Jamaica Osorio: Three Crows a Wedding

19 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by Tea-mahm in "Jamaica Osorio", Events, Poetry

Tags

I admire Jamaica as a word-crafter. I admire her bravery in the edgy political and taboo subjects she offers us. Her beautiful singing voice and her Spoken Word invokes her beloved Hawaii. At eighteen she was invited to recite her poetry at the White House for the Obamas. That kind of opportunity for some – that moment of fame – is a flashy feather in the hat. For Jamaica, it seems to have sobered her, given her a chance to be a true and serious artist of the spoken word. She seems to have dedicated herself to speaking truth to power. I have written of her before. I met her two years ago at a Stanford Slam. Here she is again.

Jamaica at the Loft

Jamaica Osorio at the Loft Literary Center

in Minneapolis December 3, 2011. This is a half hour piece on Youtube with Jamaica.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxwEzMQm2xI>

The last poem of the evening is THREE CROWS A WEDDING Spoken Word. Here is an excerpt.

One crow means sorrow

two crows mean joy,

three crows a wedding,

four crows a boy, five crows mean silver, six crows mean gold,

seven crows a secret that’s never been told…

… Do stars leave traces of the places they’ve traveled

Do the other stars remember them when their gone

or are there enough to fill the darkness left

Are people like stars,

easily forgotten unless in constellations

Do the ones that make pretty pictures ever die

If I was a piece of the big dipper would I be immortalized

Shine there even after my space was filled with night…

Jamaica, apologies for punctuation errors… I leave for the islands tomorrow (on business) and will be sending you ALOHA and mahalo for all you do and are!

Blog: http://jamaicaosoriopoetry.blogspot.com

Stanford’s first Grand Slam Championships

31 Sunday Jan 2010

Posted by Tea-mahm in "Jamaica Osorio", Stanford poetry slam

≈ 3 Comments

with the winners going to the Nationals. I had to go. Only three dollars at the door. After catching Youth Speaks last year, I wanted to see what this group of poets was up to. I have been following Jamaica Osorio’s spoken word with great interest.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d54xhGzwM50). Here was a chance to see her work it. I invited my friend Michelle, who is great company,

Michelle

and rode from SF with me, while we listened to DJ Solomon’s music. Spoken Word. Slam poetry. There is something fresh and slightly jittery about the first time. With a slam, first is bound to be good because there’s a sparkle and none of the jive and expectation that comes with tried and true.

Rayna's poem

They gave us zammee.com to login for a broadcast… waiting for that to begin and it’s midnight. I may have to re-write this after I catch the download. Apologies if I don’t get the names right. There was no program with names printed so I’m guessing.

Mercy Bell began with a bitter-sweet piece about a girl and her father. “James Hurell saves Mercy’s soul on Sunday…” and took us with her, as a good poet does. We believed her.

There were poets with love poems, heartbreak poems, but two of performers brought up the unspeakable tragedy of unnecessary death and suicide.

Simon's spoken word

The tall poet named Simon spoke out with precision and speed of suicide with reference to the railroad crossing in Palo Alto. “We sing this song for the 5 who have died…”

I finally met Jamaica!

Jamaica Osorio shared with us the awful pain of death by fire. These are tough subjects to speak about, even metaphorically. Jamaica brings dazzling light to dark places. Both got high marks from the judges.

Bryan Yu slammed down a concert poem with panache and numerous four letter words. The crowd loved it and he would have had the highest score except that he ran over the time limit.

The poem that I yelled for the loudest was by Rayna, entitled “Questions for a Stranger.” She rocked it. Here are a few lines I caught as it unrolled:

…Who are you?

…How do you kiss?

…How many books by women have you read?

…Would you sleep with me just to forget other people?

…What’s under your pillow?

Bryan (Ryan?) and Rayna - going to the nationals!

If I were to describe the evening I’d say the archetypal theater masks of tragedy and comedy were balanced, the spoken word poetry community at Stanford – alive and very supportive of one another. There was a good turnout. The MC’s did a great job, but I only caught Stan’s name. I will definitely return to the Second Annual Stanford Poetry Slam. Yes, poets! Be waiting to see how you do in the Nationals.

http://www.youtube.com/user/eJAMAICAtor

<><> <><> <><>