Preview
MICHAEL ST. GEORGE
Thursday, March 27
Kaos Jazz & Blues Bistro
Dub poetry is hard to categorize. Dub poets like Michael St. George turn up in venues as diverse as the National Library of Canada, the Black-O-Rama Festival in Winnipeg, the Country Side Club in Kingston, Jamaica, and, for the past few years, at Calgary's Afrikadey festivals.
First emerging in Jamaica, dub is akin to reggae, ska, performance poetry and even rap, but it has its own unique history. Practitioners declaim, rather than sing, their lyrics with a Caribbean cadence, whether accompanied by a band or not. A truly multi-disciplinary art form, dub combines movement, images and sounds, is rooted in rhythm and driven by social commentary.
Michael St. George doesn't care much about the difficulty in pinning down his art form – he's more interested in getting the message and "the vibe" out to people any way he can.
"If I had to define what I do, I’d say I was a dub-poetic edu-tainer," says St. George.
"Dubbin' is really a means of transformation – you see injustice, poverty and war in the world and you use poetry to reflect on it as well as summoning up hope and joy. You can dub out the bad and dub in the good – it becomes a force for change."
St. George has been perfecting his craft for more than 14 years, following in the footsteps of legendary spoken-word activists like Mutabaruka and Oku Onuora. An ongoing inspiration is Jamaica's beloved poet-folklorist Louise Bennett, who’s now over 80.
"One time, when I was questioning my path as a poet, she told me to just keep on doing your stuff, everything else will work out," says St. George, who notes that although dub poetry arises from the black experience, it has resonance for all listeners.
"I recognize that no one culture created history in isolation," he adds. "How we co-exist informs my writing. I want my work to be accessible to all cultures and all generations."
St. George respects the contribution of other Jamaican-born Toronto dub colleagues like Lillian Allen and Clifton Joseph, but at this point in his career, he feels he's earned the right to pursue his own artistic direction.
"At first you feel like you have to keep up the standards of what is still a fairly new genre for this country. Now I feel I can add my own spin on it, like working with jazz musicians or simple acoustic arrangements as well as the usual reggae backup."
St. George's debut album, Self Assession, helped him garner the Best Newcomer prize at the Canadian Reggae Music Awards in 1995. In 1998, he released Root 2 Fruit, a powerful tribute to the wisdom, patience and heroism of elders. St. George's output is now in full gear, and he looks on that as a blessing.
"I have to be thankful," he says. "My career has moved to another level."
St. George has a manager now, and he wrote a poetic novel, Night Spin, last year. He also has recently completed his third recording, Dubbin de Vibes.
"When someone asks me when or how I became a poet," St. George reflects, "I ask – when did most of us stop being poets? Kids are just natural artists – they sing, dance, make up poems, until they get moulded into conforming to some society standard that devalues that aspect of their lives. Everyone is basically creative." |
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