My show will be a live performance interpretation of my unpublished memoir in-verse titled “Record: Testimony of the Divine Feminine”. The narrative chronicles my experiences in awakening to my identity as the partner/wife of Jesus and Buddha. I’m saying that I’m her, that they are the same guy and that this time around, I’m sharing my perspective and telling my own story. And since my story is obviously a missing voice in the dominantly patriarchal world religions landscape, I hope that it will have the opportunity to be seen and heard by everyone who knows the other side.
While I’m expressing this missing narrative from my individual experience, this effort is ultimately resulting from a collective effort to raise the voices of women and marginalized communities, voices that have been obscured or even outright erased.
Intimacy and the complicated nature of my relationship with my partner/husband is a central topic covered within the narrative poems of “Record: Testimony of the Divine Feminine”. It also includes my experiences as an educator and founder of a youth program in a historically marginalized community as well as about mental health, sexuality, racial and social justice.
We put together this show with the help of several other performers and artists, including spoken word poet Ja’Naye “Modern Medusa” Hardy, filmmaker and writer Juniper Johnson, singer and disability advocate Key Nichols and hip hop beat-maker Eman Drums. They will join me in delivering my work.
This opportunity came about through sharing my poetry with some friends last spring, when I was commissioned by the Goodwin-Procter law firm to write and perform a poem for their diversity, equity and inclusion programming. The law firm produced a video of me performing the commissioned poem and when I shared this video, a friend shared it with his friend who is at the Straz. After meeting this new friend, I remembered that I had envisioned a book of my poems eventually being adapted into a stage play and realized this may be the chance to wield it in that direction.
The show will be held at Straz Center’s Teco Theater and will contain some strong language and adult themes including mental illness, sex, and suicide; suggested age is 18 years and over. Admission is free.
I’d like to share one of the poems that will be a part of the show called “KATARA (for real)”. This poem encompasses the overall themes of the story, which I wish to share and that embody both my own individual story of awakening as well as our collective journey and effort to move forward.
KATARA (for real)
I am the One
who brought the great flood
of warriors onto your shore–
roaring, majestic life from the Motherland,
hear that rumble–
our gale force winds have broke the chains,
see it all come rushing as change–
so fast best believe that’s whiplash
on behalf of the ancestors–
in fact we are them–
you see the energy stored
from all the injustice we bore
only passed on–
isn’t bending blood
just like bending water?
the avatar of God, call me Katara
truth is, we began at the bottom–
in that space so dark and deep,
we couldn’t be seen–
the only light down here
is produced from our own heads,
projected in third eye position–
it is here where pressure is most profound,
where we make our way through the rhythm of sound,
manifesting waves from our vibration–
this is what it means to sea deeply,
that bass throbbing as pulse that begins tsunami–
born from the underground,
that place closest to the core,
creating waves as crescendo,
following lines that lead us to the peak
above that mountain in the distance–
you know energy travels as spirals,
winding up like a cork about to pop the top off this bottle,
shaken up, this blood we drink to form our sanctity–
isn’t it once there was no word for the color blue,
so we called the sea “blood”–
like the stream we laid the beat upon,
with enough room to lay our verses
and move the masses
even before we perform–
this means the mass we gained
has been invisible–
but it’s been stacking up,
all this pressure,
all this attempt to hold us down
has only made us stronger–
no we are not woke,
we are awake,
as in a wake,
as in those ocean waves created
when a vessel moves through a medium,
as in the medium cannot be compressed,
as in this wake cannot be suppressed,
as in the wake when we gather
to pay respects to the dead with their body present–
I am that body who gave all this labor–
“what light through yonder water breaks?”
this is the real Genesis,
meaning these are the generations,
a generator cord pumping through these children,
aka warriors,
best believe these MC’s came out by the dozen–
you can’t fade the mother of all creation,
the original, the source,
follow me and you’ll find your birth–
to return to that side we lost,
making us complete
in this narrative of human history–
we are the evolution,
the new branch in the story–
but in order to understand life,
you must reckon with your birth–
even Hokusai couldn’t imagine
what was coming–
born as arsenal to seal our fate,
best believe I came to slay–
and here I will deliver the arc–
not as in ship to escape,
as in we ARE the great flood–
like the arc in my arm raised
as they bow to my power–
I am the Great Wave Off Kanagawa,
I’m atomic, I’m nuclear–
and now we’re in the delivery room–
you wanna know how the universe began?
One word: BOOM
This article appears in Apr 13-19, 2023.