|
You didn’t need to be a fan of slam poetry to
be floored by the blow from Saul Williams’ words last Monday night
in the EMU Ballroom. As long as you are grateful for the written word
and raw talent, the impact would’ve still left you stunned and
speechless. The 800 sum students and fellow Eugenians that packed the
Ballroom were just that. So who was this man, like the big bang, that
ignited minds and sent them explosively pondering a greater consciousness?
I stood backstage and listened to a woman that spilled her life’s story to the man who touched her deeply with poetic words which told of his own encounters…Again I took note on the hundreds that danced to his lyrics that moved them to a soulful funk the night after. The notion dawned on me that the normal line of questioning just didn’t seem right with a man who so candidly expresses himself. My inquiry took a different avenue to find why the Newburgh, New Yorker was so special to many. Suddenly I really didn’t want to ask about his performance in the film Slam or what it was like to work with Spike Lee. I didn’t want to know about his time at Morehouse or graduate studies at NYU. His accomplishments didn’t convince me of his uniqueness, it was simply a means to view a man in progress of becoming…Even though these institutions birthed a literary ingenious and the experiences of which laid the foundation that developed his tenacious spirit. A simple conversation in a backstage basement bathroom at the McDonald Theater would reveal the truth and simplicity of a talented individual who so fondly recalled his debt performance in a third grade play where he portrayed the great Marc-Anthony and who spent his undergraduate and graduate studies studying himself and the act of being so he could become a better character. This form of conversion was more fitting to understand how he came to be. This was real, raw, and literally unplugged. Some would say that his highly sophisticated rhymes reveal a socio-political progressive nature that correlates to the struggle while others may say that his linguistic creativity finds the balance between thought and emotion in life. Although Williams could be found at either end of the extreme and maybe in the middle too, the commonality is that they express his life’s experiences and those vicariously lived. Using each instance as a sounding board to amplify the experience in a creative soliloquy. Perhaps this is why his poetry and music strikes a cord with so many. However, Williams modestly renounces the pedestal so many of his followers place him on. He sees himself as a vessel and his writing as the carrier of those lessons, reflections, and observations he has experienced within life’s moments. While they are intellectually stimulating Williams winced at the thought of being considered a great intellectual, “I hope not…” his reply when asked, “…it stifles the spirit—keeps it from being free…” he added. From the hundreds that have become suspended in his energy here in Eugene and all over the country, his statement holds true because it has yet to be captured by a single endeavor. There are no calculated adventures in the life of Saul Williams; he goes where it takes him—with both eyes shut and the third open. There’s no telling when or where we may see Saul William’s again…but be assured that when you do he will be so saturated with experiences that when he spits a liquid flow unplugged, it’ll leave your mind marinating in the riff for days. |