverly

She
could
not
kill him
with words
he was much too clever
neither could she kill him
with conventional murder weapons,
so she resolved to kill him slowly-by acceptable means-
burgers and fries and other saturated fats,and she never
forgot to add an extra spoon of sugar to everything he ate and
an extra dose of mayonnaise to his potato salad. At nights she cried fat tears of joy at his impending demise and like the Mona
Lisa, she had an ever present knowing smile. For what jury
could convict her, This good wife, this paragon of good
works, who was slowly, lovingly, deliberately feeding her life long love-her husband- to death?

Isha

I am a Complex woman


To know me is to look into my dark recesses

And understand my midnight.
To understand me is to stand in the freezing rain
And question why the earth moves on it's axis.
To move me is to relate to me in terms of the struggles of my people
To walk a mile in my shoes is to walk side by side with death, kiss him on the mouth and emerge from the slumber into the light of a beautiful day.


I am a complex woman.

I plant the rice in the hot swamps of China,
I am a masked warrior in Afghanistan
I have run with my children for our lives in the remote regions of Kuwaiti, South Africa, Serbia, and Croatia.....
I have survived plagues, starvation, rape and murder
I am unstoppable.


I am a complex woman

I stand with my man
I fall with my man
I raise my children and yours
I give and give unconscious of reciprocation
I forgive but never forget
I hate with purity, judge with impunity
and i never stop loving for a second
For i Isha am multi-faceted a priceless diamond
of unfathomable depth.

Do not try to solve my mystery
Just know that this complex woman's heart
is anything but complex.

Echoes

Crawl into my skin
see where I am coming from,
an individual
not a statistic.

Crawl inna mi skin
si weh mi a come from
a long time mi a travel
da road yah.

mashe sew po mwen
whe kote mwen soti

admire my tenacity
first free from slavery still struggling.

Gatear dentro mi piel
Mire de donde yo vengo

Different countries, common goals
woven together in a web of humanity
Alike but different. Nothin' nuh wrong wid dat.

Mi a add to yuh culture
Mi nah tek nothing from it

Di Junkanoo beat inna mi blood
Junkanoo, Bachanal, Festival, Carnival
all off the same slave ship.
Focus
and
crawl inna mi skin
mashe soo po mwen

gatear dentro mi piel

Crawl into my skin.>

Horny as hell

I want to wrap someone in my warm velvety love mitten
and stroke them till they purr
squeeze the juices of their love
into my honey place as we
combust and squeal with the irony
of absent love.
Only very present lust exists here
and the aromas of
satiated bodies.

I like this

oooO Gangsta Girlz
( /
By: Nadine Thomas-Brown
In the spider's lair
aint no need for gentility
bring your worst niggas it will be welcomed here
we are girls without bombo claawt fear
we send rapists bleeding to the docks
better not say where you've been nigger you'll catch another beat down
you're just too fucking low down

park your cars on the east side when you
see us on the west side
young girlz with attitude behaving rude
we are packing… semi autos, desert eagles, and glock nines
better not let me catch you eyeing me nigger.

don't want none of the white stuff
too smart for that.
Got to keep this cranium clear for the day job
so screw what you've heard
it aint nothing but a word.

mama understand this emptiness is a factor
gotta do what I do to make myself matter
trying to survive pon my own
leave me alone
no matter what you say don't need your advice
screw the noise.

gonna learn to click in the magazine
yeah, get mean about the green.
Niggas on the block look away when we pass
look anywhere else to avoid our ass
cause when the Black Spiders come passing through
maximum respect from the avenue
maximum respect from the avenue
maximum respect from the avenue

Nadine Thomas-Brown