By Tanya Batson-Savage, Freelance Writer
Simba... This struggle for freedom is one which will dismantle all that was built by colonial powers as it will 'spill rum', 'scatter rice' and 'root up chaney'.
- File
HER SMALL wiry frame was filled with energy as, barefooted, she stepped to the microphone.
A-dZiko Simba, with musician and poet M'bala attached to her arm was about to give the monthly Poetry Society of Jamaica Fellowship at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, St Andrew, a taste of her poetry. She was the Tuesday night's final performer, delivering three poems.
According to Tommy Ricketts, who introduced her, Simba was providing a 'sneak peek' of her debut album which will be launched at next month's fellowship. The album titled Crazy Ladi Dayz is also the first project for Simba's production company Jump and Fly.
ACCOMPLISHMENT
"I feel as though I've jumped," said Simba, using the name of the company to explain her feeling of accomplishment on producing the album. She noted however, that she was not sure she had attained the flying part as yet.
A 'crazy ladi day' is the eighth day which allows the woman to rise to a higher level as she let's everything go on that one day. Crazy Ladi Dayz, the album, will be accompanied by a book which is yet to be produced. Simba explained that the book will also include the other art form which she works in, storytelling and art. Simba, who works as a consultant largely with educational programmes, noted that Jump and Fly intends to produce projects related to her work. As such she is working on a large format pop-up book as well as a drug awareness CD.
MIX OF MUSIC
Crazy Ladi Dayz features 10 poems, two songs and an instrumental piece. This is not particularly surprising as Simba's poetry is often a mix of music and poetry as her works dance across the rhythmic divide between poetry and song.
The full moon and starless sky which hovered above the amphitheatre made the perfect backdrop for her easy moving, rhythmic poetry. Though her voice is soft, she only shouts once, it carries easily as she rocks to the rhythm of her words and M'bala's drumming.
Simba performed two of the poems from Crazy Ladi Dayz, Le Urve and Wordsoundpower. She began with Le Urve which is a countdown of all the things that a loved one can be compared to. A few of them were quite conventionally poetic, with comparisons such as moonlight casting silver shadows on silken sheets. Others such as "You remind of 'Woa mi Mumma," broke with convention.
In the spirit of the recent hurricane and quite in keeping with several of the night's performers, Simba performed an Ivan poem. Like Sage who had performed shortly before her, Ivan was a metaphor. The poem Dis One Ya Name declared that "Dis one ya called 500 years of staying alive." It used the dangerous power of a hurricane as a metaphor for a struggle for freedom which will make all "bush fret" (pun apparently intended).
DISMANTLE
"This struggle for freedom is one which will dismantle all that was built by colonial powers as it will 'spill rum', 'scatter rice' and 'root up chaney'." (another pun intended). The poem ended by invoking the power of Marcus Garvey as it declared:
But dis one
Dis particular one weh dem call Ivan
Im done tell wi seh im a go come in the whirlwind.
At the end of the night, Ricketts reclaimed the microphone to deliver his parting shot. "Until next month we a talk bout makin di poems be true to dem word," he told the gathering. "If no light, no water, let there be poems."
