Muntu Kuntu Energy: New and Selected Poetry

Okantah: A Guardian of Eloquence Every time I see Okantah, I want to go to Africa. Something about his spirit, the energy-vibe he gives off just by being and standing in a space, makes me lonely for a place I have never been but feel in parts of me I’ve yet to write about. I have known of Okantah for a long time and though I don’t recall exactly when we met for the first time, I remember every time we’ve been in the same place together for a gig. We’ve been on the same program but doing different things, we’ve been featured as poets together more than once and what strikes me each time is how unequivocally African he is, how he lives and breathes what I call Griotivism, meaning to be actively a griot, not remember them, not talk about being one, being Black, and oral, and story and voice and people all at the same time so effortlessly it comes as easy as opening and closing the eyes. The title of this collection lets the reader know that these poems are a mixture of what Okantah wrote a while back and what he’s created more recently, but for me the whole piece is one continuous African river, “singing word-sounds” that take me away on riffs that often stop unexpectedly on lines I want to pluck from the page and put in my pocket so I can read them over and over until they are part of memory. Dr. Mary Weems, Cleveland Poetry Scenes: A Panorama & Anthology