Poetry and politics
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nah ee lah hopes to set the record straight
by VINCENT TINGUELY
Nah ee lah's spoken word themes include unplanned pregnancies, gangsta rap and materialism. "I don't think that as a black person in North America, I have the privilege of doing art for art's sake," she muses.
In '99, she and Debbie Young co-wrote and performed yagayah, a soulful study of black womanhood and the Jamaican immigrant experience that they're remounting in February. Last year, nah ee lah acted in Black Theatre Workshop's bilingual production of The Crossroads/Le Carrefour, by African playwright Kossi Efoui.
Last summer she founded yah ga yah productions and joined BTW and the city of Montreal to organize Spoken Word Celebration: a Day of Griots and Poets, held at the Old Port. This spring, watch out for nah ee lah's first solo recording, Free Dome, produced by Jah Sun of Jah Cutta and Determination. Yah ga yah productions will also be launching Keleta, a cultural periodical created to combat the marginalization of black voices. "The 'official' history lies big-time," nah ee lah says. "So we have to record our own stories."
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