Forgotten Sol...gone, but not forgotten

I have a new shero and her name is Christina Orbe. Friday night I hit up Nectar to see Forgotten Sol's last gig. They've been performing for about 7 years and have a couple of cds out, but now they are each going their own way. I first saw Christina Orbe perform at Langston Hughs as a warm-up act for Ursula Rucker. I was entranced. She has this luscious voice that just drips with a rich blend sensuality and confidence. Her range is incredible. She plays a guitar (another fantasy of mine...I've always wanted to learn) and sings, sometimes raps, or sometimes just speaks her words. After that performance, I knew I wanted to see her again, but she kind of slipped off my radar until my friend E came through town.

He invited me for a drink at the Lofi, a small gallery / club/ bar on Eastlake. I love it. It's since become one of my favorite venues despite the fact that they only have pepsi products (rum and pepsi is just nasty), because the space is so cool and there is always amazing music. That night was beyond compare though. We walked into the back room and there was Christina Orbe along with Soul Child, aka Okomade....another amazing Seattle performer, two other vocalist and a twenty piece band! It was one of those rare treats, like when I lived in Spain and stumbled across a clandestine family-owned Flamenco bar at 3 in the morning. I accidentally witnessed a family of world class performers singing and dancing their asses off in a tiny venue with hardly any patrons. It's how people must have felt seeing Jimmy Hendrix at some dive bar before he became Jimmy Hendrix. That's how I feel everytime I see Christina Orbe, like in a few more years I won't be able to afford to go to her concerts.

Friday night was almost as cool. I don't really like Nectar. There is never any parking in Freemont and the crowd is just soooooo....well, white. Yes, it's Seattle. White people live here, but I hate going out for soul music and feeling like (as Angel would say) I'm the only chocolate chip in the cookie. Or in this case that all the other chocolate chips, were studiously ignoring me. I digress. My friend O and I got there kind of late. We arrived just in time to see the last few songs of Soul Child's set.

Soul Child is also just fierce as hell...I love his wardrode. He had on skin tight chartreuse pants, no shirt, two thick silver arm bands and a purple feather boa. He performed my favorite piece I've seen him do about Jesus and Lucifer being lovers. I love his voice and he is just so captivating. After a break, he came back out in these tight bellbottoms I swear he stole from Prince. Wrapped around his neck was a three strand pearl choker with a huge irridescent shell hanging from it. Framing this, placed on his bare chest was a fur stole, and he had added bull ring to his nose. It sounds crazy, but he totally pulled it off. Then out came Christina Orbe, who also looked amazing. She had on a slinky metalic colored skirt and this coutour top that was such a mix of styles. It had this kind of punk cut out for cleavage accented with safety pins, but the bodice was fitted like a corset, only with purple ribbons lacing it up on both side. She looked like the total rock star that she is. And when she started to play, it didn't matter that a black man had just completely unapologetically step on my foot on his way to hit on a white woman or that the white lesbians in love with Christina Orbe fully cut in front of us to push their way toward the stage. The only thing that mattered was the music. I danced. I closed my eyes and let her voice ride through me. They played for hours and hours and when they finished, I promptly bought 3 cds and had her autograph them.

I went home feeling inspired. Her words moved me. Her music lit me up. It's been a few weeks since I've written any poetry or even just had my head on straight. I've been feeling lost and as February comes to a close, it occurs to me that I was just about to reneg on one of my New Year's resolutions. Last December, I competed in the Seattle Slam for the first time and I fell in love with it. I decided that I would slam once a month until I won, because it motivates me to write and it's good practice getting up there and using my voice. I so often feel disempowered in my life and work....slamming feels like reclaiming a part of myself....the part that used to speak out on a regular basis, the part I can't take to work with me. So during the break, I ran into one of the hosts of the slam and she encouraged me to come back this week. At the end of the night when she saw me walking out, she asked me to promise her I'd slam. I guess that's just the Universe keeping me honest. So if you wanna see me slam come to Tost on Wednesday night.