JPC In the News
Jazz it up with poetic dining in Stafford
By: ANTHONY GARY
FOR THE SUN, May 2002
STAFFORD - It's inevitable that history will repeat itself in many social forms. Like the days of the 1960's when Bohemian crowds, sporting their colorful berets and opaque looking sunglass in smoke-filled rooms, spewed their rendition on the philosophy of life, a format for self-expression was prevalent amongst a generation of self-proclaimed philosophers.
It was considered to be a colorful way of illustrating to an audience the types of societal ills and pitfalls that prevailed. The setting usually involved a stage and captive audience, was known as poetry readings. Poetry reading is now making a comeback.
Stafford County's Dining-on-the-Knoll, promoted and spear headed by Phillip Gregory, a local resident, student and businessman of Stafford, offers poetry readings during their "Jazz Poetry Café" night every Wednesday evening from 7-10pm.
Gregory, an ex-Marine sergeant and "sometime" poet over the course of 15 years, likes to organize and work with local, aspiring poets and wants to create a regular venue for poets to congregate and share their ideas and works with other poets both amateur and professional.
"My vision is to provide an open mike for vocalists, musicians and creative writers, but primarily for poets in a jazz café type of atmosphere," says Gregory. "The owners of this establishment were thoughtful enough to allow me the chance. Even though people of color mostly frequent such a venture, I'm looking for a diverse crowd of people all types of people."
Inspired by the fact that there weren't any local establishments that offered such a venue, Gregory believes that Dining-on-the-Knoll will serve as an ideal location to bring this form of entertainment to suburban residents. "Were there in order to give local residents of Stafford some mid-week entertainment," says Faye Ross, one of the owners of Dining-on-the-Knoll, which was established one year ago.
Faye and Robert Ross, along with Gary and Theresa Taylor, 18-year residents of and noted businesspersons in Stafford, are the owners of the establishment. Faye Ross says, "The general public has found it [poetry readings] to be very relaxing…and this new format of Dining-on-the-Knoll is a good way to allow people to express their views, while enjoying good food, spirits, and atmosphere."
On this particular evening, recognized poets were featured to help set the tone for encouraging continuous observation and participation from local residents interested in the event. The event was also recorded as part of a televised program on Sunday nights called Poets Joint, a program that appears on Adelphia's Channel 25.
"It's an outlet for me. The first element of poetry is the truth. I believe in expression," says Jesus Hampton, one of the featured poets for the evening. "I don't write for the audience, I write for myself. If you can get to understand my poetry, you can understand me."
Unlike the urban-based atmosphere of the 1960s that had a specifically targeted narrative tone describing the state of social issues, today poetry reading is more about allowing individuals to share their experiences in a rhythmic tone to interpret and clarify interpersonal relations.
Among other things, it seeks out common everyday issues with others to express personal feelings. Based on this poetic criteria, essential elements of spoken communication like sentence structure, poetic measurements, syntax and even grammar are not required. The speaker simply needs something to say using a certain amount of tone, narration and expressiveness to captivate the audience.
In other words, if you have something to say, and you want to say it in front of an audience, here's your chance.
Dining-on-the-Knoll is located at 1110 Courthouse Road, Stafford.
For more information on the poetry-reading program, call (540) 288-2288 or email ga_productions@msn.com
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