It's scarcely been open two weeks, but Andrea Dempster's bookstore-cafe Bookophilia, looks set to establish itself in this still-growing niche category of retail.
Expressionz missed the official opening on Saturday last, but returned (having gone in to the store the previous Friday for a 'sneak preview') last Wednesday and was handsomely rewarded by finding a copy of Anglo-jamaican jazz bassist Coleridge Goode's auto-bio, Bass Lines: A Life In Jazz, in the used books/trade section. Persons who wish to trade books need to bring in a comparable title (same genre) or otherwise pay the listed price on the book.
The new book selection is quite wide, and the young 'art-o-phile' also has paintings available.
if you're in the Liguanea area, stop by on Hope Road (next to Starapples restaurant)anf get your book fix
Friday, April 18, 2008
'Inspirating' with Charlie Bobus
Charlie Bobus: HARDEST-WORKING MAN IN THE DUB POETRY BUSINESS
The following are excerpts from an interview with poet-entrepreneur Nicardo ‘Charlie Bobus’ Murray by Karin Wilson of Jamaican culture blog, Yard Edge. The interview in full is available at www.yardedge.net
How did you first become a dub poet?
Charlie Bobus: I first became a dub poet through the writing of poems while attending Wolmers High, especially after starting English Language and English Literature classes. I used to first DJ in public since around 1993 appearing on community stage shows, going to studios and talent shows, but I always wrote poetry.
Disgusted with the dancehall fraternity heading towards glorifying guns and sex, the lack of motivational lyrics that weren’t necessarily religious and seeing the need for the upliftment of the youths I stopped writing certain lyrics and started writing only positive lyrics.
What do you see as your “mission” as a dub poet?
Charlie Bobus: My mission is the empowerment of minds and the upliftment of youths for the betterment of mankind. The mission is to use dub poetry to spread a positive message while building the poetry industry to be viable commercially, changing the view that poetry is not a viable occupation.
What inspires you in your work?
Charlie Bobus: The love of dub poetry and the purpose that the Almighty has given me that I have dedicated my life to, the dedication that lead me to give up working 9 to 5 and everything and start Inspirator International.
What drives me is the dedication to working with youths and bringing the positive messages to them knowing the situation they face growing up having come from a volatile community and having faced hardship.
How have you developed your skill?
Charlie Bobus: I have developed my skill through my long experience in the performing arts, having started writing and performing on stage from an early age; through years of self-education, online courses, reading and preparation. Learning from the elders in the dub poetry movement and having a strong consultation network.
How would people who know you describe you?
Charlie Bobus: I am being called by the poets and poetry events promoters in business as the hardest-working dub poet. I am described as a high energy motivational dub poet who is always out there supporting the poetry scene and poets’ careers
What exactly is “Inspirator International”?
Charlie Bobus: Inspirator International is a company formed by Nicardo Charlie Bobus Murray, August 13th 2005. It is now a home based business and was formed after Charlie Bobus saw a need for the people to get motivational products and entertainment and he had certain plans that he saw no other organization or company inside the dub poetry industry providing the way to achieve.
Inspirator International is a licensed book publishing company and has produced the “Creative Energy” book of motivation and poetry, as well as the “Creative Energy” video that has premiered on Hype TV and the “Creative Energy” CD and is a therefore also a dub poetry record label. I have also edited a number of books and poems for other authors and will soon be publishing the works of poets from Jamaica and Trinidad.
Inspirator International is a events promotion company specializing in dub poetry events and keeps an annual show in the Grants Pen community that is going three years this June 28. We are also organizing the first Dub Poetry Festival for August 2009 and Jamaica’s first Poetry Lounge to be opened early 2009 which will also be the offices and store of Inspirator International.
We also have launched the Inspirator Dub Poetry Sound System. We work with the youths, volunteer with youth programs and schools to teach dub poetry for the National Festival programs, offer workshops and motivational speaking sessions.
The following are excerpts from an interview with poet-entrepreneur Nicardo ‘Charlie Bobus’ Murray by Karin Wilson of Jamaican culture blog, Yard Edge. The interview in full is available at www.yardedge.net
How did you first become a dub poet?
Charlie Bobus: I first became a dub poet through the writing of poems while attending Wolmers High, especially after starting English Language and English Literature classes. I used to first DJ in public since around 1993 appearing on community stage shows, going to studios and talent shows, but I always wrote poetry.
Disgusted with the dancehall fraternity heading towards glorifying guns and sex, the lack of motivational lyrics that weren’t necessarily religious and seeing the need for the upliftment of the youths I stopped writing certain lyrics and started writing only positive lyrics.
What do you see as your “mission” as a dub poet?
Charlie Bobus: My mission is the empowerment of minds and the upliftment of youths for the betterment of mankind. The mission is to use dub poetry to spread a positive message while building the poetry industry to be viable commercially, changing the view that poetry is not a viable occupation.
What inspires you in your work?
Charlie Bobus: The love of dub poetry and the purpose that the Almighty has given me that I have dedicated my life to, the dedication that lead me to give up working 9 to 5 and everything and start Inspirator International.
What drives me is the dedication to working with youths and bringing the positive messages to them knowing the situation they face growing up having come from a volatile community and having faced hardship.
How have you developed your skill?
Charlie Bobus: I have developed my skill through my long experience in the performing arts, having started writing and performing on stage from an early age; through years of self-education, online courses, reading and preparation. Learning from the elders in the dub poetry movement and having a strong consultation network.
How would people who know you describe you?
Charlie Bobus: I am being called by the poets and poetry events promoters in business as the hardest-working dub poet. I am described as a high energy motivational dub poet who is always out there supporting the poetry scene and poets’ careers
What exactly is “Inspirator International”?
Charlie Bobus: Inspirator International is a company formed by Nicardo Charlie Bobus Murray, August 13th 2005. It is now a home based business and was formed after Charlie Bobus saw a need for the people to get motivational products and entertainment and he had certain plans that he saw no other organization or company inside the dub poetry industry providing the way to achieve.
Inspirator International is a licensed book publishing company and has produced the “Creative Energy” book of motivation and poetry, as well as the “Creative Energy” video that has premiered on Hype TV and the “Creative Energy” CD and is a therefore also a dub poetry record label. I have also edited a number of books and poems for other authors and will soon be publishing the works of poets from Jamaica and Trinidad.
Inspirator International is a events promotion company specializing in dub poetry events and keeps an annual show in the Grants Pen community that is going three years this June 28. We are also organizing the first Dub Poetry Festival for August 2009 and Jamaica’s first Poetry Lounge to be opened early 2009 which will also be the offices and store of Inspirator International.
We also have launched the Inspirator Dub Poetry Sound System. We work with the youths, volunteer with youth programs and schools to teach dub poetry for the National Festival programs, offer workshops and motivational speaking sessions.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Curator's Eye Returns
This from our friends at the Nat Gal
CURATOR’S EYE III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound
(April 17 – June 28, 2008)
Curated by Keith Morrison
Curator’s Eye III consists of the work of 15 artists, five of whom live abroad. The exhibition is called Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound because the media used by the artists extend the range of the traditional visual arts. The exhibition involves animation, film, TV and video projections mixed with sound, room installations, and interactive art, along with paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures. It is an exhibition with a variety of ceremonial themes to be found in Jamaican art, reflecting a dynamism from which Jamaica takes its cultural character and a source of a continuum from the cultures of ancient Africa to our time.
The following is a brief description of the work of each artist in the exhibition:
Cleve Bowen’s work is a mixed media room installation called Tribulation of the Flesh, but. It includes sculptural objects, paintings and mirror reflections. Projected with dramatic light Bowen’s art is about time seen through light as a source of biblical and futuristic spirituality.
Lawrence Graham-Brown presents a series titled Who is Most Masculine. Using a video of a beauty pageant, and allegorical paintings about the primitive nature of sexuality, Graham-Brown examines the social construct of gender behaviour and questions gender-identity.
Photographer Albert Chong’s work in the show is a presentation of 27 slides. His photographs are transformations of men and women in bodies that are decoratively adorned or tattooed. Through adornment and metamorphosis, Chong creates a world of figures that are sometimes androgynous, sometimes macabre, sometimes regal, sometimes feminine or masculine, but always sensual.
Carol Campbell’s work in this exhibition is an installation of jewellery using imagery from ancient Africa to the present. The objects of jewellery are artistic expressions that stand alone as sculptural objects, each with its own individual expression.
Carol Crichton makes richly layered paintings in which the Jamaican athlete is depicted as hero. Her highly structured compositions are like x-rays of colours and patterns that move back and forth through space.
Paula Daley has created an installation evoking her childhood experience of marching to the altar to receive the priest’s blessing in church. Her work seeks to recapture the magic and beauty of the mysterious artefacts and symbols of the altar.
Michelle Eistrup makes microscopic studies of plants, objects, animals and birds that become symbolic participants in her art work. Her method fuses photography and drawing and focuses on the nature of cultural dichotomies. The artist feels her work embodies much of the essence of expatriate Caribbean people who cull information from plants and insects to develop their own potions for survival.
Andy Jefferson has created a two-part concept of Totems and mixed media images. His six totem poles mirrored by three prints and three paintings form a conceptualisation of ceremony and ritual. Jefferson ’s totems each represent an area of ceremony. The artist uses African, North American Indian and Taino symbols, embellished with mixed media, found objects, paint and varnish to create images of ceremony.
Ras Kassa’s work titled The Stew is an audio-visual presentation of traditional and contemporary life and performance in urban Jamaica . His work captures on film pedestrians, traffic and accompanying sounds in teaming Kingston . Imagery of Kumina, Jonkunu, Rastafari, Carnival, Dancehall, Obeah, marijuana, and a variety of other social rituals are wielded together into a personal vision.
O’Neil Lawrence ’s black and white photographs dramatize a ritual by the sea. They are allegorical dramas that are staged with human models shrouded by a large white sheet billowing in the wind by the shore. Lawrence ’s work occupies an aesthetic place somewhere between the photograph as a mirror of existence and the photograph as a documentation of a staged action.
Khepera Hatsheptwa’s installation titled Commemoration and Memorialisation has three components, most prominent of which is a large circular form on the floor in the centre of the room. The second is a form made of meshing which is installed on a wall as an interactive assemblage. Paper and strings are provided for viewers to write tribute to loved ones that died. The concept also includes is a surrounding music system, with sounds evoking commemoration and memorialisation. Hatsheptwa’s idea is that art in the traditional African sense is a forum for celebration, commemoration or mourning.
Petrona Morrison’s video installation Us/Dem II continues an investigation into the dominance of contested territory and space within Jamaican culture, and its reinforcement in popular culture. What began as the artist’s concern with the degree of violence in the society has broadened: in what ways has our history shaped our stratifications and what is its relationship to this violence?
Ebony Patterson’s works on the theme “Gangstas for life” is a series of mixed media paintings on paper of characters that the artist uses as quintessential images for masculinity within Jamaican Dancehall culture. Patterson’s work explores the fashionable Jamaican practice of skin bleaching within the Dancehall culture and issues of dark skin/light skin prejudice from slavery to the present. Patterson’s work deconstructs stereotypical homosexual beauties, with bleached faces, red glossed lips and feminine motifs.
Tal Rickards is a filmmaker and photographer whose entry in the exhibition is his 9 minute film Serengeti. This is a film about the complex maze that is urban life today. In Serengeti a figure is running purposefully through an urban landscape toward some unknown destination. He appears to be lost yet focused and resolved in his journey as he runs through danger and foreboding toward a calmer space. Serengeti is a metaphor for the human journey through life’s obstacles. It is also the ritual of the mythic Jamaica wanderlust.
Filmmaker Oneika Russell’s work in the exhibition is a video animation about the metamorphosis of an imaginary slave ship into a contemporary urban icon. In her video Moby Dick dives with Ophelia who rises transformed as the Dancehall girl. Russell’s video is about the indelible stamp of Western education that is part of the fabric of Jamaica , and posits its relationship to the emerging literature of popular culture.
CURATOR’S EYE III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound brings together new media with more conventional forms of art to explore ideas that are important in Jamaican culture today. Issues include Dancehall culture, reinterpretations of beauty and a variety of ceremonial practices. If Curator’s Eye III is any indication, the future of Jamaican art could be internationally outstanding.
________________________________________________________________
Keith Morrison is a Jamaican-born artist who has exhibited internationally in many galleries and museums, including the art Institute of Chicago , the Smithsonian, The Cincinnati Museum, the DeYoung Museum , and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He has curated many exhibitions, including Art in Washington and its African American Presence: 1940-1970.He has been Professor and Dean in many art schools and universities, including the San Francisco Art Institute, the San Francisco State University , the University of Maryland , and the Tyler School of Art Temple University. Morrison has written for many publications including The New art Examiner, the Corcoran Gallery, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, and the Washington Post. The monograph titled Keith Morrison, by Dr. Renee Ater was published by Pomegranate Press in 2005.
GENERAL INFORMATION
www.galleryjamaica.org
CURATOR’S EYE III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound
(April 17 – June 28, 2008)
Curated by Keith Morrison
Curator’s Eye III consists of the work of 15 artists, five of whom live abroad. The exhibition is called Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound because the media used by the artists extend the range of the traditional visual arts. The exhibition involves animation, film, TV and video projections mixed with sound, room installations, and interactive art, along with paintings, photographs, prints and sculptures. It is an exhibition with a variety of ceremonial themes to be found in Jamaican art, reflecting a dynamism from which Jamaica takes its cultural character and a source of a continuum from the cultures of ancient Africa to our time.
The following is a brief description of the work of each artist in the exhibition:
Cleve Bowen’s work is a mixed media room installation called Tribulation of the Flesh, but. It includes sculptural objects, paintings and mirror reflections. Projected with dramatic light Bowen’s art is about time seen through light as a source of biblical and futuristic spirituality.
Lawrence Graham-Brown presents a series titled Who is Most Masculine. Using a video of a beauty pageant, and allegorical paintings about the primitive nature of sexuality, Graham-Brown examines the social construct of gender behaviour and questions gender-identity.
Photographer Albert Chong’s work in the show is a presentation of 27 slides. His photographs are transformations of men and women in bodies that are decoratively adorned or tattooed. Through adornment and metamorphosis, Chong creates a world of figures that are sometimes androgynous, sometimes macabre, sometimes regal, sometimes feminine or masculine, but always sensual.
Carol Campbell’s work in this exhibition is an installation of jewellery using imagery from ancient Africa to the present. The objects of jewellery are artistic expressions that stand alone as sculptural objects, each with its own individual expression.
Carol Crichton makes richly layered paintings in which the Jamaican athlete is depicted as hero. Her highly structured compositions are like x-rays of colours and patterns that move back and forth through space.
Paula Daley has created an installation evoking her childhood experience of marching to the altar to receive the priest’s blessing in church. Her work seeks to recapture the magic and beauty of the mysterious artefacts and symbols of the altar.
Michelle Eistrup makes microscopic studies of plants, objects, animals and birds that become symbolic participants in her art work. Her method fuses photography and drawing and focuses on the nature of cultural dichotomies. The artist feels her work embodies much of the essence of expatriate Caribbean people who cull information from plants and insects to develop their own potions for survival.
Andy Jefferson has created a two-part concept of Totems and mixed media images. His six totem poles mirrored by three prints and three paintings form a conceptualisation of ceremony and ritual. Jefferson ’s totems each represent an area of ceremony. The artist uses African, North American Indian and Taino symbols, embellished with mixed media, found objects, paint and varnish to create images of ceremony.
Ras Kassa’s work titled The Stew is an audio-visual presentation of traditional and contemporary life and performance in urban Jamaica . His work captures on film pedestrians, traffic and accompanying sounds in teaming Kingston . Imagery of Kumina, Jonkunu, Rastafari, Carnival, Dancehall, Obeah, marijuana, and a variety of other social rituals are wielded together into a personal vision.
O’Neil Lawrence ’s black and white photographs dramatize a ritual by the sea. They are allegorical dramas that are staged with human models shrouded by a large white sheet billowing in the wind by the shore. Lawrence ’s work occupies an aesthetic place somewhere between the photograph as a mirror of existence and the photograph as a documentation of a staged action.
Khepera Hatsheptwa’s installation titled Commemoration and Memorialisation has three components, most prominent of which is a large circular form on the floor in the centre of the room. The second is a form made of meshing which is installed on a wall as an interactive assemblage. Paper and strings are provided for viewers to write tribute to loved ones that died. The concept also includes is a surrounding music system, with sounds evoking commemoration and memorialisation. Hatsheptwa’s idea is that art in the traditional African sense is a forum for celebration, commemoration or mourning.
Petrona Morrison’s video installation Us/Dem II continues an investigation into the dominance of contested territory and space within Jamaican culture, and its reinforcement in popular culture. What began as the artist’s concern with the degree of violence in the society has broadened: in what ways has our history shaped our stratifications and what is its relationship to this violence?
Ebony Patterson’s works on the theme “Gangstas for life” is a series of mixed media paintings on paper of characters that the artist uses as quintessential images for masculinity within Jamaican Dancehall culture. Patterson’s work explores the fashionable Jamaican practice of skin bleaching within the Dancehall culture and issues of dark skin/light skin prejudice from slavery to the present. Patterson’s work deconstructs stereotypical homosexual beauties, with bleached faces, red glossed lips and feminine motifs.
Tal Rickards is a filmmaker and photographer whose entry in the exhibition is his 9 minute film Serengeti. This is a film about the complex maze that is urban life today. In Serengeti a figure is running purposefully through an urban landscape toward some unknown destination. He appears to be lost yet focused and resolved in his journey as he runs through danger and foreboding toward a calmer space. Serengeti is a metaphor for the human journey through life’s obstacles. It is also the ritual of the mythic Jamaica wanderlust.
Filmmaker Oneika Russell’s work in the exhibition is a video animation about the metamorphosis of an imaginary slave ship into a contemporary urban icon. In her video Moby Dick dives with Ophelia who rises transformed as the Dancehall girl. Russell’s video is about the indelible stamp of Western education that is part of the fabric of Jamaica , and posits its relationship to the emerging literature of popular culture.
CURATOR’S EYE III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound brings together new media with more conventional forms of art to explore ideas that are important in Jamaican culture today. Issues include Dancehall culture, reinterpretations of beauty and a variety of ceremonial practices. If Curator’s Eye III is any indication, the future of Jamaican art could be internationally outstanding.
________________________________________________________________
Keith Morrison is a Jamaican-born artist who has exhibited internationally in many galleries and museums, including the art Institute of Chicago , the Smithsonian, The Cincinnati Museum, the DeYoung Museum , and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He has curated many exhibitions, including Art in Washington and its African American Presence: 1940-1970.He has been Professor and Dean in many art schools and universities, including the San Francisco Art Institute, the San Francisco State University , the University of Maryland , and the Tyler School of Art Temple University. Morrison has written for many publications including The New art Examiner, the Corcoran Gallery, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, and the Washington Post. The monograph titled Keith Morrison, by Dr. Renee Ater was published by Pomegranate Press in 2005.
GENERAL INFORMATION
www.galleryjamaica.org
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Poppy Seed & Cherry Natural for Bobus
These two ladies, Poppy Seed & Cherry Natural are aming the featured acts on Charlie Bobus' latest dub poetry venture. Thier bios follow:
POPPY SEED AKA ANGELA HARVEY takes performance poetry to a new level she has been described as being “on the cusp of poetry and song” and sheds a positive light on the Urban music scene. From North London, this Poet, Activist, Composer, Playwright, Singer/Songwriter, and Lecturer for over a decade has composed and penned an extensive repertoire. Described as being a “cut between Eryka Badu and Sade” with “a Breeze of her own”; Poppy Seed ‘s original music crosses genres to embrace Jazz, Soul, R&B, African Roots, Rock, Reggae and pop influences which enhance the themes of her poetry. The lyrics are socially and environmentally aware, conscious and easy to listen to. Poppy Seed is a musical act which is eloquent, thought provoking, intoxicating, and a natural high, which
‘has to be seen to appreciate the visual and spiritual impact’ (Muta);
‘A warm revolutionary’ (Observer JA),
‘Compelling and inspiring’ (Invincible Magazine).
‘A rare flower…’ (Sade)
With extensive experience on the live poetry gig circuit, unsigned Poppy Seed in 2007 released her Album ‘Coming Through’, which is a selection from that wide repertoire. It aims to solidify her presence and make an official POPPY SEED imprint into the wider public arena and music industry. With its unique spin on Poetic Soulful, Jazz Roots and Culture, the POPPY SEED sound is versatile, well crafted, intelligent, feisty, and healing!
In recent years Poppy Seed has impacted on regional UK festivals, high profile Corporate Arenas, countless Social Justice Campaigns in the UK and abroad including Germany (Lyrik Eins Poetry Festival), New York, Philadelphia, and South Africa (Step Afrika – Aids Awareness), gaining National & International notoriety. Further seasoned and encouraged by Mentors and associates - Mutabaruka (Godfather of Dub Poetry), Sade (Queen of Sultry Soul); and Producers David Ivory (The Roots, Gill Scot), Delroy Murray (Total Contrast, En Core), Robin Millar (Sade), Paul Hussey (Celloman, Thabani), and Mad Professor (Dub music Emporium);
2008 promises a lasting impression for POPPY SEED as she Comes Through the London poetry scene for International Woman’s month and beyond.
Whether performing as a PA, Full band sound, or acoustic set, Poppy Seed will move you.
See www.myspace.com/poppyseedpoetry
For bookings contact Management: Linda Small at email: eventsinmotionuk@yahoo.co.uk
Cherry Natural
Meet Cherry Natural, Jamaica’s top reggae female poet.
She’s been described as an African guerrilla woman. This petite black belt martial arts instructor is a revolutionary who speaks on behalf of oppressed peoples throughout the world. She’s concerned about women and their struggles, their rights to equal social and economic opportunities and her poems make no apologies in addressing these issues. Her work celebrates poetry, advocates militancy and celebrates women.
Everyone knows her as Cherry Natural but her given name is Marcia Wedderburn Inspired by Jamaica’s own legendary folklorist, poet, actress, author, Louise Bennett , Cherry Natural has been entertaining and using her work to educate people from all over the world for almost 20-years. It all started when Cherry was 12. Using Miss Lou’s works on which to hinge her own style of writing , she penned a poem called ‘Time Hard’ which won favour with both her teacher and classmates. From that time until now, Cherry Natural has done nothing but write and perform her poems. Her collection of poems to date is somewhere in the region of 3000.
Her poems reflect her militancy, her ability to use her art to heal, liberate, and motivate. She gets her fulfilment from the changes her works bring about among women who are still among the most oppressed and suffer from low self esteem. But she also writes to motivate men and children. In fact, she writes to motivate the human race because as Cherry Natural puts it herself, her greatest joy in life is to see people enjoying life and the privileges that come with living.
While her emphasis is on live performances, Cherry Natural has to date published two books of her poetry, the first in 1989 titled, 'Come Mek we Reason’ and in 2002, ‘Earth Woman’. Her debut album also titled ‘Earth Woman’ was released in 1999. She also performs with her daughter. ‘Little Natural’ who though not so little anymore, has been strongly influenced by her mother’s teachings
Please come out and support Charlie Bobus fundraising show @ Red Bones Blues Cafe, proceeds in aid of Charlie Bobus Texas Tour to go perform on the Austin International Poetry Festival this weekend, See Letter attached for details on tour and please assist if you can, forward this email to all poetry loving Jamaicans or all your contacts, Dub Poetry is on a rise .
Everybody has been asking about Poppy Seed well here is information about this poet and also Cherry Natural!
POPPY SEED AKA ANGELA HARVEY takes performance poetry to a new level she has been described as being “on the cusp of poetry and song” and sheds a positive light on the Urban music scene. From North London, this Poet, Activist, Composer, Playwright, Singer/Songwriter, and Lecturer for over a decade has composed and penned an extensive repertoire. Described as being a “cut between Eryka Badu and Sade” with “a Breeze of her own”; Poppy Seed ‘s original music crosses genres to embrace Jazz, Soul, R&B, African Roots, Rock, Reggae and pop influences which enhance the themes of her poetry. The lyrics are socially and environmentally aware, conscious and easy to listen to. Poppy Seed is a musical act which is eloquent, thought provoking, intoxicating, and a natural high, which
‘has to be seen to appreciate the visual and spiritual impact’ (Muta);
‘A warm revolutionary’ (Observer JA),
‘Compelling and inspiring’ (Invincible Magazine).
‘A rare flower…’ (Sade)
With extensive experience on the live poetry gig circuit, unsigned Poppy Seed in 2007 released her Album ‘Coming Through’, which is a selection from that wide repertoire. It aims to solidify her presence and make an official POPPY SEED imprint into the wider public arena and music industry. With its unique spin on Poetic Soulful, Jazz Roots and Culture, the POPPY SEED sound is versatile, well crafted, intelligent, feisty, and healing!
In recent years Poppy Seed has impacted on regional UK festivals, high profile Corporate Arenas, countless Social Justice Campaigns in the UK and abroad including Germany (Lyrik Eins Poetry Festival), New York, Philadelphia, and South Africa (Step Afrika – Aids Awareness), gaining National & International notoriety. Further seasoned and encouraged by Mentors and associates - Mutabaruka (Godfather of Dub Poetry), Sade (Queen of Sultry Soul); and Producers David Ivory (The Roots, Gill Scot), Delroy Murray (Total Contrast, En Core), Robin Millar (Sade), Paul Hussey (Celloman, Thabani), and Mad Professor (Dub music Emporium);
2008 promises a lasting impression for POPPY SEED as she Comes Through the London poetry scene for International Woman’s month and beyond.
Whether performing as a PA, Full band sound, or acoustic set, Poppy Seed will move you.
See www.myspace.com/poppyseedpoetry
For bookings contact Management: Linda Small at email: eventsinmotionuk@yahoo.co.uk
Cherry Natural
Meet Cherry Natural, Jamaica’s top reggae female poet.
She’s been described as an African guerrilla woman. This petite black belt martial arts instructor is a revolutionary who speaks on behalf of oppressed peoples throughout the world. She’s concerned about women and their struggles, their rights to equal social and economic opportunities and her poems make no apologies in addressing these issues. Her work celebrates poetry, advocates militancy and celebrates women.
Everyone knows her as Cherry Natural but her given name is Marcia Wedderburn Inspired by Jamaica’s own legendary folklorist, poet, actress, author, Louise Bennett , Cherry Natural has been entertaining and using her work to educate people from all over the world for almost 20-years. It all started when Cherry was 12. Using Miss Lou’s works on which to hinge her own style of writing , she penned a poem called ‘Time Hard’ which won favour with both her teacher and classmates. From that time until now, Cherry Natural has done nothing but write and perform her poems. Her collection of poems to date is somewhere in the region of 3000.
Her poems reflect her militancy, her ability to use her art to heal, liberate, and motivate. She gets her fulfilment from the changes her works bring about among women who are still among the most oppressed and suffer from low self esteem. But she also writes to motivate men and children. In fact, she writes to motivate the human race because as Cherry Natural puts it herself, her greatest joy in life is to see people enjoying life and the privileges that come with living.
While her emphasis is on live performances, Cherry Natural has to date published two books of her poetry, the first in 1989 titled, 'Come Mek we Reason’ and in 2002, ‘Earth Woman’. Her debut album also titled ‘Earth Woman’ was released in 1999. She also performs with her daughter. ‘Little Natural’ who though not so little anymore, has been strongly influenced by her mother’s teachings
Please come out and support Charlie Bobus fundraising show @ Red Bones Blues Cafe, proceeds in aid of Charlie Bobus Texas Tour to go perform on the Austin International Poetry Festival this weekend, See Letter attached for details on tour and please assist if you can, forward this email to all poetry loving Jamaicans or all your contacts, Dub Poetry is on a rise .
Everybody has been asking about Poppy Seed well here is information about this poet and also Cherry Natural!
Friday, April 04, 2008
Euro Movie Night @ REd Bones
Movie Night at Redbones - 21 Braemar Avenue
This Saturday 5th April, 2008
Presents:
1) La Vie En Rose
Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Actress(2008) for her portrayal of the great French singer Edith Piaf in this recreation of her tragic life.
(Directed by Olivier Dahan, in French w/subtitles, 140 minutes, 2007)
2)The Counterfeiters(Die Fälscher)
This film just won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film (2008). The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history set up by the Nazis in a concentration camp during World War II. The moral dilemma for the prisoners involved was to decide on helping the German war effort or to sabotage it and risk execution.
(Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, in German w/subtitles, 95 minutes, 2007)
Contribution: $250
Showtime: 8pm(La Vie En Rose); 10:30pm(Counterfeiters)
Carry a blanket if you want to lie on the grass and hang out and listen to the music in the courtyard afterwards.
This Saturday 5th April, 2008
Presents:
1) La Vie En Rose
Marion Cotillard won the Oscar for Best Actress(2008) for her portrayal of the great French singer Edith Piaf in this recreation of her tragic life.
(Directed by Olivier Dahan, in French w/subtitles, 140 minutes, 2007)
2)The Counterfeiters(Die Fälscher)
This film just won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film (2008). The Counterfeiters is the true story of the largest counterfeiting operation in history set up by the Nazis in a concentration camp during World War II. The moral dilemma for the prisoners involved was to decide on helping the German war effort or to sabotage it and risk execution.
(Directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, in German w/subtitles, 95 minutes, 2007)
Contribution: $250
Showtime: 8pm(La Vie En Rose); 10:30pm(Counterfeiters)
Carry a blanket if you want to lie on the grass and hang out and listen to the music in the courtyard afterwards.
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