by John Sealy
Twenty-eight-year-old spoken word poet Mark Yearwood emerged standing tall when the curtain came down on the second annual PoeTree Barbados Bus Ah Rhyme competition held at the Bean N Bagel 2.0, Rockley, Christ Church recently.
Yearwood was among ten artistes challenged to perform a piece under the theme Folklore, in three minutes as celebrated throughout Barbados or the Caribbean: steel donkey, heartman, Bacoo etc.
The criteria were originality, use of voice, narrative development, use of language and crowd response. Each carried 20 points.
However, it was Yearwood’s night. He won a $500 cash prize and a trophy with a score of 90 points.
Timon Howard and defending champion Malachi Hope tied for second place with 77 points. Next was Ebonee Carter with 76.33 points.
“Hard ears yuh won’t hear,” Yearwood warned the large crowd in his opening salvo.
They responded with a lament: “Ownway yuh does feel.”
This was the start of word mastery by Yearwood. In the three minutes allotted he reincarnated the profile of the notorious Heartman. The mere mention of the name which caused the fainthearted and even the self-proclaimed fearless to take flight in past times.
Yearwood teased: “You are looking at the person that coined that phrase.
“Well I emerged from the plantation time. In my prime my name was used to keep disobedient children in line. If you stayed out too late your heart was mine… I own the ghostly horse head and the steel donkey…
“If Freddy Krueger came to Barbados he would have nightmares with me…when I left my bed untidy it became the Chase vault mystery…I am not afraid of the dark, the dark is afraid of me.”
There was a crescendo of applause with each performative expression for Yearwood who was tightly dressed in all black and sporting a red tie.
“I am the infamous Heartman the horror story passed down from our ancestry warning us that danger can sometimes dress respectably; perhaps you’ve heard me; but what you haven’t heard is that “I do poetry,” he noted with a sinister chuckle adding “that’s why I steal the hearts of so many”.
Yearwood, a church person, credited his “God-sent friends” for encouraging him and said he had done a lot of research.
He praised PoeTree Barbados team of founder La Shawna Griffith and co-chair Akeem Chandler-Prescod for staging the production and said he was a fan of fellow poet Chandler-Prescod, who is also known as StonedwithCupid.
Co-chair Griffith said the projects create opportunities for the poets to grow and shine.
Overall it was a credit to the actors for bringing to life early 20th century old folklore in Bus Ah Rhyme.
Some fragments of 20th century folklore might still be lurking in the gaps and alleys of their abodes but hardly part of their fully lived experiences given their young ages. This made it critical for them to connect – through research – with the audience via voice and stage even allowing themselves to be vulnerable emotionally.
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