PUTTING a captivating edge to a chilling tale of the life and suicidal end of an abused young girl, 19-year-old Eden Corbin undoubtedly deserved the first place win he took last Friday at the National Hip Hop and Poetry Night at the 704 Sky Lounge for his poem, “Swing”.

It was yet another year of the poets outdoing the hip hop artistes, but it wasn’t hard to see why. Save for one or two exceptions, many of the hip hop artistes really weren’t offering much, while the poets put out some emotion-laced performances that had the crowd soaking up their every word.

Second place and the $90,000 prize that came with it went to Hanani Benlewi for his piece, “Wmuhle Ukwini”, which spoke to young black women becoming more accepting of themselves, and the effect of social influences.
And as clichéd as the theme may sound, Benlewi didn’t do a half-bad job, embellishing his verses with Zulu terms that were just mysterious enough to keep listeners interested, but not too overdone as to confuse and take away from the poem’s impact.
Truly touching many in the audience, it evoked a shower of applause at the end of his almost five-minute performance.
A similar theme ran through the piece “Race, Poverty, and Freedom” by Lady Pearl, real name Pearlita Richardson, the 20-year-old teacher who copped the $60,000 third-place prize.
Nothing for the night, however, was as impactful as Corbin’s performance, as the sweating UWI student passionately narrated the physical and sexual abuse of a nameless, faceless girl.
Swaying on a swing, on her first journey to a playground, the back-and-forth motion of the swing emblematic of other back-and-forth motions in several abusive events in her life.

NOTHING BUT EMPATHY

“Maybe it was the way her father’s hands would go back and forth to her mother’s red rosy cheeks, giving her that red rosy scar that would cut deep…
“And then she would scream, ‘Daddy no! Daddy no! Leave mommy alone!’ grabbing on to his legs. And he would kick her back and forth,” recited Eden, formidably, his well-timed pauses and oscillating tone pertinently setting just the right delivery, enveloping the audience in nothing but empathy for this applicable young lady.
“And she held on to the chains and gripped it the way she would grip the bed when ‘uncle’ comes over. And ‘uncle’ would come and squeeze and massage her shoulder.
“And he would grab her legs and squeeze her thighs and then ‘uncle’ would go inside… And she would cry on the inside, praying for him to stop… As ‘uncle’ would go back-and-forth, back-and-forth.”

The almost seven-minute rant that seemed almost too strenuous to deliver, came to its goosebumps-inducing close as the backing-and-forthing went from being chains of a swing to a length of rope around her neck.
“And she takes a rope, which is her last hope, and she ties the rope at the top of the roof… And she goes back and forth until there is no more her anymore…”
The performance, and $150,000 win, came as no surprise to many who had heard Corbin perform before. Some even remember him taking second place in the competition last year, when it was won by Clinton Duncan.
Of course, the night wasn’t just about the winners, as there were quite a few other honourable mentions in between the mix. But then there were also other performances you couldn’t wait to forget.
One performance you just had to remember, though, was “Over You” by 17-year-old “Nicki”, real name Nicarla Anderson, which was actually the first vibrant performance of the night despite being the fifth act.

A SLOW START
The night had gotten off to an unreactive start, and by the third act, many in the audience had begun envisioning death by boredom, and maybe even heat, despite the open-air venue. My God! That place was hot! But it had a lot to do with the encouraging amount of persons who turned out to support the event.
Anyway, just as persons were beginning to wonder why they came, Nicki landed on stage and shouted everyone awake with her energetic enactment. The poet, Mark Luke-Edwards also gave a moving performance that really made you listen, even if you didn’t want to.
Performer “Black Sky” was another memorable one, though not so much for his act as much as for how his strikingly contrasting all-white outfit and dark complexion left a lasting impression (and not in a bad way). The boy got style!
His poem, “My Hometown” ran on a theme of Patriotism, and also went down well with the audience. And there was Kareem Lewis, stage name “Kush”, who was getting a lot of love from the crowd for his performance of “Kingdom of Kush’, which was somewhat of a cross between poetry and rap.

However, for the most part the rappers were painfully disappointing, as at times you just couldn’t tell if it was a case of their not being able to sing properly, or if the rhymes they were spitting just weren’t working for them.
All the same, it was definitely a night that was well worth it, and we can’t wait to see what goes down when the competition returns next year.