Here’s yesterday’s seventeen syllables/haiku:
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For the Strong Sistahs
© by Emily P. Lawsin
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love and shout-outs to
all the sistahfriends who build
February 28, 2012
Detroit
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February 29, 2012
February 14, 2012
LOVE POEM: Powerful Scent of Sampaguita
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Over the years, I have written several poems about the Philippine national flower, the Sampaguita, which is a hardy type of Jasmine/Pikake that I love to watch grow. Here is one poem that I wrote in 2004. Happy Valentine’s Day!
The Powerful Scent of Sampaguita
© by Emily P. Lawsin
These petals bloom poems only for you:
They carry the scent of my Lola
Who smuggled their seeds in her suitcase
Four generations ago,
Surviving the waves of the Pacific,
Packing only what she could carry.
Ignoring the weeping Washington winters,
She planted the sampaguita inside the belly of her hearth
For anak ng bayan — us, children of the land —
With high stakes, but no borders:
Only deep, brown roots of love.
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You can choose to desert, out of fear,
Her fragile flowers flickering on the fireplace,
Leaving her, lying dry and dormant in the dark.
You can break her branches until they bleed white,
Kiss the buds of neighboring thorn bushes,
Snip her dead vines that cascade like a bouquet of tears,
Yet sing a spray of songs through summer,
And her heart shaped leaves of fragrance,
Anchored by one leg of bamboo or flying free,
Will still dance, grow, and blossom
Ten times stronger than ever before.
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Friday, August 6, 2004
Detroit
February 12, 2012
Why I Couldn’t Watch it Twice: Nicki Minaj’s Grammy Performance and the Effect of Superstition
Getty Images / Billboard.com
Why I Couldn’t Watch it Twice: Nicki Minaj’s Grammy Performance & the Effect of Superstition
by Emily P. Lawsin
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Like everyone else who came of age on Whitney Houston songs, I watched the Grammys tonight to see Jennifer Hudson belt out an “I Will Always Love You” tribute to Whitney, barely 24-hours after the Pop Diva’s sudden death. Hudson did a fabulous rendition, which in the close-ups, you could tell was extremely emotional for her to do. That was to be expected; what was not expected (despite the announcer’s annoying “stick around” warning before each commercial break) was Nicki Minaj’s performance of her new single “Roman Holiday”. It was the most theatrical, mind-blowing Grammy performance I have ever seen: complete with her levitating amidst the backdrop of stained glass windows, and a video of an exorcism with an actor dressed as a priest (who was also Minaj’s date for the evening, dressed earlier as the Pope). Did I mention the flames and the smoke on stage?
My jaw dropped at the whole spectacle, which even had a dramatic black-out where the whole stage went briefly dark. At first I thought maybe the producers had pulled the plug on the whole show, but realized that maybe this was actually her “moment of silence” so Minaj could climb up to a higher riser. Afterwards, viewers (including me) lamented about how confused they were by it all.
Now if I was a “pure” cultural studies theorist (rather than a public historian/Pinay poet), then I might be inclined to pore over, rewind, and dissect the hell (pun intended) out of Minaj’s performance. However, I am more “Puro-Pinay” – a Filipina American – who was raised with so many superstitious beliefs beat into me from my Pinoy family and my best friend’s Creole family that I was frankly, a bit scared to even sit through the live TV broadcast. And I do mean scared.
The kind of hide-behind-the-pillow scared. The kind of “I’m-going-to-stay-up-all-night-and-work-or-write-about-this-so-I-don’t-have-nightmares” scared. The kind of “what-the-hell-was-she-thinking-she-got-hella-nerve” scared. The “Oh-no-she-didn’t-just-start-speaking-in-tongues” scared. The “oh-yes-she-did-scared-of-you” scared. Snap, snap!
See, I kind of understand where Nicki Minaj was coming from here, as her Indian and Afro-Trinidadian parents hail from a colonized island nation (Trinidad), like mine hailed from the colonized nation of the Philippines. It is this familial understanding of the legacy of centuries of empire, Catholicism, and Spanish colonialism that make me want to see Minaj’s performance as a critique of the church’s efforts to exorcise all demons. The title of the mini-movie shown, “Exorcising Roman”, refers to Minaj’s alter-ego Roman Zolanski (not to be confused with the infamous filmmaker Roman Polanski, director of horror films like Rosemary’s Baby and psycho-mysteries like Chinatown). The minute the word “EXORCISING” came on the screen: that’s when my superstitious instincts should’ve known something crazy was about to go down.
Yes, I know that sociologists argue that superstitions function in society to control behaviors. However, that does not easily erase them from one’s brain. I should have known something was up when Minaj strolled up the red carpet in a stunning red Versace robe-like gown looking like a cross between a devilish nun and a possessed Little Red Riding Hood. My Filipino elders always told me to wear red at night to ward off ghosts and evil spirits (or bangungot), especially after someone in the family has just died. So when the Roman character was zapped into the corner of the ceiling during the mini-movie, I almost screamed. Same for when the priest’s beady eyes looked like the reflections of the devil’s flames. Yeah, I know it’s all special effects, but damn, Nicki, why did you have to go there? Especially the night after Whitney died?
Maybe Minaj was just trying to push the envelope over the edge here with a multilayered homage to the occult? Or was it indeed a critique of the church, pro-life advocates, or their stance on homosexuality? Or was it a statement about exorcising our silence around multiple personalities or mental illness? Or was it just a shock-and-awe kind of campaign as she was nominated for this year’s Best New Artist?
I’m not sure what it was; all I know is that now I can’t sleep. I’ll let you guess what color I’m wearing to bed.
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Update – February 13, 2012:
Nicki Minaj explains the performance in her own words, as told to Ryan Seacrest by Jocelyn Vena on today’s MTV News website:
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679164/nicki-minaj-grammys-2012-performance.jhtml
