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Our newest Arts Express contributor, KeShaun Luckie, put together this audio segment highlighting the wonderful poems of Camryn “Queen Bee” Bruno, performed by the author. It was a pleasure to have two such talented artists over here recording.
You can listen to Queen Bee’s reading, as broadcast today on Arts Express on WBAI 99.5 FM NYC, by clicking on the triangle above.
Hmmm.
öK.
The first two, weren’t really what I was hoping for,..
with my breakfast coffee.
I almost hit the ‘off’ button.
I’m glad I didn’t.
I’m to a point,…in time? ,..in my life? ,..in surrender? ;
where I look at complainers, whiners, ‘wise-people’,..
and say: “BE something better.”
Still, I really enjoyed.
Just(!) the right ‘length’!
5 poems. 12 minutes. A great mix.
Quality poetry,….
Thanks Jack. 👍
Hi, me again. 🙋🏻
I finished my coffee listening to some Billy Holiday…
It came together, in my mind,
this ‘weird’ visualization that Afro-? have of ‘their boys’.
Billy singing ‘her man’,..
who cheats on her, beats her, and spends all of her money,..
but 🎶…she must have that man.🎶.
Again and again,…song for song.
Camryn, in her first poem,..
defending “our boys.”…..
At the risque of sounding ‘racist’,
….this is something I don’t understand.
Is it a ‘cultural aspect’?
Is it,..’the ultimate Male dream’?
It’s probably the russian coffee……
….a poem that makes me think,..feel,..
is a good poem,
for me.
🚶
Thanks for listening, G.
I don’t really see the connection to Billie here. Some of the songs that Holiday sang—like the songs that many women singers of that period, *both Black and white* sang—defended their abusive partners. If that was cultural, then it was culturally specific to the time, not the race. (And, of course, most of those songs were written by white men.)
Camryn’s poetry on the other hand, at least to my ear, in no way defends abusive men. The first poem seems quite protective, as a mother or sister or wife might be protective of her man who is caught up in a racist and deluded society that forces men into dangerous and inhuman roles. And the second poem, rather than accepting or celebrating the abusive behavior of men, calls it out. So to me, those poems are very different from a Billie Holiday kind of sentiment.
You know what Jack,..
I think you’re right.
Running it thru my mind,..
chopping some wood,…
yeah,..
you’re right.
I feel my biggest ‘hang-up’, tho,..in the moment,…still(!),
is this belief,
that we have so little control over our own destinies.
Maybe, I’m just one of,…’the Lucky ones’…
white. male. intelligent,….good looking…
Cmm,…white,..male,..
BUT if people would know whom I have for friends(!),..
they would sympathizes!
😊
…i moght have spelt ‘destinies’ wrong…..