Shauntay Grant, Reed "iZrEAL" Jones AKA The Street Preacher, Tesia Rolle, Amanda "Joi N. Payne" Carvery, and Ardath Whynacht
Influences
Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Erica Jong, Walt Whitman, Jack Kerouac, Saul Williams, Ursula Rucker, Sarah Jones, MosDef, All of the fabulous, talented Canadian poets we have had the blessing of watching perform in the past few years. Special thanks to Dwayne Morgan, SPIN, D'bi Young, Karen Richardson, Brendan McLeod and all of the other fantastic poets who have featured at Speak! over the past few years. We embrace your work and hope to hear more.
Sounds Like
... Nothin' you ever heard.
Book us for a show to find out. Or come to:
Record Label
unsigned
Type of Label
None
Word Iz Bond Spoken Word Artist's Collective's Latest Blog Entry
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Official Halifax SLAM team competitions June 18 & 19 at Ginger’s Taven 9pm!!!!!
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SPEAK! April 17th feat Shogun from Montreal!!!
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Thursday March 20th... It’s our Anniversary!!!!
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About Word Iz Bond Spoken Word Artist's Collective
Word Iz Bond was formed with the support of the Black Students Advising Centre of Dalhousie University and has since grown to include many different poets and has performed collectively and as individuals in many different venues. WIB is a group of individual spoken word artists, dedicated to promoting the art in Nova Scotia and beyond.
This year, Word Iz Bond is launching the biggest-ever Speak! Series with support of the Canada Council, so stay tuned for announcements about all the fabulous poets we'll be bringin' in throughout the year.
The WIB Youth Speak! Series will be happening again this year at the North Branch Library.
And in 2007, the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word will be taking place in Halifax. If anyone has ideas or input, please contact us with your thoughts on the event. We will be looking for volunteers to billet poets, work the door and sell merchandise.
Hey, thanks for the add, guys. You're really great, I need to get in contact with you. I would love to work with you. I'm a poet looking to get out there. I graduate this year and I want to make a career for myself with my writing and spoken word.
The Art Farm would like to personally thank you for your support! Please help us spread the word about the work that we are doing. There are many young artists who need inspiration, support and instruction and just can not afford it. your support, even just in thought is a great help. Blessings to you and yours and may your life be full of light!
thanks so much y'all for sneaking me in @ the end of the open mic tonight - i was thrill'd by the magical world of timing and travels to find that i land'd mere hours before your show. it was nice to see how halifax throws down, and i'm excited to be back for cfsw in october...
World Iz Bond Spoken Word Artist's Collective thanks for the add, and please don't forget to check out my new book, Shades of Blue, poetry that transforms...
THANKS FOR THE ADD.:) I THINK YOUR YOUR AWESOME ~ I WILL SHARE SOME TIME, IM JUST NOT FEELING REAL WELL AT THE PRESENT TIME, HAVE THE FLU BUG AND ITS TIME FOR SOMEMORE OF THAT NIQUIL - GOOD STUFF.:) THANKS AGAIN FOR THE ADD...
Question: where have you been?
Answer: THERE
Where? There
But for a long, time I was just there
Ashamed and, sorry
I ran the first mile or two
just to get hell out of there
To anywhere but that state line
I mean that state of mind has some distance to it
and its up hill both ways
So for a longtime I was just there
Searching black faces for answers wondering what was up with my black people
endeavoring to separate fiction from fact
I would ask what’s up Black.
That question became my everyday greeting
Especially if I met someone of the Negro persuasions
Without thinking I would find myself even saying it to friends of mine that was Caucasian
I would be getting back replies,
Yoyo Ed what s wrong with you; man
But It was such a part of me,
like a slang Part of my vocabulary,
But I give my man a pound and be like true dat you white
Just don’t ever think that you so comfortable with me
That you could ever call me nigger
Cause that shit wouldn’t alright
It upsets me even more when people that look like me do it
but that’s just another cultural African North American language Pandora?
and Right now I don’t have the time to really get into it
But making the choice to say, what’s up Black?, Instead of what’s up Nigga ?
was just a part of me
Part of the journey, Yuh know me paying homage to my African Ancestry
But some how, one morning when I said it to this brother
You would have sworn I cuss him out and said something about his mother
He asked if I was questioning his blackness? I quickly replied NO
Thinking to myself that his response should have just been a head nod
And him be on his our merry way
Me being me, my second reply was
“My brother if I was to question your blackness; would you have any thing intelligent to say?
Those might seem like are fighting words; it’s true
But yuh sees I don’t ask questions? I don’t answers to
At that point he looked at me and just shake his head and walked away
But to question his blackness would mean that I had the answers to my own
come to think about it but some of us been questioning ourselves all are lives
the question is where did you get your blackness from?
I know it sounds kina dumb
Your understanding of what you thought it was
Mine revolved around the characters I saw on TV
Cause growing up in Canada, it didn’t that many folks around that look like me
I was Dyno- mite JJ from Good times, and that what you talking about Willis?
Kid from Different stokes
at my tender age of seven, I supposedly looked like Gary Coleman
so my dimpled cheeks always got pinched by those non-colored folks
Who remembers the Jackson five on TV singing dancing machine? Dancing, dancing, dancing , And before Michael did the moonwalk he did the robot?
for a lot of black children, he was their first black hero; hell he was mine.
He was the embodiment of being black and guess one day he forgot
Or did he or was he like every other little black Boy and girl sitting in front of the man in the mirror
asking: "Mirror… Mirror on the Wall can I be the fairest of them all?"
Cause in my black skin life doesn't seem fair or right,
"Mirror ...Mirror on the Wall, can I be the fairest, hell can I be Snow White? This may sound like a brothers Grimm fairy tale; For a lot of black folks it real
but many of have had and still have that mentality
but our pocket books has holes and would Never-land us that reality
its our skin color getting jacked son physically
I have heard it said that ? Is beautiful?>But believed that my mirror was lying to me
All the tanning pills in the world couldn't make John Howard griffin like me A bed of roses hasn’t been the path of my journey
But if it has, my feet bare witness of their thorns to the jury
But scratching my surface only gets you my DNA under your nails
My DNA is dat Negro attitude
Ralph Ellison wrote clues, that spoke of my tails
in this world, I’m a visible minority that’s not seen,
I’m just passing through
And I still have a mile or two to get where I really want to be
Expressing my black self Uncompromising and, unapologetic without fear
But for a long, time I was just there
Where? There
But it took me a long, long, time just to get…. HERE
Yo Word Iz Bond ... I love it! Get out there and on the freakin' internet! I would love to come out there and see your show so if you have some spare change to break off let me know cuz I'd be down ... anyway, keep in touch on festival stuff and hopefully we'll see y'all soon!
