Tag: Verses and Flow

Dr. Belay D. Reddick asked for a show of hands: How many of the Oakdale federal prison inmates had ever heard of spoken word? Close to two-thirds of the 150 prisoners gathered last month in the prison’s chapel raised their hands. He then asked how many of the men had ever attended a spoken word event, a question that alluded to the presentation of his latest re-entry project. Last month’s event featured nationally-acclaimed championship poet Sha’Condria “iCon” Sibley of Alexandria, Louisiana.

I’ve seen Khoree the Poet perform at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle in Oakland, at the Historic Bal Theater in San Leandro and in venues around the Bay with D’Wayne Wiggins of Tony, Toni, Tone! The Bay has launched the careers of many great poets. Khoree the Poet is next in line to bust out of the Bay onto the national and world scene. Check him out in this exclusive Q&A for the Bay View.

On Oct. 9, Chas was featured on the TVOne show Verses and Flow with his poem “Collect Call” about his mother. It’s an emotional editorial on having his family split by the U.S. concentration camp system aka the prison industrial complex’s war on the domestic Black community. This poem is especially timely coming on the heels of the monumental California Prison Hunger Strike of ‘13.