Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
Benjy Myaz
'Seh Sup'm', the primarily poetry show with a sprinkling of song, opened its open mic edition Sunday night incarnation, moving from its customary Tuesday stagings, with candles on the tables at Weekenz, poets on the mic and Benjy Myaz delivering song.
The show serves as a prelude to the competitive stage of 'Seh Sup'm', where some of the persons who go through the open mic round put their best poetic foot forward for prizes. On Sunday the open mic participants came on after the guests.
DJ Afifa also delivered song, that of the recorded kind, in between performers, who in the main tended to be brief. The LSX poetry trio was on stage when The Gleaner entered the Constant Spring Road, St Andrew, venue, wrapping up their high-energy delivery where they took stanzas in turn with I Miss You Girl.
Personal loss
Kamika stood tall in her heels to read what she said was a short poem ("maybe because it was a very hard one to write") but which turned out to be substantially more, as she poured out her sense of personal loss in a piece where the art played second fiddle to the emotion.
Benjy Myaz did not need vocals on his first song as, with Andrew Christopher on keyboards, he walked on to the stage playing What's Going On?, taking a seat on a low chair and leaning back as he played. The microphone was pressed into service only for scatting, then it was more guitar to the end for very appreciative applause.
Myaz abandoned seat and guitar to sing of Time, the song getting an early restart as it hit the spot. Myaz's movements on stage were without extravagance, his next song going out to the ladies. But it was the slow start to Love You Higher which they really whooped for, the reggae version coming after the chorus was cut short and the audience duly rocking.
Short and left
In keeping with the show's format Myaz said he would keep it short and left, but a recall was in order and guitarist 'Stretch' was involved in the lover's rock title track of Myaz's Long Story Short album. He kept at the ladies with a lovers' rock CD from his new album, leading with his bass guitar.
It was poetry for the rest of the night, the pepper lights draped over Nabby Natural refusing to light up when they were plugged in. Natural went on at length about 'May', including the sound of goat and stretching many a word, such as 'mayternity', the train of thought often hard to follow. In one poem he identified a situation "where words are our weapons of mass instruction", though it was questionable just how much the audience at 'Sey Sup'm' understood.
Mojay led off the open mic participants with Straw People, Mystic Guerilla delivered a Presidential Speech, Kaliba was on the erotic side, Bigga addressed matters that "mek big man vex", Kadiad remembered when blacks were 'Lynched' and Said reflected on the time when "death came for me/but obviously death can wait".
The first then became the last as Emperor, who had performed much earlier, returned by popular request. And with Wildflower, Mission Impossible and Erotica, among a few others, Emperor justified the return to bring Sunday's performances to an end.
