Sunday, January 28, 2007

Women are a huge part of spoken word

By Norman (Otis) Richmond

It was refreshing to hear Wayne Morgan and Lizz Straight on Tabby Johnson’s show on Newstalk 1010 CFRB. Morgan and Straight were there to promote the 7th Annual When Sister Speak showcase.

CFRB is the last spot I expected to hear a spoken word artist like Straight.Straight is a straight shooter who tells it like it is. But there she was on CFRB talking about Black radical politics.

Since Johnson was summarily dismissed from JazzFM she has surfaced on CFRB. Johnson and Spider Jones are among the few African Canadians on mainstream radio in “liberal multicultural” Toronto.

Johnson hosts a show Saturday afternoons from four to six on Newstalk 1010 CFRB.Johnson is an actor, dancer, singer, songwriter and playwright. She is the sister of jazz diva, Molly Johnson, and Clark Johnson who directed the Hollywood blockbuster S.W.A.T. and starred in Homicide.

Johnson was born in Zurich, lived in Philadelphia and later in Ontario, where her familysettled. She performed with Rick James and the Stone City Band, recorded fivealbums with him and toured with him from 1979-82. She sang with James' "Mary Jane Girls" and sang on the Temptations smash, "Standing on The Top", with James, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Glenn Leonard and others. Johnson, James and Leonard all lived in Toronto at one point in their lives. This was the biggest hit on the Temptations' Reunion album.

When Sisters Speak featured appearances Toronto based d'bi young, NailaKeleta Mae, and Motion. Miami's Lizz Straight made her first Canadian appearance, while New York's Mahogany Browne returned to the stage and if this wasn't enough, Ottawa's Oni the Haitian Sensation topped off the bill.

As the only dancer on a bill of spoken word artists, dance artistTamla Matthews articulated her poetry with movement and debut a momentous dance piece entitled "Doorways & Dimensions". Matthew has been working with Kevin Ormsby who has just returned from the Garth Fagan Dance Company in upstate New York to create a piece about womanhood and entering motherhood.



The spoken word movement like hip- hop is international in scope and in nature. Spoken word unlike hip-hop has not been embraced by the corporate record industry. You can count the number of spoken word artists signed to major labels on one finger.


Male hip-hop artists are well represented on the majors. There are a variety of male hip- hoppers from 50 Cents to Common on these labels. Females are harder to find.

If you listen to Morgan’s radio program on CKLN-FM 88.1 every second Thursday at 8pm you know that he plays spoken word from Cape Town to Nova Scotia. While these artists are not on the major’s radar, Morgan’s word demonstrates for all to see THERE IS A MARKET FOR SPOKEN WORD.

Why haven’t the majors embraced the spoken word movement? Could it be thatmost of the spoken word artists are not a part of the bling scene? Ifyou’ve ever attended ‘Acoustic Soul’ with DJ Black Lotus at the Trane Studio on Tuesday nights you would realize that these artists read newspapers.listen to talk radio and watch the news.


They are not merely concerned with getting rich or die trying, matters of the heart or conquering as many women as they can. Spoken word artists deal with social justice, gender relations and yes, sex.

Sex is a huge part of the spoken word movement. These artists seem to echo the thoughts of Redd Foxx who used to say, “We talk about sex because most of our parents had it.”
Many spoken word artists can also do hip- hop. Naila Keleta Mae’s “Ganga Rap “is a strong piece of hip-hop in my judgement.

However, some like Morgan say they are freer performing in the spoken word idiom.Spoken word is not tied to the music. All you need to perform spoken wordis a microphone and an audience.

Morgan first stepped on the stage in 1994.Since then, Morgan has self published four books, and two audio recordings. At age 27, Morgan currently performs throughout Toronto, while touring through the U.S., England, and Germany annually. Morgan is on the roster of the Royal Conservatory of Music's Learning through the Arts Program, and often makes presentations to high school students about the importance of writing, sharing their views, and the English language.

He and Gentle Aura write a column ‘Straight Up’ in the newspaper 24 Hours.Morgan’s work is influenced by hip hop culture, and manages to touch aplace deep inside of us.African Canadian in particular and the world in general are in Dwayne Morgan’s debt. He has brought the Spoken Word movement to us.

Norman (Otis) Richmond can be reached by email Norman@ckln.fm