Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Soupbone
Before Howard James of Root Cause, organisers of the five-week 'Sey Sup'm' poetry competition, announced the winner of the finals on Tuesday evening, he emphasised that the scores were close.
However, for many in the audience at Weekenz, Constant Spring Road, St. Andrew, the winner was clear and consistent calls of 'Soupbone' coalesced into a chant just before the winner was announced, not by name but by "life hard, eh man?", the refrain of his winning poem.
And there was a roar when the tall, lean Soupbone, after being handed the envelope with his $50,000 prize, said "Contestants stay backstage, me a go buy you a drink."
Two of those contestants, Joseph Current and Latoya Saunders, were already holding gift baskets for their second and third-place showings, respectively, Current's entry being Mr. Gunner Man and Saunders doing History. The other contestants were Ites, who did The Janjaweed, about the murderous militia in Darfur, and Daniel Brooks, who delivered One God, One Aim, One Destiny. One finalist did not show.
Reading is a must
Soupbone received 68 points from judges Mutabaruka, Kei Miller and Charlie Bobos, while Current ended up on 63 and Saunders with 62.5.
However, Miller and Mutabaruka made telling comments before the decision was announced. Miller said: "If you are a poet, you need to read. You can feel something passionately, if you do not read poetry, it will show." And Mutabaruka said, "Basically, we need information to inspire," adding that he found many of the poets today are lacking in that information. "They feel they are so inspired they can write anything," he said.
Charlie Bobos said the contestants had been judged on delivery, impact, creativity, stage presence, use of language and crowd response.
The crowd had responded favourably to Soupbone from the introductory pieces which each poet did, his ending with "check my dial tone, is me Soupbone". And they picked up on his "life hard, eh man?" when the competition entries were delivered, cheering as Soupbone walked over to the settee where the judges were seated on stage to ask "Time hard, eh Muta?" "Jah look at our work and was pleased, when him see our pay him look up an sey father, time hard, eh man?" Soupbone said near the end.
Great expressions
The contestants and judgement came among a wider package of song, a little dance and comedy and a number of guest poets. Seated on a stool and with two acoustic guitarists, Serita took the substantial but far from capacity audience on a sung Sentimental Journey, while Sabriya Simon spoke of the Dead Man Walking. Poet Jah Shanti utilised a rhythm to request Respect Yu Woman andOrville Hall of Dance Theatre Xpressions delivered Double Standard, the poem which revisits Reggae Sumfest 2001 and was his entry in a poetry competition at Weekenz some time ago. However, the line about Moses, the Angel and bun which ignited the audience must have been a recent adjustment.
A single dancer used Hall as her focal point as poetry and movement fused in Pretty Woman and the full unit came on for Xpressions closing song.
Stevie of Rootz Underground sat on a stool, played the guitar and applied his memorable voice to In My Hut, I-Sense reminisced on Trudy-Ann in poem, comedian Rohan Gunter's Mix Up Entertainer News was a rollicking ride and Abebe Payne started his three-poem performance with the encouragement to "puff puff blow".
"This has been a labour of love and something that I figure we need," Clement Hamilton of Root Cause said before the winner was announced. The love has not ended, as there are plans to labour again in September.