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Amde Hamilton and Jerry Martien
Local poets Amde Hamilton and Jerry Martien will perform with musicians Tina Garsen and Jonathan Kipp. $10-20 sliding scale donation; reduced rate for students.
Amde Hamilton has been performing and teaching spoken word poetry since the sixties. Hamilton is a member of the Watts Prophets, a group which pioneered the form of spoken word that has since evolved into rap music.
In 1969, the Prophets released their debut album: The Black Voices: On the Streets in Watts, which has been listed by Rolling Stone as one of the most groundbreaking albums of all time. Rappin’ Black in a White World came out in 1971; in 1997, the Prophets released When the ‘90’s Came. These albums have been sampled on hundreds of hip hop songs, including artists such as Dr. Dre, DJ Quik, DJ Shadow, Digable Planets, and Too Short.
Hamilton is the author of several books with the Watts Prophets, including The Rising Sons (1973) and Poetic Reflections (1976). In 2005, Amde published Me Today, You Tomorrow, a collection of his work spanning over four decades and chronicling “the pride and power of a community and the systemic destruction of that community as a result of redevelopment and poverty programs run by outsiders and opportunists.”
Jerry Martien grew up in southern California, went east to gradute school and a brief academic life, and was swept back to northern California at the end of the sixties. He’s been reading his poetry in the Humboldt Bay region ever since—in bars and mountain cabins, at demonstrations, celebrations, weddings and funerals. A book clerk, doorman, poet in the schools, carpenter, and occasional Humboldt State writing instructor, he is a member of the Same Old People, sponsors of Arcata’s annual North Country Fair, and has served on numerous committees seeking environmental and social justice. He is the author of several poetry chapbooks and a collection, “Pieces in Place,” as well as personal essays, occasional newspaper columns, and two histories of money, most recently “The Price of a Life: Shell, Gold, Carbon Notes & Weed.”
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