It Girl, Friday, September 8: U-Meleni

On Thursday, I attended JP's "First Thursday," a monthly event dedicated to the local arts. At what I call the snake-charmer tent outside my house, the Jamaica Pond Poets were having an open-mic gathering and it totally reinforced my faith in humanity and my hope in the power of language.

U-Meleni was the lovely young woman sitting next to me and we struck up a conversation. She is from Zimbabwe and is an international traveling performance/spoken word artist. U-Meleni had just gotten back from Harare, Zimbabwe where she had a performance at a place called Book Cafe.

On Thursday night she got up before the crowd and gave a performance about the importance and self-love and respect (my description cannot begin to do her justice). U-Meleni was kind enough to supply Blue-Style-Canopy with one of her own lyrical treats:

WISEDOME

I see wisdom in spaces only trained eyes can see
you see the third eye is invisible to the naked eye
and I know you are wondering why eyes are referred to as naked
as if eyes are ever clothed
and if they were
what colors would they wear?
I hear drumbeats on faces of strangers dancing to the beat of
capitalistic delusions
mountains and mountains of dimes
i would rather have pennies in my palms
dreams stitched to my soul
if only to feed my spirit,