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From~ Silk Electric: Poetry by Darius Omar Williams

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Royce Bryant Smith says of poet Darius Williams: “…he provides us with a rich voice, peppered with Mississippi humor, same-gender loving candor, and the depth of academic scholarship….” Darius Omar Williams is a black same gender loving poet,

playwright, actor and director. He was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi where he spent most of his childhood immersed in the rhythms of jazz, gospel and blues. He received his B.A. cum laude in Speech and Drama from Jackson State University, his M.A. in Theatre from Bowling Green State University and his M.F.A. in Creative

Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. His thesis, The Hooting of the Midnight Owl: Sexuality, Gender and Difference in SelectedPlays by Cheryl L. West was chosen for presentation in a colloquium at the 2005 National Black Theatre Festival in Winston Salem, N.C.

His play, Chocolate Cocoa On A Winter Night Part 1: Akel Dama was originally directed as a staged reading by international performance artist Robbie McCauley and subsequently featured in The Theater Offensive’s 15th Annual Out on the Edge Festival. His poetry has been featured in The Encore Journal and ARISE magazine. Darius has also enjoyed regional success as a professional stage actor and active

member of Actor’s Equity Association. His 2007 performance of “Lincoln” in Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog earned him recognition as one of the “best performances of 2007 on the Cape Cod”. He has performed as “Man” in three productions of Crowns at The Lyric Stage Company of Boston, New Stage Theatre and The Contemporary American Theatre Company. The Boston Globe glowingly said of Williams’ performance, “The rip-the-roof-off vocals belong to Darius Omar Williams, who goes deep as well as high in a succession of male roles.” He has also performed at Wheelock Family Theatre, Stoneham Theatre and The Theater Offensive His directing credits include: The World Premiere of Dark As A Thousand

Midnights during Boston’s Annual African American Theatre Festival, Ain’t Misbehavin (Turtle Lane Playhouse) and Robert Johnson: Trick the Devil (Jackson State University). As a former Instructor of Theatre at Tougaloo College, Darius directed Ladies in Waiting, A Raisin in the Sun, The Old Settler and The Wiz. Darius taught Theatre and Speech at Jackson State University from 2002-2005. He also taught

poetry at Emmanuel College in the Fall of 2006. Darius is co-editor of Mighty Real: An Anthology of New Black Gay and Lesbian Writing to be released in 2009. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate in Theatre at The Ohio State University.

Examples from Darius Williams exceptional new volume appear below.

Alice Deloris Williams

she love me

better than i love myself

i call her sister baby miss sophia

ace-boon-coon

some enchanted evening

my mama got hips

she give me jook joint fever

gospel like a night bird on my shoulder

like moonshine going outta style

Niga Bora Dankona

(In Nigel, Niga Bora Dankona means you are beautiful, you are loved)

for Sheila Anne Richardson

We laughed

All night

In your apartment

In your messy bedroom.

You danced

The way you used to dance

When I played that Chaka Khan record

The one that made me dye my hair.

You looked so frail,

In that large black chair,

Lips barely holding on

Flesh peeling off your bones,

In rhythmic waves.

I wanted to kiss you

Goodbye---death

Uncelestial, drunken death

Like rising water

Renouncing your life----

Way past midnight

I search for syllables

To provide your body ease.

Sitting beside you is like

Walking through a lake

In a pair of

Tightly laced high-heeled shoes.

Rivers

Rivers run inside me, through my veins

Clouds of mist speak in strained prophetic

Silences while trees dressed in white bark stand among

Shouting rocks like dead lovers’ spirits

Attempting to rise. Rage. Rage. I can feel

The river’s early morning rage.

Green grass, Coltrane’s improvisational jazz,

Calming me like the moon seeks revenge

After the rain. Rivers stretch wide

Across my heart reminding me

Of an electric kiss. These trees. I want

To fly high above them, take flight beyond

Their bending limbs, cry to

The sun like a new born baby,

Drown inside the southernness of pink summer sky,

Embrace the laughter in the breeze,

Seek knowledge in the coming

Of night. Sweet river, bless me with your eyes, anoint me

With your face and I will be like those bony

Trees standing in your presence needing release,

Needing to dream childhood dreams,

Needing to be baptized again and again,

So that the river is in me.

I am the river: black, stubborn, old.

I am the river: stretching, stretching wide.

Ancient river!

Give me your legs!

Let me walk into the black night with you.

Blacker than the best lover I ever had.

Black like my grandfather’s bruised and wrinkled skin.

Black like my college graduation gown.

Black and hard like mama’s love.

River I am yours. Let us become one.

And celebrate. My life.

The Chickasaw Plum - Volume V - Number 7 - July 2008

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