 At the Crossroads, I'm your host, Keisha King, and I come to you live every Wednesday at five. You can catch me on Think Tech Hawaii, on the Facebook page of Think Tech Hawaii. And you can also catch me on YouTube after the show, where we will present to you conversations that are real and relevant. This week, no different. I have with me today guests who understand the power of the spoken word. We know that our words have power, power to heal and power to kill, power to uplift and power to encourage. Today's guests are going to share with us how they use their words and why. We have with us three wonderful guests from the poetry bodega. Today we have with us Ezio, Asia, and Darren. Welcome to At the Crossroads, guys. Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us. Totally my pleasure. I have to tell you, the way I met them was so awesome. I went to the Poets and Wine event a couple of weeks ago, no, a week ago, this past Friday, and all of y'all were so amazing. I got up there and at first I was sitting in the back, right? Let's talk about the venue first. It's like a speakeasy feel. Yeah. That's what it's supposed to be. Yeah. You walk in, you go downstairs, and it's a nice environment. You got a little bit of wine, a little bit of poetry. Exactly. Before I even got in the door, though, I had to solve a riddle. I was like, wait a minute. I didn't come here to think. I came here to drink. What are we doing? But once I got inside, I did exactly like you said. We went downstairs, and I just had this very easy feel, right? Like I was doing something exclusive, right? And then I was sitting in the back. You guys had food, you had a bar set up, you had wine tasting. And then I moved up to the front because Asia came on as our host, and she was so good. I was like, I want to hear more. I want to get closer. So Asia, tell us how you got involved with Poets and Wine. Well, Poets and Wine, I got involved with it because a friend of mine asked me to host it. We spoke in Word for about 11 years. I started in college. It's actually how I met my husband. And I started by watching Deaf Poetry Jam on TV, on DVDs back then. And I was so inspired that I started going to spoken word poetry shows, and I wanted to get on stage. And once I finally did, I just never looked back. And so since we've moved to Hawaii, we've been coming out to several shows. And I actually met the person who owns Wine and Poetry at a dance event. And I mentioned to him that I did poetry. He told me about the event that he was just starting up. And then I started going. I enjoyed it. And then they asked me to start hosting. Wonderful. And then Darren, Darren has to be about eight foot nine. Six, seven on most days. On most days. Okay. Extremely tall, very bombastic voice. And then you shared two great pieces. It was two, right? Right. Excellent. Tell us, how did you get involved? And then we're going to come back to you and find out how you also got involved. Tell us how you got involved with poetry. Well, I actually, this is my second coming into the poetry scene. And so I had taken some time to myself. And it's kind of stayed out of the scene for a number of years. And some of the people that have been putting on these events came and asked me to make a reappearance. And so it's met like the whole new crop of poets in the scene. And it's been very, very lovely, very supportive group. Wonderful. And Ezio, I need to ask you the same question. How did you get involved with Poets and Wine? Poets and Wine, like my wife said, we met a gentleman called Ferro. He owns a high design and he was telling me about this event. It's easy. A little bit of wine, a little bit of poetry, fresh over flesh provides the food. It's amazing. So we just kind of got involved. Because you get to win a hundred dollars if you win the slam. So what poet is not going to go out there and try to do their best? And obviously to be able to speak our words and touch people that even if we win or don't win, there's always somebody at the end of the night that tells us, hey, your poem spoke to me. That's what it's about. That's awesome. And that's exactly what I said. When I attended, every poet had something to share that either is very current, right? I know a lot of people were sharing about anxiety that night. And I thought, wow, you know, a lot of my students or people that I know outside of this venue share about anxiety that is so prevalent. Then we had great poems on sexuality and sensuality. We had poems that spoke about homelessness. And then we had a poem that spoke about dyslexia, which you share, which is something that I felt was very, very outside of the norm in that type of element. And so hopefully towards the end of the show, you'll share with us that piece. I have it here with me. Awesome. Good. We're looking forward to hearing that. I think each one of you shared something that was so powerful. What caused you all to become so involved with poetry in general? How let you decide who goes first? Well, I started off poetry about 12, 14 years ago. One of my oldest friends invited me to this underground poetry scene. And I met the late one, the real one. And from there, I got hooked. And there wasn't so much about the process. It was just somewhere that I could be myself and speak and not be judged even though you're in front of everybody there and everybody's judging you. But somehow you do not feel judged when you're speaking truth. So I became a household name in the Miami poetry scene. Then I met my beautiful wife and we took kind of a break for our marriage and our relationship. And then we came back here in Hawaii and we got to know all these different poets that we just fell in love with and fell in love with the community. Wonderful. And Asia, what about you? Well, I think one of the most important things about poetry, at least for me and I think for a lot of other people, is that spoken word is a place for healing. It's a mode for healing. So what really propelled me to go from being an audience member to getting on stage was pain, was going through an experience. I was sexually assaulted and kidnapped and I decided to write about that. And that was part of my healing process. That was the first time I was able to share that with people. People embraced me and I was able to tell my story in my own words. And I think that for a lot of people that poetry can be your therapy. You can be the thing that connects you to another person. And when I tell a poem about pain, it's always afterwards, someone comes up to me and they tell me, you know, that's my story. That's something that's happened to me. You put words to what I've been feeling. A lot of times it's with tears and we hug and they say thank you. Yeah. I want to address that. That is so powerful. A few weeks ago, we talked about, we had a show about living your best life and how it's possible, but you must go through the process. And sometimes those processes require healing, therapy of some sort. And what you've just said is that you use your poetry for therapy in some way, for yourself and then for others. And I think any language that can speak to someone else's heart, any experience that you have, that you can write about, sing about, dance through, if it helps someone else, then that was your purpose for going through it. And sometimes that makes such a huge difference in other slides. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Barry, tell us your experience. I started writing poetry when I was in high school, but back then, there were hardly even computers. So there wasn't any poetry scene for teenagers. And so I got to college and continued to write for myself, but didn't do much on stage because I was definitely afraid of the stage. And so it wasn't until I got back here after college and started seeing some of the things that the youth were doing with poetry that I really got motivated to like hook up with that group. And then I started running the writing workshops for them in Chinatown and teaching the students' poetry writing to model the experience, you know, I had to get up on stage and actually do that part too. And so I started really getting into the stage aspect of it after I began teaching youth. And so I did that for a number of years. And yeah, it was a wonderful experience. And then I took a different path and started teaching full time. So I was working with that. And so now it's come back full circle. That's amazing. So we have some wonderful pictures that we want to share. Now if you didn't catch it already, this is a lovely couple. So they are married. And we have pictures that we're going to show you right now of them. First of all, this is their business. This is something else we're going to talk about, the poetry bodega. So we are definitely going to talk more about that. And then we have Ezio right there. And are you, is this something that is being used for marketing right now? As far as like, I'm losing my words. I'm thinking, is this you performing live? Yeah, this is performing live at the location we're speaking about in wine and poetry or high design. And it's a poem that I did. It's about a conversation with God and my wife plays the voice of God. As she should. OK, and our next photo is the lovely couple. Oh, OK. And so is this where she's playing God in this picture? No, this is her Disney poem. I believe that she's performing that she's singing. When you wish upon a star, you did that that night. Yes, yes. And that was awesome. Oh, yeah, that was that was good. Yeah, I'll take my word for it. And then the lovely couple and our next picture is Asia. Aloha, anything you want to say about this picture? Oh, just have embraced being in Hawaii. I love it so much. I love the Aloha spirit. I'm so happy to be here. We're definitely Miami poets first and foremost, but we're so happy to make Hawaii our home. That's awesome. All right, next one. And Darren, you can see Zed is touching the ceiling. Darren, anything you want to add about what is happening here? I did hit my head on that bar in the other way. I believe it. Yeah, so I think I'm doing in this one, I think I'm doing the piece about the homeless people. And I think I'm describing the scene with the little boy in this particular picture. So all three of you all are going to share a piece with us. And so I'm excited and thrilled to hear whatever it is that you're going to share. I'd love to make requests, but I've only heard one or two pieces from you. So I can't say which one is my favorite. I like them all, and I like you all. I need to come more to our venue so you can see more. You guys make sure you invite me. In fact, we're going to take a break in just a little bit. Before we do, why don't you all tell me what's coming up next? Where can we find you all? Because I know wine and poets was for that's like the first Friday of the month. And then tomorrow is going to be a feature at the Dragon of Sarasma Asia is going to be featuring and also another member of the Portugal Degasie, which won the Hawaiian Slam championship is also performing and featuring there in Chinatown. And then after that next week is our event launching April 19th at the Good Vibes Center also in Chinatown. And it's going to be run from 8 to 11. On Saturday, you have Jazz Mines that is run by Highport Society, which is another local group of poets here. And then it just kind of circles back. Then you have Hawaiian brines on first Thursday, first Friday, and then it just keeps going. So there's always something going on here in the island of going on poetry. So compared to my Emmy, which you all have mentioned there, and I don't know if you have another point or place where you can compare the poetry scene here to someplace else, how do you feel about it? Are we up and coming? Are we on point? Are we right where we need to be? I think that's kind of a controversial question. It really depends on who you ask. Hawaii, especially on this youth scene, they were kind of the Yankees of the spoken words thing for quite some time. Jamaica Osorio was one of the poets she performed at the White House back in 2009. And their youth poetry team, they were the champions at least two years in a row. And so they had a great, really vibrant scene. And I think a kind of nationwide, you saw a little bit of a dip in spoken word for a little while. And it's resurging back. I think, like I said, be a lot of poetry in response to pain. So you see some of the things that are happening in current events. And I think that's inspiring people to write. In terms of Hawaii compared to Miami or somewhere else, one thing that really sticks out about Hawaii is how much they love the... Slam poetry. Yeah, slam poetry, as well as talking about the environment. Wonderful. So what we're saying is we have a scene, no one will make the commitment to say ours is better than anyone else's. We will also not say that it is worse than anyone else's. When we come back from our break, we're gonna hear some of the work that they have done. And we're gonna talk a little bit more, a lot more about the poetry Bodega. And then we're gonna talk about events that they have coming up next that you can attend. I know I'm gonna be there. So I suggest you follow. We'll be right back with At the Crossroads after this. Aloha, I'm Wendy Lo, and I'm coming to you every other Tuesday at two o'clock, live from Think Tech Hawaii. And on our show, we talk about taking your health back. And what does that mean? It means mind, body, and soul. Anything you can do that makes your body healthier and happier is what we're gonna be talking about. Whether it's spiritual health, mental health, fascia health, beautiful smile health, whatever it means, let's take healthy back. Aloha. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines. And it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m., Aloha. Aloha, and welcome back to At the Crossroads. I'm your host, Keisha King. And today, we are talking about word power and the power of spoken words. Right now, we're going to listen to a piece by the lovely Asia from The Poetry Bodega. All right, so I was gonna read a piece, but I think I'd rather talk directly to the camera. So I'm going to do a poem talking about educating and the power that words have. This poem is called Smoke Signal. Numbers float around my head like smoke signal. This smoke signaling to me that today is a special day. Smoke signals begin to form rings. I begin to form numbers that float around my head until the smell becomes sharper. Oh, it's for to, oh, the smell invades my nostrils and brings me to an instant flashback of high school April 20th's pass as my friend took a toke and inhaled that familiar smoke key. Offered me the blunt, but I politely declined and asked him what the significance in today's date lie. He was in shock at how I didn't know my history or celebrated a holiday that, duh, had to be about Bob Marley. Well, I was in shock at how he tried to school me on a national icon from my father's country. I backtracked for him a couple of years to a time when after listening to buffalo soldier, dreadlock rasta. I turned to my Kingston-born father and asked him what the song meant. He rolled for me a web of images of the rebels and maroons of Jamaica, like Paul Bogle and George William Gordon, of Africans being stolen in Senegambia, then in Jamaica, then again in America, being forced to fight alongside and against their brown brethren. The conversation then turns to Rassafari. With so many people failed to realize this, Rassafari is a young religion sprung up in the 1920s. Marcus Garvey, father of Pan-Africanism, wrote that a new day would dawn in the East. A knee just a black king would rise in the land of Abyssinia. These words were taken literally to fulfill the Kibernegas prophecy and the final Ethiopian emperor, a legisyn of Menelik I and Queen Makeda, the king of Solomon, the queen of Sheba, 3,000 generations down the son of Rass Makanen. Rassafari Makanen became Rass, king of kings. Rass, Rassafari Makanen. Those that, Hala Selassia, the conquering liar of the tribal Judah, the black messiah, those that followed Rassafari became the first Rassafari, the same dreadlocked Rassus that you're not going to tie dye t-shirts. And by trying to tell me that all Rassus do is smoke, we don't confuse the ritual use of ganja to achieve an alternate state and oneness with Jaffa, your little pothead smoke, else in the back of your friend's car, cause I will school you. What do you even know about the British school system about Karakam and real imperialism? You think you know about the Willy Lynch letters all the way to some inflict mental pain? Let me remind you that it was in Jamaica that they broke those slaves. The most Olympic medals per capita, even though they tried to disqualify it's just because one spring to feed his fists upon his chest. So don't trivialize my culture with your yarn dread hats and your skateboarders, got your microwave beef patties and the roster colors on your arm. The fact that you remember quotes like, excuse me while I light my spliff, run that up, up you mighty race. You can accomplish what you will or emancipate yourself from mental slavery. As I try to emancipate myself from these smoke signals, as this smoke flows around my head and my friend once again tries to pass the spliff on. I stand, look east, and chant away from Babylon. Yeah. Woo! You heard it here first on At the Crossroads. Oh my gosh, that was so amazing. This is why you have to come out tomorrow night, is it? Tomorrow night, Asia and Z feature the Dragon of Stairs and then you could catch us next week Friday at the Port Triple, they got the corner store open mic. We're open to all kinds of art or tree singers. We're gonna have a live band there. We're gonna have Fresh or Flesh providing food and selling their food. It's just gonna be an all out event that is gonna be fun and ongoing and high energy. I love it. And so I wanna also mention Flesh, what? Fresh over Flesh. Okay, so for all you vegans out there and healthy eaters, come on out for that as well, can we just give them a quick shout out because people, vegan food gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but Fresh over Flesh has been one of the few businesses that I found that they do vegan soul food, Mexican food, all different types of food, and they make it where you don't even miss the meat. They're frying up banana blossoms to be your fried chicken, to have chicken and waffles. I've never had that. It's amazing. It's very delicious, so. Fresh over Flesh. Yep, you can find them on Instagram. Okay, so you guys definitely need to come on here and bring a sample, but then talk about your business, right? All right, so who wants to go next? How about Darren? All right. I guess I'll do the piece that I did the other night about the homeless, and it really has to do more about realizing that this is a population that we often forget that they have stories of their own to tell. And so this is actually one that I wrote in a high school class that I was teaching. I was a guest speaker when I was a substitute, and I was a guest speaker, and I was doing writing workshops. And so I had an original piece for this, and so this piece came out of a workshop that I was doing with the kids, and I wrote every single period that I was teaching, and so I put these four stories together. So this is changes too. A homeless man asked me for change. I had to tell him that the jingle in my pockets was just a set of keys he sighed. I had keys once with doors to lock. It seemed like smoke escaped his lips from a cigarette he had last week. He held a torn teddy bear in the child basket of a shopping cart. His camouflage suit made me assume him a veteran of the First Gulf War. He answered my questions before I could ask them. The bear reminds me of my daughter. She's got the same eyes and never told us to smoke Gus with poisonous, that cloud dust held mine monsters. This is also my pillow. And he held out a tattered Bible. Jesus was a homeless man too, you know? We all got crosses to sleep on. A homeless child asked me for change. He had eyes the size of silver dollars, but all he wanted was a couple of quarters to turn the silver handle on a bright red box that held 50 cent clear capsule dreams. You got that fake tattoo? He would cover up the pussing wound, still open from persistent picking. That pyro puncture burnt brand from a cigarette, put out on his arm while he slept, left from a drunken man who didn't see him or didn't care. If he got a rubber bouncy ball, he would see how high he could get it. Maybe as high as the older boys, he overheard boasting and herds blowing bavado up each other's butts. Wanted to fly like them if he got older. He said if. If he got a piece of plastic jewelry, he would give it to a pretty girl because he's heard a woman's smile supposed to shine on the reflection of a diamond. I wonder if he'll ever get the chance to kiss a woman. Hold hands with a date, dance to the last song of the night or fall asleep snuggled in an embrace. I look at this runaway and I empty my shallow pockets to find eight dimes, five nickels and a bunch of pennies. But in his eyes, it's disappointment because all he wanted was those two quarters. A homeless lady asked me for change and I wish the circular disc could fix her wishes that they were tossed in a well where she'd get well and all ends well. I wish a shirt on my back, cover up the train track, marks that poker arms, like she's played chicken with fate three times too many and I wish I could slingshot crack rock to the moon. So the only way that she could score some more was to shoot for the stars. A homeless family asked me for change and I wish I could take it all out of their lives like gloves diapers. I can't change their van back into the old home. I wish I could turn these four doors into four walls with frames for doors. It pains me that these rolled up windows replaced window panes. This family tree looks weathered and holes in the sweater mean the little girl's cough isn't getting any better and mommy's eyes are laid low from pop pills, a pharmacy filled head propped on a pillow. I pity this family, but it seems it's not a thing I can change with anything I reach and find fish in my pocket. Homeless people asked me for change and it's strange. I wish I could find an answer, but all I can do is respond and I know the solution isn't found in my reaction when asked for alms. The only thing I can change at that moment is how they feel about themselves for that portion of the day. Short-sighted people cite Darwin's survival of the fittest as if evolution was a solution of poverty like eventually the poor will just die out. Our power structure has a shadow and it's in that darkness that hides our true reflection. Ooh. Yeah. I love it. I love it. That's one that got me Friday night as well. I think everything got me Friday night. You guys were amazing. We're gonna do one more and then we're gonna talk about an event that you all have coming up. We have a, as a matter of fact, let's show our last two pictures now and take a look. We have the poetry bodega, homes for sale, and then the next one is your actual flyer. What is this? So this is our event, the corner store open mic. We're having our grand opening next Friday at the Good Fibre Center in Chinatown. It's just off Nimit, Taiwea, Nimit, and Monacaia. It's right next to the Naughty Vegan Tattoo Shop. It's a very popular tattoo shop in Chinatown. Definitely amongst the vegan community, but you don't have to be vegan to go there. And our poetry event, it's an open mic. It's open to all forms of art. So you can be a visual artist, you can be a painter, you can be a comedian, a pianist, anything that you want. It's gonna be open to everyone. And the reason why we call it the corner store and reason why we call ourselves the Poetry Bodega is that we want you to get a little bit of everything there. A bodega is your one-stop shop to get everything you need. So this is gonna be everything that you need to feed your soul. It's gonna be right there at the Poetry Bodega. Awesome, I love that. So for those who don't know, bodega is like a corner store, hence the name corner store. And that is going to be next Friday, good Friday, good event. Make sure you support that. A good vibe. Good vibe, right? Very vibe center. Good vibe center, I love it. So we're gonna close with this piece and then after that I'm gonna give a couple of closing words. So we're at 29, so go right on ahead. I started from dyslexia, so this is a brand new piece. I'm just gonna read it off, guys. And judge me, and judge me. We will not judge you. We have two minutes, so we've got to start. I was told I was stupid my entire childhood. Chanceta's flying over my head like missiles, slept hands of love. I became a skilled boxer by the age of 12. Harry de Carajal, do this is stupid, though. See, I hated school so much that one time I jumped out of my mother's moving car only to be snatched back by my book bag, where I carry my shame. Hitting in a tomb wrapped in detention slips, the streets didn't act for a degree. Dope selling, duck making, fist solving, street mart is code for, he doesn't pick up a book. The system didn't fail me, it just forgot me. Feels like something I should have outgrown but I can't because I have a learning disability. See, I live with dyslexia. I am a gamer of Jenga. Once syllable away from falling, words get scrambled, I'm backwards right. Every conversation requires my focus full. Sentences from my lips get trapped as a roll of my tongue. They're only to be yo-yo quickly like a wrecking ball. Words are sentenced in prison, asset alphabetically wise guys. See, I'm a poet because I have to find alternative routes to a simple paragraph. Every sentence is under construction. Lust and my skin color are the grammatical rules. Set by standards that I don't qualify for. Hispanic accent that your ear is deaf to. I roll my urrs and all you see is a pirate that speaks in riddle. Fish, gold, tile, paper. The map said to take a left, I took a right. The words I crossed in my brain. See, I see letters that if I was colorblind, life is a set of great for me. Assumption on the lips of who he is, my bravado is a reaction of an action of your eyes that can not really focus to the truth. My history has love and war spirals with different versions of myself. I'm not a teachable moment type chico. See, I put pimp to paper. Letters are hidden in treasure mats. When I hit the X mark though, I'm reminded of my dumpness by stairs of judgmental eyes. And low scores when I slam. Like superlity has an expiration date. Running fruit in a field left abandoned by God, I can reread the same paragraph from the last word to the first. But yet somewhere in there, I get lost in the sea of ABCs. Working with my hands as they're required to verbally communicate. Just pass down the brick, break it up, back it up and sell it. Imagine heading behind a front house mirror strapped in a distorted image of yourself, writing dirty and catalyzed base of the trunk of the starters on my broken long tongue. See, I am more than what this lecture is. This lecture has no meaning to me. I love it. Snaps, snaps all around. So that was, okay, so I cannot, I'm a teacher, okay? I'm an educator by trade. Most people know that. I've never said that on this show. But I do teach students with special needs including dyslexia and things of that nature. And that was my favorite poem there. I said it. I know I'm not supposed to pick favorites, but I said it. Mostly because of the topic. Thank you all so much for everything. There was, you know what? There was another interesting topic. So that night, the winner was a person you all called the queen, which she was amazing and very deserving. And then there was someone from Baltimore. And then there was someone, there were two people from Africa, right? And then you guys are from Miami. I don't know where you're from. I'm from here. From here, born and raised, okay? That's fine, right? So the point I'm trying to make is that everybody was there. Everybody was there. And so there is someone really, really, really, really special. If I'm gonna look at camera three and invite you, you know who you are, the songbird. I want you here. There's a heavy movement going on here with our poetry. You would fit right in. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for the poetry bodega that they have these events coming up. There's a major one coming up, April 19th at the Good Vibes Center. Please come out and support them. I'm not even gonna beg you. I'm gonna tell you, go, support them, be there. Be a part of it. You don't wanna miss it. Great things happening. And you heard it here at the Crossroads. I'll see you next week, live at five on Wednesday. Aloha.