NOTE: The following is a first person perspective on the poetry event Brass Knuckles in south Los Angeles, written by Myshell Tabu, host of It's Komplicated, the weekend webcast on the Geekweek Network. On the night in question, the Boom Girls (slam veterans and spoken word scene superstars) featured, and this was a look at that. Originally posted April 20th, 2011.
Boom! Fresh cuts, teal nail polish, auburn locs, rhinestone belts, stilettos and rhymes so sick your great grandkids' kids need a neurosurgeon. If you missed Jimetta Rose, Nikki Blak, Tamara Blue, Judy Holiday, and Simply Kat at Brass Knuckles this past Monday, you might as well feel horrible and have sex with elves.
As the lovely host, Jaha Zainabu put it, we heard "five distinct voices" from the Boom Girls, and each of these stylish beacons of inspiration certainly offered a contrasting piquantness for my poetic palate. The weekly event at Kaos in Leimert Park includes an open pic during the earlier part of the evening and a featured artist at about 10pm. Monday night being Brass Knuckles' anniversary show, hosts Judy Holiday and Nikki Blak decided to wow audience members with a never before seen collaboration performance featuring themselves and their closest homegirls — The Boom Girls.
Jimetta Rose opened the performance commanding the room with her sultry voice. I'm sure as she was crooning, "Everybody wants to join the circus," Mahalia Jackson sat up in her grave at least twice and Jill Scott is in a mirror in Philly trying to match Ms. Rose's stage presence. Even with my bias — having stood on a table (fist pumping in the air) watching Jimetta perform the song "Two Years" at the Temple Bar circa 2002 — you should trust that the performance was that amazing.
Out of nowhere, as Jimetta was winding down, came the poetic stylings of someone I didn't know at all — Simply Kat. Her aggressive tongue, however, had no problem introducing herself. In her deep Lauren Hill meets Eve voice, she rattled off words illustrating exactly who she was — the "ride or die" chick of the group. She had so many quotable lines during her performance! "We a vampire's wet dream/ laid in each other/ like coffins/ f***ing each other out of yesterday's blues." Yeah … that one is gonna stick with me. The controversial poem "Pink" in defense of Nikki Minaj is every nonjudgmental artist's dream married to every feminist's nightmare. I loved it. It clearly depicted the glass houses that many throw bricks from and celebrated Minaj's talents versus her often contrived image.
Once each artist had done an introductory poem, all five articulate divas graced the stage at once. Tamara Blue with her ankle resting on the opposite knee, Jimetta with her hands clasped in her lap, Kat with legs crossed and Judy Holiday with her knees pressed gently together all sat in a semi-circle on stage to watch the talented Nikki Blak slap us with a poem about never having been battered. The piece used vivid imagery to discuss how women had called her "lucky," because she didn't "wear a busted lip in place of [her] smile." It's a poem about choices. Here's a clip:
"There is no place to stash a choice /Between skin and boning /Under the corset of femininity/ I’m supposed to cinch myself into/ All the better to keep my ribs/ Without fractures and in their proper places/ Hold my guts inside my body/ Keep me propped upright/ Doll-like /Incapable, Only able to bind my daughters'/Masterfully crafted feet /For the beauty of tradition/ So that she, like me,/And every woman before her /Will never be able to leave"
During her set, she also did a contrasting hilarious untitled piece about that dude you just can't get rid of, because sometimes he's useful enough to buy you a whole pizza and a gallon of ice cream. Good sh**.
Judy Holiday, the mother of Brass Knuckles was up next. I loved the craft of the piece entitled "The Canadian Boy Who Wants to Bring Home Muh Bacon." It narrates the tale of a soft man — a captain save-a-hoe — and the woman who is using him knowing she'll never actually wear the ring he keeps "tracing around [her] left finger." This was one of her lighter pieces.
A serious storyteller, Judy Holiday normally goes deep — heart wrenching even. She has a poem about her mother, where she says "I am coffee chugging and chain smoking just to be closer to your breath." I don't know the title, but my favorite line is "You always did wear ghetto as if it were a medal." My number one Holiday joint is "Love Me Like Childhood," which starts out "Miss me/ like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit roll ups in super hero lunch pails sitting on midget tables/washing away the sore losing of dodge ball games with Capri Suns." She had me back in first grade with "gold stars on behavior charts" and "Care Bear backpacks."
Tamara Blue was introduced by Simply Kat as her "number one." The two have known each other since their late teens, and their bond is evident. The second poem by Tam, delivered through tear covered lips, hit home with me. It was about how somewhere there's a chick on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter wishing for one more chance to give your husband "head." Given the messages I've read, some exes just can't let it go. Bwaaahaaaaa! Anyway, I have the "mango flavored Halls" in my mouth (Insider. You should have been there). It was an emotional set as Tam rekindled her love for the creator and garnered hugs and support from everyone on stage. Her introductory poem was so inspiring! The line I'll take with me is, "I wanna take classes so that I can … teach classes."