Drum Rider

Among the many mind-blowing experiences I had in Zanzibar was seeing Bi Kidude perform. She blew me away. I was jotting notes as I watched her, in the garden at Zanzibar's Palace Museum. That evening, and the next morning, I walked through Stone Town, her power and energy beating through my body, fusing themselves into a poem. I read that poem, Drum Rider, at my next two performances. It caught peoples' imagination, even those who hadn't yet experienced Bi Kidude live.

This morning, I had a conversation with the London-based producer of As Old As My Tongue, a forthcoming documentary on Bi Kidude's life and work. He wants to incorporate the poem into the film. In the next two weeks, I'll do a studio recording to send to him. It's the first time a poem of mine has gone directly to audio and screen, completely circumventing the page. But totally appropriate to the tradition of Bi Kidude's work.