June 22, 2005
Sentient Beings,
The beach is now
behind me and today I find myself writing from the city of Nottingham,
historical home of Robin Hood and lace-manufacturing capital of the UK. After two weeks of relative leisure in
Brighton recording new songs and going to scores of hiphop shows I finally
struck out to explore the rest of this country, and over the past fortnight
I've been performing like a maniac (frequently and frantically), following a
path of diverse bookings.
My first stop was
Oxford, where I was invited to perform as a guest reader by the Oxford Poetry
Society. Brighton and Oxford
probably represent the greatest polar opposites of liberal and conservative
thinking in this country, and I felt the difference acutely. This is not to say that my time in
Oxford wasn't enjoyable or profitably spent, but it was an edifying glimpse
into the schizophrenia that is England.
My gracious host there was Jana Lee, a good friend who was in the M.A.
program with me at UVic, and who is now a distinguished though somewhat
disgruntled Rhodes scholar.
Through her I got to meet some of the other Rhodies and various other
powerful intellects, who were mostly disarmed by alcohol, it being the end of
exam time. The poetry society gig
was also great, attended by a group of keen undergraduates, none of whom knew
what to expect since I was the first rapper ever to be booked by the
Society. As usual my attempt to
explain and defend my artistic vision for poetry turned into a tirade against
free verse, which was actually received relatively well.
After my weekend
in Oxford I headed North to Leicester to begin my core activity for this summer
adventure, the Cambridge Schools tour.
When I was here in England back in January I did presentations and
workshops on hiphop lyrics and poetry in about a dozen schools over three
weeks. The feedback was so
positive that Cambridge offered to help me organize another tour, and asked
what my requirements were to make it happen. I told them it would be worth my while if they could hook me
up with twenty gigs over six weeks, but other than that they were free to work
me as hard as was logistically possible, as demand required. Incredibly, they booked me eighteen
shows over two weeks, which has had me visiting a new school every morning and
every afternoon five weekdays in a row, all last week and this week.
If you're curious
about what I do in these schools, basically they bring me into a classroom or
drama studio with a group of students ranging from ten to seventy in number,
usually fifteen-years-old or thereabouts.
I then have approximately two hours to explain the concept behind my
thesis, outlining some connections between rap lyrics and the poetry they have
been studying in their English classrooms, then I talk about the Canterbury
Tales, perform some of my own raps (primarily the Chaucer ones), answer
questions, and finally conduct a workshop in which the students are encouraged
to experiment with their own rhymes and write some lyrics themselves.
The pace is
intense, but it has been incredibly rewarding as well, since each group of
students has its own dynamic and they are generally inquisitive and
enthusiastic, especially having a "real live rapper" in their school. It is also a constant challenge to draw
them in to participate and invite them to think about how language changes over
time and make some new connections.
I have been consistently impressed with how quickly some of them catch
on to the rap format as well, and I suspect I may be sowing the seeds of some
future rap careers, or perhaps a new crop of hiphop academics. After some of the sessions I have even
been asked to sign autographs on notebooks and backpacks, perhaps in the hope
that they will be worth something on eBay someday if I hit it big. Joking aside though, it has been a
great honour to connect with all of these young people and share my ideas with
them. It is also a blessing to get
paid to rehearse and polish my show before returning to Edinburgh in August.
Beyond my duties
in schools I have the freedom to take on whatever other gigs I can manage, so
last Thursday I traveled to London to perform at a Spoken Word night called
"Shortfuse" with a crew of English-Caribbean poets. Then after my Friday school show I
headed to Cambridge for the weekend, where I had a few bookings at May Week
celebrations, a carnival of student revelry that takes place in June every
year. May Week marks the end of
the Spring semester, and basically consists of garden parties, balls, dances,
fairs and various other celebrations, spread around the city in different
colleges and parks.
My crew in
Cambridge this time around was a Drum and Bass/Hiphop band called Emunah, who
play highly danceable bass-heavy grooves with a drummer, DJ, guitarist, laptop,
bass guitarist and violinist, all integrated with singing and rapping in both
English and Hebrew. You can check
them out online at <http://www.emunahmusic.com/>. I had met Dan the lead rapper back in
January and he graciously put me up over the weekend, along with the rest of
the band. Friday night I was
invited for dinner at the Cambridge Jewish Student Centre, with assurances that
it was goyim friendly. Just before
dinner was served I saw one of the leaders coming straight over to me looking
concerned, and I worried for a moment that I was about to be busted for
something. It turned out he had
indeed singled me out as the least-Jewish-looking person in the place, though
not for the reason I feared. With
extreme circumlocution he explained that my help was needed, since the oven had
somehow gotten turned down, and he could neither touch the knob, nor cause a
Jew to touch it, nor directly ask any person to touch it for him, it being the
Shabbat. Catching the hint, I
followed him to the kitchen and earned my keep with an unorthodox twist of the
wrist.
Later that night
I got to drop some verses on stage with Emunah, who managed to smuggle me into
the Robinson's May Ball as a guest MC and honorary band member (the tickets
were over £100). These May
Balls happen throughout May Week in Cambridge and are like massive proms put on
by the various colleges, lush and extravagant affairs with excessive decorations
and flowers, free-flowing alcohol, crepe stands, barbecues, rides, music and
dancing. The spectacle is
impressive, though I must say I'm glad I didn't have to pay to witness it.
Saturday I had a
performance at a Charity Garden Party at St. Johns College, a benefit for
Amnesty International, Fair Trade, Make Poverty History, etc. The line-up
featured belly dancing, capoeira, African drumming, and me, an odd mix, but it
was a beautiful day to perform in a grassy park for students in shorts and
summer dresses. Afterwards I
jumped in with some friends and we drove an hour out of town to a country house
party in one of the most perfect pastoral settings I've encountered here
yet. Then Sunday night I had
another performance at a May Ball pre-party, this one a proper rap set where I
got a chance to rock some dance songs.
The venue and sound system weren't ideal, but it was still a good night
and I got to reciprocate for Emunah, hooking the whole crew up with passes.
The next morning
I got picked up at eight a.m. - with about ten hours of cumulative sleep over
the past three nights - and returned to Leicester to resume classroom
workshops, which pretty much brings me up to date. I have been both working and enjoying myself at high
intensity over the past few weeks, which is a sure mark of good times, but I
was reminded today that I am not invulnerable. I was performing for a group of students here in Nottingham
and threw myself around a bit too energetically during one of the Rap
Canterbury Tales, painfully pinching something in my neck. I managed to get through the day's
shows, but I can still feel it sharply, and I'm looking forward to cooling it a
bit next weekend. I had been
holding out hope that I would get into the Glastonbury Festival, England's largest
summer music event, but it is sold out and it looks like it's not going to
happen, which may be a blessing in disguise.
Hope you are all
well, and I have appreciated the encouraging words and responses that have been
coming in since I hit the road.
Take it easy, and I'll try to do the same. Yours,
baba