Def Poetry Jam mixes fun, reality and a hip-hop beat

By Monica L. Haynes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fiery like cayenne. Smooth like silk. Righteous like the justice system was meant to be. Truthful like the government ought to be. Hilarious with an undercurrent of sadness like Richard Pryor used to be. The Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam at the Benedum Tuesday night was all that and a bag of chips -- and a Coke 'cause chips make me thirsty.

Words have always been a powerful tool, and they carry even more force when they're brought forth in the double-edged delivery of a poet such as Philadelphia's Black Ice or the kinetic in-your-face Asianness of Beau Sia or the socially conscious softness of Suheir Hammad.

The 90-minute show, on a sparse set, is part soul-singeing revival, part comic relief, part global awareness, part cultural awakening to a hip-hop beat.

Georgia Me, in all her goddess-diva-sistahness, extols the virtues and the heartbreak that come with being a full-figured woman in "Big Girl Blues." "With haste I race to destroy my waist," exclaims the naive of Atlanta, "land of pretty faces and big asses."

In a conspiracy-laden theory about Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Poetri brings the comic flava with just a hint of sadness about his glazed addiction. The sugary confections, he says, are part of a plan to "keep the black man down and round." Petite dynamo Mayda Del Valle declares her mother a "cuisine conquistadora" in "In the Cocina," about learning to cook and dance in her mother's kitchen.

Beau Sia, a Chinese-American who hails from Oklahoma, lets us know "the Asians are coming." In his bombastic WWF-like delivery, he says, "we're programming your Web sites, making your executives look good and getting into your schools for free."

Flaco Navajo (Spanish for skinny knife) spits the truth about children, love and social awareness in an engaging laid-back style. Fellow poet Shihan kicks it up a few notches in his consciousness-raising rhymes.

A piece in which he auctions off black people in the voice of a shopping network hawker is laugh-out-loud funny on the surface but bites down to the bone. He brings the uncomfortable truth about young men who come complete with "Tims," fake Rolexes, gaudy jewelry, 20-inch rims.

They're guaranteed to be up on the latest slang but don't have a shred of real knowledge.

They could learn a lot from Def Poetry's dynamically diverse performers.