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Griot aus Ashkenaz

I met Kevin Coval when I was involved with Brave New Voices in the old USA. A talented (and Jewish) performance poet and youth arts organizer from Chicago, Kevin is working within multiple traditions, nodding to the Black Arts Movement and Hebraicism in one swift kick of the tongue. Below is an excerpt from “The Day Jam Master Jay Died.”

“i think of Isabel, young writer at Kelvyn Park
Bindi between her eyebrows, picture of Lady Guadalupe
in her notebook she reads the Bhagavad Gita in Spanish
with her Aunt who teaches Yoga at the Church
and i tell this class my path back to Judaism
was paved in breakbeats”

Another Jewish educator lighting up The Nations.

4 thoughts on “Griot aus Ashkenaz

  1. I’ve seen ol’ boy perform at Def Poetry Jam.
    He is a cornball. His delivery is the same old rehashed pseudo Gil Scot Heron pap that made me throw up and quit ‘spoken word’.
    i don’t care that he’s quasi-hip hop, I don’t care that he’s a teacher – I care that he’s a cornball representation who makes MY life personally harder when I deal with other people

  2. I respectfully disagree Monk. If this dude can back up your reasons for quitting “spoken word” than I don’t think you were lovin it in the first place…Did you perform nationally?

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