After watching the video for “Nigger-Reecan Blues,” I found that the performing of the piece added more to the piece than was visible on the page. Without Perdomo’s intonation, hand movements and facial expressions, the page poem did not exhibit the humor so prevalent in the performed version. On the page, the poem seems more confrontational while in the performed version the writer/performer could make the listener feel a part of the action not an object of it. In addition, Perdomo added some additional words in the performed piece that I thought made his observations more vivid and enjoyable. For example, the page poem presents the following lines:

I can’t even catch a taxi late at night and the newspapers say that if I’m not in front of a gun, chances are that I’ll be behind one. I wonder why. . .

In the performed version, the image becomes more poignant when the line “I can’t even catch a taxi late at night,” is changed to:

Taxi drivers are quick to turn on those off-duty signs when they see my hand in the air

This language removes the culpability from the speaker by moving the action from the speaker to the taxi driver, from, “I can’t” to “Taxi drivers.” The syntax is more stimulating and conversational, less didactic. It also seems that the page version is dependent on the element of spoken sound. The dashes used to indicate dialogue give this away. In the performed version, certain movements of the speaker’s head and neck, certain vocal conceits, give us an indication that the speaker is speaking through the voices of those that are speaking to him. On the page, we require dashes to signal this move, and the dashes on the page seem clunky and somewhat out of place when judged against the flowing, conversational nature of the piece. The punctuation serves as an unwanted revelation of the bones of the work, like a ribcage exposed on a still-living person.

Whereas I liked the performed version of “Nigger-Reecan Blues” better than the page version, I did not feel the same way about “Rock Me, Goong Hay!” I thoroughly enjoyed the page version of this piece, admiring its clever rhymes, its intrinsic rhythms and its tongue in cheek humor. Unlike Perdomo’s piece, the humor in “Rock Me, Goong Hay!” was inescapable and effective. In the performed rap version, however, physical limitations of the speed of the reader’s human voice, the microphone, electronic equipment, and other issues regarding the venue served to put the poem at a disadvantage. For one thing, the speaker was required to talk so fast that many of the words were not audible and therefore, the message was not clear. Also, I felt that the internal music of the piece was overwritten by the rap beats produced by the musical instruments. It seemed that as a listener, my attention was more on the rhythmic drumbeat than on the message, which might have been okay had the words to the poem not been so involved or clever. I felt that when having to vy for attention with the drums and the lights of the venue, something was irrevocably lost.

Finally, after reading Tony Medina’s “New York City Rundown,” I was somewhat glad I didn’t have to hear this poem performed aloud. The content of the poem was so very confrontational that I felt that watching the reactions of myself and of the other listeners would be supremely uncomfortable. I am all about speaking the truth, but I felt assaulted by this poem even though I don’t feel guilty of most of the things “I” am being accused of as a result of the color I was born. I have come to understand that “whiteness” is now a common catchphrase for intolerance, for the mainstream that attempts to blend everything different into one shade, the fairer the better, to swallow into itself and pulverize anything outside the norm; however, I am not that individual, as far as I can tell. I feel that the poem intentionally excluded me on every level. Not only that, the poem belittled me and was enraged with me, pushing me aside. Of no small consequence is the fact that the poem was LONG. I’m afraid that hearing it performed, not being able to step away from the content, swallow my anger, and digest its message in smaller doses, the poem and I would never be able to reconcile our relationship.