Part one of Marc Joseph’s story is here.
As you listen to the 1998(!) words and read the transcript of my former colleague Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s, startling performance notice how the resonance of tone, time, and rhyme syncs up with “the times” we’re presently living in. Qualities that mark great art, writing, music and theatre.
Speaking of theatre…quite a show out of Washington these days huh? Someone playing the part of a mad ruler walking down the hallway ranting and raving about (and I’m paraphrasing here..) “I can take what I want…”
The new generation of Youth Poetry, written on the page and performed on the stage, came online during the 911/Bush/Iraq/ era. Marc ‘Bamuthi’ Joseph, the Spoken Word artist and Griot of the first order, was in the front rank of new artists demonstrating new modalities with which to speak truth to congealed power.
As a vehicle for storytelling, poetry with all its contemporary incarnations, has always been a powerful medium for remembering, for capturing the essence of the times. Sonically existing as a powerful extension to written language.
Contemporary versions of poetry carry their own combinations of the profane and the profound. New modalities of wordplay embrace both new and old musical styles. Of course the Beat poets got there first, but every subsequent generation has added new pungent flavors.
I wrote here a few weeks ago about Bamuthi and his giant presence as a Morehouse-trained artist, teacher and producer who brought the light of learning to thousands of students across the United States.
I’m introducing you dear readers/listeners to a short-but-powerful example of the vision and talent that eventually led Marc to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as a program director.
You’ve read about him now please take 4 minutes to hear a performance as timely now as it was when we first worked together in Northern Ca. at the dawn of the dotcom era.
I present to you Marc Bamuthi Joseph…..
Just in case you can’t find it, the transcript is located under the “Open settings” tab on the audio player above. Art like this exists to be read and listened to. Enjoy
Words by Marc Bamuthi Joseph - 1998 Live Performance Ross, Ca.
Sound Design 2025 “Staring into the Abyss” - Dartanyan
============================================================================
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative
Below is a list of the members of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please support their work by sharing and subscribing. Paid subscribers are invited to attend real-time events and occasional Zoom calls among our writers. Your support keeps this reader-only supported service going.
My Integrated Life Begins Here; Episode One
IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE
The Roster of Writers
Nicole Baart: This Stays Here, Sioux Center
Ray Young Bear: From Red Earth Drive, Meskwaki Settlement
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Tory Brecht: Brecht’s Beat, Quad Cities
Dartanyan Brown, My Integrated Life, Des Moines
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Jane Burns: The Crossover, Des Moines
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup
Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Daniel Finney, Paragraph Stacker, Des Moines
Arnold Garson: Second Thoughts, Okoboji and Sioux Falls
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny
Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilia
Iowa Capital Dispatch, an alliance with IWC
Dana James: Black Iowa News, Iowa
Chris Jones, Chris’s Substack, Iowa City
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Letters from Iowans, Iowa
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Calhoun County
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities
Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Vicki Minor, Relatively Minor, Winterset
Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids
Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines
Steve Semken, The Pulse of a Heartland Publisher, North Liberty
Macey Shofroth: The Midwest Creative, Norwalk
Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Jason Walsmith, The Racontourist, Earlham
Kali White VanBaale, 988: Mental Healthcare in Iowa, Bondurant
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is also proud to ally with Iowa Capital Dispatch.
