- Jorge Luis Borges

"He lives the poetry that he cannot write. The others write the poetry that they dare not realize.”
- Oscar Wilde

Twenty-five, thirty years later, in the mid to late 90s another wave of radical poets led by LeRoy ‘Grandmaster’ Young appeared. Poets that blurred the line between song and recitation. Poet as performance artist; poet as actor. Grandmaster, John Alexander Watler, Erwin X Jones and Rohjani Perriott used drama as the vehicle in delivering their verse. Young, then Erwin X pushed the boundaries to include music and video. Young appropriated the throbbing, repetitive beat of rap music as his rhythms and the surly manner of gang-bangers as his muse. Young became the first ‘Slam poet’, the ‘Dub’ man in the hood. His in-your-face verse and chip-on-shoulder delivery hit Belize’s poetry scene like a nuclear blast, blowing any residual concept of poets as ‘effete snobs’ out of the water. The griot of the street laid waste preconceptions about ‘taste’. The ragamuffin became the poster boy for ‘Generation Next’. His “Pressure” became better known than the national anthem.

Now a whole new generation of young poets have been inspired by Grandmaster’s dramatic performances. His performances (and persona) are an eccentric, spicy brew: part edgy Beenie Man, part outsider Charles Bukowski and part catch-n-kill vibes care of the notorious Pinks Alley. In less than a decade, Grandmaster has evolved from ‘infant terrible’ circa 1997 to stylistic Dub Godfather circa 2005.

The new generation of poets is spunky, feisty and oozing with talent. Last Thursday at the House of Culture in Belize City, an anthology of their verse and an accompanying CD recording their live performances titled “Poets R Us” was launched. (What a lousy title.) Thirty-one works by twenty-eight secondary school poets are compiled in print and thirteen on audio. Not to minus price the booklet, but the CD captures the spontaneity and energy of the live performances much more than the printed word. DVD would probably be the ultimate way to get the sense, to get the tone and texture of that radical ‘Slam’ gang. Their poetry needs to be seen and heard besides read to feel its force.

The launching showcased the works of four proactive, incredibly heartfelt poets: Jamie Yearwood, Carnellie Fritz, Kalima Enriquez and Kandice Williams. The pieces ran the emotional gamut from the pain of unrequited love to a plaintive cry against racism to the anxious euphoria of escaping parental authority to a cataclysmic ode to the specter of AIDS.

  Minister of Culture Hon. Francis Fonseca flanked by the Grandmaster & talented young Belizeans

Yearwood, a student from St. Michael’s, poignantly read his poem, “Tourn Roots”. The poem fleetingly touched upon adjusting to the diaspora, white brain-washing and black rage. His piece painted a word picture of racial injustice which is compounded by negative historical myths.

Carnellie Fritz, a student from Pallotti High School, gave a lively, very physical dramatic rendition of her poem aptly titled, “Hot Chase”. Her narrative poem was like a brief scene from a play. The vibrant physicality of her reading added an affecting emotive punch to the piece. Unbridled energy from start to finish.

Kalima Enriquez, from St. Catherine’s Academy, weighed in with “Black and Blue Imprints”. She dealt with longing for a relationship, but the feelings of tenderness are not reciprocated. Enriquez makes clever use of metaphor to relate dejection and disappointment. Aristotle wrote in his Poetics that “the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor”. Enriquez’s use of hue to signify mood is adroitly constructed. She gets across her point in an oblique, unexpected manner.

Kandice Williams, a student from Edward P. Yorke High School, gave a knock-out performance of her piece, “I Da AIDS”. She dressed in a long, flowing black gown and hood and her face was painted stark white and black. As the title informs, she was death; a telling visual metaphor on AIDS deadly nature. Williams’ dynamic reading was appropriately cruel and cynical. At times she would hiss her lines like a snake and other times she was pitiless and smarmy. A many shaded, stirring dramatic turn.

  Kalima recites "I Da Aids"

Our ‘Generation Next’ (or is ‘Generation Bex’ more on the money?) is as much inspired by dub, dance hall and drama as it is inspired by traditional poetic pieties like metonymy, meter and metaphor. Some of them also hark back to indigenous oral traditions and tribal rituals. At times their poems are incantations from the id; that libidinous area of our psyche, that home of primitive impulses. Poetry sure ain’t what it use to be.

Our new generation of poets also has more than a few similarities with our jazz musicians. Both are spontaneous, improvise within a familiar structure and do crazy, unexpected things breaking the bounds of convention to arrive at something stimulating and controversial. Inventiveness is the name of the game.

Pessimism and ‘dis’ appear to have polluted the national consciousness. Don’t let that negativity distort the positive things going on. By solely dwelling on the faults one can all too easily block out what’s good. Good things like “Poets “R” Us”. Those fledgling poets are a national resource and should be a source of national pride. Say what you may, gripe how you want, but our young generation of artists, musicians and poets have the right stuff. They do us proud.