The Word On The Street

By Curtis Ross of The Tampa Tribune


Russell Simmons has made a fortune on rhymes.
He managed his brother Joseph's rap group, Run-D.M.C. He co-founded the Def Jam label which released some of hip hop's greatest albums, including works by LL Cool J, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy and Slick Rick.

The hip-hop boom of the 1980s not only influenced scores of MCs and DJs, but also people who wanted to express themselves without a backing track.

Rather than the hip-hop nightclubs, these rhymers took to the stage in cafes, coffeehouses and book stores, declaiming their verses at poetry slams.

Simmons took that concept to television in 2001 with the HBO series ""Def Poetry Jam.' In 2002, he took it to Broadway with a stage production starring many of the poets from the series. In it, nine young poets tell real-life stories that are scary, funny, moving, angry and tender. The emotions are raw, the rhythms streetwise and the language often as brutal as rap's.

One of the ""Def' poets, Flaco Navaja, found that poetry offered even more freedom of expression than hip hop.

He tried writing rhymes for hip-hop songs, ""but it took me so long to finish because I was restricted with the rhyme scheme, the beat pattern, and all these things. It took a lot more thought for me to construct these things and say what I wanted to say within these parameters.

""And then I started writing poetry and I felt it was so much easier for me to express myself without having these rules, and having my arms tied and put into this small category,' Navaja says. ""I was able to just express what I had to say without having to use these rules. And sometimes I can use the rules if I want to. It's freedom.'

Not that Navaja would deny the influence of hip hop on his writing.

""I grew up in the South Bronx. For us hip-hop people that's the mecca,' Navaja says. ""The influence hip hop had on me as an artist is that it's given me the license to express myself, and it doesn't have to be flowery, and it gives me the license to not pull any punches.'

Navaja praises the writing of Lauryn Hill (""she's very poetic with her music') and KRS-One (""the quintessential poet in terms of hip hop').

He also gives props to Eminem for ""taking on the responsibility that he has as a mainstream artist who's heard all over the world' for the political statement in his ""Mosh' song and video.

Navaja began writing as a 17-year-old in the midst of turmoil. His grandmother had just died and he found out he was about to become a father.

He was working as a peer educator for the Hispanic AIDS Forum, a Latino-run HIV/AIDS organization in New York City. (""In the midst of me teaching kids to wear condoms, I didn't,' Navaja quips). The program's coordinator gave him a journal and told him to write.

""I wrote a poem for my grandmother and read it at her wake,' Navaja, 26, recalls. ""A couple of weeks later I went to an open mike...and read that poem, and I got this feeling from the audience. The feedback I was getting inspired me to continue writing and to go to these open mikes.

""A funny part about it is it was ... in a bar and I was underage,' he says with a laugh. ""But the people in the bar ended up getting to know who I was and being OK with me just going in there and reading my poems.'

It was a relatively short journey from those open mikes into the ranks of the city's poetry scene and, ultimately, ""Def Poetry Jam.'

""This is kind of a small community,' Navaja says of New York's poets' circle. ""A lot of the original cast members of "Def Poetry Jam,' especially the ones from New York, I already knew. They knew me and knew my work.'

Original ""Def Poetry Jam' cast member Lemon is one of Navaja's best friends. The two formed a theater group, Universes, which created an off- Broadway show, ""Slanguage,' in 2000. ""So we had the experience of poetry in the theater already.'

""Def Poetry Jam' shows that poetry is far more than an academic pursuit … it's a raw, vital art form capable of attracting a large audience.

""It took a lot of years for people to realize this art form is one of the most immediate and that it's broad enough to catch this huge demographic,' Navaja says.

""I remember poetry used to be this thing that only other poets liked or listened to,' Navaja says. ""Now when we go to all these cities, there are all those regular people who are not necessarily artists or "into the arts.' They are there to be enlightened and entertained and to leave with something that they can hold onto.'

The audience includes not only ""literary lovers' but people who ""just want to hear stories of people who look like them,' Navaja says.

""It's a beautiful thing to see nine young poets from different walks of life, different backgrounds, sexual preferences. All these things, on a huge stage that would normally have its doors closed to this generation.

""This show has opened the doors for urban shows on Broadway,' Navaja says. ""It's shown the money makers and financiers that there is a market for young people of color, that there [are] people who have these stories that need to be told and ... people who want to hear them.

""We give a voice to the voiceless,' Navaja says. ""As cliche as that sounds, it's true.'

Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568.

WHEN: Saturday, 8 p.m.

WHERE: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Carol Morsani Hall, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa

TICKETS: $19.50, $25.50 and $32.50; box office, (813) 229-7827; Ticketmaster, (813) 287-8844