[Newspoetry] Doria Roberts and Staceyann Chin at IMC

Wed Aug 6 16:28:20 CDT 2003

Doria Roberts (Singer/Songwriter)
Staceyann Chin (Def Jam Slam Poet)
$8-$20 sliding scale at the door ($15 suggested)
http://www.doriaroberts.com
http://www.staceyannchin.com
Doors open at 7pm
Show starts at 8pm

Independent Media Center  
Middle Room Gallery
218 W. Main Suite 110
217-344-8820

This show will be at the IMC (downtown Urbana) in the gallery. This is
the first show we've had at the IMC since May when our performance
space was closed down.

Staceyann Chin is a slam poet from New York. She has won dozens of
awards for her work and she will soon appear on HBO's Def Poetry
Jam. The last time Staceyann Chin played in town she drew hundreds of
fans. Now is your chance to see her in a very intimate setting slaming
solo rhymes and collaborating with Doria.

	Staceyann Chin, a Jamaican woman living in New York, fiercely
	believes in the world's "range of possibilities." Her sexy "Litany of
	Desires" crescendoes into a fire that has the house enraptured -- and
	howling.  - San Fransisco Examiner

This will be Doria Roberts' third appearance in an IMC show. Everytime
she has performed has been inspiring. She plays a funky overlap of
fierce folk with an R&B groove and a jazzy awesome voice. Doria is a
big supporter of Indymedia and spreads the word about our movement to
her audiences nationwide. 

    "Just a girl and her guitar can sometimes blast above the rowdiest
    rock. That's the case with Doria Roberts. Her lyrical wisdom and
    simple strums combine to make for one grooving gig. Roberts' music
    is both political and emotionally savvy. " -- Curve Magazine

    "Doria Roberts plays a delicious almost indescribable acoustic
    based mix of folk, R&B and jazz. Singing it with sweet soul and a
    whole lotta class" -- Hal Horowitz, Atlanta Press

Doria and Staceyann are heading up to a women's music festival in
Chicago and we're very lucky that they decided to stop in to
Champaign-Urbana on the way. 

Capacity of this show is limitted to 49 people. If you arrive early
and pay we can stamp your hands so you can be sure to get back in
when the show starts without having to wait. 

There will be no opening act so arrive on time to catch Doria and
Staceyann!

Come to four IMC sponsored folk shows and get your fifth one free.

Take our survey and get a free sampler CD for the folk music series.
http://folk.chambana.net

This show will be all ages, non-smoking, and non-alcoholic.

Cross-fire by staceyann chin

Am I a feminist
or a womanist

the student wants to know
     definitions and affiliations are important to her

She loathes the new age revolutionary
     unable to claim a cause
she listens
uncomfortable
asks again
am I a top or a bottom
do I do men occasionally
primarily am I a lesbian
and if so how is it exactly that I DO women

Tongue tied up to my cheek
I attempt to respond with honesty-
     This business of dykery
     I tell her
is often messy
you never quite know what you're getting
-girls who are only straight at night
-hardcore butches who sport dresses
between nine and six
during the day
maybe she is really a he
trapped by the limitations of our imagination

Primarily
I am concerned about young women
who are raped on college campuses
in cars
after poetry readings in bars

In New York City
a girl is beaten every 12 seconds by her lover
bruised lip and broken heart
you will forgive her if she does not come
forward with the truth immediately

when she does she will stand trial as damaged goods

Everyone will say she asked for it
dressed as she was she must have wanted it
short skirt could only mean that she wanted it

The words will knock about in her head
horny bitch
slut
harlot
tease
loose woman
some people cannot handle a women on the loose
noose around her body
they look for inscriptions on her collar
     wonder why she's wearing cargo pants and pearls
     wonder how big that dick is under her skirt

Not strapped with that kind of courage
I leave my electric pink dildo in my room
when I come out I'll invite you to bring yours when you come over
risk the drama of collaboration
a little bit of everything makes my world an interesting place
-and while we're on the subject of diversity
ASIA IS NOT ONE BIG RACE!
-and there is no country called "the islands"
-and no I am not from there

There are a hundred ways
to slip between the cracks of your assumptions
and other peoples interpretations of race and religion
most people are surprised my father is Chinese
like there's a preconditioned look for the half-Chinese
lesbian poet who is also Jamaican but lives in Far Rockaway Queens
let's keep it real, says the boy in the double-X hooded sweatshirt
that blond haired blue eyed Jesus in the Vatican ain't right
that mother fucker was Jewish, not white

Christ was a Middle Eastern Rastaman
He ate grapes in the company of prostitutes
and drank wine more than he drank water
born of the spirit the disciples loved him in the flesh
but the discourse is not on people who identify as gay
or lesbian or straight

The State needs us to be left or right
those in the middle get caught in the cross
-fire away at the other side

If you are not for us you must be against us

People get scared enough they pick a team
everything is about declarations
nothing of independence
in America you could get capped for speaking out against a policy
designed to remove the legs from small Afghanistan children

Quick!
America under attack
do your part and shop

The directive is on every channel
the president has spoken and now we must all act with
patriotic conscience

I say God is that place between belief and what you name it
I believe holy is what you do when there is nothing between your actions
and the truth

The truth is I am afraid to draw black lines around me
I am not always pale in the middle
I come in too many flavors for one single spoon

I am never one thing or the other
at night I am everything I fear
tears and sorrow
black windows and bad dreams
in the morning
I am nothing I cannot handle
rain and laughter and footprints
my mothers pain is borderless
without breath or definition
I claim the dawn
for yesterday is simply what I was
and tomorrow today will be gone

-- 
Zachary C. Miller - @= - http://wolfgang.groogroo.com/
UCIMC Folk Music Coordinator - http://shows.ucimc.org/
UC Folk Music Associatation - http://folk.chambana.net/
Just Another Leftist Muppet - Ya Basta! - Share and Enjoy