“now is the time for me to rise”
the place- the blue ox bar
the event- acentos
the occasion- fish’s feature
the challenge- as co-founder, you have to live up to the following A class performances from the following list of poets-
guy lecharles gonzalez, edward garcia, sabrina hayeem ladani, grisel, emanuel xavier, michele kotler, bonafide rojas, toro, cheryl boyce taylor, anacaona, louis reyes rivera, karen jaime, jorge monterossa, raymond daniel medina, willie perdomo, and mahina movement.
as of yet, no one has dropped the ball. no one! even ana, who only did one piece came through in a condition that a doctor would not have approved of. ed performed in 100+ fever. jorge rocked out 18 poems. guy had his first ever reading in his beloved bX. grisel sang a broadway number. michele brought the teaching artists of community~word (rachelle street, lisa ascalon, marina wilson & aracelis girmay). wiliie was willie. and louis reyes is the griot.
the extra challenge- invite every body you care bout from all realms of your being and lay it all on the line
the play by play- it was a welcome night off from hosting action. guy is probably THE best host i have ever seen and i love seeing him go through the motions. maya azucena kicked it off and it was cool to have things start off on that kinda note. (now that i think about it– a lot of musical acts have dropped by the ox… wonder why?) the open mic was at its usual high levels and it was nice seeing a few folks drop by, specifically eric g. his poetry always rocks my world and i was happy to hear em read.
our bartender tina went from the penthouse to the outhouse with her jabbering and bantering. one cat that i tried cutting out of the open mic for time purposes makes a big fuss about why the earth can not continue with out his words. (why? why? its not them asking and/or riffing that bothers me… it’s the fact that they never can do it softly and i give in most of the time just so that the current reader doesnt get interrupted) juan did a poem that deals with a deeper issue but he went for the straight comedy and lost almost all of his point.
the main event- in a word, awesome. a real conspiracy of the stars to achieve an event singular in magnitude. definitely one of the best sets i have ever seen from anyone and a real show of range and personal perspective.
the aftermath- another tuesday in the books. sounds pretty simple and straight forward but that’s what i have gotten used to.
who knows? maybe it’s the fact that people aren’t used to coming to the bronx and they bring all their high energy stuff. maybe its the place itself. nah! it’s different for First Wednesdays. so maybe its the crowd. anywayz, its been stellar performance after stellar performance with everybody just giving a lil bit more…. fish did that and i am really happy for him.
the sequel- come back in two weeks and hear alixa & naima rip the blue ox apart with a dynamic multi-media collaborative showcase.