Pace Press

Issue date: 2/16/05 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Media Credit: www.fightapathy.org Brooklyn-based poet, Jive Poetic, introduced the Feb. 5 poetry reading at Poet´s Cafe in Lower Manhattan

As an avid visitor to the Nuyorican Poets Café, I have always known and appreciated the events that they have held there. The performance experiences as well as the welcoming and comfortable crowd are equally enjoyable. However, this trip was quite different than any I had ever attended. Last Saturday I walked into the Café, located on East 3rd Street, and walked into an empty room. The bartender was eating lunch and there was a live band performing...for no one.

All the other times I had previously attended it was in the evening, and the place was filled with a crowd of people and an aura of intelligence. I arrived there at 3 p.m., and soon after, some people began coming in. The place probably fits about 40-50 people, and that day there were just the ten of us...including the bartender. It was very intimate, which made the experience that much better.

The saxophone player, Jeff Robinson of the Jeff Robinson Trio, who was featured that night, was an easygoing gentleman. He happened to be in a talented band, which I got to see shortly after. The band is originally from Boston, and they used to play in a blues band. The Trio started playing at different events and then one day Robinson suggested that they play for poets. The original threesome was comprised of Robinson, Blake Newman (bass) and Dwight Hart (drums). In recent years, they have performed with their new drummer, Jerome Deupree, who adds an excellent sound to the group.

Each member of the band did an amazing solo followed by the introduction of the featured poet, Jive Poetic. It was a small crowd so it felt as if he were speaking...to me, to you...to whoever was sitting in front of him. As he flowed, the words entered my ears and traveled through my body.

Jive Poetic had been touring the world with his lyrics since he won his first poetry slam in January 2001. His hometown is Buffalo, NY, but he currently lives in Brooklyn. His presence seems cultured, and his aura emanates insightfulness. His ideas kept me thinking from the first word to the very last. One of his poems, which has to be heard to be appreciated, suggests that the U.S government and everyday cartoons are interrelated. His theme was "crazy to the normal people and normal to the crazy people." He used controversial lines like, "Niggas is cool, ask any record label..." and "Nigga still means Nigger...Nigga." He reaches into to your mind and forces you to think about the unthought-of.

Continued...

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