Road slam: Tony-winning 'Def Poetry Jam' kicks off tour in Stamford

By Meghan Oliver - The Stamford Advocate

October 7, 2004

Poet Staceyann Chin has absorbed experiences from the sun-soaked soil of Jamaica to the concrete cityscape of New York. She wrings out her mind through poems that are rhythmic, often jarring and always thought-provoking. Chin is not one to mince words, which made her ideal for the cast of Russell Simmons' Def Poetry Jam performing at Stamford's Rich Forum Saturday.

Known for featuring poets of a variety of cultures and experiences since its 2002 Broadway premiere, the Def Poetry Jam has breathed new life into the art of spoken word. The Stamford performance is the start of a 51-city tour that will continue through the end of the year.

Chin says poetry's often straightforward approach and condensed style appeals to her.

"I think poetry is a word art," she says. "It doesn't hide behind academic jargon or reach for the buffoonery of entertainment. It lasts because it travels from mouth to mouth."

Chin, who carries with her books of poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, T.S. Eliot, Langston Hughes and June Jordan, says poetry doesn't "shy away" from life.

Born in Jamaica to a native mother and Chinese father, Chin's childhood is a source of inspiration for much of her work. Her mother left when she was a child, and she was raised by her grandmother. Both women impacted her life, but in very different ways.

"My mother ... her absence caused emotional turmoil which I started writing about."

Chin says her mother left to travel and grow, and as an adult she has more of an understanding of her mother's absence. In fact, she says her mother's lifestyle influenced her own desire to explore the world and grow as a person.

"I wasn't exactly surprised when I started traveling because it was always in the stars for me," Chin says. "The farther you go away from your home, the more forced you are to kind of look at yourself. The stripping away of a family structure and what you know allows you to grow like a weed ... kind of unstructured.

My mother ran away so she could do that on her own, so my life echoes the direction of my mother's life."

In Chin's poem, "On Becoming Thirty," she writes of her mother's decision to leave a destitute life in Jamaica for the possibilities of the world.

"she was forced to flee

the barbed wire of poverty;

long hours laboring for someone else's children

she sacrificed her own

for a chance beyond this ordered nature of things"

Chin's grandmother, who still resides in Jamaica, showed her a life of stability.

"I lived with her until I was nine, and over the years she's been a very present figure in my life. My grandmother has taught me what consistency means and about family. If I want to go to Jamaica, I can turn up and I know she will be there."

Chin's life as an immigrant in America is also present in her poems. She remarks on the loss of cultural identity in the States, where Americans pick and choose what they like from foreign cultures, and discard the rest.

"People come here. They come here of their own volition," Chin says. "I feel like those things people bring here should be affirmed as desirable. Hamburgers became American even though it was from Hamburg. The faces that were bringing those things, were kind of erased."

She says on news stations, stories from all over the world are reported, "and all I see are white men's faces talking about these things. We can watch news specials about Australia but we don't see the face of an Aboriginal. It's just the swallowing of the culture that bothers me."

Another aspect to Chin's focus on immigrants in America is the cashing in of the cultures they bring with them. She talks of trendy sushi restaurants as an example, where people are shelling out money for a spicy tuna roll, but have no connection to the Japanese culture and people behind the food.

"I see all the Japanese food here big time, everybody eats sushi, the chef might be Japanese, but all the faces enjoying the sushi are white. I feel like America is made up of a number of different kinds of people, but the people that enjoy those kinds of luxuries, (their) faces don't look like the faces that those things come from."

In her poem, "Jamaicans in New York," she makes reference to the exploitation of Jamaican culture by the music industry:

"we become hip when our accents are dipped / in US dollars"

Chin is a fan of the haiku, finding the rigid structure leads to concise, straightforward poems. Haikus are Japanese poems consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables.

"We tend to write about something ... and become remarkably wordy," she says. "The haiku forces you (to ask) 'what's the point? Make it quick.' "

Traditionally, haikus involve themes of nature. Chin uses personal topics while keeping in mind how the Japanese were often writing about their surrounding landscapes.

"We live in a world where nature and politics have blended into one solid thing. In New York, my skyline is defined heavily by the buildings. Looking out into the horizon (I see) the political landscape."

Politically, Chin likes to keep her life open, free of the restriction of labels and definitions. A feminist and a lesbian, Chin is wary of the meanings those terms carry.

"The definition of feminism ... is in constant negotiation in our world. The Muslim woman is different from the American who is different from the Jamaican. It's almost ludicrous (to try to define feminism) because there are so many ways to be a feminist. Generally speaking, people want to have the freedom to live their lives the way they like."

As for her sexual orientation, Chin says, "I am a lesbian today. I want to reserve the right to change. My body is different from what it was, my face changes, why wouldn't my mind change as well?"

Poetry is the ideal conduit for Chin's emotions, thoughts and ideas. In mere combinations of words and phrases, poets can reach a "fury and hurricane intensity" of emotion and feeling, she says.

And anyone, from any background can express themselves with such intensity.

"I want every face that feels invisible to pick up a pen, pick up a paintbrush, a microphone. Assert yourself as existing."

Chin performs with poets Black Ice, Georgia Me, Suheir Hammad, Lemon, Poetri, Ishle Park, Flaco Navaja, Shihan and DJ Reborn.

On the day of the event, Stamford Center for the Arts will hold a special "Student Rush," in which tickets will be up to 50 percent off when purchased at the Rich Forum box office.