Audible to be Accessible (Audio link)

Last week I performed at a North-London spoken word event called 'Verses' mainly for the sake of getting a new poem out that I've been dying to share. I have had an abundance of new poems go from pen to paper or finger to computer in recent months and I'm loving it. This one is basically a letter of complaint slash bitter love letter to one of my former favourite brands where snacks and guilty pleasures are concerned. I wrote it with conviction, sincerity and humour knowing that many other fans of the brand especially long-time fans, would relate. It made the crowd happy with laughter and I got my point across, even more so I intentionally tweeted it to the company in hope that they pay attention to customer feedback regardless of the form in which it is expressed.

Now although this performance was filmed by the organisers, on this occasion I wanted to record my myself for a specific purpose. In recent years I have seen a dramatic increase of disabled people of various disabilities and of all ages, however I've noticed an increase in young (up to 30yrs old) disabled people, well in London anyway. Blind people stand out to me a great deal and tend to gravitate towards me in general especially at train stations for some reason.

Anyway, I have come to be in awe of how some blind people make the best of their lives despite lacking sight. Knowing of Ray Charles and seeing Stevie Wonder achieve so and do so much, regardless of not being able to see the piano they were actually playing on always blew my mind. Only a month ago I learned about the astounding career Opera Singer Andrea Bocelli who lost his sight at age 12. Even Blind Fury who I saw on BET's 106 & Park freestyle rap battle (which was one of the best segments of that show by the way), blew me away at how he completely held his own.

I actually began writing a poem about a visually impaired young woman I saw walking with her rollerball white cane, semi-confidently on a hazardous, pot-holed, scaffold infested busy high street. Every pedestrian and driver stared at her in shock as did I, although I was thinking less of judgement and more of her safety. In comparison to watching the men on TV, I'd say that watching and observing this lady in person left the greatest impression on me with regard to empathy.

I have become more mindful with the acknowledgement that other than road crossings, free parking, certain door entries, discounts, some public toilets and some technologies; still many daily life things do not consider the blind, deaf or physically disabled (e.g. Wheelchairs). In recent years I have simply grown a large appreciation and a whole lot of respect for people living with disabilities, blindness in particular and have started to be more considerate of their needs in regards to my own business activities.

With that said I know that there is always braille however, reading poetry or seeing a spoken word performance in all its glory is not going to be fully received by blind people. Yet that does not mean they they can't be entertained by it in another form i.e. Audibly. So I want to reach out to blind audiences more by voice recording my performances for them. This will also give me good reason to be more active with my Soundcloud page that I do not update often. I'd love to have my poetry be more accessible to a wider audience this way or similar. I much prefer to do voice recordings as opposed to video ones anyway for both the ease and comfort, although this audience was my sole motivation, as it is for me to do audible versions of future books and the recent idea to upload readings of my food blog posts.

Verses was a fun night that fully made up for the crap night I had earlier in the week at a show that invited me down just to waste my time. It was all positive vibes, good poetry and friendly people. My stage experience was funny for me not even due to the content of what I was saying, it was due to a dog running up to me in the middle of my performance, my dry eyes watering like crazy ironically effecting my vision and my hay fever provoking that further.

To say I was multi-tasking and keeping my cool was an understatement. Watery eyes and interrupting animals aside, I pushed through my performance being the pro that I am. I'm just pre-warning you for some moments on the recording that may throw you off. Take a listen, share with any blind poetry lovers and enjoy!


@LK_ReelDeevah

Long Lives the Queen of Soul, Gospel and Swag

I've been up all night distracted from my much needed sleep with the infatuation of Aretha Franklin's funeral. It is really sad that celebrity deaths have become so frequent and expected now that I fear we are becoming impervious towards it per se. I just can't believe that within five years we've lost such huge icons being the likes of Whitey Houston, Bowie, Prince, Muhammad Ali and the list sadly goes on.

However now with the likes of Aretha Franklin, yes she was of age, yes she died of the ever common, ever devastating widespread disease of cancer, so with that said we saw this coming but nevertheless it is still a great heart dropping loss to those who grew up on her music and to the music industry on a whole. I can't stand to be left with less and less, meaningful music legends as we won't have much after left them truth be told. That statement is me reiterating the lack of quality as opposed to the obvious lack of quantity.

From all the footage that I have seen and read about Aretha these past couple weeks, most of which I already knew, it is great to be acknowledged of how powerful she really was up till her dying day and not just in her 'heyday'. Did you know that she owned most of her publishing!? That's practically unheard of especially for an Artist of her time. Her business of her entire estate was on point which I suppose explains why she persevered so well throughout the decades. As debatable as it may be, I only know of Cher and Barbara Streisand to have ongoing profitable and high in demand careers that have surpassed each decade from as far back as the 60's. That's amazing.

Her estate is estimated to be worth near a billion dollars- and I should hope so if Jessica Simpson's and Kylie Jenner's brands are of that amount (according to Forbes) within such a short space of time and to a smaller audience. Most people would only think of Michael Jackson and The Beatles when it comes to that kind of money for a Musicians catalogue of work, understandably.

I never knew she could play the piano up till now either. I have found that many other Singers have that hidden talent but show it less such as Toni Braxton and Mary J Blige, George Michael could play the piano too.

The songs I will always remember Aretha for is R.E.S.P.E.C.T, Natural Woman of course and A Rose Is Still A Rose which I think is written by Lauryn Hill well she featured on the track anyway. The message behind the song and music video (when music videos had more integrity) stood out to me so much when I was coming of age, and no doubt contributed to my attitude towards males at the time and assisted with abstinence quite well. It is a story and rule that all women have been told but that video is one I paid great attention to. That was her targetting a younger audience quite adequately at the time I might add.

Only now did I realise that R.E.S.P.E.C.T was more of a Black pride anthem than a feminist anthem. I always saw how the message crosses over because many people (mostly Black women I recall) used that specific chorus as a reference in regard to both race and gender relations but overall, as a child listening to it I just saw it as a female empowering song. Through all the archives coming to surface I have been so elated to see her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, it reminds me of Nina Simone and other courageous and righteous Black celebrities who overlooked their 'Hollywood' likability to fight for equality.

I love all the pictures of her with her afro and African inspired clothing, very much of the time and statement making. For her in particular I mean, as I know that this particular look is also increasingly popular today, contemporary in many ways in many locations and African fashion can be found anywhere any day without it having to be a political statement.

All the love and out-pour between eulogies and memories have me weeping. Smokey Robinson's eulogy touched me the most because his was so personal. Aretha meant so much to so many and was in a complete league of her own. I don't know anyone else who so effortlessly crossed between Gospel, Soul, R'n'B, Pop, Jazz and Opera! I hated that it took forever for people (news outlets) to mention when she stepped in for Pavarotti as that performance was huge!!

Many Artists have broken through Gospel to do the Blues then consequently Soul as that was the 'movement' or should I say 'reoccurring struggle' at the time e.g. Ray Charles and Al Green, but to do it, do well and go beyond while being believable is a whole 'nother ball game and she achieved that. Aretha succeeded in crossing over while sticking to her roots and continuously bringing it back to Gospel. I love that Aretha made the album Amazing Grace in 1972 and that it did not break or deter her career but in fact became the biggest selling Gospel album to date at the time of its release!!! C'mon!

Typical of my generation I didn't realise just how sampled her music was. I knew she re-recorded fellow Artists records herself but I did not quite realise how much of her music has also been used particularly in modern day R'n'B and Hip Hop, no doubt some Pop songs too. En Vogue's Something He Can feel stands out to me the most as my mother is a huge En Vogue fan, thus making me a fan and I remember singing that song aloud at their concert as a child which I had no business singing at that age but I knew the lyrics word for word and loved their voices and glamour.

Aretha Franklin's career, ongoing work ethic and swag leaves me in awe. There's a great video clip, kind of like a meme that I saw on Twitter the day the news broke of her death, where she walks onto a stage with a fur coat on making her presence felt with each strutted step and she shrugs her luxurious (sorry PETA) fur off her shoulders and onto the floor as she grabs the microphone- like a BOSS. That clip was so swaggerlicious it's not funny.

Rest In Power Queen of Soul.