Verses and Flow, Part 3

So much gorgeous color! Elegant people, come to the Siren to hear something new and cool. The sound stage was set up like a jazz club, with little tables with lit candles. The pretty people got seated first (next posting will get to this, a bit.) Attendees indulged me considerable and permitted me to take photos when they had something going that caught my eye. (See above.) Once we were all in the sound stage, the MC--can't bring back his name, nor find it on Lexus Verses and Flow--was good at working the crowd and keeping an enthusiastic vibe going, but I don't think he really gets why someone would write and why someone else would want to hear what was written. Introducing the third poet, a soulful faculty member back East, the MC told how the poet had been in love with a girl in college. Deeply painfully pointlessly futilely in love, the poet had started writing poems to this girl.  I mean, this girl really must have been somethin' ,said our MC. Imagine a girl that makes a brothah want to go back to his room and sit down and write a poem. The audience listened politely, imagining this and evidently having no trouble doing so. Apparently this was supposed to have made us laugh, but no one laughed. OK, rallied the MC, that was the sound of a joke falling flat. Go back, he called out to the camera crew, and they re-taped the 'joke', the MC this time telling it so that it didn't sound like a misstep, and so that his recovery wasn't part of the show.

Verses and Flow, Part 2

Some living color at Verses and Flow. The pre-party was lavish, awash in violet light, fresh hors d'oeuvres, and instant ice cream. Liquid nitrogen freezes the mix in 9 seconds, no chance for crystals to form, so it's creamy. Also an open bar and mixed drinks, mostly aqua and turquoise. I could have got drunk on the colors alone. Speaking of which...

I wish someone had advised me of the dress code. Poetry events are usually pretty dressed-down, with maybe cool shoes (see above). However, these three young women were not the only ones who were dressed to express, and how they did shine. I actually just acquired a little black dress, so I could have risen to the occasion, had I but known. But seriously:  almost everyone there was highly put-together, men and women. A fair amount of posing in areas that looked to have been set up especially for that purpose, with draped backdrops, a dais, a spotlight. A gorgeous crowd.

Verses and Flow: Part 1

Lexus is in its fourth season of sponsoring a spoken-word show called Verses and Flow. I suppose it's an effort to make Lexus a cool and desirable brand among a young black urban audience. In any case, it's a terrific showcase for slam and spoken-word poets. We had the pleasure and privilege of being invited to attend the taping (spoiler alert:  No one in our party was in the demographic. We were variously, too old, too white, or both. Didn't matter). What a show! What excellent poets!