nothin Puma Simone Hits The Microphone | New Haven Independent

Puma Simone Hits The Microphone

Over Arabesque Cookie” by Duke Ellington, New Haven-based musician and poet Puma Simone intoned the names of Black women who had died at the hands of police. Simone mentioned that they had been going to therapy lately. What are you feeling right now?” they recalled their therapist asking.

Anger,” they replied.

It was part of The Colonization of Color,” a show Simone hosted over Zoom for an audience of over 40. Part music show, part poetry reading, and part community gathering, Simone’s event was a chance for them to share their own perspective on current events, and in their honesty and vulnerability, show a way to move forward.

They let people mill around in the meeting before show started, putting on some Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and Paul Bryant Hudson. When they appeared in the camera, participants unmuted themselves to give them a round of applause. As has been their way in the past, Simone let the audience in on not just the material, but the messy life around it. I don’t have a pop filter,” they said early on, so you’re going to hear every —“ They coughed. I didn’t mean to do that,” they added.

Looking over the people who signed in, they were humbled. This is every part of my life,” they said. They shouted out friends from college who continued to support them, and friends from their time in New York City. I know we don’t get to see each other, but it’s dope to be in this space,” they said.

They began by singing a cappella a song they haven’t yet released, called Summer Love, I Long to Return to You.” This track I’ve been sitting on, dealing with confidence, and my thought patterns,” they said. I’ve been giving myself some grace.” In performing the song — by turns sweet and excoriating — they were opening their self up. They were trying not to isolate myself anymore,” they said, trying to receive support.”

Their second piece was a spoken-word piece that began my lover’s favorite color is blue / a Navy man, he stands by the principles of light and truth.” As the piece continued, it became clear that the man was perhaps not all that good for the narrator. I don’t care what they think or what they say about him,” Simone repeated, seeming to believe it less every time.

They explained afterward that I was trying to describe the relationship between New Haven and Yale…. one person is in an abusive relationship and they know it.” Then they took a step back: When you’re in an abusive relationship you don’t always see it right away,” they added.

They discussed using this piece as a springboard and then thinking about where I’m at with everything going on right now.” By that they really meant everything — the pandemic, the economic collapse, the political unrest. I’ve already been crashing to be honest with you. I’m just trying to figure it out.” But they were moving toward some sort of resolution, reflecting on being accountable and wanting to do art,” they said. I want to live my truth. I want to be a vessel.”

I just want to be authentic about where I’m at,” they added.

Next in Simone’s set was a spoken-word piece that riffed on the colors black and blue with regard to light and physics that zipped through history and the present political situation with breathless speed, moving from enslaved people they held in castles or Fairfield County” to the observation that blue light will throw off your sleep and black light can detect blood scrubbed clean at a murder scene” to recollections of being caught in the rain — in New Haven, in Africa, in the Bahamas. Supposedly water can remember things,” they said. I try to mimic the bluebirds.”

An a cappella cover of the Beatles’ Blackbird” followed that. Then came the Ellington piece. The common thread” among it all, for Simone, was their experience with racism, misogyny, patriarchy, and homophobia, being more aware of spaces that drain me, as much as I want to be resilient — some environments just drain me, until I hit a wall. Just like I hit this microphone.”

They stood for a full minute in silence. Their audience filled the chat window with encouragement. Feeling all types a thangs over here. Gotta move it through and out my body. Thank you for this,” one person typed. New world leadership is showing up authentically and vulnerably,” typed another. Such realness, thank you. You just took us on a journey,” typed yet another. You have such a vivid, warm presence, a gorgeous voice, your words are lyrical and so moving…thank you!”

They broke the silence by singing: And I’m still here / I’m still hurting but I’m here / All that I been through / I always got through it…. I’m still hurting but I’m here.”

They expressed again how grateful she was for the support of her friends. Let’s continue to hold each other up and look for joy,” they said. I love you.”

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