Category: music

where is the bridge

pictures and stories are windows in walls i don’t see past
a black mirror
warm blood on skin yellow white black
someone washing away toward a vast ocean
i navigate by echo

red black yellow white at sunrise
(the reginald f lewis museum of maryland african american history and culture opened on president and pratt streets in 2005)

into pools

valkerae crawling thru bright rings of perception
lostlove stabbed and bleeding play rebirth in dripping velvet
arresting music draws them into kaleidoscope writhing zombie snakes
disappearing in paintsplash come to life in ballet circus serpent coalescing
float apart as dreams swirl and collide in drowning passion
unfurl as sails flying in ocean blood red glittering gold
windbuzzing canvass folds mantis fly beetle bee combusting popping clapping hands
smoke flattens screening filtering shapes into stop and go
protofungoteria oxygen fueled cellsuponcells reptofloweringflying glitterdelight
they sing the waging war of sundust conquerlust eartharvest in laughter
march in loudly colored ballooning hoops of lovechild rhyme
step onto fourwheeled footcarts in globemirrored zoomrevue
waterglobe dancestorm seaquesting in bluegreenscarletyellow
portalexploring in darkcrime
rolling sold out streets into forcefield happiness
sleuthingtopia slaverybuilt boomsechoing
fantasies disintegrating deconstructing into lifestoria
reelspinturnwhirling soundunfurious stretching spiralfate they celebrate

city pool at sunrise
(fluid movement staged their first water ballet in 1999 in patterson park)

spinarette

spider reached into the heart of a piano
with insect strength pulled out handfuls of strings
swung them overhead and around
casting ends over rafters and ropes
then pulled them all tight into chest
how they shined in the lights and threw weird shadows
a vibrating soundweb of hammer strike
as spider taps into a breakwalking dance en march

culturL center at sunrise
(the eubie blake cultural arts center moved to north howard street in 2000)

the movie party

in a post industrial city sixteen car lot between a three story commercial rowhouse and a four story garage among dry cleaners and metal clubs and pricey restaurants a masquerade of merchants generals sailors steelworkers storytellers healers and survivalists mingle in costumes from around north america and the world in front of a mural in brick and mortar as it begins to move change speed up slow down darken explode clarify and fade. they chat orate gesture swoon and watch to understand what is dying and what is being born but agree on a definitive statement with an unexpected twist

movie house at sunrise
(the maryland film festival, after fits and starts under different titles spanning almost thirty years, began in 1999 with the charles theater as the venue, after an opening screening at the senator)

cirrostratus flyover

why am i in a jetplane bombs dropping
buffeted on updraft of ghosts from the fields
wings genteel rolling stolen beats
land far below golden remote
birdover cloudocean doors soaring
explosives infraready jewels to confetti
magic aluminum jeta spoiling sunshine and rain
speed bending flying stars into time
gliding near world top in heaven trip
tender joystick down through whirl wind
mind state perfect military tweaking vision
making money right
because i like my killing washed and clean

school at sunrise
(killuminati: the 7 day theory was released posthumously in 1996–tupac shakur began recording in 1987 while attending the school for the arts)

really big show

singing strutters drift in from deep ocean
whistling stomping
squealing plucking
barking blowing
chuckling serenading
wailing swirling
in blue orange black white
gathered separate focused diffused
sculpting color
windows doors poles trees cars cobbles frame
water flowing exploded fading
shops steps
assembling arranging
out of unseen sayers seers
neighboring culturing
pause
play
flying in timelight

fell street at sunrise
(the creative alliance started out as the fells point creative alliance from margaret footner’s café on fell street in 1995)

radiumsmellslike

here in piano box selfmotoring in darkness
victim nazis in vicious dual intercourse voracious
dense light in still smoke breaking into salute worship
amnesia watermuck drips out our heads
burning saliva distends bullsroar
lovestrings oscillate on mountains undershore
future falls around us like rain.
motors tweet into lightyears journey
leaving us ever not living here
drummers in dreams after waking from sleep
melt into glowing fading tambourine
something said to be heard in the ocean
parts of one note in language not spoken
flows putrid serenity to inner ear breathing
paddlers into collapsing brainmuck throw rescueladders start dampmotors
then walk out onto crunching strings of numbers
hammering on one uncertain music
gloriously lost in a place to be alone
that nobody might find us

busted zappa at sunrise
(frank zappa composed civilization phase iii before dying in 1993, a bust of him is on top of a steel pillar outside the southeast anchor library on eastern avenue and conkling street)

insist

you are so virtuous rapid
i dance in you
skating radiofuzz fast fat
pow cold raindrops in windy trees
boom pop warm leatherwood
punching steelwet bricktight
spinning quasar loud and soft you smile
open love melody in changing sky
somersault leaping high
dark spinning arms
round resonating celebration
joyous hissing sweat in cool breeze
bright laughter floating on air
soul washing rhythm congregation
eyes focus
reverberating time and space
layer stepping
shine on everyone
waltz away cancer bullshit
listen respect harmonize read listen just find out

cathedral street at sunrise
(in 1989 max roach performed at artscape, which has been staged annually since 1982)