Harmony Conspiracy
A Poet's Proposal
Writ Pick for August

Download select tracks

by Julian Esteban Torres

Silence speaks in many languages. It throws pebbles into the still ponds that are our ears, hoping its impact will resonate and travel throughout the body of its borders. Harmony Conspiracy is 'armed' with words instead of pebbles. Nonetheless, it hopes to reach the same audience and become just as powerful-for the most profound sound in this world is 'Thought'. Such an objective can be reached just as well through words as by means of silence. This is the purpose of Harmony Conspiracy's Proposal.

The cover speaks just as loudly and genuinely as the artists themselves do even before the listener ever gets to experience the thoughts held within. Its facial expression tells it all. There is a guerrilla member, his face covered, caught in the act of throwing a bouquet of flowers in the direction of the opening (the mouth) of the cd case-from where it is the sound will resonate. The five flowers in the bouquet symbolize what this poetry collective is 'armed' with: passion, thought, love, community, and words.

Each track is a different fragrance. When we listen, we not only hear, but smell every word. And since taste is thirty percent smell, we also consume each syllable. We sense the scents of many different views and passions. Jeremiah Gould, one of the featured artists on the CD and this last spring's Crooked Verse Poetry Slam Champion, elaborates on this idea, "I think the compilation, by its very nature, embodies the spirit of community. Within it you have varied talented artists with differing world views and styles coming together to support each other and the art of poetry...they each bring something unique to the UNH poetry community and I admire greatly their work." The compilation speaks for itself once it is listened to.

Julian Esteban Torres brings with him the personified sketch of a lost poet, homeward bound. A conceptual mind erasing the borders of the finite, gasping for air as he drowns in his constant curiosity, searching for home, self, and love, trying to find acceptance with his confusion. Most who have ever seen Julian Esteban on stage will take with them the remembrances of his performances and the extremes of passions he pours, leaving behind the sweat and the blood of his words upon the microphone. He is a writer who does not consider himself a poet, a story teller, or a prose writer. When asked what he does, he responds with, "I do words. Once the infinite is defined then it becomes finite. The abyss of thoughts and emotions that fuels this passion of mine, like love, is something I try not to define, but understand. This is how I feel about my work. I try to understand myself as I write. If anything, I do words."

As for Sam Sobel, Jeremiah hits the mark in his parody poem on Harmony Conspiracy's artists called Subtitled: A Plea for Points (not included in the cd), describing what goes on in Sam's mind when writing a poem, when he says, "When in doubt...go Cosmic." Sam is the reason the galaxies were created. Some poets are nature writers. Sam, on the other hand, is a cosmic writer. What a forest path is to Robert Frost, the tails of shooting stars are for Sam. Tim Greenlaw describes Sam's style and content as, "Rhythm-driven rhyming poetry with a strong sense of continuity and flow, powerful with large scale imagery, with a level of grounded understanding of his content." This is the mind of an insomniac poet, lost in the drunken insanity that lack of sleep brings. An artist whose 'cosmic' scale of imagery can be found by most people only in dreams and when the doors of perception are broken down, reaching the other side of consciousness. Once on the other side, he kidnaps the constellation of young Aphrodite from her parents home, takes her by the hand, and behind Mars, hides, watching Father Sun and Mother Moon playing checkers with the stars.

Jeremiah Gould is the worm, slowly moving across the page, with the patience of a meditating monk, and the sincerity of a lover, experiencing every moment, salivating on every syllable, bringing together heart and soul with every movement of his entire being. One of the hardest things for a spoken word artist is to have content that can work just as well on the page. A great performer can make "Roses are Red" climactic, but it takes a true writer to let the words speak for themselves without help from any other medium of the senses. Jeremiah's page is poetry enough to experience all. He is one of these writers whose work is as intriguing on stage as it is on the page. When I asked him if he had any particular recipe for a poem to transcend both areas, he responded with, "The key ingredient to making a page poem, or any poem for that matter, work on the stage is simple in theory and difficult in practice. The writer must be bare of his or her self with an honesty in their words and their performance. They must be able to allow the essence of their work to be unhindered by fears, anxieties, and fleeting concepts of public appreciation, a successful performance poem must be unaware of such things." Although difficult in practice, he appears to have chosen his ingredients carefully and created a recipe that seems to work quite well for him.

Alex Garces is an urban voice, lyrically pole vaulting his free-style rhymes into the audience, making those who listen to his words question the present state and influence of our society's values. Sarah Dopp, member of the 2003 Crooked Verse Poetry Slam Team, finds serious strength in Alex's poems. She says, "He hits home and punches it hard with his fresh and powerful points. Representing the college generation's perspective with a rage drunk on metaphor, Alex is 'armed with words.' He mixes rhythm, rhyme, and wit with his own survival and throws it at the mic full force." Alex is a poet who preaches, "Don't rely on others. You possess your means," and that's exactly what he does. He walks and dances to his own fresh beats all the way up to the stage, where he earned a place in last spring's Crooked Verse Poetry Slam Semi-Finals.

When speaking to Amanda Llama about what nourished the roots of her style, she says, "My very first slam poem leaned heavily on the other styles I had noticed. By my second poem, I was consciously trying to find my own style. I'm sure my influences stay with me in all my writings, but I've found this really great style that can swing between humor and dire issues. I also want to work more political aspects into my slam poems, but I build the projects up so much that they become intimidating." Here is a visionary artist who calls upon a revolution of the mind and our actions, tackling issues many would be too scared to talk about with a friend, let alone on stage, in front of the spotlight of scores of eyes. When I asked how she got into performance poetry/spoken word she spoke of how she was once frightened by the stage and was going through the, as she calls it, 'I-hate-everything-that-is-poetry' phase. Then she met Sam Sobel. "I had never performed poetry...He [Sam] showed me a few Shane Koyczan videos, and I was interested in trying it."

Jill Tremblay is an intellectual writer who incorporates story telling, poetic elements, conceptual components, and rhythm as the vessel for her words. She takes the listener on autobiographical voyages where icebergs are dodged, waves are sailed, and currents are ridden. Every piece has taken a lifetime to write; she touches and takes from everything she has ever learned, questioned, and thought of to create a unique style that grows on the listener, and becomes more enjoyable every time any of her pieces is heard. If poetry were a sport, it would be track and field, and she would be a decathlete- hurdling through metaphors, sprinting past similes, shot putting acrobatic verses, and long jumping into a pit filled not only -with sand but with the history of her eyes.

Each artist in this compilation CD takes turn throwing the bouquet of flowers with every track. Some hitchhike to their birth and give the bouquet to their Mother. Others take the bouquet and throw it towards the cosmos hoping petals will replace heaven's tears. Others separate the flowers and personally hand it to the individuals present so every one listening remembers that the only thing that matters is real life human moments. There are even some who will take the petals, and leave a trail so you can follow them home. Whose ever bouquet you may catch, remember: the fragrance of each rose, or lilac, or tulip is only sensed when their words are heard. I propose you listen.

Harmony Conpiracy: "A Poet's Proposal"
Spoken Word CD
Produced by: NH Artists' Circle
Live Recording Locations: Tracks 1,2,4,7,8,9,10,14,15 recorded at UNH MUB Entertainment Center;
Tracks 3,5,6,11,12,13 recorded at MUB Theatre I
Cover Art: by Banksy
Contact: Julian Esteban Torres at nhartistscircle@yahoo.com for copies or information
Price: $4, all proceeds will be used to fund more projects for NH Artists' Circle, Wet Paint Cafe, Crooked Verse Poetry Slam, and The WRIT.