Suzi Q. Smith

Artist Information

Biography

Suzi Q. is a dynamic performer, lighting up stages for years. Among the highest-ranked slam poets in the country, she has shared stages with the late Gil Scott Heron, Les Nubians, Dead Prez, The Flobots, Rev. Run, Jean Grae, Talib Kweli and many more.

She has been featured on numerous television and radio programs, and her poetry has been sampled and remixed all over the world, earning International acclaim and controversy. Her single 'Moments', in collaboration with Psy'Aviah, received International attention as a finalist in the BBC's 'Next Big Thing' contest.

Suzi Q. is also well-known as an Activist working with civil rights organizations, victims advocate organizations, arts organizations, peace organizations, youth organizations and more.

Currently, Suzi Q. Smith performs poetry and music throughout the U.S., in addition to leading workshops on writing and performance. Suzi Q. is also a member of one of Denver's most popular musical acts, the Lady Wu-Tang Clan, performing as Method Man alongside her fellow Lady Wu members to sold-out audiences around the region, and sharing stages with Raekwon and Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan.

Her captivating and passionate performances have earned her a place among the best spoken word artists in the nation.

Instrumentation

Suzi Q. - vocals - spoken word, song

Discography

Black Hole Mouth - LP (release date 10/2012)
(re) MIXED - LP 2011
Picks, Pistols, and Prayers - LP 2007
Ferocious - EP 2006
http://www.last.fm/music/Psy%27Aviah/_/Moments+%28feat.+Suzi+Q.+Smith%29

Critics say:

"Fresh, raw, original."

"If words were bullets, Suzi Q. Smith would have the most well-equipped arsenal since the Terminator, only she aims for the soul."

"Suzi Q. is my very favorite poet."

2008 NACA Mid-Atlantic Showcase
2009 NACA Nationals Selection
2009 Coach, Slam Nuba Denver Team
2009 Pablo Neruda Poetry Festival Barrio Slam Finalist
2009 Silver Tongue Finalist, Verse/Converse Festival
2009 Slaughterhouse Slam Finalist
2010 Women of the World Poetry Slam - Denver Champion
2011 Pablo Neruda Poetry Festival Barrio Slam Finalist
2011 Women of the World Poetry Slam Finalist
2011 Silver Tongue Champion, Verse/Converse Festival
2011 Southwest Shootout Indie Finalist
2011 National Poetry Slam Semi-Finalist
2011 Individual World Poetry Slam Finalist
2012 Chair, Women of the World Poetry Slam
2012 Southwest Shootout Champion (Team)
2012 Silver Tongue Champion, Verse/Converse Festival
2012 National Poetry Slam Semi-Finalist

Official Website

http://www.reverbnation.com/suziqsmith

Links

• MySpace
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Live Performance with Bobby Lefebre at CCA
• Lazarus - Live in Seattle
• Live Performance of "Blue" at CCA
• Youtube - Live Performance - Rally

Audio

• Sleeping Giant Final
  Listen  
• English
  Listen  
• Ronald Reagan . . . Jheri Curl
  Listen  
• Black Hole Mouth
  Listen  
• Warmongers
  Listen  
• Lazarus
  Listen  
• Lullaby
  Listen  
• Dear Huey
  Listen  
• When I am Quiet
  Listen  

Video

TheSuziQEPK - YouTube.mpg

Photo Gallery

Press

• Slam, Bam, Thank You Ma'Am [+ Show ]
  

  Slam poet Suzi Q. Smith brought a national championship to Denver A A A Comments (2) By Kelsey Whip...Slam poet Suzi Q. Smith brought a national championship to Denver
  A A A Comments (2) By Kelsey Whipple Tuesday, Feb 14 2012
  
  When I laugh, I mean it.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
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  Loud and from my belly.
  
  Throw my head back, shake my hair
  
  And even show the generous gap between my two front teeth.
  
  It is when I am quiet that it is time to pay attention.
  
  When I am quiet something big is about to happen.
  
  It is 9 a.m., and in the back seat, Suzi Q. Smith is silent. One hour into the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Laramie, the poet is alone with her thoughts, looking out the window of the rental car at the empty fields. Her ability to focus is remarkable: Smith can go from being the center of a crowd to completely alone in the split second it takes her to concentrate. She has made this trip many times before; she does not need to practice.
  
  An illness keeps Smith from driving alone, so she and fellow poets Bobby Lefebre and Theo Wilson are traveling together to the University of Wyoming, where they'll teach a class in slam poetry. Up in the front seat, Lefebre and Wilson are working through the lines of "Devil's Pie," a raucous, poignant and ultimately pointed piece about racism, shouting out lines that pit the Mexican and African-American races — their own — against each other.
  
  Smith stays quiet until they ask for directions.
  
  "We just keep going until we're there," she says. She pauses for a beat, then laughs. "That's kind of my life story, come to think of it."
  
  *****
  
  When I am quiet I am concentrating.
  
  When I am quiet I am going to climax.
  
  When I am quiet I love you too powerful to speak.
  
  When I am quiet I am going to take off your pants and change your life.
  
  Smith was born 33 years ago at St. Anthony's Hospital, the youngest of four children. When she was little, her father thought she couldn't speak; she let her older siblings speak for her. But she could read and write before she started kindergarten — and it turned out that she had plenty to say, even if she didn't often say it out loud. Her youth was a quiet one, though many of her friends now find that hard to believe.
  
  "We'd catch her by herself singing or dancing in the corner, and as soon as we did, she'd deny it," remembers Buddy Smith, her older brother. "Now when I go see her on stage, I'm like, 'Wow, that's my little sister.'"
  
  When she was three, she and her siblings moved in with their paternal grandmother in Park Hill. Her grandmother, now 82, was raised during the Depression, and she reinforced Smith's interest in the written word, reading Harlem Renaissance poetry — Paul Laurence Dunbar, Langston Hughes — to her grandchildren in the TV-free living room. She also read the Bible and took the kids to church, where she played the piano five times a week.
  
  For high school, Smith moved to Littleton to live with her mother. For most of her life, she has had zero contact with her father, who figures occasionally in her poetry. "Every time she reads something, I find something in there that applies to us as siblings, and it's gut-wrenching," her oldest sister, Rebecca, says. "I'm proud of the way she's been able to express it on behalf of all of us."
  
  In college at Colorado State University, Smith studied English and creative writing before dropping out in 1997 to earn money. She has not attended a class on campus since 2002, but in the intervening years has taken online classes for the University of Colorado Denver degree she will finalize in summer 2013; after that, she hopes to pursue a master of fine arts so that she can teach at the university level. But while her lack of formal education prohibits her from holding a permanent teaching position, it has not prevented her from entering the academic sphere — or from pursuing her poetry.
  
  As far back as she can remember, Smith was always writing. By the late '90s, it was always poetry. By then she'd added Q, an early childhood nickname, to what started as a pen name and then became a full-fledged stage name. But she couldn't make a living as a poet, even when she started performing, so she embarked on a long series of jobs: as a cook at Pizza Hut; as a receptionist for a stock brokerage and then a bank; as an AOL telemarketer selling Internet user guides; at the Urban League, first as the executive assistant to now-mayor Michael Hancock and then as the organization's special-events and membership director. At the brokerage, a customer took note of her melodic voice and paid her a compliment: "You know, you have a great voice. Every time I call and am losing $1 million, you make me feel like I'm losing half a million."
  
  Smith, who was broke, would have been happy picking up just a thousand of that. Her legal name is Leslie Suzanne Smith — but outside of work, the only people who used that name were bill collectors. By now, even her closest friends were referring to her as "Suzi Q. Smith," usually reserving the simple "Suzi" for face-to-face conversations.
  It was at the Urban League, when Smith was eighteen, that she met the man who would become her husband, then her ex-husband. They married a few days after her twentieth birthday and divorced three years later, after Smith gave birth to a daughter, Kai. "We had completely different ideas of what marriage was," Smith says.
  
  In "Lazarus," perhaps Smith's most well-known poem and still a mainstay in her performance roster, Smith wrote about Kai's father. The poem makes her sister Rebecca cry every time Smith reaches its crescendo, but she doubts that her ex has ever heard it. "Me without you is flawed," the poem says. "I need you. I require you. I'll be damned if I let them acquire you.... You're not the only one going through this. I'm standing knee-deep in the same mess, and we both know I'm not some damsel in distress. I carry the same weapons as you.... You and me got matching scars."
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  When the going gets tough, the tough get going: SlamNuba's final faceoff commences tonight
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  More About
  
  Suzi Smith
  Theo Wilson
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  Arts, Entertainment, and Media
  Hip-Hop and Rap
  
  Like this Story?
  
  Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.
  
  The poem ends with a call to action: "So get up, I'm not done with you yet, Lazarus."
  
  Although the divorce was a friendly one (her ex still attends birthday parties and Thanksgiving dinners), Smith maintains full custody of Kai, now an inquisitive twelve-year-old who is her mother's single greatest inspiration.
  
  With Kai, Smith has adopted an open, experimental relationship. "We have a different system," she says. Smith doesn't believe in bad words, but she does believe that language can be inappropriate, that opinions and ideas can be unhealthy. One day when Kai was in her Ke$ha phase, she was listening to the pop tart's music in the car. "So we pulled the car over to talk about her," Smith recalls. "I said, 'I know you love her, but don't you think she needs rehab? We need to start listening to what she's really saying and say a little prayer for her right now.'"
  
  *****
  
  When I am quiet I am remembering what I have hidden at the tops of closets
  
  And deciding how best to pack them.
  
  When I am quiet I am trying not to cry.
  
  When I am quiet I am going to leave.
  
  When Kai was still a toddler, Smith began performing at open-mike nights, her voice an important part of the spoken-word scene. Smith's physical presence is just as impressive. Her copper-brown hair, which she wears in a loose Afro, bobs when she speaks, and a cunning smile is softened by the noticeable gap between her front teeth. "I'm black, but you can't tell," she jokes. "No one accepts me, not even the Puerto Ricans or the Dominicans. The only people who accept me as their own are the Cubans. Everyone else is like, 'Who do you belong to?'"
  
  She belonged to poetry — but she was a relative latecomer to an important derivative of spoken word: slam poetry.
  
  By the late '80s, the new genre was slamming in Chicago and moving into the big cities of the East, taking hold of New York and Boston before jumping over to the Bay Area and then spreading away from the coasts to cities like Denver. The Mercury Cafe was the city's first center for slam, and sent Denver's first team to the National Poetry Slam in 2000. But as the slam community grew here, the Mercury's five spots were no longer enough to accommodate even half the people who were competitive at a regional level, so poets called for an addition to the city's roster.
  
  That's when Smith stepped up to co-found Slam Nuba in November 2006, despite her worries that the creation of this second group might create a rift — or, at the very least, a rivalry — in the Denver scene. "In other cities, when second or third slams start, it's usually because people hate each other," she says. But the rivalry has always been friendly. Last year, a time penalty in the final bout disqualified Smith from joining Slam Nuba, so she spent the summer competing with the Mercury Cafe team instead. "It sucks when we have to compete against each other, but at least when we're in a national venue, we have friends in the room," she says. In regions like the Northeast, with teams in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, it's easy for poets to get together; Denver's closest competitors are in Albuquerque and Salt Lake.
  
  And Slam Nuba was a strong competitor from the start. It was one of the first groups to adopt a slogan, taken from the Spike Lee film Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. Today at competitions, when Slam Nuba is introduced, its members respond with an aggressive shout of "We cut heads!" At nationals a few years ago, another team reworked that as "We pot heads!"; an R-rated poster mocking the Slam Nuba slogan is currently circling the Internet.
  
  In 2009, Slam Nuba's members were so busy practicing for nationals that they neglected to take a team photo the entire season. "Once you get on the team, you are signing your life away for four months," Smith says. Each year, she rotates her time between participating on the team and coaching it as the slam master at its host venue, the Crossroads Theater.
  Denver's two teams have helped hone the city's reputation as a place for voluminous, multi-dimensional group pieces that often incorporate song instead of the solo performances preferred by the majority of their competitors. As long as each poet involved in a group piece either wrote part of it or is performing that round, he or she can join the group on stage. And when Slam Nuba travels for competition, its members like to stick together; they usually rent a condo rather than book hotel rooms.
  
  Smith, Lefebre and Wilson have all rotated in and out of Slam Nuba since its founding six years ago, and the team has earned a spot at the national championship's semifinals every year since then. Even in casual conversation, the three poets sound like they are performing. So when Lefebre tells the story of Slam Nuba's rise through Smith, it is a dramatic monologue. For years, he has tried to convince someone to create a reality show following a slam team around during the four months leading up to summer nationals.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Related Content
  
  Suzi Q. Smith: Watch our cover poet perform with Lady Wu-Tang, Denver's raw and rowdy female tribute
  February 15, 2012
  The Merc Slam Team's Suzi Q. Smith opens strong at the Slam Nationals, Denver teams advance
  August 12, 2011
  When the going gets tough, the tough get going: SlamNuba's final faceoff commences tonight
  March 28, 2011
  Hip-Hop Covers: The Wu-Tang Clan tribute at the Walnut Room
  January 19, 2011
  10 things to do for $10 this weekend, December 17-19, 2010
  December 17, 2010
  
  More About
  
  Suzi Smith
  Theo Wilson
  Bobby Lefebre
  Arts, Entertainment, and Media
  Hip-Hop and Rap
  
  Like this Story?
  
  Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.
  
  "We didn't have anything to compare ourselves to," he says. "We just created this from scratch, but we don't fucking play. We've always been a well-oiled machine because we've never lost that feeling of being the other slam team."
  
  But Smith isn't quite the well-oiled machine she once was. In early 2010, while at her job as a sales specialist at Trinidad Benham, she collapsed on her way to the copy machine. Typically, she proceeded to army-crawl to her desk in front of all of her co-workers, but the point was clear even to her: Something had to change.
  
  Earlier that morning, in fact, she'd visited a cardiologist. She'd been pushing herself for years — as a mother, an employee, a poet — and the stress had begun to show. "The hectic pace of that all caught up with me, I guess, because all of a sudden I was on the floor," Smith says. "It was an insane lifestyle, but I didn't want to acknowledge any limitations."
  
  The diagnosis was a brain-stem condition called dysautonomia. Essentially, Smith's automatic nerve system occasionally ceases to function correctly, which results in dizziness, loss of feeling and visual side effects. Her blood flow slows down. To explain it, she subtly curls the fingers on her right hand. "When I have a fit, this is the closest I can get to a fist," she says. For a poet, however, the disorder's most problematic symptom might be that it makes her substitute words. Frequently when she speaks, Smith will use a word completely out of context, confusing her audience. Recently, while attempting to request an envelope, she repeatedly asked her perplexed family members for a "lemon drop."
  
  Smith spent most of 2010 in bed before she, Kai and their two big dogs moved in with her mother and stepfather. Today she works with a naturopathic doctor and takes forty vitamin supplements a day. If she experiences an attack while driving, she has to pull over and call a friend to pick her up. It is because of her condition that she doesn't drive alone on trips; instead, she brings other poets along. And she can no longer take Kai to school every day — a realization that required her to swallow a huge amount of pride.
  
  "She knows what she wants out of life because she has been there and seen what she does not want," says her sister Rebecca. "After that, it's a lot easier to create a life out of where you want to go."
  
  And in the end, the diagnosis helped Smith to make a decision she'd postponed for years: to finally drop the 9-to-5 and become a full-time poet. Now when she talks about her travels with those who don't know much about the poetry scene, they sometimes ask, "Oh, you got a job?"
  
  Her response is candid: "Fuck you, no. Do you know how hard I work to not have a job?"
  
  *****
  
  When I am quiet I am holding my tongue
  
  Curling my fist 'round it
  
  Tracing my fingers along the tip
  
  Wanting to throw it
  
  Wanting to hide it
  
  Wanting to swallow it.
  
  A slam poet is allotted three minutes for a performance, but Smith doesn't need them to make her point. She has been known to step on stage, recite a haiku and step off — to overwhelming applause. The most common category in slam is the identity poem, though, and most of Smith's poetry can be easily traced back to her own sense of self. She is a single mother who also happens to be a full-time poet, and that's a tough combination in America — albeit a rich place to write from. And when she writes, it's with a sense of urgency.
  
  "You have only these three tiny minutes to say all of yourself to whoever is listening," Smith explains, "so you have to treat it like your last three minutes on Earth. You should be saying something that's a little bit bigger than you."
  
  While she doesn't have much to prove to the local scene, she still has things to prove to herself. "People sometimes ask me for my autograph after shows, and I'm like, 'Why do you want this?'" she says. "I mean, I'd only want your signature if it were on a check. It's really a personal challenge to see what I'm capable of. My competition is me."
  On stage, at the mike or working without one, Smith's delivery is bold and calculated. "Suzi Q. Smith is like ice water — really, really cold ice water," says Isis Speaks, another local poet. She pauses, then confirms the metaphor. "There's so much in her poetry that can be painful, but in this really deliberate, poignant way. It's brilliant."
  
  Brilliant enough that last year, she was a finalist in both the Individual World Poetry Slam and the Women of the World Poetry Slam, and she was a semi-finalist at the National Poetry Slam. She is a national champion in haiku performance. She has two books and two CDs of poetry to her name, and another one of each in the works. And she is now rated the No. 3 female slam poet in the country, although she doesn't think the national title she won last year had anything to do with her ability to write. "I don't believe that winning or losing makes you a better poet," Smith says. "You can win every slam you're in for weeks and feel so high and then get your ass handed to you by a newbie."
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Related Content
  
  Suzi Q. Smith: Watch our cover poet perform with Lady Wu-Tang, Denver's raw and rowdy female tribute
  February 15, 2012
  The Merc Slam Team's Suzi Q. Smith opens strong at the Slam Nationals, Denver teams advance
  August 12, 2011
  When the going gets tough, the tough get going: SlamNuba's final faceoff commences tonight
  March 28, 2011
  Hip-Hop Covers: The Wu-Tang Clan tribute at the Walnut Room
  January 19, 2011
  10 things to do for $10 this weekend, December 17-19, 2010
  December 17, 2010
  
  More About
  
  Suzi Smith
  Theo Wilson
  Bobby Lefebre
  Arts, Entertainment, and Media
  Hip-Hop and Rap
  
  Like this Story?
  
  Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.
  
  "Suzi Q. Smith is honestly the most reliable person in the Denver poetry community," says Ken Arkind, her fellow coach for Minor Disturbance, Denver's youth poetry slam team, whose members range in age from thirteen to nineteen (see page 41). "She's 100 percent all the time."
  
  When she isn't competing or coaching, she's performing locally and teaching at the middle-school, high-school and university levels. She spends about a third of her time traveling — less than she used to, given her health. Since 2008 she's been represented by Boston Event Works; she's one of the few poets with an agent, who takes 15 percent of any appearances she books for Smith. But in order to make a profit from her travels, she does not accept contracts for less than $1,500.
  
  Because of their budgets, college lectures are the most lucrative gigs. Performing slam shows is not a great way to earn a living. Each night, she says, the best average haul is about $200, and that's if you sell all your merch.
  
  Smith has also used the city's music scene to push her poetry and persona. Lady Wu-Tang, which first performed in January2011, has become one of Smith's most frequent outlets for poetry, though the majority is not her own. The band's internal joke about Smith is a serious one. When the members talk about her, they say that "Suzi Q. Smith is a fucking woman."
  
  When Lady Wu-Tang was originally constructed, Smith doubted her assignment to the role of Method Man, the group's reluctant heartthrob and most enigmatic presence. But that all changed when she actually embraced the additional persona. "I remember right before our first show I saw Black Swan and I thought, 'That is my life right now. I'm two people at once,'" she says. "[Method Man] helps me tap into this raw, aggressive side of myself that I feel like is stamped out in most women."
  
  Over the last few months, the cover band has earned considerable attention, most notably from Wu-Tang itself. Smith and the seven other female MCs who front Lady Wu-Tang closed down Raekwon's solo set at Casselman's the day before their own anniversary show at City Hall on January 29. Strapped into a corset and a fishnet top, growling her rhymes to the crowd at the sold-out concert, Smith was all woman — and not quite a lady.
  
  The day after that raw and rowdy performance, the members of Lady Wu-Tang were personally invited by Raekwon to join him and Ghostface Killah on the stage in Aspen. "It felt like everything we had done before was just rehearsal," Smith reflects. "When it came time to step on stage with members of the Wu-Tang Clan, we had practiced enough to be ready for Raekwon to hand us the microphone and let us take over. That's how I want to be every day of my life."
  
  *****
  
  I have words. Many, many words.
  
  I have tongue and teeth and lips.
  
  I keep a hurricane in my throat.
  
  Today's poetry lesson was supposed to focus on sonic and literary devices, but only one kid showed up. For Smith, it was a briefly disheartening glimpse at the future of modern poetry, but for Manny, the sole student who didn't skip for detention or talent-show tryouts, it was a chance to practice his rap, to perfect the flow of the verse he'd just written.
  
  In it, he compared his poetry to Harry Potter's wand, and the magical implications made Smith grin as she watched Manny perform a cappella in the otherwise empty classroom. Smith had signed on for a ten-week after-school program devoted to teaching poetry to sixth- through ninth-graders at Noel Community Arts School, helping them create a finished poem and record it on video. All nine students who should have been in the class, a branch of Flobots.org's work in the cultural arts, had been nominated for the chance by their teachers.
  
  Seated in front of a whiteboard devoted to a lesson on volcanoes, Manny asked Smith if he could read his rap instead of reciting it, but he already knew what the answer would be. "Have you ever gone to a show and seen an MC spitting off a sheet of paper?" she asked. "Wouldn't you want your money back?"
  He nodded and began to spit out the rhyme; he had no need to refer to that sheet of paper. When he was finished, Smith clapped before offering advice on his pronunciation, rhythm and flow. When she asked Manny for his favorite rapper, he said it was Eminem.
  
  In their first class, Smith had asked the students to write down a line of their favorite song, then pass the paper to the person next to them. From there, they continued adding the lines, with the goal of constructing their own poetry from the results. One student chose Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True," a selection Smith earnestly hoped was a joke.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Related Content
  
  Suzi Q. Smith: Watch our cover poet perform with Lady Wu-Tang, Denver's raw and rowdy female tribute
  February 15, 2012
  The Merc Slam Team's Suzi Q. Smith opens strong at the Slam Nationals, Denver teams advance
  August 12, 2011
  When the going gets tough, the tough get going: SlamNuba's final faceoff commences tonight
  March 28, 2011
  Hip-Hop Covers: The Wu-Tang Clan tribute at the Walnut Room
  January 19, 2011
  10 things to do for $10 this weekend, December 17-19, 2010
  December 17, 2010
  
  More About
  
  Suzi Smith
  Theo Wilson
  Bobby Lefebre
  Arts, Entertainment, and Media
  Hip-Hop and Rap
  
  Like this Story?
  
  Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.
  
  "Poetry is like sheet music," she argued, telling the class that it needs to be performed to come alive. "Have you ever seen a piece of sheet music and thought, 'Man, that song is my jam?'"
  
  In her work with students, Smith tries to convince them that slam poetry is the last place where they can tell the truth about absolutely anything. She's made it her mission never to pretend to know something she doesn't, which is one of the reasons that children are drawn to her. "I love turning haters into believers," she admits. "I come from this strange area of life where I know I'm on top and I know I'm the underdog at the exact same time. I just try to get other people to admit they're in the same place."
  
  At a workshop in Laramie last year, Smith asked students to write about the one thing they wish they could undo. She still remembers the most chilling answer — and her response to hearing it. "One kid wrote, 'the gun, the bat, the pipe, Ashley,'" she recalls. "I was astounded that I had been part of his creating that."
  
  But she's also been astounded by more discouraging discoveries. At another college workshop, one of Smith's friends introduced her with an extensive speech, after which a kid raised his hand and asked, "If you've done all that, why aren't you famous?"
  
  In response, she laughed and asked him to name one famous living poet. When his silence grew, she continued, "Exactly."
  
  He couldn't even get Maya Angelou.
  
  *****
  
  When I am quiet,
  
  When the eerie silence fills the room
  
  When the air is a wool coat, wet and heavy
  
  When your body is an electrical fire
  
  When your body is geometry dismembered
  
  When everything about me is piercing and present
  
  When everything I feel is too big to fit into my mouth,
  
  When I am quiet
  
  Something big is about to happen.
  
  Smith passes through the lounge in the University of Wyoming student union, walks past a recruiting booth for the belly-dancing club, takes the stairs to a ballroom and looks over the two dozen undergraduates scattered across seven rows of mostly empty chairs for this session, part of the school's Martin Luther King Jr. Days of Dialogue series.
  
  Then she teaches them to write poetry.
  
  In order to encourage the students to write freely, Smith has allotted them one minute each for a series of ominous tasks: "Words that you most wish you could swallow back into your throat," "something you once believed to be true but don't anymore," "words that you should have said." The poems grow from this.
  
  To show them how their poetry can move from paper to performance, she begins reciting one of her own pieces, devoted to the manipulation of African-American hair. When she performs, Suzi Q. Smith is a force to be reckoned with: As her voice rises, her body seems to grow until, towering over her audience and gently shouting at it, she gets her point across. She's a tough act to follow.
  
  But her performances also sap her energy. So she stays quiet when the students sign up to perform what they've written in front of a larger crowd in the lounge; the sign-up sheet is full. This is her favorite part of the job: introducing poetry to those who might otherwise never learn it or care about it. And after the students read their poems, when she attempts to convince the gathering to start a campus poetry club, she earns a few nods.
  
  Afterward, on the slow and sleepy drive back to Denver, the three poets discuss the future of slam. The genre is frequently dismissed in academic circles as a lesser art form, and pop culture often mistakes spoken-word poetry for its competitive counterpart. Worse yet, all three in the car have been confused for rappers. The art is still evolving, Smith says, then observes, "All of that is bullshit, anyway. It's always been performed out loud, from as far back as Homer. This is the way poetry is supposed to be, but Theo, you're a national poetry-slam finalist, and you can still go outside. So can I."
  
  "Academia has co-opted it, though," Wilson interjects, "and made it seem like there was a difference."
  
  No, Smith responds: "Academia realizes that we can teach poetry in ways they have never been able to. Everyone can be a part of it and make their point, but for slam to evolve and become something more, we, as the experts, have to close the gap between the page and the stage."
  She sighs. "If you haven't noticed, slam is a soap opera."
  
  And that soap opera is about to put Denver center stage. To become the site of a national competition, a city must enter a bid as though the festival were the Olympics. In late 2009, Smith and a handful of organizers put their heads together and decided to go for a smaller, more manageable festival, the Women of the World Poetry Slam, but their bid was rejected. The next year, though, they won the right to hold the Women of the World contest in Denver in March 2012.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith takes on the role of Method Man with Lady Wu-Tang.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
  Suzi Q. Smith's twelve-year-old daughter, Kai, is her greatest inspiration.
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  For the better part of a year, Smith and her colleagues have been hunting down financial supporters and places to put the performers. Although only twelve women compete in a single bout, the festival will hold three rounds simultaneously — at Eden, the Mercury and Leela's. On March 10, the final round at the Denver Art Museum will crown the country's female slam champion.
  
  "It's a good thing I've got a lot of hair," Smith says, "because some of it definitely got pulled out."
  
  The festival is a huge project and an important one, given its recognition of female poets, but it's just a first step. For Denver, it's a chance to prove that the city is ready to host the nationals. Soon.
  
  Some in the local scene worry that Denver might not be ready to stage such a large event, that it doesn't have enough full-time poets — or a large enough audience. But Smith dismisses those concerns.
  
  "I don't think poets have weaknesses," she says. "It's just something you haven't done yet."
  

• The Merc Slam Team's Suzi Q. Smith opens strong at the Slam Nationals, Denver teams advance [+ Show ]
  

  Slam poetry is to the literary world what hip-hop music is to jazz -- a progression of talent and a ...Slam poetry is to the literary world what hip-hop music is to jazz -- a progression of talent and a revolutionary outlet. Denver is lucky to boast of two solid teams that compete nationally. Both Slam Nuba and the Denver Mercury Cafe Poetry Slam Team advanced to the semi-finals last night at the National Poetry Slam taking place in Boston and Cambridge, MA.
  
  There are officially 72 teams in the competition, and both Denver teams are in the top 20. Suzi Q. Smith, of the Mercury Cafe's team, took first place in the first bout, with her poem "Lazarus."
  
  "Winning the first bout was so exciting! It definitely felt validating, like the work we've been doing individually for years in addition to the work we've done as a team this summer was received and appreciated," Smith says, noting that the team has since advanced to the semi-finals after taking on Ft. Worth. "I went first with 'Lazarus', then we sent up two group pieces and a poem from Shane Romero about LeBron James and Oscar Grant. We took the two in our bout last night, battling it out with Fort Worth, who Slam Nuba had squeezed a victory past by a tenth of a point the night before. The great thing about it is that we are all -- Ft Worth included -- going on to semi-finals."
  
  Not only was the win exhilarating , Smith says, but the opportunity to work with such a diverse group of talent is a great reward. "The team has been a great experience for all of us, growing through the challenges and stretching past our comfort zones. Our time is one of the most diverse that I have ever seen, and none of us have ever worked together before (with the exception of myself and coach Bianca Mikahn, who have co-coached in the past)."
  
  The Mercury Cafe team consists of Megan Rickman, Trevor Byrne- Smith, Paulie Lipman, Shane Romero and Suzi Q. Smith, and is coached by both Bianca Mikahn and Ian Dougherty. The competition continues tonight for the final four.

• Poet Suzi Q in Oshkosh [+ Show ]
  

  http://reeve.uwosh.edu/reeve-connectors/blogs/poet-suzi-q-in-oshkosh Another interesting event in...http://reeve.uwosh.edu/reeve-connectors/blogs/poet-suzi-q-in-oshkosh
  
  Another interesting event in the TUG
  
  
  
  
  Poet Suzi Q made an appearance on campus Thursday night. She was very entertaining for many reasons.
  
  *One: Her poems were all memorized, and performed amazingly
  
  *Two: Her poetry had so much passion to them when she spoke them
  
  *Three: Even if you’re not into poetry you have to appreciate the messages she was bringing across in her poems
  
  *Four: She could relate to the audience
  
  And what I mean by that is that in between her poetry she could chat a bit with the audience, she even was a bit comical.
  
  At one point she invited a student with her on stage to share a Haiku she had written about the recent news story with the boy in the balloon.
  
  Suzi Q started her piece with a bit of a song she had written, then for her finale she ended her show with a tune of her own.
  
  I like to read and write poetry and I can appreciate the amount of time and work she puts into her performance. And although her audience was not huge, there was a good turnout of people who all very much appreciate poetry as well.
  

• Suzi Q. Smith [+ Show ]
  

  What's good, stranger? An expansion to last day's post! Yes, I believe that is in order, as I...
  
  What's good, stranger?
  
  An expansion to last day's post! Yes, I believe that is in order, as I really have no sort of supplementary addition to make in the comments. And anyhow the elaboration I'd like to make deserves much more than a simple comment. So here it is, I'd like to introduce you to Suzi Q. Smith.
  
  
  
  
  Suzi Q. Smith is an extremely talented American spoken word artist. Spoken word is a very particular genre of poetry. Stereotypically, when spoken word comes up, one imagines performances in dimly lit coffee shops by overbearingly artsy poets, beret on head and bongos on hand. And lots of finger-snapping. None of that business with Suzi Q. though, who has personally changed my dimly lit perspective on spoken word. With the force of her voice, her pieces are very hard-hitting and leave much to think about. I first came across her work a few years ago on ccMixter and I remember it making a very lasting impression on me, so much so that I've considered going to any spoken word performance which may present itself to me (which actually hasn't happened yet, but yeah I'm still willing). Anyhow, here is a bunch of her work which I really enjoy.
  
  
  Drove On By
  This is the first of her work which really caught my attention. There is such a sense of urgency and a sense of unwavering conviction in her delivery that helps to paint a vivid account of what I'm pretty certain is, yes, manslaughter.
  
  Heroes
  Heroes is the poem which you have, hopefully, already seen. Seen, yeah, but not heard. And the words themselves simply read do not do justice to the actual words heard because in all actuality, spoken word is a performance art which is obviously meant to be heard. So take a listen, it's an insightful commentary on the consumption of societies, almost a warning. And with such a beautiful voice, how can we not listen? (Can you feel the subtle irony in that statement?)
  
  The Gap Between My Teeth
  This one in particular makes a great showing in what I would call artistic fluency. Suzi Q. makes great use of literary device in her telling of what I see as the other side of a story. Very articulate, very eloquent.
  
  Lazarus
  Now, this one you have to hear to get the full experience. Intense, intense, intense. It is literally breathtaking, by the end I get winded. It's about fighting, actually fighting, to make a relationship, a partnership work in the face of immense pressures. A lot of powerful lines in this one. One which sticks in my mind: "Those shackles and bars are designed for whole families."
  
  
  The Weather Underground
  
  Politically-charged dissent is what describes this piece. Really provocative. And keep in mind that this is during the Bush regime.
  
  
  Kindred
  
  And I end with Kindred. As she says in the beginning of the video, this piece is uplifting. It's, I think, very simple and clear and earnest in it's message. Lots of wisdom and truth in this one. Beautiful, brilliant.
  
  

• Student creativity finds new forms during National Day on Writing [+ Show ]
  

  AURORA — Rob Hatcher opened his satchel and pulled out several notebooks, pages filled with thoughts...AURORA — Rob Hatcher opened his satchel and pulled out several notebooks, pages filled with thoughts, phrases, quotes and notes that, with time and work, would morph into verse.
  
  Some of it he will transform into the spoken-word poetry he performs at open-mic nights and poetry slams — a relatively new passion for the 41-year-old student at Community College of Aurora.
  
  "It's how I keep ideas alive," Hatcher said, leafing through the pages.
  
  Those seeds of his poetry perfectly reflect the aim of the National Day on Writing, an annual celebration created by the National Council of Teachers of English to promote written expression through a variety of platforms.
  
  On CCA's CentreTech campus Thursday, during a day-long program, students were enticed to flex their literary muscles aided by authors, poets and essayists offering inspiration to take their writing in new directions.
  
  Then they were offered immediate opportunities for creativity: Pages of impromptu writing covered a wall at the school, while students also could tweet out a digital response to a prompt — "what is the key to academic success?" — with the hashtag #CCAwrites.
  
  Nationally, the Twitter hashtags #WhatIWrite and #dayonwriting mark collections of student compositions.
  
  Although much of day-to-day contemporary writing in social media constitutes a "modern front porch" style of communication, the hope for the fourth annual event was to expand students' understanding of other available outlets for their creativity, said Susan Achziger, an English faculty member at CCA who organizes the celebration.
  
  "We want to move them from where they are (with social media) to somewhere else, so they do get excited about it," she said. "I like it when the idea grows from the bottom up."
  
  Hatcher dabbled in writing "angsty, teenage stuff" in high school, where a creative-writing course expanded his pursuit into the realm of hobby.
  
  Then, at last year's National Day on Writing event at CCA, he heard a presentation by Suzi Q. Smith, who has carved out a name in spoken-word poetry circles, and his writing veered toward slam poetry.
  
  "It wasn't quite a religious experience," said Hatcher, recalling Smith's talk. "But it was like being in church and hearing a really good sermon. It profoundly touched me."
  
  Hatcher now performs regularly at local venues and has even planned a trip to perform at an open-mic session at Harvard University. And while he enjoys performing — a class in public speaking helped him hone those skills — he still commits the best of his material to the printed page.
  
  That may seem old-school by digital standards, but Achziger figures that writing in all its forms benefits students.
  
  Read more: Student creativity finds new forms during National Day on Writing - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21805919/student-creativity-finds-new-forms-during-national-day#ixzz2A8qHTNJc
  Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: http://www.denverpost.com/termsofuse
  

• About Suzi Q. Smith
  

  wikipedia page

• Acclaimed authors and spoken word artists to celebrate National Day on Writing at CCA [+ Show ]
  

  The Community College of Aurora will celebrate the National Day on Writing on Thursday, Oct. 20, wit...The Community College of Aurora will celebrate the National Day on Writing on Thursday, Oct. 20, with a slate of events aimed at both students and the community. All events are free and open to the public and will take place in the Student Centre Rotunda on the CentreTech Campus, 16000 E. CentreTech Parkway in Aurora.
  
  National Day on Writing events at CCA are:
  
  9:30-10:45 a.m.: Wayne Gilbert, Poet: “The Spirit of Spoken Word.” An interactive workshop.
  
  11 a.m.-12:15 p.m.: Acclaimed author Carleen Brice speaks on “The Writer’s Journey: From Idea to Completion in One Million Easy Steps (Some of Which Go in Circles).” Brice is author of the novels Orange Mint and Honey, a number-one Denver Post best-seller and Essence Magazine “recommended read”—and Children of the Waters, which AOL Black Voices says “sparkles.” The Lifetime Movie “Sins of the Mother,” based on Orange Mint and Honey, won the 2011 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding TV Movie.
  
  12:30-2 p.m. Performances by Suzi Q Smith and Bobby LeFebre - back by popular demand!
  
  Suzi Q Smith is a spoken word artist who has been lighting up stages throughout the United States for more than a decade. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and literary magazines, and her name is well known on the slam and spoken word circuit. She has been featured on numerous tv and radio programs, and her poetry has been sampled and remixed all over the world, earning both high acclaim and controversy.
  
  Bobby LeFebre is a Denver-born spoken word artist, actor, and activist. Bobby LeFebre is an award-winning spoken word artist, actor, and social worker. He is a company actor with Denver's only Latino Theater, El Centro Su Teatro, and has performed in countless productions as an actor for the last 10 years. Combining his passion for education and performance, LeFebre is founder of Cafe Cultura, Denver's largest monthly open mic and artistic expression event serving the Mile High inner-city community.
  
  2-3:15 p.m. Author and poet Dan Guenther: “Writing: An Anchor to Life-long Learning and Discovery.” Novelist Guenther was a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Bronze Star with “V” for valor. His novel Glossy Black Cockatoos was the 2010 Colorado Authors' League Award selection for Genre Fiction. Prior to retiring in 2005, Guenther spent more than 30 years providing process improvement, leadership coaching, team building, and organization development to both government and industry.
  
  3:30-4:45 p.m.: Rachel Ankney: “Ekphrasis: Deriving Poetry from Art.” Interactive Workshop.

• Word up: National Poetry Slam visits the Q.C. [+ Show ]
  

  Blumenthal facilities continue to buzz with wordplay this week, as the 23rd Annual National Poetry S...Blumenthal facilities continue to buzz with wordplay this week, as the 23rd Annual National Poetry Slam winds down its preliminary bouts and kicks into semi-finals (Friday, Aug. 10) and overall finals (Saturday, Aug. 11) during the five-day competition that's brought more than 300 poets from across the U.S. and Canada.
  
  The National Poetry Slam, which started in 1990 in San Francisco, has annually hosted its competition in various cities across the U.S., making it one of the most prestigious of its kind.
  
  "In terms of teams in a poetry competition, the National Poetry Slam is the biggest. We have 74 teams this year," says Bluz, aka Boris Rogers, a host city coordinator for the event and MC/slam master of the local team SlamCharlotte.
  
  This is the first time National Poetry Slam has stopped in Charlotte, though other notable poetry slams, including the Individual Poetry Slam and Southern Fried, have visited in the past.
  
  In the competition, teams of four to five individuals perform together and sometimes on their own in front of audiences. Judges are chosen randomly to rate performers on a point scale of one to 10. Based on their scores, teams with the most points and highest ranking move on to the next level.
  
  There are no rules on form, so anything from free verse to rhymes, haiku or sonnets are game, as long as they aren't plagiarized and don't run more than three minutes and 10 seconds (if they do, teams will face point deductions).
  
  In this year's National Poetry Slam, two of the Q.C.'s own teams, SlamCharlotte and Respect da Mic, are competing. Other teams include NYC's Nuyorican Poets, Denver's Slam Nuba, Oakland's Golden State Slam, Columbus' Writing Wrongs, Honolulu's Hawaii Slam, Vancouver Poetry Slam and Toronto Poetry Slam.
  
  CL caught up with three competing slammers who shared info about their styles, inspirations and slam experiences.
  
  Suzi Q Smith, founder and slam master of Denver's Slam Nuba
  
  2011 success: The Slam Nuba team was the champion of the 2011 National Poetry Slam. Smith ranked third in the Women of the World competition. She also was a semi-finalist at the National Poetry Slam and a finalist at Southwest Shootout and the Individual World Poetry Slam.
  
  Muse/style: "I would say my work is pretty focused on social justice issues, and it's also generally very autobiographical. There are definitely a lot of themes of social justice in my work, but also in a lot of my life and the organizations I work with."
  
  Fun fact: In 2008, Smith released Picks, Pistols, and Prayers, a spoken-word album that features a track dedicated to activist Huey P. Newton. Smith also collaborated with Belgian industrial electro rockers Psy'Aviah for a song called "Moments," after the band approached her via the Internet. "The video was fairly controversial. It got banned from YouTube," says Smith. "They thought that the language was too explicit, but actually there was no cursing anywhere in it. There was no actual violence or nudity, but there were some suggestive things. It was certainly disturbing and uncomfortable." Smith is currently collaborating with the group again, though she's yet to meet the members face-to-face.

• The Mile High Makeout: Denver divas salute the Wu-Tang Clan [+ Show ]
  

  “Women are the change agents far and wide, and always have been.” Ru Johnson is fired up about he...“Women are the change agents far and wide, and always have been.”
  
  Ru Johnson is fired up about her latest project. On Jan 22, Johnson and her creative partner, Michelle Mata, will bring nine of Denver’s finest female poets, singers, spoken word performers and emcees together on the stage at the Walnut Room. The purpose: to pay tribute to one of the most influential hip-hop albums of the ’90s, “Enter the Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers).” But simply replicating the album is far from their minds.
  
  “Michelle and I want it to be about women taking a stand,” says Johnson, who also writes about hip-hop for Westword. “This is a reminder that there are women in your city who are iller than used Kleenex.”
  
  Johnson and Mata, both steeped in Colorado hip-hop, have indeed recruited some very, um, ill talent, each paired with a Wu-Tang member, based on their values, styles and artistic approaches.
  
  Soul and jazz vocalist Venus Cruz will portray Masta Killa. “The Wu have a lot of hardcore, gritty raps, but there’s a soulful element too,” Johnson explains. “She’ll be able to fill in those soulful gaps.”
  
  Though artist Xencs Little Wing performs infrequently, she maintains a strong reputation in the Denver community, which makes her ideally suited, in Johnson and Mata’s opinion, to take on the role of the RZA. “She is one of the most artistically sound individuals I’ve come across in my life,” Johnson asserts.
  
  Politically and socially, poet Suzi Q. Smith might be as far from the Wu’s Method Man as you can get. However, Johnson sees Smith as the perfect fit. “It has to be someone who is all-encompassing and confident,” she says. “Suzi Q will Langston Hughes your ass to death. There is no other person in the universe who will spit Method Man as hard as she will.”
  Isis Speaks
  
  Isis Speaks will portray Ol' Dirty Bastard.
  
  The lineup for the night will also include Isis Speaks as Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Bianca Mikahn as Raekwon, Lady Speech as Ghostface Killah, DJ Manizer as the GZA, Patience (a.k.a. DJ Bella Scratch) as Inspectah Deck and Billie Jean as U-God. Nofrendo, the sole male performer, will provide the beats.
  
  For Johnson, the idea of putting the Wu-Tang Clan’s words into the mouths of strong Denver women is about more than just having fun and celebrating hip-hop. It also put the role of women in hip-hop under the microscope.
  
  Billie Jean will portray U-God.
  
  Billie Jean will portray U-God.
  “Every woman in this show will stand on her own soapbox with her paintbrush, her poetry or book of rhymes, and she’ll face the misogyny that is not only reflected in hip-hop at a local level, but as a society,” Johnson proclaims. “This is revolutionary. It is something that is going to change how hip-hop is digested in this city.”
  
  If that sounds a little hyperbolic and a lot ambitious, you haven’t met Ru Johnson. Last year, for her 26th birthday, the political activist and writer through herself a party at the Walnut Room, with 26 local hip-hop and soul performers. Dubbed LollipaRUza 2010, that mammoth event sowed the seeds for this month’s show, as well as a series of shows that Johnson and Mata plan to produce throughout this year.
  
  “I’ve always been good at getting people to go to things,” Johnson — who sees her writing and production as part of a larger artistic, cultural and social revolution — says of herself. “I consider myself someone who understands a culture and I’m able to move within my culture and set the tone for how my culture is viewed from the outside. I do that music and through writing and through being a creative bad motherfucker. If that means we’re throwing shows, we’re throwing shows. If we’re gonna save the world, we’re gonna save the world.”
  
  Hearing Johnson’s confident words and resolute facial expression, it’s hard to doubt that she’ll play at least a supporting role in saving the world.
  
  “I’m sick of wanting to what it’s like to see things happen,” she says. “I’m just gonna do it.”

• Wu-Tang style Are Lady Wu-Tang hip-hop’s first true cover group? [+ Show ]
  

  After almost a year of bumping “Protect Ya Neck,” “Tearz,” and “Method Man,” The Wu-Tang Clan took t...After almost a year of bumping “Protect Ya Neck,” “Tearz,” and “Method Man,” The Wu-Tang Clan took the hip-hop world by the throat when they released their debut album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) on Nov. 9, 1993. Eight members deep on their debut, The RZA, The GZA, Ol Dirty Bastard, Inspectah Deck, Raekwon the Chef, U-God, Ghostface Killah and Method Man, The Wu-Tang Clan consisted of a cast of characters who all had a signature voice, style and personality that fused together to create some sort of super-group of unknown superstars.
  
  The album, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), spoke on the realities of living in New York City in the early-’90s over gritty, raw, unstructured, Kung Fu flick-inspired beats produced by The RZA. Each member rapped with a hunger, passion and charisma that mesmerized the listener, making hardcore underground hip-hop fans pick their favorite member as if it was some sort of boy band. Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) went down in history as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time.
  
  But that album was just the beginning. In the years that followed, each member would release critically acclaimed albums of their own. Method Man’s Tical, Raekwon’s Only Built for Cuban Links, Ol Dirty Bastard’s Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version and Ghostface Killah’s Ironman, among others, solidified Wu-Tang’s presence and influence on hip-hop throughout the 1990s. They inspired and spawned many affiliated groups like Sunz of Man, GP Wu, Killarmy and so many other groups and solo artists that a Wu-Tang Affiliates Wikipedia page had to be created. But none of them could capture that energy and excitement of the original Wu-Tang Clan.
  
  With most revered bands and groups comes the case of cover bands. Led Zepplin has a few. As well as Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Prince, The Time and other musical icons. Some of them are good, some of them not so good. But the purpose for the majority of these collectives is to honor the music that inspired them. In the hip-hop world, however, it’s taboo as an artist to rap lyrics that aren’t yours, so the cover groups honoring hip-hop heroes are few and far between, if there are any at all. The closest you get is karaoke at a bar or recent karaoke video games like Def Jam Rapstar. But it appears the tides are changing.
  
  Lady Wu-Tang is an all-women Wu-Tang Clan cover group consisting of Denver-based rappers, poets, DJs and performance artists, giving tribute to one of the greatest hip-hop groups of all time. Ru Johnson, a Denver-based journalist who covers the Colorado hip-hop scene, came up with the idea for the project while on a trip to Chicago last year.
  
  “'Bring Da Ruckus’ scrolled through my iPod while I was walking through the city. I was like this is dope, there really hasn’t been a huge posse that has sustained for years like Wu-Tang,” Johnson says. “So then I started thinking about what would happen if the real Wu-Tang were all women in the first place? Like, would they be able to do some of the outrageous things that make them such an epic group in hip-hop history? Then I was like, I know a bunch of girls who rap and who are performance artists, so what if we did that? What if we actually created an all-female Wu-Tang Clan and did the 36 Chambers album as a cover show?”
  
  Johnson flew back to Denver, connected with her business partner Michelle Mata, and started contacting women within the local music and arts scene. She ended up putting together a mix of well-known women who have been putting in work on the Denver arts scene for years: Bianca Mikahn (Raekwon the Chef), Suzi Q. Smith (Method Man), DJ Manizer (GZA), DJ Bella Scratch (Inspectah Deck), Isis Speaks (Ol' Dirty Bastard), LadySpeech (Ghostface Killah), Xencs L. Wing (RZA) and Ralonda Simmons (U-God and other vocals).
  
  “The good thing is that they are these amazing poets and artists in the city, but we have access to them individually. I know a lot of the girls personally,” Johnson says about casting the group. “We tried to take who they are as people and put that right into their character.”
  
  The idea was just to do a one-time tribute show honoring the Wu-Tang Clan at Denver’s Walnut Room last January. But the response was more than overwhelming. The show was sold out and the doors had to be closed, preventing even some of the group’s family members from seeing the show, according to Johnson.
  
  “It was exciting, it was validating,” says LadySpeech, a poet who hosts a bi-weekly poetry night at the Gypsy House in Denver. “Knowing that we sold out the show was dope and real vindicating, it was real satisfactory. And my people don’t know I have a lot of different hats that I wear and it was really good to like show and prove, like ‘I can do this too, muthafuckas! I can rap too, bitches!’ So doing that show was dope. It created such a fire up under me and I fell back in love with Wu-Tang.”
  
  “It was amazing, it was absolutely amazing,” adds Suzi Q., an awarding-winning and world-renowned poet. “As a poet, I’ve performed for some really large crowds before; I think the largest is around 30,000 people. But a poetry audience doesn’t respond the way hip-hop audiences do. And having that many people excited about hip-hop in Denver was really great, having that many people excited about Wu-Tang is really great, and having people supporting women in that way was really exciting. Then engaging with the crowd and having people rush the stage, touching people’s hands, that sort of real audience interaction and it felt like it was this big collective experience, and sometimes I miss that with poetry, because your audience is snapping at you or whatever. You get the occasional “Uh, mmmm … spit!” but it’s not the same rushing out your seats to the stage kind of experience.”
  
  But being in a cover group isn’t as easy as some may think. It’s more than just memorizing lyrics and songs. It’s an immersion. There’s an attitude and a way that each member of the Wu-Tang Clan carries themselves. So for most of the women, the group was a call to let go of some of their own inhibitions.
  
  “I had to learn to be less reserved,” says Isis, also a poet and lead vocalist for the funk groove band Ten Pound Elephant. “In poetry, everybody knows me as Isis, she’s so professional and now I get to completely show my other side, which is I like to cut up! I like to act a damn fool. I’m fun, I’m funny, I’m not always so stuffy and it actually taught me in my own work as well to just relax and have fun. As long as you got the words and music there, all you need to do there is act a damn fool. And that’s what I did. I got a gold grill for the show, I tricked out a little bit of my wardrobe choices and wore some things that were a little bit more risqué than what I would have normally worn, just because it helps me channel my ‘I don’t give a fuck’ side.”
  
  With the success of the Walnut Room show, it was obvious that Lady Wu-Tang had to continue. They’ve only done a few shows since January’s Walnut Room show, but they continue to immerse themselves into Wu-Tang lore. And within that lore, the women, who for the most part take pride in their womanhood, found the need to accept the male chauvinism within the Wu-Tang Clan’s music.
  
  “For me personally and what I’ve seen other girls do with their process is tapping into that aggressive nature and that rage that lives in us too,” LadySpeech says. “It’s an awesome opportunity to flush out anger, aggressive and be all over the place and to exercise that part of ourselves. I think it’s a real ridiculous and cool political statement to make. There’s a lot of guys who didn’t realize how chauvinistic and how some of their shit is real fucked up towards women, until they saw women doing it. I like being able to be aggressive on stage with a reason and not being looked at like, ‘She’s a bitch’ or any other derogatory term used when women choose to break off in their power. Having this vehicle gives us a reason and gives everybody else a reason to watch us and stay with us. It always makes me question a lot of my own politics around my femininity and around my womanist ideals and some of the beliefs I’ve held to and why I believe in them and what it means to be a woman in hip-hop.”
  
  “I don’t think their lyrics are super-misogynistic,” Suzi Q. adds. “I think it’s all tongue-in-cheek, like ‘Ice Cream.’ We do that song and I have a great time with it. It’s not something I would generally say in my own everyday life but I understand. So I don’t take myself that seriously. I think hip-hop has to represent the grand scale of everything that we are. I think we are light and we are shadow, we’re all of it, so it’s balancing that for me. So I think it’s a representation of truth, if it’s sometimes accurate like everything is sometimes, then I’m good with it. I don’t think it’s super disrespectful to all women, I think it’s something that’s humorous and I have a sense of humor.”
  
  “Honestly, I just think the fact that we’re doing it is basically turning the chauvinism on its head,” Isis continues. “We have so much fun with ‘Ice Cream,’ like ‘I love you like I love my dick size,’ we all revel in saying those lines. I’m very much pro-woman and anti-patriarchy, I mean, my name is Isis, that is very much who I am, but I take with me the fact that chauvinism comes from the greatness and power of women. So if we weren’t amazing, if women weren’t magical and wonderful and the shit, there would be no place for chauvinism. There would be no place for patriarchy; there would be no place for the oppression of us. So naturally we use that as a celebration of who we are as women and we have fun with it.”
  
  Wu-Tang members Raekwon and Method Man have caught wind of Lady Wu-Tang, and even saw some video of their shows, and have appeared to approve of the act. Even so far as much as some talk for some sort of collaboration with some of the Wu-Tang Clan. Whether it’s a show, video or recording is an unknown, but for the women, they’re enjoying the ride so far.
  
  “I have no idea how far it’s gonna go but I’m down to ride it to the wheels fall off,” LadySpeech says. “It’s turned into something that’s pretty incredible. I really like what it’s done to some of the women in the community and how it has empowered a lot of them in different capacities.”
  
  “You know, the sky’s the limit and beyond that,” Suzi Q. adds. “We don’t really know [how far it’ll go], but we’ll go where the opportunities take us.”

• Enter Lady Wu-Tang [+ Show ]
  

  Yo'Cheese? 2012 Super Bowl Recipes? Altamont: New Collection? Actually Affordable Custom Jeans fr...Yo'Cheese?
  2012 Super Bowl Recipes?
  Altamont: New Collection?
  Actually Affordable Custom Jeans from INDi?
  Enter Lady Wu-Tang
  They ain't nuthing ta f' wit, either
  Email
  Did it Add to My Thrillist
  
  Ready to lady-rip the stage at their first anniversary show later this month, the eight Denver women behind the world's only all-female Wu-Tang cover group sat down with us to voice their opinions about on-stage nudity, and some other stuff we can't remember due to their mention of on-stage nudity.
  
  Thrillist: Which tracks can we expect to hear at the anniversary show?
  Suzi Q. Smith/Method Man: You can expect to hear classic Wu-Tang cuts from 36 Chambers and definitely some newer songs too. It's a very full show, and a wildly entertaining set full of shenanigans and surprises.
  
  Thrillist: Why Wu-Tang? Did you consider other groups before settling on them?
  Isis Speaks/Ol' Dirty Bastard: Because De La Soul was the obvious choice, but we all felt like we could easily beat the hell out of a Plug.
  
  Thrillist: Which of you most identify with ODB? Why?
  Isis Speaks/Ol' Dirty Bastard: I have really come to understand him as a mercurial genius with no filter. I like to perform as Dirt because it allows me to exist without the filter that keeps the rational individual out of jail. On stage I can let all that reserve go flying out the window and act a damn fool!
  
  Thrillist: Have you ever bombed atomically...on stage?
  LadySpeech Sankofa/Ghostface Killa: Every damn time! Every f**ing time I step on stage!
  
  Thrillist: What's the craziest thing that happened at your last live show?
  LadySpeech Sankofa/Ghostface Killa: I rocked out with my bra-covered breasts out for most of the show and didn't know 'til the end. Boobs happen. I'm very passionate on stage.
  Isis Speaks/Ol' Dirty Bastard: Being propositioned as to whether or not we "accept" male groupies was pretty ill.
  
  Thrillist: Where the hell is Cappadonna? He's way better than U-God, and you just basically had to get a chick named Donna.
  Isis Speaks/Ol' Dirty Bastard: The first show was intended to showcase 36 Chambers and Cappadonna didn't actually join the Wu until around 1996. And when was the last time you met a dope chick named Donna? Tell her to get at management.
  
  Read more: http://thrillist.com//music/denver/co/80203/capitol-hill/enter-lady-wu-tang-_live-music#ixzz1lMPIBPK3
  

• Walk Softly (and carry an a.k.) [+ Show ]
  

  Reviewed by Cherie Burbach for Reader Views [ No Rating ] 24 Mar 2006 by Cherie Burbach (3/06)...Reviewed by Cherie Burbach for Reader Views [ No Rating ] 24 Mar 2006
  by Cherie Burbach
  
  (3/06)“Walk Softly (and carry an ak)” is a slim volume of free-verse poetry from poet Suzi Q.Smith. Smith has been writing poetry and performing spoken word for over a decade.“Walk Softly” is her first published collection – with 42 poems ranging in theme from family life to independence to love. All the poems are told from a tough underlying feminine spirit.
  
  Early on in the book is “Prowl,” a raw poem about filling loneliness with casual sex:
  “my hollow eyes are sleeping, starved to numb
  I’m out of tears for drunken Casanovas,
  even still, sometimes
  it’s so hard to be alone.”
  
  Perhaps one of the most brilliant poems in this collection is “Sushi,” which conjures upemotions that are pure and strong:
  
  “And you think I can’t tell the difference
  between a Mother and a child
  so you pop out another baby to show me
  you’re a teapot still brewing brewing”
  
  The poem “relapse” speaks of loving a man whose ex-girlfriend is somewhere still in the
  picture, standing by, saying just enough to taunt. This is written so well that I can almost
  hear this work being performed as I read the words silently.
  
  The poem “Girl Stress” is a short, smart poem with intense energy. The reader will immediately get wrapped up in this one, bouncing our legs and snapping our fingers tothe nervous energy projected:
  
  “wrapping thoughts of joy round my finger like bubblegum
  snap
  pop
  back into my mouth
  where I don’t have to share it”
  
  “Deserted” is a well put-together ditty on independence and the refusal to be intimidated,and I especially enjoyed “Marionette Man.” This poem has a great rhythm to it, and the “puppet on a string” analogy is very strong. I also thought “Fly For Me” showed an interesting twist on female dominance.
  
  The strongest poem in the book is “Jump Back, Honey, Jump Back.” I found myself re-reading this one several times over, its imagery so strong it will able to pull feelings from even the furthest away place in readers memories. “Jump Back, Honey, Jump Back” speaks of knowing who you are, knowing where you came from, and knowing where you belong. It’s like that moment we sometimes face when we’re growing up and want to escape our small towns and mediocre surroundings, so we struggle for years and years trying to “make it” – only to come back for a visit, and feel that indescribable quality thatsays “you are home and this is where you belong.”
  
  One complaint I had about the book was the impossibly small font size. I’m not sure ifthis was done as a subliminal way to get readers to pay closer attention to the words, or just done while trying to size the book. Several poems experiment with word placement,such as extra spacing, bolding, and underlining. In the poem “Water,” words are placedin the shape of a drop of water. This kind of play feels gimmicky to me and takes away from the other poems in this collection which have such strong merit.
  
  All in all, the majority of these works are fresh, raw, and original. I look forward to a follow-up fromthis modern poet.
  

• 100-plus jam coffeehouse to support the 'Jena Six' [+ Show ]
  

  100-plus jam coffeehouse to support the 'Jena Six' By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News Septembe...100-plus jam coffeehouse to support the 'Jena Six'
  
  By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News
  September 21, 2007
  Poetry was mixed with calls for action Thursday night as Denver black artists came together to denounce racism.
  
  "We know this place - it's ever changing and forever the same.
  
  "What a feast for the beast at the table of shame.
  
  "We know this place," Sirat Al Salim told a packed crowd at a Denver coffeehouse.
  
  Salim joined jazz singer Rene Marie, recording engineer Jesse Johnson, costume designer Linda Morken and filmmaker donnie betts, who does not capitalize his name, in organizing a speak-out and rally in support of the six black students in Louisiana known as the Jena Six.
  
  "We are praying for the Jena Six, that justice will come to not only all of Louisiana but all of this land," said Jeff Fard, known as "Brother Jeff," who moderated the event.
  
  More than 100 people packed Blackberries coffeehouse in Five Points, overflowing into rows of chairs outside. The attendance surprised organizers.
  
  "We were hoping that five people would show up," said betts, as he passed around a plastic bucket for donations to the Jena 6 Defense Committee. A total of $1,812.25 was collected.
  
  Fard was delighted. "There is so much community in this place," he said.
  
  Many in the crowd said they felt compelled to attend.
  
  "If we don't speak out, no one else will," said Suzi Q. Smith, 28, of Denver, who did an impassioned reading of one of her poems.
  
  Tom Socotch, 20, of Portland, Ore., was holding a sign that read: "Regis students support the Jena 6." "It's important that we speak out against injustice," he said.
  

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