Movin' and Shakin'

The pages have turned and I'm on to a new chapter. This forever remains the place it began, but the story continues here...
love, love, love

Beaten but never broken...

Here's the poem I performed at Ribbon Rouge!

It
is where our
dreams were
first conceived
birthed over
rhythm and melody
spoken around
drum circles
echoing the stories
of our
ancestors

Where our mouths
First gave voice to
language
The foundation of all
that we are
was laid
in every corner of
this land
you call
Africa
but I call her

Mother

So,
Let me tell you
about my mother
she
like poetry
is endless
and she wears the smile
of a thousand rising suns
she is lush green
and vibrant red
sugar cane
sweet

beaten but never
broken
let me tell you
about her spirit
worth more than
the price of
oil
or sugar
sparkles brighter than
stolen diamonds
more than
bodies broken
with disease
or mouths silenced
by hunger

She is
a hope that
never dies
A heart
that breaks
and bleeds
love
beautifully flawed

So
When you ask me
why I stand
tall and proud
I’ll tell you
It is because
I exist
one “amen”
to a billion
quiet prayers

I'll tell you
it is because
my name was
chosen with purpose
and declared
sacred

It is
because
I am
My mother’s
daughter

Ribbon Rouge 2009

I'll be performing at an AIDS fundraiser this Friday called Ribbon Rouge. This is it's 4th year running and it's a great night of fashion and entertainment. Click here for details!!!

It do what it do...

I've been absent for some time, but I'm still here.
Rouge nights have been amazing!! It actually surprises me everytime people walk through the doors on tuesday nights. I'm seeing a lot of the same faces coming back every week, it's really turning into a little family. I love it!
And the poetry as always is awesome...Writing something new every week is definitely a challenge, but it's so so great cause I'm getting to expand my body of work, and also experiment in front of a really safe audience. My confidence is definitely growing...I'm just so glad that I've been able to get this going..only up from here :)

I recently attended Legacies '09...fantastic show and it will only continue to get better every year! This year I performed "The Battle" ...as always I did the poem (with excessive arm gestures lol!) and then bolted from the stage..I need to stop that. But people seemed to genuinely like it.

I signed up for the Edmonton Poetry Festival again. I'm doing the Killer Blinks (30 second poetry) and the Cafe Readings. After I signed up, Alice Major, one of the organizers...contacted me and asked me to do an opening spot in the LitCrawl. I'm so excited about it! Check it out here.

More updates later!!!

Love, Love, Love!
Titi

The Battle

There's a distant call
that has fallen on deaf ears
a beckoning
that us
who proclaim ourselves
"woman"
fertile with potential
yet delivering stillborn dreams
can no longer ignore

It is time
to reclaim our purpose
To set bars high and far
so that we may know
the joy of
reaching and surpassing
We cannot
accept mediocrity
any longer

Because our daughters
will pay the price
for our complacency
for allowing our
womanhood to be
sold to the highest bidder
our legacy will be branded
by the burn of denial
heavy on their scalps
pressed straight
to conceal crocked lies

they will deny their mother tongue
accept instead the bend and curl
of another man's language
measure their self worth
on the notches
of belts
too quickly loosened
sit silently
as self hate
is smeared across their faces
lips painted bloody red
to curse their skin
black
and unforgiving
substitute intellect
for blatant disrespect

And this battle began before us
it was written
and proclaimed
through the voices of
faceless
but not forgotten
women who refused
silence

And you can't
run for covergirl
to conceal it
can't pencil in the missing lines
This cannot be glossed over
pinched or plucked to perfection
the ugly reflection
is what we have created

So
It is time for sacrifice
substitute temporary pleasure
for that which is
everlasting
It is time for courage
to accept this challenge
on fearless faith

And we will have
our children
as priceless proof
that the battle
was not in vain

Rouge Poetry!!!

It's finally here! It's been forever in the making, but I've teamed up with Rouge Lounge here in Edmonton for a night of awesome awesome spoken word every Tuesday night! If you live in Edmonton you must come!!!

Free write...

I don't know exactly when it happened, there was no big bang to mark it...no sudden change in the wind...no bright light to warn me...but somewhere along the way, something that seemed so perfect and so right began to come undone at the seams.

Every year I try to convince myself that I'm just a little bit wiser, a little bit better than the last...but I've also learned that as much as I think I know...there is infinitely more that I don't know, and may never understand. But not for lack of trying. The last few weeks I've been high and low...asking myself the same question..trying to quantify what it is that makes me truly happy...my need to control and categorize has me spinning at the thought of not being able to find a neatly defined answer. It's like trying to hit a moving target...

So this is about new beginnings...always moving, always pushing forward, getting better, trying harder..
There are no tears because this isn't about sadness...if there's something I do well, it's accepting the lesson...so I'm trying. I'm being vague..I know. There has been some new poetry which I'll be putting up as soon as the dust settles...and I'm really going to try to be better at this blogging thing in 2009.

So all the best in the New Year! I pray you nothing but love and laughter..

p.s. I didn't get my grant. I haven't given up though...there are other ways.