Joel Wayne Dias-Porter
WebsiteYears: 96-99
Biography
(aka DJ Renegade) was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, and is a former professional DJ in the DC area. From 1994- 1999 I competed in the National Poetry Slam, finishing as high as second place in the individual competition, and was the 1998 and 99 Haiku Slam Champion. Places my poems have been published include Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Callaloo, Antioch Review, Red Brick Review, Beltway Quarterly and the anthologies Gathering Ground, Love Poetry Out Loud, Meow: Spoken Word from the Black Cat, Short Fuse, Role Call, Def Poetry Jam, 360 Degrees of Black Poetry, Slam (The Book), Revival: Spoken Word from Lollapallooza, Poetry Nation, Beyond the Frontier, Spoken Word Revolution, Catch a Fire, and The Black Rooster Social Inn, an anthology of poems and photos of visual art. In 1995, I received the Furious Flower "Emerging Poet Award" from James Madison University. Performances include the Today Show, the documentary SlamNation, on BET, and in the feature film Slam. A Cave Canem fellow and the father of a young son, I have a CD of jazz and poetry on Black Magi Music, entitled "LibationSong".
Poem
FOR G.S.
. . . only because it was a Thursday
(which is her Monday),
and she was walking as though
carrying something heavy
(albeit not in her hands),
and I thought I heard her sigh,
and recalled Lonnie
(who you might not know)
not Lonnie who was always
pawning his wedding band
so he could feed the penny slots
or Lonnie from The Hill
who always seemed to be
half a slice short of a sandwich,
but Lonnie from 'Lonnie's Lament'
(and here she cocks her head and
wrinkles her nose saying "Who?")
because whatever blew
his rain so sideways inspired
John William to put a saxophone
between his lips and blaze a lamentation
which matches her Monday motion,
a wistful grace with piano lines
almost lengthy as her legs
and a bassline that plunges
like her hair when she combs it
into a black Niagra
which she doesn't know
makes me wish
I could spend the rest of my days
naked and trembling in a wooden barrel,
falling forever
through its obsidian mist.