HOST:

　　Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

　　(MUSIC)

　　I'm Doug Johnson. This week, we report about poetry and jazz because April is a special month for both arts in the United States.

　　Poetry Slams

　　The United States is celebrating National Poetry Month in April. There are large events, like the three-day Austin International Poetry festival in Texas. There are small events, like Poetic Voices, a performance by the best teenage poets of Cass County, Missouri. And there are poetry slams. Mario Ritter tells about these competitions, the slammers and the poems.

　　MARIO RITTER:

　　A poetry slam is a competition in which poets perform one of their pieces in front of an audience and judges.

　　The poem can be no longer than three minutes and is rated from one to ten.

　　Most slammers are very theatrical in their performances. The poems can be about personal subjects or world events. Two weeks ago, sixteen year old Stacy performed a poem about the attack on the World Trade Center in New York City in two thousand one. The slam was held at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York. Here is part of her performance:

　　The black death demolishes civilization. Now we're making foundations for the recovering patients, cause for some reason we can't find any explanations for the contaminations.

　　Whether it's the Plague or AIDS; STDs or HIV; there are no answers. And we can't find the cure for cancer so...

　　Ashes to ashes we all fall down. Operation cremation without any consolation.

　　A blind architect doing renovations on a historical creation. Double jeopardize thousands of innocent lives; trying to buy avowal but could barely keep themselves alive. Leaving only a handful that survived.

　　Flight Eleven and One Seventy-Five with the illegal medications that overdosed our population, led us to receive a leave of absence for an unnecessary vacation and we became addicts. Developed unheard of addictions; unintentionally using needles shooting up intoxications; popped pills laced with devastation; sniffing lines of contamination; hallucinations of peace in our nation; unwilling levitation meeting heaven before expectation.

　　They called the cravings 9/11; I call it violation; molestation; split the towers like a virgin and seduced her with sensual conversation.

　　Eighteen year old slam poet Safia Elhillo deals with another serious issue in her poem, "Immigrant City." The poet read it at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut.

　　I saw you

　　Disembark at Metro Center

　　Transferring to the blue line, preparing

　　To board your third bus

　　Back to Skyline Towers:

　　The commute from

　　Metropolis to Immigrant City

　　Cheekbones sculpted like Sahara dunes

　　Lips chapped to mimic sidewalks

　　Of this Promised Land;

　　Oh, how they tricked you.

　　They tricked us.

　　Shoulders stooped, broad back

　　Bent with weighted expectations from

　　Umi, Khaltu, Fatima and Baba

　　Eagerly awaiting your return, the

　　Conquering hero

　　With Big Macs

　　And blue jeans

　　For all

　　They tricked us.

　　Friday night prayers in

　　Ramshackle mosques, I watched you

　　Stiff in your new collared shirt

　　Ankles rubbed raw by pleather loafers

　　Hair shaved carefully close to camouflage

　　The giveaway kinks and curls.

　　I saw me in you;

　　Like how we both exaggerate

　　The twang in our r's

　　To outweigh the okra and rice

　　Laying heavily across our tongues

　　Forcing extra syllables

　　Painfully turning b's to p's

　　Rolling eyes in exasperation at those

　　Homely folk back in the old country

　　Arrived with open arms

　　Open eyes, open hearts

　　Ready to receive our

　　Honorary title as Americans

　　Instead shoved into closet-sized apartments

　　Watching our PHd holding brothers

　　Drive taxis

　　Our law-student sisters

　　Mop floors

　　Our bright babies

　　Repeating grades

　　"Sharp mind, but he can't go anywhere

　　'Til he gets a better grasp on the English language"

　　I saw you

　　Eyes alight with recognition upon

　　Hearing the familiar falter in my accent

　　You are not alone

　　But our togetherness makes us

　　All the more outcast

　　As we board our third bus

　　To Skyline Towers

　　Destination:

　　Immigrant City

　　We may not be home, but

　　Stop by sometime

　　For mint tea and palm dates

　　Stories of Omdurman sands and

　　Khartoum rickshaws

　　Compare notes on the experience

　　Of sandal-clad feet upon concrete

　　Chuckling far too loudly, as is

　　The Sudanese way,

　　Long into the 'Isha hours

　　Safe from metropolitan disapproval

　　Of the Arabic interwoven in our jargon

　　They may have tricked us,

　　Equating broken English with

　　Broken spirits

　　But they underestimated our safe haven

　　In each others' arms, each others' hearts

　　Right here

　　In Immigrant City

　　Safia Elhillo

　　Safia Elhillo was born in Rockville Maryland. Both of her parents are from Sudan. She now lives in Washington, D.C. with her mother and brother. Safia says she wrote her first poem for a high school English class three years ago.

　　But she says she grew up around poetry. Her mother enjoys reading poetry, especially poems by Rumi and Khalil Gibran. Safia says she also likes poems by Nikki Giovanni and Suheir Hammad. Safia gives special praise to all the young poets she has met during the past two years she has been writing and competing in slams.

　　Safia Elhillo says writing poetry will always be a part of her life. She says performing her work has helped her defeat her severe nervousness. She hopes to attend college at New York University and study art therapy.

　　Here she reads a poem about her best friend, "Malik:

　　He stepped off the sun,

　　Sweat of the islands still glistening on his brow.

　　Man-child, all grown

　　Squinting into the horizon

　　Maps etched into his calloused palms.

　　Gilded boy spilling

　　Golden glow onto cracked sidewalk

　　Outside the corner bodega;

　　He's here to heal.

　　Child of the cosmos,

　　Mind traveling through

　　Warm sands and subway tracks

　　Humming lullabies in broken Arabic, like

　　"Ahibak, akhi"*

　　(*ahibak, akhi: I love you, my brother)

　　And it's been far from easy

　　On my clumsy days;

　　Caught me, placed me upon a broad shoulder

　　Atlas manifested but I

　　Called him Midas

　　The golden king.

　　Swinging my legs in time to the

　　Verses we conjured:

　　Jabao Jibaro,

　　Sergeant Saffron,

　　Brother Bear,

　　Yes,

　　Ahibak akhi.

　　Voice rumbling from the planet's core

　　Face upturned; see

　　Children of the universe,

　　They shine in the night;

　　And we do.

　　Cracking jokes, grins,

　　Long past the crack of dawn

　　Like

　　"How long will you be up?"

　　"Forever."

　　Yes.

　　And

　　Your name is in the title,

　　'cause I've learned, and

　　Don't dedicate time, energy

　　And poems

　　To what's not built to last.

　　Jazz Appreciation Month

　　HOST:

　　April is not only a time for poetry. It also marks the eighth yearly Jazz Appreciation Month. The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. started the event. It is now celebrated in all fifty American states and in forty countries. The aim of Jazz Appreciation Month is to bring public attention to the rich past and present of jazz music. There are special programs on jazz at museums, schools, colleges, libraries, concert halls and on public broadcasting. Jim Tedder has more.

　　(MUSIC)

　　JIM TEDDER:

　　That was "Jungle Blues" by the famous bandleader Benny Goodman. The Smithsonian is observing the one hundred year anniversary of Benny Goodman's birth.

　　There have been several discussions and musical programs about "The King of Swing" and the musicians who played with him. This month the museum is also releasing a collection of one hundred ten jazz recordings that help tell the history of jazz.

　　Jazz Appreciation Month is also honoring musician and composer Chuck Mangione. He has released thirty albums. Mangione is best known for his Grammy Award-winning single, "Feels So Good."

　　(MUSIC)

　　John Edward Hasse is the curator of jazz at the National Museum of American History. He says jazz has been called "America's classical music," "the sound of freedom" and even "the sound of surprise." He says whatever you call it, jazz has played a huge role around the world in opening up musical creativity.

　　One reason the Smithsonian picked April to honor jazz is because many great jazz artists were born this month. They include Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton and Herbie Hancock. Here is Ella Fitzgerald singing "April in Paris" with Louis Armstrong.

　　(MUSIC)

　　Countries around the world will also take part in honoring jazz this month. For example, in South Africa, Cape Town's jazz festival included performances by more than forty international and African jazz performers. The Estonian capital of Tallinn will hold its own jazz festival. We leave you with a song by the Cuban saxophonist Paquito D'Rivera who is to perform at this event.

　　(MUSIC: "Miami")

　　HOST:

　　I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

　　It was written by Dana Demange and Caty Weaver who was also the producer. For transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs, go to www.unsv.com.

　　Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.