'Def Poetry Jam' star knows how to present the words and rhythms

BY KELLEY L. CARTER - DETROIT FREE PRESS

What impresses Poetri about, well, poetry, is how wide its reach is.

There's something in it for everyone, he says. The trick is how you perform it.

And not just anyone can do it right.

But Poetri, a Muskegon native who's in town this week at the Music Hall as part of the Def Poetry Jam, can.

He's proved it to himself, theater audiences and a national TV audience.

Poetri (Devin Smith) and "Def Poetry on Broadway" won a Tony award this year for best special theatrical event.

"I wasn't setting out to be a poet. Poetry was to release tension," he says. "Little did I know that years later, I would be touring around the nation, just getting off Broadway and winning a Tony."

But winning awards and being highlighted on a weekly HBO series aren't the 29-year-old's biggest rewards.

He's been riding a poetry high for 10 years now, and he's finally reaping the big payoff: helping to bring more young, urban folks to the art form.

But this is not your English teacher's poetry. The work that shocked viewers of HBO's "Def Poetry" with its quality and got loud applause on New York stages has a dramatic, hip-hop flair.

"Def Poetry" was a big hit on television. Hip-hop producer Russell Simmons, who created "Def Poetry Jam," says TV execs thought it would be a flop.

"People were surprised to see the ratings. No one thought it was going to be a hit show. They didn't know they'd be going into their fourth season. They thought we'd have no ratings," Simmons says. "But we have greater commercial appeal. And Detroit is one of the most important markets for this development. There happens to be a very strong poetry movement in Detroit."

Indeed there is. Just about any given night, you can find some type of ultra-hip poetry night happening in the metro Detroit area.

The poetry performed is rooted in the African-American church call-and-response tradition, Poetri says.

"It's like a sermon," says Poetri, who now lives in Los Angeles. "It's like a spiritual experience. The audience is talking back to us and we're talking back to them. It's like we're having a conversation."

"I think that poetry is an important initiative," Simmons says. "It's the best expression for young people today in that one of the newest forms is the hip-hop poetry. When you write poetry, you write from spirit. When you write rap music, you occasionally write about the distractions in the world. The poetry movement is happening in every inner-city school. You go to a school and ask how many people write poetry and 80 percent will raise their hands."

Poetri sure wrote it when he was a schoolkid. He wasn't encouraged to start performing it until he was 19.

"I used to get in trouble," he says. "My punishment was no television and no going outside to play, which are the two worst things you can do to a child.

"So I was sent to my room for an hour and I had nothing to do because I was tired of my toys, so I would write and read. Even when my punishments were over, they would call me down and I would be like, 'Hold up, wait a minute.' "

"Poetri . . . he's the person who speaks to the kids," Simmons says. "He's become commercial. He's not a sellout. But he's very mainstream in expression."