Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 2-19-19

Feature
Community Poet Laureate James Tokley Honored During Final Black History Series At Straz Center
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
“Young boys standing tall and cool Got no use for public school
The streets is teacher
Swift and cruel
Where life is dice or a game of pool
Young girl walking
Straight and slow
Got more looks than a TV show Moving hips to the radio
Older men smile as they watch her go
Tampa madness
Belmont Heights
Black folks boogie in the broad daylight Black folk love in the dead of night
Old men laugh at the curious sight.”
More than 30 years ago, James Tokley wrote these words in his poem, “Scenario at 22nd and Lake.” On Sunday, a group of about 40 people gathered at the Straz Performing Arts Center to see the poet – the only person to hold the distinction of being the poet laureate for both the City of Tampa and Hillsbor- ough County – talk about the inspira- tions behind his work.
From left, Nina Skinner, Tokley's granddaughter, Kamiya Randall, a fan, and James Tokley.
“In many of the pieces I have written, there is music,” he said. “There’s rhythm and blues. And it’s waiting to be let out.”
The event was the last, celebrating Black History Month under the theater’s Arts Legacy REMIX Black Film series.
Fred Johnson, the center’s artist- in-residence, curator of the Arts Legacy REMIX program, said the series was well-attended with great engagement from the audiences.
“It’s been great,” he said. “It con- firms that we’re on the right path, that people are interested to know.”
But it wasn’t all lecture. Mr. Tokley was feted by former mentee, Walter “Wally B.” Jennings, founder of Heard ’Em Say Youth Arts Collective, who praised the poet as the grandfather of the city’s spoken word shows like Black-on-Black Rhyme.
“Mr. Tokley has done with his oral history with our city what I call mo- ments of tangible greatness,” he said. “He’s provided an excellent example for what’s possible for our young people.”
Jennings credited Tokley – a Delaware native who’s lived in Tampa since 1978 – with teaching him and oth- ers two valuable lessons: that “every word is a world” and that a “poet’s job is not to tell you what is, but what it feels like.”
“You can hear what he’s saying,” Jennings said. “It’s every colorful. It’s very vivid.”
Tokley, who was named poet laure- ate for Tampa and the county in 1996 and 2013, respectively, called poetry “a song to Mars.”
“Poetry is more than presentation on the page,” he said. “Poetry is ethereal.
It’s something that can get off the page and walk around – that’s what I want poetry to be.”
In a panel discussion moderated by Uwazo Sudan, Myron Jackson, and Mr. Tokley’s wife, Joanna, he dived deeply into the background of a few of his pieces, including “Ladies of the Brick,” which was inspired by his love of Tampa’s cigar factories.
“No other place in the world has more beautiful buildings as we do,” he said.
Another piece, “War of the Gods,” is based on the famous “Thrilla in Manila” match-up between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier.
Mr. Tokley said he listened to the fight over the radio, but had met Ali as a student at Delaware State University.
After an initial awkward encounter on campus, the two later sat together at a restaurant for breakfast.
“I measured him for epic rhyme,” he said.
Mr. Tokley, who is also a musician, said he tries to capture “the rhythm of the heartbeat of life.”
“My poetry...was based in a rhythm of life. The rhythm of life is four-four time.”
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