'blessing the boats' 'blessing the boats' (February 04, 2005)

Harlem-based poet gains inspiration from lengthy illness

by Jamie Schuman

In his solo show, "blessing the boats," Harlem-based poet Sekou Sundiata relates his lengthy battle with kidney disease. The show's title is from a poem by Lucille Clifton, who, like Sundiata, had a kidney transplant.

"We're looking for good wind in our sails, smooth sailing, happy return to safe harbor," Sundiata said of the relevance of the poem -- which Clifton wrote for a school graduation -- to his performance.

"Following the five-year battle with kidney disease, Sundiata -- an established spoken-word poet and musician -- seems to have reached that safe harbor.

Sundiata has been performing "blessing the boats" around the country for three years, and will stage it Saturday for Stanford Lively Arts. He is also currently a writer-in-residence at Stanford. While in the area, he is researching his new project, a series of songs and poems that attempt to define what he calls the "American soul."

"blessing the boats," though, is a series of contemplations on the poet's own soul.

Sundiata mixes dramatic monologue, spoken-word poetry and story telling with music and screen images to share the experiences of his illness and recovery. The performance is divided into a series of vignettes. Subjects include meeting hospital roommates, walking with a dialysis bag and the graciousness of friends who offered to serve as donors.

Sundiata often injects humor into these topics.

"To me it's a show about life," he said. "Even if you're ill, you're still living life."

Sundiata's diverse artistic background informs this cross-disciplinary show. He has done spoken-word poetry in New York for years and has performed on Russell Simmons' "Def Poetry Jam" on HBO.

He also has released two recording albums that combine his poetry with blues, funk and jazz. He released his second album, "longstoryshort," on Righteous Babe, the record label owned by singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco.

DiFranco was Sundiata's former student at the New School University in New York City, where he has taught for 16 years. As a writer-in-residence at Stanford's Institute for Diversity in the Arts this winter, he is now teaching a course on spoken-word poetry at Stanford.

Sundiata's kidney transplant, however, ground this creativity to a temporary halt. Heavy medication impaired his ability to concentrate, and he had trouble reading, listening to music and writing poetry in the months that followed the operation.

Sundiata said he began to regain his well-being after a representative from a New York arts' organization asked him if he had new material to workshop with the public. Sundiata was not working on any new pieces, but said he lied to the theater in hopes that a looming deadline would reawaken his creativity.

He did not set out to write about his illness, but the beginnings of "blessing the boats" followed.

"It's almost as if many stories were knocking at the door to tell," he said.

Sundiata has used the tour to raise awareness about organ and tissue transplant. He has partnered with national transplant organizations, and often gives speeches on his illness to doctors, patients and donors.

Sundiata hopes his newest endeavor, "The America Project," will be both a work of theater and a public service -- just as "blessing the boats" has become.

Through public discussions in communities across the country and a final work of music theater, Sundiata wants to discover how Americans define their national identity in the years following Sept. 11, 2001.

In the first stage of the project, Sundiata is leading poetry circles and community sings. He intends for the poetry to trigger discussions about civic issues.

He held one such session at the East Palo Alto Senior Center on Jan. 31. There, about six local residents and students from Sundiata's spoken-word class discussed voting and their interpretations of the American Dream. Sundiata will conduct in-depth interviews with a couple of the participants later this month.

While these poetry circles are works of art in themselves, they also will provide material for a group of songs and poems that Sundiata is writing. He intends to perform these pieces around the country next spring in a show tentatively called "The 51st (Dream) State."

What: Stanford Lively Arts presents Sekou Sundiata in "blessing the boats." There will be a post-performance discussion.

Where: Dinkelspiel Auditorium.

When: Saturday at 8 p.m.

Cost: Tickets are $38/$34. Half-price tickets are available for people age 15 and under and discounts are available for students. The post-performance discussion will be free and open to the public.

Info: For tickets and more information, contact the Stanford Ticket Office, located at Tresidder Memorial Union, at (650) 725-ARTS (2787) or go online to http://livelyarts.stanford.edu.

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