By Taylor Lena McTootle for Brain Arts Org
April 13, 2020
As the creator of the Black Cotton Club, a slam poet, and an educator, performance artist Dzidzor Azaglo is a pillar of the Boston art community. Brain Arts Organization was extremely excited to be asked to experience the exclusive debut of her EP entitled “Bush Woman,” quoted as "potently medicinal and textured project." The following is Taylor Lena McTootle’s review of the EP from the interactive virtual listening party held via Zoom on April 3rd.
Radical and Raw is how I would describe Dzidzor’s “Bush Woman” EP out now on all streaming platforms.
The very name of the EP, “Bush Woman” suggests we embrace our radical wildness, our radical creativity, and adorn ourselves with all that is typically deemed incompatible with the status quo-- especially now, when the status quo is disintegrating. “Bush Woman” is a shout into the universe, pulling from the past and moving into the future. It is a necessary listen.
As a comprehensive work of art, the Bush Woman EP is astounding because of its content, lyricism and design. The collaborations and outside production complement Dzidzor’s sound as a poet and artist without imposing on the lyrical significance she brings to the music. At the beginning of the virtual media listening party, she reflected on her visit to Ghana where she first performed spoken word with live music. This is how poetry was meant to be performed, she explained. Her EP is proof of that fact. In tracks like “Wild Seed” and “If We Don’t Know the Words, We Hum,” her voice, her accompaniment, and all intentions there in, come together so organically that they mesmerize the listener.
Dzidzor’s poetry contains motivating messages and useful nourishment in a time when many of us may be growing frustrated with negativity in the media, constant worry, lack of mobility, lack of resources, etc.
This is a soundtrack for those of us taking this time of solitude to consciously and intentionally stomach all this change while we grow and evolve ourselves and our now distant, but ever-present, communities. Her timing couldn’t be better. From the very beginning she calls the listener to attend to her words. “It’s time to get uncomfortable,” her lament rejoices in this truth. With a rich voice and rhythmic syncopation in her words, she seizes and stirs her listener.
During this quarantine, it can be difficult at times to find things that really light fires under us, especially when stuck in the house or trying to figure out new situations, but this EP, if felt and held in one’s attention, can inspire us to sit with the discomfort and with ourselves in acceptance of what makes us wild, untamable and useful to this world, to participate in the music of the moment even if we don’t know the words, and to emerge with new knowledge ready to be radical and wild in each other’s company, as well.
Take a listen to Dzidzor’s EP Bush Woman here: https://soundcloud.com/dzidzor-azaglo/sets/bush-woman/s-QQZ9yw6LEot
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