Excerpt from "Black and True: The best and worst of the AfroSolo Arts Festival" by Michael Scott Moore Copyright 2003 SFWeekly.com |
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Easily the strongest solo performer was a poet called Paradise Freejahlove, who did three subtle, musical pieces: one about love, one about white appropriation of black culture, and a "Black State of the Union Address." "Beloved: A loveletter to the goddess in every woman" was a singsong, minor-toned poem rising to a rolling, garrulous, minutes-long string of giddy words in divine and sexual praise of a woman. "I Love Everything About You, But You" was a smooth, jazzy rap about contemporary racism: "They want the black muscles, they want the black heart/ They want the black body, they want the black art/ ... They want the black neighborhoods, but not the black neighbor." And in "State of the Union" he made an odd modern observation: "The No. 1 golfer is a black man, and the No. 1 rapper is a white man." Freejahlove wore a loose jumble of clothes, a leopard-print shirt under a leopard-print hat, and kept his eyes closed most of the time; he seemed almost shy, but his delivery was open, vulnerable, and witty. |
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