okay, i'll be the first one to report on Bamuthi's show

The matter of the show Monday night is a direct contribution to this week's theme on identity. He starts with the sonogram --breaking it apart as a series of sounds representing the image of his son-- beats the heart of poetry--a series of sound representing image. and so i'm thinking this is what we try for in compiling *ya clustering* our sounds...or our symbols for sound, which is also thought. every lens bamuthi used was prismatic...the image was thrown down more than one way, turn it, turn it, turn it....never was the young boy, the blue sky, a thousand attributes. part of what a poet does is teach a reader a new way to observe, think, and vitalize the word, the image, the story, the sequence. lay it out so the map is redrawn. it's not enough to point out, or name, witnessing has eyes.

that was identity one

Identity two

the story of Senegal which he calls Africa (therein a popular assumption ya). breaking in down more than one way--through the sublimation of his power as a black american man, he finds a new identity and a new way to be. Molly becomes an exception in our eyes, but he convinces us that a Molly can be and be authentic. so we pay attention to labels, and appearances (or do we?)

identity three not necessarily in order

tap dancing and pop. We are from a history and a geography that comes with scars bump and physical history. the identity tapdancer which makes the boy rise up, makes the father turn away afraid of the colonizing power of it.

anyway, not to summarize the show, but to show appreciation for the relentlessness of his work, all which started out as conversation and transformed into poetry before we could stop it. 

there is a wonderful diligence to his writing. and freedom

e