Thursday, February 12, 1998
Poets serve art southern-fried style
JAM: ‘Poetri Queen,’ House celebrate Black History Month
By Eleni Hioureas
Daily Bruin Contributor
"If you guys wanna move, you can move, hey … Can you feel it?
Just clap your hands."
Roni, the "Free Flowin’ Poetri Queen," impassioned her audience
Tuesday night with her fervor and her ability to show an audience
how to "feel the flow" during a Black History Month poetry reading
in Covel Commons.
Bakstreeet Poetri is what Roni calls her "hip-hop, bluzi, jazzi,
Southern-fried style art." She says she chose this name for her
style because she always walks the back streets to get to places.
"I’m always walking. I’m very outdoorsy."
Her co-host in the poetry reading was House, a man whose poetic
style Roni described as "very fly bluzi style, very reminiscent of
many of the great poets out of the Harlem Renaissance, such as
Langston Hughes."
The Bakstreeet Poetri reading was related to Black History
Month. "Our poetri is done by African American poets," said Roni.
"My experiences as a black female shine through my poetri, but it
also has a very universal theme. You can put yourself in these
scenarios and relate to them."
Besides the "essence of the South" and "black like me struggle,"
themes expressed by the Bakstreeet poets, their lyrics also include
themes about love, rape, rebellion, abuse, laughter, crying and
relationships, said House.
"Our poetri fills the whole aesthetic of the black renaissance
with fluid and soothing words. We talk about everyday life, even
crime and the criminal justice system. We also write through the
voices of the underdog (the victim)."
In reading their poetry, Roni and House didn’t just sit in
chairs and monotonously read their work, oblivious to the audience.
Instead, they livened their lyrics with background jazz music and
involved the audience, often telling them to "move with it" or even
asking them about their families, friends, boyfriends and
girlfriends.
In doing this, Roni calls herself the "Oprah Winfrey of poetry."
Between poems she made comedic interjections. "Another good thing
about being a poet is that I get to work out my problems on stage,"
she said.
She does this both by expressing her feelings through her poetry
and by talking with, not at, her audiences.
After Roni and House finished reading, they left the microphone
open for other young poets of UCLA to read their own poetry
aloud.
Through her poetry, Roni likes to "add new branches of hope and
spiritual foundations." Expressing this idea in her poem, "we getz
our flow on," Roni wrote, "surely if I were a poet I wud colour tha
world with my wurdz."
In one poem, titled "mental pictures," Roni said, "I will sing
you a song that will sing you out of your blueness." Through their
poetri, Roni and House do just that.
Roni began writing poetry when she was eight years old, but she
"embarked on a poetic career" four and a half years ago when she
began reciting poetry in coffee houses and continued to host poetry
venues all over Los Angeles.
She has been featured on the radio stations Power 106 and 92.3
The Beat, in the "House of Blues," a venue owned by Dan Akroyd and
other Hollywood stars. Brandi recites her poetry on the television
show "Moesha."
Currently, she hosts a monthly poetry reading at Borders Books
and Music on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and every
Wednesday night she hosts a reading with the band "Clueless" at
"Mamagayas" restaurant in Beverly Hills.
Her new "poetri" album will be released in May and her book,
titled "Southern Fried Poetri," will be released in June. Her next
UCLA appearance will be on Feb. 20 at the Kerckhoff Coffee
House.
MARY CIECEK
House has been with Bakstreeet Poetri for the past two months.
He focuses on renaissance harlem and exposing injustices imposed on
African Americans.