The Spoken Word of Bassey Ikpi
24 May 2010 by Emily Chiodo in Event
Think before you speak. People are always saying that, and, of course, many try to do that. But somewhere in that process a person loses the organic nature of his or her thoughts and winds up saying something a little safer or more processed than what was originally conceived.
Though Bassey Ikpi’s words are carefully selected and placed like flowers in an arrangement, they don’t seem to lose that original quality that often comes when a person flies off the cuff. They are what I imagine is a staccato stream of thoughts, ideas and images that flows through her mind at a given moment, and she allows it to drain out during her sometimes rhythmic, sometimes syncopated, always moving, spoken word performances.
As a writer, I try to sound intelligent, witty and poignant. Somehow, as I try to write about the talent Ikpi possesses, I feel like a bumbling, tongue-tied idiot because there is no possible way what I write about her will properly do her or her art form justice.
This Nigerian-born poet/writer is a woman who clearly thinks before she speaks, but definitely allows us to hear the truest form of her thoughts and feelings – a process many of us might find too emotionally difficult to even attempt.
Many have taken note of her ability to deliver a message. Ikpi appeared on HBO’s “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam” five times and was a featured cast member of its national touring company (which was a Tony Award-winning Broadway show, I might add). She has also opened for Grammy nominated artists India Arie, Les Nubians and Luther Vandross.
In 2009, she was a featured performer for Joburg Arts Alive, Johannesburg’s annual arts festival. This year, she hits another ‘Burgh’s arts festival. On Friday, June 11 at 7:30 pm, you can fill your cup in the stream of her perceptual prose at the Trust Arts Education Center.
Ikpi has already kicked-off her five-city summer tour, “Basseyworld Live.” There, you can also see her moderating interactive panel discussions on socially relevant topics, often the primary focus of her work.
We’re just thankful she is bringing a bit of Bassey’s world to Pittsburgh along the way.
Ikpi will be joined by several featured local poets:
CM Burroughs has been awarded numerous fellowships and grants, has received commissions from the Studio Museum of Harlem and the Warhol Museum, and is now a visiting lecturer at Pitt.
Brian Francis recently published his first chapbook, Do It Yourself Divinity. He frequently performs, and was a member of the team representing Pittsburgh in the Rust Belt Poetry Slam in 2007.
Christiane Leach is co-founder of Sun Crumbs, a non-profit which sponsored the first Foundation funded Poetry Slam team in the nation. She performs her poetry as well as teaches performance poetry.
Stacey Waite is a professor whose 2004 chapbook choke won the Frank O’Hara Award for poetry. A second chapbook, Love Poem to Androgyny, won the 2006 Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest.