Young urban poets take dead aim

Wendell Brock - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

THEATER REVIEW

"Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam"

5 and 9 p.m. today. 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday. $25-$42. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-817-8700, www.ticketmaster.com.

The verdict: The true meaning of free speech.

Goodbye, Carl Sandburg. Rest in peace, Sylvia Plath. Hit the road, Jack Kerouac.

"Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam," that virtual rainbow coalition of America's hippest spoken-word artists, has arrived at the Fox Theatre. And if you're game to listen up, crack up and tear up over topics as serious as war, Krispy Kreme doughnuts and love, you'll want to hear what they have to say.

Though Thursday's opening got off to a shaky start (bad microphones, an abrupt pause to let latecomers find their seats), the ensemble of eight poets and a DJ eventually found the groove that earned the Broadway version of this show a Tony Award for best special theatrical event.

Poetry as theater is not a new art form. But like jazz, blues and rap, the poetry jam is an indigenous American idiom born out of the raw, emotional urgency of a particular time.

While Poetri's signature "Sometimes I Pretend I'm Michael Jackson" probably gave some audience members the heebie-jeebies, this Los Angeles poet has the best comedic timing and the most delicious irony of the bunch. Poetri reasons that Krispy Kreme is a white-supremacist plot "to keep the black man down and round." He wonders why his money has been acting funny lately ("All I ever did was love her!"). And he decides the answer to his romantic woes is to date himself ("I already talk to myself so I know my conversations will be good").

If the Def Poets were slow to build steam, things got hotter when Mayda Del Valle started waxing lyrical about her Mami's cooking. "Spam and corned beef in a can are transformed into virtual filet mignon. Rice cooks itself instantly at her command and beans jump into bubbling pots shrieking, 'Carmen, please, Carmen, please.' " This Williams College graduate also longs for a time when people no longer compliment her on how well she speaks English.

Beau Sia, who claims he was the only Asian kid in his hometown of Oklahoma City, has similar concerns --- when he's not striking the pose of an extreme sports freak. In "The Asians Are Coming, The Asians Are Coming," Sia riffs: "We're not just on the big screen in the kung fu flicks you adore. We are everywhere. We are programming your Web sites, making your executives look smart and getting into your schools for free."

Good one.

A self-described "Palestinian of African descent," Suheir Hammad told in moving terms what it was like to be a Muslim living in New York in the aftermath of 9/11 and ended one poem with an unequivocal command: "Affirm life. Affirm life."

Atlanta resident Tamika Harper got the biggest response. After she found a working microphone, it was clear why. A fearless speaker who addresses with deadpan humor the self-esteem problems of large women, she was equally eloquent on battered women: "I know you're under pressure from work and the world, but please watch how you hit me in front of our little girl."

Director Stan Lathan's national tour of "Def Poetry Jam" is not as polished as the Broadway original. And no matter how large the personality, it's still hard for a solo performer to fill up the Fox stage. But when these urban philosophers rant against hypocrisy and bigotry, their word-bullets hit the target every time.