Love Laugh & Organize

Growing up I loved reading poetry. Most of the stuff I read was writing over a hundred years ago and dealt with topics of love, death, family, and nationalism. It helped me think about the world I lived in and how their message translates (very vaguely) into current times.

One thing that I felt these poems lacked was its connection with me and my identity. The idea of writing my own poetry and coming up with my own history and poetic legacy was in college with a spoken word class I took. It not only taught me the ins and outs of poetry writing and performance, but it opened my eyes to all the current writers that are writing about the same topics, just relating it more towards current times and current struggles. I grew to love many Bar Area poets and performers and was torn because they were so good yet went without mention amongst mainstrean literature and entertainment.

Because of this, I like to highlight performers and the amazing topics they talk about. I can spend all night on youtube and other media outlets watching and listening to amazing performers. Unfortunately, Def Poetry Jam is one of the very few outlets where these performances are documented.

When I listen to poetry, I try to first understand what it is trying to tell me, and secondly, how it relates and affects me. There are many performances that I love, but very few leave me stunned and breathless. I was left speechless after listening to Daniel Beatty's performance of "Knock Knock". It is about the relationship of a kid and his father and how life experience and life lessons have affected the family.

It really got to me because it not only deals with the issue of injustice and institutional racism, but also how a family deals with the affects of injustice and racism. It reminds me a lot about my family and my many family members and friends who are in this same situation.

Below are two performances. The first one is "Knock Knock" and the second is another one entitled "Duality Duel"(another amazing performance).

Check it out:

Knock Knock


Duality Duel



knocking on the door,

-DM