Nicole Blackman

I’ve been sitting here for hours listening to Nicole Blackman tracks. What ever happened to her? She came out of the NY chapbook & spoken word scene and then there was that Golden Palominos album, then her poetry book, then she did those tracks on the Recoil album, then there was the Courtesan Tales thing, and then nothing for a long time….

Anyway, a bunch of the stuff I’ve been listening to pre-dates the Palominos stuff: Poemfone tracks, Nyuorican tracks, etc. I keep listening to her read her poem ‘Daughter’ over and over, and it’s a whole new thing for me these days. (Do a Google for daughter “Nicole Blackman” “one day I’ll give birth” and you can find the text–I don’t feel right quoting the whole thing here, but I don’t seem to mind indirectly pointing you to people who do.)

Bits keep standing out as I listen:

i’ll tell her to light things on fire and keep them burning
i’ll teach her that the fire will not consume her, that she must take it and use it

…

i’ll teach her to develop all of herself
the courageous ones, the smart ones, the dreaming ones, the fast ones
i’ll teach her she has an army inside her that can save her life

…

i’ll help her to see that she will not find god or salvation in a dark brick building built by dead men
i’ll explain to her that it is better to regret the things she has done than the things she hasn’t
i’ll teach her to write her manifestos on cocktail napkins

…

i’ll tell her that people must earn the right to use her nick name
that forced intimacy is an ugly thing
i’ll make her understand that she is worth more with her clothes on

The poems read well enough on their own, but to listen to her read them… oh, that voice.

If you want to have a legal listen to some Nicole, pop over to the ancient Salon page that has free DLs of three different tracks.