Printer-friendly version
July 18, 2011 (La Mesa) – On the fourth Thursday of each month, the Space Bar Internet Café at 7454 University in La Mesa presents open mike night from 7:30 to 10 p.m with Jihmye Collins. On July 28, host Jim Moreno will welcome Jerrica Escoto and Succinct from the San Diego Slam Team. (see details below). The public is also invited to “come express yourself in public” through spoken word, poetry, song, comedy, and dance.
Coffee, tea, smoothies and deli food is available, including brownies. For more information, call (619)461-7100.
Jerrica Escoto is a recent graduate at California State Univeristy San Marcos majoring in Literature and Writing and Women Studies, as well as a minor in Philosophy. She has been active in the San Diego spoken word community for four years and has performed for girls in juvenile hall, youth and high school cultural events, San Diego special event shows including Fusion 2010, benefit concerts, the LGBTQ community, featured at higher education institutions including UCSD, CSUSM, CSULB, CSUDH, and Southwestern Community College. She also has co-taught numerous poetry workshops for pregnant and teen mothers at JCCS, and recently, started a new poetry/empowerment group at King Chavez High in downtown, San Diego.
Succinct is a member of the San Diego Slam Team that placed 6th in the nation at the recent national championships in Minneapolis, Minn. Her duet poetry with Jerrica and her solo pieces are original, powerful, and gems of social justice and social consciousness. She is a regular at Elevated, a spoken word showpiece at the Evoke Dance Theater in North Park the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month.
The Castles
An x-files, supernatural feeling
began
to overcome me,
as the ferryboat circled the island
on the portuguese side of
goree'
in much the same way
as I stood mesmerized
in the middle of slave road
at ouidah
a year ago,
the rusted cannon barrel
pointed east,
as the winds blew in separations
and cadences
eerie-like
I knew then, the ghosts
of my ancestors
were talking to me,
protecting me
from the flood of indignation
and rage
fury that would surround me
stepping into giant footprints
footprints, gone, but still emblazon,
without shoes and heels,
in the red soil
the tide was out
sand beached against the castle side walls
I imagined fewer steps,
but normal strides were prohibited
by chains of bondage,
displayed in several types and sizes,
next to the gift shop
dark spots appear on the ground
sun-baked over hundreds of
years
from thousands of bleeding ankles
inside a small cell,
I saw in my mind's eye,
a multitude of sparkling,
but sad,
children's eyes,
that guided me to a hold
for women
mothers,
where hands I didn't see
touched about my shoulders,
gently, softly,
leading the way
to another dark, small hole,
where another unseen hand
seemed to sternly clutch my wrist,
just as the guide,
in french-accented english,
said we stood in the lock-up
for the defiant ones
the defiant ones
densely concentrated inside these walls,
the musty, damp smell,
swarming throughout,
begged the question
if the odor from the brothers and sisters
at auschwitz
was similar
upon leaving
I exhaled a sigh of relief
as the ferry cruised away,
the french gun of the last
conquerors
pointed north
an x-files supernatural feeling
overcame me
Jihmye Collins
Recent comments