Repost: Hanging with the Big Girls in My Traveling Shoes by Patricia Spears Jones

This is a repost from award winning poet and author Patricia Spears Jones!  Check out her blog published at The Poetry Foundation!

Patricia Spears Jones

Hanging with the Big Girls in My Traveling Shoes by Patricia Spears Jones

Last year when I was invited to receive an award from the Black Students Association at Rhodes College as part of my 40th College Reunion, I was freaked out. I had a few weeks earlier been to Arkansas to bury my mother and what little money I had was gone. But to be honored as a Distinguished Alumni for a group I helped to organize decades before was an important opportunity I could not say no to. A very good friend, a wonderful novelist and elder heard about my honor and knew my predicament. She took me to a shoe store on Broadway and let me choose a pair of beautiful, well made dress shoes. I would not look like a poor poet at such a gathering. They are in a way my “traveling shoes,” the ones for readings and special events: memorials, weddings, high teas. They are the shoes I wore to A Celebration of Dr. Maya Angelou at Riverside Church on September 12.  Continue reading the rest of Patricia Spears Jones' blog here at The Poetry Foundation!

4/6 Event: Art. Love. Music. in Brooklyn!

On Sunday, April 6th I hosted Word Canvas presents Art. Love. Music. at Brooklyn's Rustik Tavern.  The event featured DuEwa Frazier (poet/performer), Rakiem Walker Project, Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Qurrat Kadwani, Radha MUSprime and Tai Allen.

I was so excited about this event!  I have been performing, writing poetry and hosting my own signature events since 2002.  I founded Word Canvas in 2005, as a brand of performance events featuring musicians, poets and actors.  I take great pride and pleasure in curating events, bringing artists together and watching them come off without a hitch!   It was great to have a spring show with talented artists.

DuEwa & Rakiem Walker @ Art. Love. Music.

Cheryl Boyce Taylor is a notable poet and author who I've come to know and cherish, through her event series the Glitter Poemegranate Series.  I love when she performs with her Trini accent.  Her poems are smooth and bring back memories you wish you had about living in the Caribbean.  Cheryl is the mother of Tribe Called Quest member Phife Dawg, so she is truly a legend and has influenced hip hop in a major way.  And one day I will take her Zuhitsu Writing Workshop in Brooklyn!

 Poet, Cheryl Boyce Taylor

I met Qurrat Kadwani some years ago when we worked for the same company; I had no idea she was an award winning actress until we connected recently on Facebook!  She is quite talented!  Qurrat has received much acclaim for her one woman show "The Call Me Q!" She is raw, beautiful and oh so talented.  The monologues she performed at Art. Love. Music. were awe inspiring.  Just watching her transform was a real treat.  Tai Allen is such a soulful singer and poet.  He really conjured the spirit of Gil Scott Heron during his performance.

Rakiem Walker is so versatile as a sax player and he brought his trio, and they brought us jazz, funk and hip hop! I have known Rakiem for years and it's always a blast working with him.  Last time we collaborated in 2010 for Word Canvas Soul, I sang Jill's Scotts "A Long Walk" and we really had a good time with it.  It was so much fun for me to collaborate with Rakiem and his band again.  They backed me for my brief rendition of Prince's "She's Always in My Hair" and an even shorter piece of me singing Taylor Swift's "Trouble" that I paired with a poem I wrote titled, "Trouble."  My set was pretty cathartic for me as an artist.  I had the pleasure of seeing Radha MUSprime perform at Imagenation's Belletrix Exhibit in Harlem last month.  She is an MC, lyricist and truly a creative genuis as a writer. This sister is fire!! She gave us a whole set of her new performance show "The 40-year old Version" and I can't wait to check her out on April 22nd when she features at Joe's Pub.

I wanted to have an open mic segment, but we started a bit late so there was no time for it.  But next time for sure! 
Follow DuEwa on Twitter @duewafrazier1