Last night (AKA the eve of Bubbles’ birthday), the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency visited Coffy Cafe in Columbia Heights to share a two hour poetry set.

Around 20 people rolled through, along with 7-8 poets. Regulars Damian, Jessica, and Shahid hit the mic, alongside new friends Flavia, Charles Reese, Inkblot, and Michelle (who graced us with her first public poetry reading ever!).

It was our first indoor lyrical ambush at a new location, and it was especially wonderful to welcome participants of all ages. One entire family joined us, which hasn’t happened in awhile….

Highlights:

• Michelle spoke of how we’re judged not by how we love, but by our possessions
• Flavia shared water music flowing through her heart, revealing itself as the most essential form of art…. “All waters are One, and so are we, descending from the mountaintops down to the sea.”
• Inkblot depicted a gluttonous debt and a painful birth to anticipation; remixed Hollywood; offered the chance to lift each other up, rather than bow to fill our own greed; and explored the genders as yin & yang.
• Shahid shared a rhyming history of the FBI; examined CIA torture under the Bush administration; asked “What do you work towards in this world?”; mourned that “Justice is hard to find in this world”; and hyped the benefits of “reality rather than TV.”
• Jessica asked an amorphous beast, “How do I love thee?,” before counting the ways; observed that her turkey sandwich had gone missing (to the tune of a Michael Jackson song); and quested after a purpose.
• Damian planted a flag as the future of his history and observed holding twice the information with a third the education; has “a peace of peace, and dammit, is gonna keep it”; promised that if “You know this smirk, you’ll love this smile”; whined & bragged; and noted that con men and Congressmen all end up convicts.

Catch us next month, at Bossa in Adams-Morgan on Tuesday March 19, with the Akoma Drummers, and again on Wednesday March 27 back at Coffy Cafe in Columbia Heights!

This Wednesday, February 27, the DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency is dropping an indoor lyrical ambush at a new location. It’s an all ages venue with full cafe service and fresh (sweet or savory) crepes, so bring your kids and your sweet tooth…as well as your poems, of course!

• Where: Coffy Cafe on 14th St., just north of Park Road (2 blocks north of the Columbia Heights station on the Green line)
• When: Wed 2/27/13 from 7-9pm
• What: All ages open mic + a warm and supportive crowd
• Why: Because Washington needs poetry, and so do you

See you there!

On Tuesday, February 19, we

• packed the second floor of Bossa
• sang “Happy Birthday” to Jess & Joe
• welcomed prodigal son Hawah back from his travels to release The Poetry of Yoga, Volume II
• danced our behinds off to the sounds of the fabulous Akoma Drummers

You can relive it all through a fantastic slide show that included some (but unfortunately not all) of the night’s poets.

See you at Coffy Cafe next Wednesday, February 27 for the next DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency open mic!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of watching Phenomejon (AKA Jonathan Tucker) welcome his first political arrest, in a hearing in the Senate Intelligence Committee on the nomination of John Brennan (AKA the executioner) to head the CIA. While the chair of the committee closed the hearing to the public before I had a chance to interject, Jonathan proudly raised his voice.

Here’s what I’d prepared to say, in a loud enough voice that would have captured the C-SPAN cameras:

Torture and extrajudicial assassination
make a rogue state of our once great nation.
We cite China to show freedom denied,
but drones and torture undermine our national pride.

Collateral damage? How broad? Who knows?
America wants more war, and it shows:
allegations of abuse, unanswered, grow and grow,
turning hearts & minds abroad into our newest round of foes

Welcome to the Terrordrome: Gitmo, Bagram.
The President changed, but the abuses go on.
You must reject John Brennan’s nomination
to satisfy your oath to defend the Constitution.

See you at the February GPI open mics, on Tuesday Feburary 19 at Bossa Bistro with the Akoma Drummers, and Wednesday February 27 at the Coffy Cafe in Columbia Heights!

Highlights from GPI’s November open mic:

Luis suggested you sit back and marinate a while, think about the things that really make you smile.

Lisa read OPP—Martin Espada—her eyes open and unseen like jellyfish dangling in the ocean at midnight.

Mike debuted with Diesel: beautiful people live life like there’s no sequel.

Lucy read OPP—Anis Mojgani—you do have the right to sing out loud; all souls are equal.

Dane declared the time for fine is now; her pen is a musket.

Steve recalled that nothing drew mom’s ire more than jazz.

Jess sang of one entity that holds the economy of a country in its grip while exploiting democracy.

Maya thanked someone for bringing color into her life—the kind that’s worth crossing oceans for.

Luis’s race is human
Dane’s poem is about the journey
Lucy took The Plunge
Mike made us move, learn, change, evolve…

All this and more at the GPI monthly open mic. See you there next time on the third Tuesday in February, back at Bossa after a holiday-plus hiatus.

- Jessica

Highlights from GPI’s September open mic:

Laurie spoke of the cycle of homelessness, endlessly turning in on itself; the average homeless person is nine years old.

Damian’s Lincoln Perry truth was fuckin’ ugly—don’t want to lie to y’all.

Dane waged words: oh say can you see that the bombs bursting in air are directed at you.

Jess found a pathway of clarity through needle points.

Laura borrowed trouble and saw the silver dollar in the sly challenge the lesser coins to fall and intoxicate your pocket.

Jen said our souls can only stay apart so long before the pull home is too strong; it is never too late to go slow, to step and see what is before our eyes.

Lisa noticed that when you appear, all the rivers appear in her body. She is the tiger.

Whoa. Some good stuff in there, and even more great words hung in the air that night. Hope to see you out at the next one, so you can hear them all with me.

- Jessica

We’ve been rockin’ some old school open mics out on Dupont Cirle in 2012 on occasional Saturdays, May-September. As usual, the outdoor lyrical ambush on Dupont Circle’s fountain is a community affair, with the audience just as important a part of GPI as the poets. A recent passerby stopped, hung out a while, and decided to share the experience online, check it out: http://cmediausa.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/we-either-stand-together-or-hang-alone-enter-dcs-guerrilla-poets/

May’s open mic was a blast! It was great to see so many people out, and hear so many voices. ‘Twas truly a GPI night. Here are some highlights:

Rula showed the wisdom etched in their fine faces, these women tucked together.

Lisa went to the poem—a fish needing breath and finding the water.

Damian asked, are we humans or just gorillas in the mist?

The thoughts Laura’s [you’ve] been thinking have been carefully selected.

Luis was the truest, doing what he loves to do.

Gowri winter spring summer and fell into climate change then rained on hipster racism and retro sexism.

Mo wondered…for cheaper gas, would we sacrifice all of creation?

Couldn’t keep Jess down with no pain.

Laurie spoke to violence and she’s sick of it.

Jamie gave us the reigns to controlling ourselves in independence.

Shahid sang justice <clap> is hard to find in this world <clap> the flag of the unseen furled <clap> into the infinity we’re hurled…

Many other words and rhythms rippled through the air at the open mic, and a sweet lil’ impromptu cypher/jam topped off the night. Looking forward to June.

See ya there!

- Jessica

We had a lovely time upstairs at Bossa in April, with old friends and new faces (voices!). You know when you have one of those days and you don’t want to leave the house? Then you do and you’re so happy you did? The GPI open mic-ers picked me right up out of my funk and turned my frown upside down.

Some of the highlights from that night…

Damian painted a Rorschact picture, and Jess sang of One Entity.

Luis reminded us that we all drip the same liquid and to think about the things in life that really make us smile.

Jess said we’re going to get it, we are.

Damian is already planning for the ides of March, while Luis is marching on the path of righteousness.

Saman made her poetic footmark, saying you’re at the mountain top of your own expansion.

Damian spoke of ambition, ego, and tearing out all that anger.

Jess had an explosion of love. (no comment

Luis is always throwin’ accapella peace signs.

And fun was had by all.

See you at the next one!

So I’m passing through San Francisco this week, for a speaking engagement on Saturday at an American Constitution Society event, and figured I’d go check out the old scene at 16th & Mission that I helped launch with Miguel, James and Patrick nine years ago, in July 2003.

My companions at a nearby dinner party beforehand marveled at the thunder and lightning, which are apparently relatively uncommon here in SF. It was definitely raining, though not torrentially, and being exhausted after several days with only three hours of sleep, figured I might call it an early night.

Then my friend Ananda Sen called. He’d come down to the neighborhood from Noe Valley, where he just moved from LA, so of course I rolled over to 16th to meet him and his new friend Siraj. Another friend, Yusuf, joined us, though the entire scene was deserted on account of the rain. We chilled out for a while and shared a cigarette before I started badgering Ananda to sing for us, preferably something from Whitney Houston.

I finally coerced him to promise that he’d sing if I sang first, which is opportune since he’s a tough act to follow. I sang a few bars of “Wind Beneath my Wings” before dropping my new ballad, “Justice,” and he followed up with “Superstition.” His renditions are always phenomenal, and this time he attracted several passersby, including several guys who seemed to be homeless.

Cliff and Andre ended up singing the lights out. Cliff, after having…(a lot of) trouble recalling the precise song he wanted to sing, exhorted us to never use drugs. Then he rolled out “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” which I’d ironically considered singing just a few minutes before. Once he got going, he seemed inclined to keep going, so we let the cipher roll for about half an hour. Ananda & I beatboxed and alternated background vocals, making for some lovely a capella improvisation.

Nothing like coming back home….