JPC In the News

Poets bare their soul

Stafford restaurant offers live venue

By KEITH WALKER
kwalker@potomacnews.com
August 5, 2002

Like uncensored preachers, the poets and singers at the Caribbean Delights Restaurant in Stafford on Saturday night hammered the audience with verbal punches wrapped in pieces of their souls.

The audience of 30 or so absorbed the anger, humor, sadness and angst and returned the favor with their applause for the performers.

The poets who spoke in the open-mic venue in the Jazz Poetry Café lashed out against social injustice, lamented lost love and told stories of their longing for a change of scenery.

LaShawn Carey, one of the performers, said that's what poets do. They share their thoughts and emotions and in the sharing find they are not alone.

"We tend to think that our emotions are unique," Carey, 21, said.

Carey said she has always written poetry but needed considerable encouragement to perform and ultimately discover acceptance. " I was muscled into it," said Carey, a Gar-Field High School graduate.

"It's hard to get up and read your work. It's like getting in front of a crowd naked … and then the applause … It's like ' wow' some body feels the way I do," she said. "Once you perform, you want to perform every week," she said.

Phillip Gregory, who produces the Jazz Poetry Café, is counting on performers like Carey who want to perform and he's also betting there are people in the area who want to hear poetry, too.

Gregory said he decided he wanted to bring poetry to Stafford when he got tired of commuting to hear some. " I would travel from here to Washington D.C., twice a month on Wednesdays and from here to Richmond twice a month," Gregory, of Stafford said.

"I thought, 'This is insane.' There are a hundred thousand people here, surely there are people who are interested in the spoken word," the self-employed network marketer said.

To facilitate the poetry nights, Gregory invites established guest artists to bolster the corps of local poets who have begun to come out of the woodwork since he started the program in June.

Saturday  night's program flushed out singer-songwriter Curran "Doc" Dougherty. Dougherty and his wife Vaneda just happen to be dining at the restaurant at 3650 Jefferson Davis Highway, when the poetry began.  The Doughertys were unaware that the restaurant hosted poetry nights on alternate Saturday nights.

"We've been driving by this place and meaning to stop by and try it," Dougherty, 49, of Triangle said. The poetry made him leave his dinner at the table.

"I thought, 'This is pretty good,' I ran home and got my guitar," said Dougherty, who is a carpenter when he's not singing in restaurants.  Gregory said that's what he hoped to accomplish. "They can just show up and say, 'this is an open-mic.  I want to share the spoken word."' Gregory said.

For information about upcoming performances, e-mail ga_productions@msn.com, Gregory said.

Khalid Abdul-Khaliq, one of the guest performers, said performing in new places help him develop as a poet.  "I like to go out to different venues and talk to different people. I like to sit back and listen to other poets and feed off of their energy and inspiration. It's a two way street," said Khaliq, a U.S. Navy officer.

Khaliq, 29, said he once heard social commentary in the music his parents' generation that in absent in contemporary music and regrets the loss.  "This is one of the last few art forms where people actually talk about something,"

Mardi Wright and her boyfriend James Davis paid the $10 cover, listened to the poets and said they acquired new thoughts in the listening.  "They say what's on every body's mind, but (they) were just afraid to say," said Davis, a 27 year-old waiter.

"I admire those guys. I couldn't do that," said Wright, a, 21-year-old student at Germanna Community College.

Staff writer Keith Walker can be reached at (703) 878-8063