NARRATOR: Coming up it's music, poetry, and paintings with a message.
Welcome to "ARTICO", art in your community.
(upbeat drum music) April is National Poetry Month, and to celebrate we're featuring three award-winning local poets, which we'll present throughout the show.
First up, Celillianne Green.
She started out in the legal profession and wrote her first poem in early 2000.
Her observations are fraud, social justice, spirituality and relationships.
Her recitations have helped celebrate openings like the one for the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and aired on radio and TV.
Well, I tend to address love, spirituality, history.
I think I address what is going on now.
I have poems that deal with current events, topical events.
I write poems about the history of Black people in particular.
That's what comes to me.
I've never studied poetry.
I'm an avid reader, but I didn't particularly read poetry.
I have poetry books in my home, but I had not studied poetry.
But, I felt like I needed to have some poetry rules because I didn't know what they were in terms of studying poetry.
But as an attorney, I know rules of civil procedure, rules of criminal procedure, appellate procedure.
So I said, "Oh, you need some rules of procedure for how you're gonna do these poems."
And it was really critical for me to maintain the rhythm because I feel like what was being brought to me from the spirit realm, from my ancestors had a rhythm to it.
I had an opportunity to participate with an anthology that was published in 2021, entitled "2020 the Year that Changed America".
And one of the poems that I've included in the anthology is entitled "Guns for Hire".
And it speaks to the reality that, there's a line in the poem that says, "The police act as taxpayer-funded guns for hire.
But Black people pay taxes too, and we are not inspired."
Some years ago, I wrote a poem called "Casual Killing".
And "Casual Killing", that too was based on the idea of how the police in some cases casually are killing us.
But, the title comes from a Virginia slave code which was enacted early in the 1600s that absolved plantation owners if they killed a Black person while meeting our punishment, and they deemed it a casual killing.
The poem I'm going to do is entitled, "I Am Perfectly Black".
And the title comes from a visit I took to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, based on a phrase in a notice posted for a Black man who had taken his freedom.
And the white plantation owner who was trying to capture him described him as perfectly Black.
"Perfectly Black".
I am perfectly Black.
My ancestors were, and I am perfectly Black.
I need not deny it or put on an act.
Who I am as an undisputed fact.
I am perfect.
I am Black.
I come from ancestors who came through.
I know what I'm here to do.
I am here to keep their legacy intact.
With them I have a spiritual pact.
Our soul connection is real.
Their power I am able to feel.
In their power I know what can be done.
Toward them I do not walk, I run.
Their spirits are ever near reminding me of what is clear.
It is clear the future is now here.
The future of ancestors who cried perfect tears, tears through which they were able to see descendants not yet born, absolutely free.
Of those descendants, I am but one.
Yet many more destined to come.
For those to come I must be true.
And like our ancestors, I must come through, through the middle passage of this day in time, moving humanity into a new paradigm.
In this knowledge I firmly stand, rooted to my ancestral land.
I stand firm.
I stand free, girded by ancestors who are here with me.
Like them, I am perfectly Black.
I am perfect.
I am Black.
I am perfect.
I am Black.
I am perfect.
I am Black NARRATOR: Painter Helen Zughaib was born in Beirut, Lebanon.
After several evacuations from two different wars, Zughaib lived in Greece, Iraq, Kuwait, and France before making her way to the US and now Washington, DC.
She draws inspiration from her cultural experiences, and her exhibitions travel the world.
I have always been in love with art, and painting, and color, and texture, and design, and pattern.
And living in the Middle East, I grew up with all of that around me.
So I kind of absorbed it.
I did want to be a singer, but my dad wouldn't let me.
So, "No daughter of mine will be a singer," so that was that.
So, I became an artist and I'm really happy I did.
I work in an opaque watercolor called gouache.
A lot of artists don't actually like to use it.
It takes a lot of practice to get it smooth, and the way that I like to use it and control it.
But, the color is so beautiful and so clean looking.
I just love it.
It's a struggle to start a new painting.
Usually, I have a title and something that I want to talk about.
And, you know, lately over the past 10 years, it's been about the "Arab Spring", or the uprisings and the revolutions.
This show is called "Unfinished Journeys" that you're seeing up on the walls now.
And it began after I finally returned home to Lebanon, and Syria, and Jordan for the first time in 35 years after I'd been evacuated.
I went back for a big exhibition in Beirut, which was amazing.
And then when I came back to America, a couple of months later, the revolutions began and the protests began in Tunisia, and Egypt, and ultimately to Syria, and started spreading.
And so as a visual artist, you know, we document what's going on around us, and especially since I had been there, and especially since my father was born in Damascus.
Jacob Lawrence did "The Great Migration", a series of 60 paintings and narratives that documented the movement of African-Americans from the rural South to the North for better jobs, to get away from Jim Crow, etc, etc.
I feel we have a connection.
The way he works, the flatness, the color, the pattern, more than that what he did with documenting a lot of tragedy in that series, he kept the the beauty and the humanity of people who were fleeing for their lives in another kind of way.
And I thought, what a parallel between that migration and this migration that happened as a result of the Syrian War, which is ongoing.
One of my favorite pieces is the "Arab Spring".
And that is the first piece I did when the Arab Spring began and we were hoping for change.
There was so much optimism, so much, yeah, a hopefulness for equality, for better jobs, for more a democratic way of living for both men and women.
So, I used the flower that is in this painting as a symbol of hope.
As the Arab Spring, let's face it, deteriorated and did not result in what people were hoping for who were demonstrating, I kept use of the flower, but it became more agonized.
One of the other pieces that I did as the revolutions dissolved was called "Arab Spring Exodus".
And you see my reference to Picasso's "Guernica" which is the seminole painting on war and the horrors of war.
And so you see an agonized, beseeching woman.
The flower is there, always retaining that hope in my work in some regard.
So, I think what I'd like my work to do is crack open that door and open that dialogue.
And once you have that dialogue, that you can't other the other person anymore, you know?
You cannot make a generalization, at least not as quickly.
I feel that it's important to keep talking about this and creating that dialogue and space for empathy and compassion, ultimately.
NARRATOR: Derrick Weston Brown is a poet for all times.
The Mountain Rainier resident has been published in many literary journals and authored several collections of poetry.
His work is always relevant, like the poem he wrote in 2015 in response to the Charleston Massacre, "We Can't Have Nothing".
It describes the many ways Black people are brutalized by racism.
Brown was the founder of the "Nine on the Ninth", a critically-acclaimed poetry series that ran for a decade at the 14th Street Busboys and Poets.
"Legacy".
My father's vocabulary is quite extensive, yet he still can't find the words for I love you, nor the synonyms, acronyms, or abbreviations.
I guess this is why I am a poet.
I inherited the words lost to his dictionary.
I am the next volume updated.
I am the New Testament.
Short forms are my favorite, haiku, you know, Sonia Sanchez, and Kalamu ya Salaam, you know, both, you know, Black poets that use the form.
Yeah, and of course free writing is always good or just free verse.
It's always fun.
My mother, you know, collected all my little poems and made like a little tiny, book and distributed it to my family members because she was just really proud of it.
And then some of her coworkers saw the work and they were surprised like, "How old is your son?
He's writing stuff like?"
That's kind of where it went beyond my family.
And I knew that I was connecting with other folks.
That's really what made it kind of sink in it that maybe I might have, I might be doing something.
So, I am a big, as my students would say, ear hustler.
So, I'm a people watcher.
So, I listen.
Sometimes you get the best stuff from people who were just doing their thing.
I have a poem where I was sitting in the dearly departed Mocha Hut Cafe.
It was on U Street.
And there was a couple literally ending their marriage.
They were having a discussion about the end of their marriage.
And I was like, "Well, that's good.
Let me write that down."
There's a saying by Ishmael Reed, writing is fighting.
And so, you know, when it came to the pandemic, I had to, like many folks, pivot.
And it also meant also going to the tools that I have that are available to me in order to keep my right mind.
And so I wrote about, you know, what it meant to be locked in.
And so I've wrote several poems about, you know, so good to see the sun, and to be outside, and to even watch the seasons show up on.
There's a poem that I have called "We Can't Have Nothing', that I wrote it after the shooting in Charleston.
And that poem went viral.
That was 2015.
And then every once something would happen, because the first place that I posted it was on Facebook and people picked up on it, every once in a while someone would pick up that poem and it would circulate.
We can't have nothing, not our skin, not our peace, not our sanctuary.
Can't have nothing.
ACTIVISTS: Hands up, don't shoot!
Hands up, don't shoot!
I am not an animal!
DERRICK: Can't shop.
Can't swim.
Can't walk home.
Can't pray.
Can't worship.
Can't have nothing.
(solemn piano music) NARRATOR: Teri Ellen Cross Davis has been a poetry lover since her mother taught her to read to Nikki Giovanni at age four.
From there, her passion grew as she fell in love with the writings of celebrated poets like Rita Dove and personal favorite Lucille Clifton.
Today, in addition to creating her own work, she is the Folger Portrait Coordinator for the OB Hardison Poetry Series, which these days you can catch online.
I've felt validated at different points in my life in terms of my writing poetry and whether or not it was any good.
In a story I don't tell that often, I used my poetry for a beauty pageant in college.
So, you're looking at Miss Bronze 1994.
And so when it helped me win that title, I said, okay, there must be something to this.
But when I was accepted to Cave Canem in 1999, which is like a home for Black poets.
Nikky Finney called it the watering hole for Black poets.
And when I went there, that's when I knew I found my people.
I'm always writing about the family, about the body, and about the female body.
I'm enamored with the female body because it gave me two children.
But it goes beyond that.
I often write about whatever strikes me.
Sometimes it's gardening that catches my fancy.
It's one of the best art forms I can think of, to tell another person what it's like to be a mother, what it's like to lose a loved one, what it's like to look at the sunrise.
We use poetry to get at the heart of what makes us human.
And all our five senses are normally engaged with good poetry.
But, my responsibility is to tell the truth, is to unveil the truth.
And often that's sharing and exploring experiences and emotions that mainstream white America isn't aware of.
My responsibility is to the page and to the poem, to make sure I am putting all that I have into it.
And if I've done that part right, if I've gotten the poem right, then everything else will follow through.
"A Black Woman Gets a Window Seat on Aer Lingus".
And Aer Lingus, just so you know, is one of the most popular airlines in and out of Ireland.
Enough Ireland, for all your lush effusion of color, indie side me blooms a masochistic loneliness.
Give me the screws I know best, the policemen quick to test my, 'yes, sir' as acidless.
Trigger the Midwest, never on the Bible school tests was this.
Crucifixion kills, not nails in two feet or wrists, but the weight born upon the breast.
You suffocate slowly in your own flesh.
As I return to the upright cross of the US, I breathe easier.
I breathe less.
NARRATOR: Sylver Logan Sharp and Daryl L.A. Hunt have spent a lifetime making music.
Sylver is a vocalist, songwriter, producer, and former lead singer of the legendary group Chic.
Daryl is a music director, songwriter, producer, having worked with artists like Yolanda Adams and Roberta Flack.
For more than two decades, they've merged their considerable talents together, creating songs like "No.More.Color.Lines.
", which they promote as not only a good song but a message and a movement.
So, let's tell them about how we wrote "No.More.Color.Lines.
", "Don't Give Up (On You)".
I did a concert at Marymount University.
I went at the time, it was Kirk Franklin's, ♪ Imagine me, loving what I see ♪ right?
And so it was a new song at the time.
And I loved Kirk Franklin and I loved that song.
And so we put the song in the show.
But right before I sang the song, I told the audience to close your eyes and imagine.
Just close your eyes and imagine.
I literally made everybody in the room close their eyes.
And the point was, the exercise was, we instinctively judge because we have sight.
And I thought to myself, what if everybody was just, you know, without sight for just a minute, everybody?
Imagine the trust that you have to have.
Now suddenly, that racial thing doesn't matter 'cause you can't see it anyway.
And so we were going to have dinner, right?
We were going and going out to have dinner and just hang out.
And I said, "So listen, I got this hook in my head, right?
It's been sitting with me all weekend."
So the opportune word was we were going out to dinner.
Right, we were going out to dinner.
So I said, "So listen, I've got this hook in my head, right?
I've got this thing.
I got to get it out of my head and recorded."
So, we sat in the studio all night long and just wrote.
♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ That's all I had.
That was it.
CREW: Pretty good, though.
That was it.
That was enough.
That was enough for him to put a thing on it.
And we got a theme song and this is great.
He mixed it.
So, we're in here 'til the wee hours, like literally all night 'til the morning.
Because when you get lost in the studio, and there's no such thing as time when you are working on a song, it just doesn't exist.
And fast-forward to COVID life, and as an artist, you watch all of the destruction that happens from the senseless murders of Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, and you know, Ahmaud Arbery, and people like that.
And to think that people just literally hate you because of how you look, it's just so absurd.
DARYL: That's just the things that were filmed.
Right, right.
That's just what we know about.
That's just what we've seen.
I was thinking, what do I post?
What do you sing about?
You know, what can I put out there that would help right now?
So I thought, okay, do something.
Well, what if you could, okay, how do we redo it?
Well, call a couple of your singer friends and see if we can get everybody.
'Cause now we're all recording at home.
We have some wonderful people on this new version of "No.More.Color.Lines.".
We've got Howard Hewett, Will Downing, Cheryl Pepsii Riley.
CeCe Peniston.
And some other local artists that are phenomenal.
When everybody started to send their footage, to hear people sing your song, and translate, it was just, I could have used everybody's take as a separate record.
You know what I mean?
'Cause everybody nailed it.
They internalized it.
Yeah, just the fact that they took it to heart and just really gave a performance.
SYLVER: They really did, every every single.
Authentic performance.
And everybody loved it.
And my good, good, good, good, long-time girlfriend, Angela, called me and said, "I need that video right now.
What are you doing?
What's going on?
I've got a plan.
Let's talk.
Call me immediately."
So, the idea is to get this campaign into the mainstream to get people aware of it.
So, someone from Mayor Bowser's office, you know, has become aware.
And Sylver was recently invited to participate in the Mayor's Arts Council event that's going to be coming up, I believe later in the year.
You know, reaching out to some media outlets and just really hoping that this campaign can get the traction and the attention that it deserves.
Now we have taken it to the ninth go-go power, honey.
I have a wonderful producer, Roy Battle.
He's incredible.
He's incredible.
So I'm in the car, and I'm jamming to some Chuck or something.
I was listening to something.
And when the breakdown came, I started singing the hook.
And I was like, "I need a go-go version!
Roy!"
And he went, "Huh?"
I said, "I need a go-go version of 'No.More.Color.Lines.'"
And he was like, "Are you sure?"
And I'm like, "I hear it.
I feel it.
And I know you know what you're doing."
When that bass dropped in, I was like- We love you.
And then he brought in some of DC's rock stars, Go-Go Mickey, Big G Backyard, and Weensey.
If you know anything about go-go, then you know that they are legendary and they are just fire.
And he put them on the song, along with our boy Chooky and Doug Crawley on bass.
And it's just flaming.
And I am so excited about this.
I am so excited.
♪ D.C. ♪ ♪ Imagine, yeah ♪ ♪ Close your eyes and imagine ♪ NARRATOR: Thanks for watching this edition of "ARTICO", Happy spring.
And until next time, always remember to follow your art.
♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ Imagine a world where no one has colorful skin ♪ ♪ Colorful skin ♪ ♪ Imagine a place where everyone only stands to win ♪ ♪ Some of us call our world a peaceful place ♪ ♪ But if you could go back, think of everything you'd change ♪ ♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ It's so easy for you to jump wrong conclusions ♪ ♪ Wrong conclusions ♪ ♪ Imagine if your first thought was to find a resolution ♪ ♪ Some of us think we can't change anything ♪ ♪ But if you could do it differently ♪ ♪ What choices would you make ♪ ♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ No more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ Imagine if at the drop of a hat ♪ ♪ You could turn back ♪ ♪ Start each day all over again ♪ ♪ Every new day, that you wait you can make ♪ ♪ Choice of love anyway ♪ ♪ In spite of all the things that you need to change ♪ ♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up you ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ Imagine no more color lines ♪ ♪ Imagine no more reasons why ♪ ♪ You can do anything you try ♪ ♪ Don't give up on ♪ ♪ Imagine your dreams coming true ♪ ♪ South side, come on ♪ ♪ Our music, our culture, our sound ♪ ♪ DC, chocolate city, baby ♪ ♪ Yeah ♪ ♪ Say what, imagine ♪ NARRATOR: This program was produced by WHUT and made possible by contributions from viewers like you.
For more information on this program or any other program, please visit our website at whut.org.
Thank you.