Many Cleveland poets and musician will probably be participating in 100,000 poets for change.  The Nia Coffeehouse will be participating.  Here is some info on 100,000 PaMfC. Leave a comment especially if you'd like to participate.  What should the creative community be doing? What good does it do?

Protest Jazz and Spoken Word

Jazz is known for it's musical humor and satire, it only makes since that humor and satire would be present in lyrics written to and for jazz as a tool that enhances protest.  Last Nia blog we looked at protest without lyrics this week let's look at the spoken word traveling from in front of the music to melody without music to pure spoken word. Oscar Brown, Jr., runs the gamut.
 Oscar Brown, Jr (October 10, 1926 – May 29, 2005) was an American singer, songwriter, playwright, poet, and civil rights activist who created lyrics for jazz protest and whose lyrics easily crossed over into the realm of poetry and spoken word. Here is Oscar Brown Jr.'s "Forty Acres and a Mule" music and lyrics. As you will see it is not about reparations but face value broken promises observed from street level.  Notice how the spoken word comes down and dances around a tight driving 4/4 cymbal and upright bass with a 2/4 rim shot:

 

Here is an interesting counter point to "Forty Acres and Mules," spoken word  jazz with jazz great Oscar Brown on Def Poetry Jam more or less singing spoken word without any music in "I Apologize" but laying down a much tighter meter (4/4 maybe?):

Here is a show tune by Rodgers and Hammerstein that floated by unscathed until it got to ... not Mississippi but Georgia.  Quoting Rene Marie in an article last August in Jazz Times,

Who woulda thunk that this lovely song written by Rodgers and Hammerstein about racial prejudice could be snuck into South Pacific? Rodgers and Hammerstein were repeatedly pressured to remove the song from the musical, with lawmakers in Georgia actually going so far as to introduce legislation that would make illegal the performance of any creative works with ideas that stemmed from “Communist” thinking. According to James Michener (author of the book that inspired the musical), “The authors replied stubbornly that this number represented why they wanted to do the play in the first place. … [E]ven if it meant the failure of the production, it was going to stay in.”

Artist's Choice: Rene Marie on Protest Music

Today’s top jazz performers pick 10 favorite tracks by the players, singers and styles that helped define them.

Well check out the above list and send us some of the protest songs that help define you whether you be a musician or librarian. We'll post your selections and comments.

Here is one of my favorites from Gil Scott Heron, hmmm I think he's talkin' to Black folk  What do you think? The Revolution will not be Televised...

 

 

Being at Peace in Our Community

from Poet and Being at Peace in Our Community Progenitor Kathy Smith takes place April 21st @ 2:00pm:

"How we can all become less estranged, and more part of the community?

We welcome you to participate in a series of  events featuring poetry, discussion and
food. The impetus for this series is a drive to improve the relationship and understanding
between people who are leading and policing our communities and all people who live in
the communities to minimize violence and to work better together on solving problems.

Here are some of the immediate problems we’d like to work on solving/discussing:

•Incidents have occurred such as misuse of
force/misuse of authority/improper training on the part of some police officers and
other members of the community.  Some in our community have been stopped and harassed
by for no apparent reason, and like in the case of Trayvon Martin, some children have even been harmed.

• Too much polarization, not enough togetherness
• Not enough working together on common community issues
Addressing and helping solve these social issues can help us work together
on some of the other big issues--economic and environmental--at which

we
will
be
more
effective
addressing
together.

SATURDAY APRIL 21 @ 2-5 PM

BEING AT PEACE IN OUR COMMUNITY

“Introducing Ourselves” @


The Nia Coffeehouse

2555 Euclid Heights Blvd. (At St. Alban Episcopal Church)

Open mic poetry, refreshments and roundtable introductions. Theme of
the evening: “Introducing Ourselves”--however you might wish to interpret
this. Please feel free to bring some food and poetry to share. We will meet
again in May; stay tuned for venue and theme info! "