how to make it on the 2012 dc youth slam team

braided and baked

braided and baked like challah
my identity is constantly turning and being read
like torah
different interpretations of the same living thing
and idea an artifact we can study
it is my breath on the bar’chu
calling me up to be
my tongue on tekiah waking up those who sleep
i speak
my purpose
i am
my words my deeds my dreams and my bloodline
swimming in ashkenazi rivers looking for a solid home
drowning in survivor’s guilt and
windsurfing in a poem
i am
only the food i eat literally but
there is much more inside me spiritually
i am
divided
between ancient and fresh
right and left
spirit and flesh
hashem and nefesh
between hip and hop
there is a hyphen
a chai fitting between jewish and white
between erev and night
between misappropriation and my natural right
i lay flat
putting my body on the line like my ancestors did
when it’s time to stand for justice
time to sit-in and protest for fairness
time to speak up and lay down our arms for peace
my identity guides and reminds me that
i cannot cease until all are free
for we were once slaves
now comfy and prosperous in our post-post-modern age
our obligation remains
burning like the eternal flames in our temples
but many in our diasporic tribe bring us terrible shame
it’s simple
know mercy
do justice
be not pharaoh
be not goliath
do not create ghettos
tear down walls
love your neighbors
love!
because we are a people
braided and baking together
constantly turning being read and reinterpreting ourselves
and struggling to not forget where we’re from
struggling ever so hard to tikun olam
our ability to heal the world does not come from violence
it is not born in security threat analysis or
border wall military check points
check again
check your holy books your history and your heart
check yourself
my friend my sister my brother
my identity
our identity
is deeper than skin
so check the weather you will see a change blowing in the wind
on the backs of a diverse new generation
bringing together the right and the left
the spirit and the flesh
hashem and nefesh
ancient and fresh
to build the bridges we need
to save our identity

miffed, rubbish, brilliant, and other british sayings

these are words that i will bring home with me to the states. miffed, in particular, is one that i really like. it pretty much means pissed, but it sounds cooler. oh, and proper is something they say a lot here too. as is brilliant. a good joke i just heard, when being offered tea. dude said, you want herbal tea or proper tea? i was undecided. he said, if you like marx, you have to have herbal tea. i didn’t understand. he said, because according to marx, proper tea is theft. lol. (get it. proper tea = property) i had lots of proper and peppermint tea this week at limmud. as well as lots of other drinks as well. which led to some fun dance parties and imrpov sessions with the band.

i had the pleasure of rocking out with a jam band almost every night at the limmud conference at the univ. of warwick this past week. that is what i’m doing in the picture above, if you can’t tell. chanukah and the conference are over now, so i am chillin in london for new years and some travel fun before coming home. luckily my poet friends from england have directed me to some slams. i will start off 2012 competing in a poetry slam in a different country. that is, after i dance my butt off on nye (which is tough because i have very little butt to begin with) with some cool kids i met at limmud. this trip has been brilliant, and the weather unseasonably warm. i wrote a few new poems which i will post here later. 2012 will be a year of more writing for me, and i’m making that resolution now. it won’t be hard to keep because i did not write much at all in 2011.

cheers, mates!

in the UK, Limmud, and being Jewish during Christmas

peace and blessings my friends. today i am writing from Warwick University in the UK. i am here for a week-long conference called Limmud. i don’t have pictures to post (yet) because my phone is not active over here, but there will be many beautiful things to see and share over my trip, i’m sure. today is only the second day and already there has been much to report. Limmud is a conference and a nonprofit devoted to inclusive Jewish learning. as an American Jewish poet, i was invited to participate, perform, and facilitate a few workshops this year. the conference has been going on for 30 years, so many of the participants come year after year and to different Limmud conferences all over the world. they are held in NYC and other places in the States too, but since it was founded in the UK, this is by far the largest. for those who know about NFTY and other Jewish youth programs, so far my experience is very much like Jewish summer camp, except for all ages and families and teachers and performers and scholars and drinkers. yes, there is a bar and i will be volunteering to work it tonight.

being in a foreign country (albeit not too foreign) all by myself and thrust into a heavily Jewish atmosphere where many people already know each other could be a bit overwhelming. i am enjoying it so far, and remaining pretty social. the fire alarm in the dorm went off at about 7:56 this morning. i thought i did it somehow, even though i was asleep. freaking out and searching for pants (very glad i did), i made my way outside with the others where we joked about this being a way Limmud helps us get to know our housemates and ensures that we go to Shul (sabbath services) today. i only froze my butt halfway off while waiting to get back inside. i did get to see a beautiful sunrise and birds that i wouldn’t have seen otherwise, so all is not lost.

last night, after shabbat dinner i attended a small workshop on Yehuda Amichai‘s poetry. he is the most famous modern Israeli poet and the session was led by a young American woman studying to become a Rabbi in England. we read poems and discussed them. it was not terrible. i’ve not read much (or any) Jewish or Israeli poetry so this was good education for me. come to think of it, i’ve read much more Palestinian poetry than i have anything Israeli. this conference is going to give me many more opportunities to continue my Jewish learning, and for an nonreligious Jew like me that is very important. last night at dinner one man got up to speak and reminded us that learning, any learning, is a continual process. you don’t simply learn something and are done with it. if you don’t constantly interact with and learn ideas again and again you will lose them. just like language, all learning is continual and requires active engagement. that was a powerful reminder for me, and i think that is why i am here. to teach and to learn is a mitzvah (good deed), one and the same mitzvah according to Jewish text. so students and teachers, when they are learning and teaching, are both engaging in the same mitzvah. this too, is something i will bring home with me.

after the conference i am going to stay in London for the New Years celebration. i still don’t have a place to sleep, so that will be a fun little mission. hopefully some friends of friends will come through before i break down and book a hostel or hotel room.

one of the things i love most about being at an all Jewish conference over Chanukah and Christmas is that i do not get all the Christmas shoved down my throat like i would back home. it is Christmas eve here and i’ve not heard a single thing about it. tomorrow will be Christmas and nobody will care, because it is also still Chanukah and that’s what we’re celebrating here together. at home i do not surround myself with Jews or Jewish things, so this is particularly different for the holiday season. i mean, i actually love Christmas music and the spirit of good cheer and peace on earth and all that mess, so i do get into it when i’m home, but it is quite nice to be reminded that another world is possible, and specifically a world created and shaped by my people is real and alive somewhere, even if i don’t choose to live in it everyday.

Shabbat Shalom! Happy Chanukah!

cheers!

east of the river

the december poetry slam at ballou high school was:
amazing
fun
powerful
moving
spiritual
real
honest
intense
funny

these are the poets. some will go on to battle it out to make the 2012 dc youth slam team this year. there are many youth poetry slams scheduled for january and february, and these are the last chances to make the team.

Vivian

at the East of the River Poetry Slam December 2011 at Ballou.

at the Beltway Poetry Slam – Nov. 2011

here is video of me performing at the beltway poetry slam. can you tell i really like that hat?

Dear David: a poem to the Jewish Star.

one of my latest pieces, via my good friends at the angle. check it out and share it if you appreciate the message.

Jonathan B. Tucker: Dear David from Park Triangle Productions on Vimeo.

saturday slam mixup, with magic results

when i got to studio w today at about 2:35pm to set up for the slam, the people running the place had no clue what i was talking about or why i was there. they did not know about the slam that we had been promoting with their name (perhaps that means we need better promotions, or they need to pay better attention) and slated to begin in 1.5 hrs. i stayed calm. it was a crazy moment indeed, because i had not set up the contact with this venue, so i had no real idea what had or had not been agreed upon and set in motion on their end. we couldn’t have the slam there. what to do! we called our friends at The Fridge DC and they hooked us up royally, on the fly. go on the horn. tweeted the nation. moved the slam to an eastern market alley art gallery. about 50 people made their way over there to see the slam. crisis averted. and magic happened, with amazing art in our eyes and ears as the young poets tore the stage down to pieces.

thirteen amazing young poets in the first round. we then took the top eight into the second round, combining scores from the first and second round to then get a cumulative score to determine the top three “winners” of the night (according to five random judges in the audience using numbers to rate poems). hbo def poetry jam and national slam champ poet/actor/sign-reader regie cabico served as the master of ceremonies. he coached the dc youth slam team for several years recently and still works closely with us. our featured poet for the evening was 2011 slam team member POETIC HYST. she brought a friend to play guitar and it rounded the set out very nicely.

above you see (from l to r): host regie cabico, 3rd place winner ashlynn, 2nd place winner zuma, and 1st place winner amber.

all of the students were invited to submit poems to Split This Rock’s Student Poetry Contest THE WORLD AND ME. see the fly-er flier below. you too, are invited, to invite your friends who are under 18 yrs old to submit their poetry online to this contest.

My Angle on Pimpin’

Check out this hot new video of my poem Pimpin’ on Park Triangle’s new series The Angle.

Jonathan B. Tucker: Pimpin’ from Park Triangle Productions on Vimeo.

when youth bloom, we bloom

on friday i co-hosted a very successful youth open mic at bloombars, featuring the sensational twelve-year-old rockstar ella. there were supportive teens and adults there to cheer on the twenty-or-so young people who signed up to perform. most of them did poetry of some sort. 

six-year-old alycia sang the “i love you” song from barney as a way of celebrating her birthday. we all celebrated too by serenading her with the traditional happy bday song. we had a couple rappers as well, who asked me to help them out with a beat from the djembe. my hands were busy so i didn’t get any pictures of that awesomeness, but here are some other instances of awesomeness captured in digital visual media.

i had to goad a few students into performing. i don’t know why some of the most friendly and talented students want to act all shy at the open mics. so i gave them a nice hard time until they agreed to get up and do something. one such awesome high schooler was khadejah. she told me that she didn’t come prepared and that she just wanted to be an inspiring presence for everyone, not a performer. so i signed her up on the list and told her to get ready. i offered some OPP for her to read, but she ended up reading her own stuff instead. here she is taking us all to miss dejah’s wonderland.

we did a “community poem” together throughout the show, and i helped to read it at the very end. it was quite entertaining. one student volunteered to type it up for us, so i will post that poem up here soon enough. it was lots of fun and we look forward to doing it again.

 

making headlines

tonight’s event at busboys and poets with the national gallery of art was much fun. we recreated the electric headlines of andy warhol’s day with dc artists mixing together topical subjects of today like troy davis and the death penalty, palestine and dc statehood, and corporate greed and the occupy movement. i performed alongside christylez bacon, huda asfour, head roc, bruce lebovitz, gowri koneswaran, and more for a packed house at the downtown busboys and poets.

 

shout out to Trinity Univ. for Speakin’ It Real

i had the privilege and the pleasure of facilitating a writing and performance workshop with students at Trinity University here in Washington, DC a couple weeks prior to their open mic event, Speakin’ It Real. i came back to the campus in Northeast DC last Tuesday night for the open mic, as a special invited guest. the students blew me away! it was so great to see them get up and perform with such confidence on stage.

here is a note from a professor there, about me and my work with her students:

Jonathan B. Tucker has a way of relaxing the tensest muscles, setting poetry and performance within reach of even the most uncertain and fearful students. Naturally approachable and engaging, he models the principles and skills he teaches and then enthusiastically and effectively conveys them to others. His work commands attention; listeners feel compelled to catch every word, hanging on a clever turn of phrase or the juxtaposition of provocative ideas. His professionalism and passion cannot help but impress. I would ask him to work with my students again without a single hesitation.

Wendy Bilen Thorbjornsen, M.A., M.F.A.

Assistant Professor of English

Trinity Washington University

Washington, DC

2011 slam season coming to close

as i prepare for the 2012 slam season, i’m looking back on the 2011 season and all we’ve done. just found these pictures from our trip to new york city.

2011 DC Youth Slam Team at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in Lower East Side, NYC

our friend and local poet in the DC/MD area, Chris August, just won the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam. we could not be more happy for him. he totally deserves it. he is amazing. here he is with trophy in hand in Cleveland, Ohio.

2011 IWPS Champion Chris August

Col. Ann Wright said i’m awesome

it meant a whole lot to me today when Col. Ann Wright said, prior to my performance at october2011.org in Freedom Plaza, that i was awesome. she was talking to one of the stage managers right before both of us were scheduled to go on. Ralph Nader was speaking and we were waiting backstage with a band. the band played a bumping banjo version of This Land Is Your Land as i paced backstage hoping one of my students on the DC Youth Slam Team would show up to perform with me. i let Col. Wright go on perform me to bide some time. for those that don’t know her story, Col. Ann Wright resigned from her prestigious military post in March 2003 in direct protest to the invasion of Iraq. yeah, she is awesome, and a hero. that is not the beginning and end of her story, but it suffices for this brief blog post.

I went up as Corporate America Man for this show. no students showed up to join me, so i held it down as i know best. started off with my go-to protest poem, I Got The Matches, then talked a bit about Split This Rock, and then performed National Happy Hour. hopefully i’ll get the video up here soon.

until then, here’s a nice photo.

Rest in Peace Rev. Shuttlesworth and Mr. Jobs

today two remarkable and legendary figures passed away. i have the feeling that many more people know of steve jobs than rev. fred shuttlesworth. both of these men helped to greatly shape our society. i am not sure why it upsets me that not more people know of shuttlesworth’s contributions, but it does. here is rev. fred shutlesworth at a demonstration with rev. ralph abernathy (center) and rev. martin luther king, jr.

many local leaders came to national prominence for their courage in the face of oppression during the american civil rights movement. rev. shuttlesworth was one such leader. freedom rider. sit-in-er. one of the founders of the sclc. regularly put his life on the line for the movement. where would we be today without the struggles and progress made through the civil rights movement? where would the civil rights movement have gone without birmingham? where would birmingham be without shuttlesworth?

similar questions can be asked about mr. jobs, for the computer that i am using to type this right now is part of a revolution that has happened (is happening?) during my lifetime, and is changing the world drastically. cynics might say that some other reverend or some other computer nerd/genius would have done whatever these giants have, but i am never sure. just like us poets are never sure who in the audience may or may not be moved by our words, we cannot be sure of our (or others’) greatness until we see it coming alive in front of us. these two gentlemen we now find dead in front of us live on through the millions of lives they have touched.

beltway poetry slam recap

after work today i rode over to the fridge to meet my students on the dc youth slam team. we’ve got a show coming up soon so we were finalizing our poems. here is what our next group piece looks like in it’s initial stages. like a baby being born, this is the sonogram or something.

after our meeting was over we helped set up for the beltway poetry slam. one of our team members who is now 20, selina maria, signed up to compete in the slam! the list opened at 7:30pm and was full by 7:32. she went up against known greats like twain dooley, chris august, natalie e. illum and joseph lms, as well as kick-ass friends of mine henry mills, drew law, angelique palmer and tony keith. it was the most amazing poetry slam that i’ve been to in a while. i had a unique view from my position DJing on the side between performers.

in the end. only the top four poets move on to the finals next week (tues. sept. 6) for a shot to the be one to represent beltway poetry slam and the greater dc/md/va  area at the individual world poetry slam in october. unfortunately, henry drew the one spot, so he had to go first. he did not make it to the second round, even though he performed his piece corre amazingly well. that’s just how the score creep goes sometimes in slam. there were three rounds, with featured poets laura yes yes and kim johnson performing between the 2nd and 3rd rounds.

selina maria, of the 2011 dc youth slam team, made it into the top four competing in the finals next week at the beltway poetry slam! there she will go up against twain dooley, joseph lms, and drew law. it is going to be an intense competition for sure. come see us at the fridge.

next month beltway is featuring tara hardy!

chillin in The Fridge with iWPS qualifying poets

join me at The Fridge, Tuesday August 30, 2011 for the next Beltway Poetry Slam

download flier here.