This month's Storytellers featured Archie The Messenger and Lyrical The Lyricist. Anyone in attendance who had heard one of these young men perform before knew they had front row seats to what was sure to be one of the best Storytellers ever put together. But before we get to the main event, let me take a few mins and fill you in on the other artists who set the stage for the evening. Most notably HanaLyn and Slangston Hughes.
Any fan of spoken word poetry in Baltimore knows of Quill the Wordsmith, and you know he always delivers with the selections he performs. But at this Storytellers, it was a young woman by the name of HanaLyn who moved the crowd with her ode to Quill titled "Quill's Song." The depth and sincere intent behind her words left the crowd silent and Quill himself speechless, as one of his fans decided to salute him and the manner in which he performs his craft. With lines like, "...he speaks Jazz, syncopated melodies suspended in midair...his voice is a saxophone, speaking notes off the page," she not only captivated the audience and had Quill's full attention, but she also solidified herself as one of the best performances of the evening. She is a poet who has attended and shared her work at several previous Storytellers, and you should be on the lookout for her own feature in the coming months as she promises to build upon her reputation as a wordsmith herself.
Next up is my man Slangston Hughes. Slangston who is a Hip-Hop correspondent for eXcapethematriX magazine executed some of the most memorable poems filled with humor that kept the night light and everyone constantly laughing. One of his standout poems was "Pick Up the Pieces." This brother started by stating that he had written a poem that was later ripped up, then proceeded to dig into his backpack to show the shredded pieces of paper. He gave an outstanding performance that in an ironic manner called attention to the "pieces" of rhetoric that are always spoken with regards to the numerous social injustices still occurring today, but ones that no one ever stops to "pick up the pieces" to. But as stated above he maintained the humor by saying at the end of his piece (no pun intended) that since he had shredded the poem just delivered and everyone seemed to like it that he did have cds and dvds for sale for any member of the audience to purchase.
Now to the the main event, the powerhouse duo of Archie The Messenger and Lyrical The Lyricist. They entered the room making their way to the stage with every eye from the audience on them from the very beginning of their first poem, "Beyond Beautiful." Now I'll preface this with, if you are a so called fan of spoken word and you missed them perform, then you should be ashamed of yourself. With lines like, "...I couldn't be slept on if you was a narcoleptic...," and "...I could sell a saint some sin, if it's a penny for your thoughts, then I can sell you shit you ain't thought of...," Archie and Lyricial had every head in the crowd hanging on every word. You can tell that they feed off of each other's energy and if one was to forget by chance the words to a poem, the other would seamlessly pick up and continue without the slightest notice by any member of the audience.
What make Arhcie and Lyrical different is how they interact with everyone in the room. There is constant movement and small inclusions of a few members of the audience that adds to the reasons why so many readily come out to hear them. They also cover a range of subject matter from a broken relationship between a man and woman, to a single young mother about to give birth, to a young man realizing the need to step up to the plate and be the man he should be to the child he has fathered and to the woman who bore him. And all of these aspects of the story are carefully intertwined into one poem as Archie and Lyrical trade off parts, never losing their followers as they craft their narrative and always driving home their point. The word play is unmatched and the level of creativity displayed would leave any potential follower to the stage unwanting of their opportunity to be in the spotlight.
They gave every fan in the place a performance to remember as we all had the opportunity to hear four separate pieces from them. They went well beyond the time allotted, but not a single person would have cared or complained if they continued to perform.
Now if you are one of the ones who missed out on Archie and Lyrical you can keep up with these guys at writing4mylife.com or myspace.com/writing4mylife
And I'll ask just as the host of Storytellers did, support these artists. We are all fans and they put on excellent performances, so support the product that they produce.
Storytellers is an outlet for any artist, singer, or rapper to display their talents to an audience craving for diverse and creative pieces of work. Shout out to Raven Ekundayo for putting together a venue where these poets can perform and The SBG for getting the word out to people who may not have ever heard spoken word, but are now a fan of it. You can catch up on past Storytellers as well as find out future dates by visiting eXcapethematriX.com or myspace.com/readyourstory or better yet, just come out and attend. Every one of these monthly open mics is held at the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center at 847 N. Howard Street here in Baltimore. Storytellers is always filled with talented people more than willing to share their Stories with all that are there to listen.
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