My performance game has been all the way ON! This past month, I have been edu-taining as much as booked and as much as possible in my free-time, all in the name of Black History Month (BHM). It has truly been one of the best BHM's in the last five or so years I think (with or without the lockdowns of Covid).
Closing out the month (every month is Black History Month intellectually speaking, but of course in this instance I specifically mean according to the British events calendar) with Halloween, added extra fun and a change of vibe.
Tonight I was happy to attend the pilot poetry night named Cosmic Pumpkin at Royal Society of Arts (RSA). Now I was intrigued by two things; one being that one of the organisers (Mr. Gee) is a well-seasoned Poet whom I met thirteen years ago when he performed at my former poetry and live music event Poetic Justice, and two would be the venue. As a keen Event Planner both professionally and personally, I always love to check out new event spaces and I'm glad to report that RSA did not disappoint as it was a very attractive, nice venue. Chilly but lovely from my eyes and thermal skin experience.
Seeing Mr. Gee again after all this time was ironic as I have been constantly bumping into Poets that I've met from over a decade ago, during these past couple months. Who many of which performed at my shows, and it has been wonderful to reconnect, catch-up on all our creative activities over such a wide space of time, and to hear each other's art again in this new poetic era. Wonderful indeed.
Many great poems were read and performed tonight, I particularly loved the ones about peace and finding ones faith again by Poisonous Pixie, the captivatingly personal poem by "Anarchy" (he'd get the joke), the beautifully spoken love poems by Michelle and the socially mindful, food for thought poem by Miss Cellaneous (if that's how she cleverly spells her stage name). I'm glad I spent Halloween night this way.
To my pleasant surprise, the poem was received with great welcomed attention. So much so that many of the audience members, both Poets and listeners, came up to me mostly saying "Thank you for that poem...really liked your poem....it made me think...." What I really loved was that this was the first time that quite a few men approached me about how it moved them or what they appreciated from it, by way of a direct experience perspective, newly conscious perspective, as well as what they appreciated artistically.
It was refreshing to connect so deeply with males on this subject matter, both young and mature. In the past I have had a couple of senior men congratulate my lyricism on the subject but not necessary to address the male behaviour of the content. FYI; I know that women can be the violent partner in DV situations also. In any case BOTH PERPETRATORS ARE TO BE BLAMED, SHAMED and PUNISHED for their actions. I believe that neither should be excused for such behaviour- in any day in age.
Noticeably, there were private conversations of where my poem sparked emotion and debate, as much of my writing does however, I was not anticipating that as much on this occasion. Two women in particular were heavily debating about the message(s) and significance of the circumstances and characters mentioned within the poem. That conversation left quite the impression. A great example of conversations and different perspectives being a good thing, because that's the way we learn from each other or at least learn and observe how other people perceive things. How we can create a better understanding of one another basically.
Unfortunately and fortunately (depending on how you look at it), the descriptions of the abuse, acknowledgement of being abused, embarrassment, guilt, fears, survival, protection, confession, dysfunction, desires and denial all described within my poem...resonated with some of those people who approached me.
One of the many things that I love about my work, my art, is that it connects with people on so many different levels. It makes people think, it enlightens people, it makes people smile, laugh, gasp, cry or get inspired. I know because audience members tell me this directly or show me this soon after, and it never gets old. Not to get all philosophical but art really has no bounds, it's a great communicator. connector so to speak, and teacher I'd say.
Naturally the title Cosmic Pumpkin would make one think that it is directly in sync with Halloween. Well according to Mr. Gee this is not so! The name came purely through his personal background in regard to his mother's cooking of Curry Pumpkin soup (Guyanese food). It just happens to be a coincidence that they launched this new potential poetry monthly event, on Halloween itself. Consequently people would automatically assume it's in celebration of the day, being associated with pumpkins and all. A common donation in later years anyway, despite that pumpkins are not quite the origins of Halloween, such as Santa Claus in a red suit vs the green suit origins of Father Christmas aka Saint Nicholas- but that's a debate for another time and on someone else's blog.
My outfit was dedicated to this supposed theme, as I wore a really cute and comfortable (rare combination lol) orange split (sides), short sleeve dress, with my orange bandana around my neck and black leggings with black over-the-knee boots, of course. To make it feel more "Halloween-ish" I wore these skull dangling earrings that I haven't worn since I threw my first Halloween rave (in 2007 oh my word!) and spikey, skull bracelet.
I wish I had proper full length pictures to show off my outfit but as usual, no can do I'm afraid. Just know that I was going for a "Gothic Pumpkin" look as far as I was concerned. No one got it lol, except perhaps from some of the people on the train who probably thought I just liked gothic fashion and intentionally wore orange for the day in question. That's just me assuming based on some of the looks from much older, seemingly religious folk onlooking with a mix of curiosity, plus "ah I get it," plus some disapproval (regarding the devil worship assumption).
However, many people complimented the dress though. A few women at both the show and at the train station told me how much they loved the dress and the colour (the happy citrus colour is blissfully infectious I must say). It took me mentioning pumpkins, for them to get what I as going for but alas....still cute ;-)
It was a fun night. I haven't indulged in Halloween in years, not outside of themed food and food styling, purely for the sake of food photography as a Food Blogger of course. More so, all the varied poetry shared tonight was great, as was the overall event. I look forward to many more.
More pictures of the night can be seen on my Instagram page @LkReelDeevah. Like many other people I haven't logged onto Twitter much since it became "no longer Twitter" kmt.
Love Lauren
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