As recently as 1995, poetry used to be a bad word … at least in these parts.

Poetry was for sissies. It had the rather corny, outdated image of "roses are red and violets are blue ... ." As president of the International Black Writers & Artists in Oakland, Local #5, I vowed to change that image, even if I had to be a Black Elvis Presley and do it all by myself!

Fortunately, I had some incredible poets who helped me when I started the Afrometropolitan Poetry Series at Victor's Cafe in the old Alice Arts Center in Oakland. What I did differently to make poetry sexy was add a microphone and a karaoke machine to the then exclusively electronics-free genre. The microphone gave the poets a sense of power and radiance. One could be a star and get their "15 minutes of fame," like a Billie Holiday or James Brown. And because we were in the middle of the Hip Hop Golden Age, I used the karaoke machine to play swinging music between poets and during breaks.

I also added featured singers, vocalists, rappers and other artists to the mix to break up the lovely poetry monotony. Our events became more than just "poetry readings" - they were "happenings." It was like going to a cultural party or a swinging church where the community was the congregation and the pastor.
 
Later on, other "Open Mic" venues were spawned and DJs were added to the mix. And to get away from the then sad image of the word "poetry," the readings morphed into spoken word events. After the Miracle on Alice Street, other venues would continue the poetry blaze, including La Pena, The Black Dot Cafe, The Jahva House, Dorsey's Locker and others, which, except for the Jahva House, are still doing spoken word today.
 
In 1998, I decided to do for poets what I wished the world would do for me as a poet and help them get paid. So I created "The Best in the West Grand Slam Poetry Contest" - a $1,000 winner takes all poetry slam. This further galvanized the poetry community, bringing some 80 poets out of the woodworks and would help supply the burgeoning local slam poetry teams with poets that would make the Bay Area renown as a national powerhouse in America's slam community. From 1998 to 2001, with the help of local businesses and organizations, I was able to award local poets more than $11,000 in cash and prizes.
 
The local poetry boom continues today at Eastside Arts Alliance's "Holla Back" poetry series; "Mouth Off" at the Air Lounge; "Poetry Diversified" at Cafe Estrellita; "Poetry Express" at Priya's Restaurant; The Golden Gate Poetry Series; The Berkeley Poetry Slam; The Oakland Poetry Slam; and my World's Fair Poetry Series: "The Sound & the Fury," which takes place every first and third Sunday of the month at Shashamane Bar & Grill, 2507 Broadway in Oakland.

I also am planning a May 29 to June 5, 2011, Western Caribbean Poetry Cruise from Miami to the Cayman Islands, Honduras, Belize and Mexico, leading up to our 2012 Cultural World's Fair in Oakland.

For more information, visit our website at or our cruise info posted on Facebook.
 
In China and other places such opportunities and gatherings are outlawed and discouraged! And there's a tendency here for local artists to seek support and not give it, to want you to suffer there poetry, but not suffer yours. This is not how the Harlem Renaissance was born.

When you support the whole scene you make things better for the whole community. When it's not all fun and games it's called doing the work - work that needs to be done. Fortunately, we have it much easier than those pioneers who were fire hosed and had dogs released on them. We should be thankful we have Free Speech and count and care for our blessings.
 
Word up!