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Choreo-Empress' Leg-a-cy Lands on East Saint Earth, 2nd Take


(homage to Katherine Dunham, age 90 plus)


#1
(1967: descent amidst civil rights & black arts movement)
East Saint Earth ferments:
choreo-jazz-opera…
she-maze of Port-au-Princely slinks. .


#2
(routes de passage)
O Hambone's "Minnehaha!"
Katherine's choreoper-ah!
"Sally Walker" to "L'Ag Ya!"


#3
(1925 bus ride recalls east saint louis race riots of 1917)
Yanvalou lurched past
East Boogie's pungent memories,
warrior Lovejoy's Alton.


#4
(joliet, chicago, port au prince)
Lady Diaspora
hurdled AME's prayer bench,
ball & jack'd Damballah.


#5
(christening of the drumpriestess: Haiti)
Between death & dawn
snakes, stilts & tambourines
chased rum-drunk zombies.


#6
(1967 #2: dumas/dunham return to east saint earth)
Fox/goddess & Ankh Dumas
orbited Arkansippi,
Blood Island & Cotton Club.


#7
(fleshing dreams & homages at the barr)
Pelvic motors buzzed
Queen's Court in Milesville, drumscoping
"East Saint Louis Toodle-oo."


#8
(star of dakar domiciles in east boogie)
From tin & wombwood, Mor Thiam,
her Wolof prince/protégé,
fleshed djembe miracle.


#9
(feasts of art & revolution)
O gyral-notations
rioting in Katherine's
God-spacious girdle.


#10
(reflections: 90th birthday celebration in Milesvile)
Lords of London legs
flew Jesu-Voudoun's chariot
thru nine decades & change.

Written by Eugene B. Redmond

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