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Remembering Regi Perry

Today would've been his birthday...

A few years ago I was in a creative partnership with a man who became my friend named, "Regi Perry". Regi was thin but had a big big voice. I'm not sure how we worked together so well and the circumstances of how we became performing partners was by chance.

Jeffrey King the Executive Director of, "In The Meantime" had asked me to perform a couple of poems for his birthday celebration. I said I would and had a piece titled, "Idle Worship" that I had always wanted to perform with a singer. One afternoon after church I approached Regi and asked if he would be interested and available. We had met each other through church but were not friends at that point. He got back to me and we started working on the piece. We meshed so well and were able to feed off each other easily. By that time I had heard about a poetry slam that was being held at Exposition Park and had decided to be a part of it. I asked Regi if he wanted to use that as our debut. This way we'd have a chance to perform the pieces and try them out before an audience before Jeffery's birthday. We did the first round of the slam and scored the highest. The only problem was we didn't know there was a 2 round and had nothing else prepared. We went off to the side during the intermission and I recited a couple of pieces I had memorized and he came up with a melody on the spot. We ended up in 3rd place. The placement really didn't matter to us, we knew we had something special.

Regi made transition a few years ago and I miss him dearly. It's not so much the performing which I did enjoy a lot we just fed off each other so easily, but it's the friendship and bond we created. I heard once, "a friend is someone who knows all about you, and loves you anyway" and that's was the kind of relationship we had. We talked about everything and nothing. Laughed and cried about everything and nothing. Met and got involved with different guys during the course of our friendship and were able to be there for each other.

I know his spirit is somewhere singing....

Whitney Houston: Be All Glory.....

After hearing about Whitney Houston making transition I saw a few facebook posts, articles, and heard news reports that it was surprising but they people expected that she would die young. I didn't expect that. In fact just a few days before she passed I watched a clip of Al Jarreau & Nancy Wilson saluting Ella Fitzgerald at the 20th Annual NAACP Awards by singing, "A Tisket, A Tasket". They wailed!! But the highlight was when Ella came out to accept the award and sang, "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" and blew everyone away. Her voice was a little frail at the beginning but once she got revved up she brought the entire audience to their feet. As they showed different people in the audience I caught glimpses of Oprah, Steadman, Margaret Avery, Lionel & Brenda Ritchie, Esther Rolle, Whitney Houston, and others. After watching it I thought to myself it'll be great in 20-30 years to see Whitney receive such an award and blow everyone away with a few lines of her singing one of her great hits. Showing the young folk how it was done in the 1980's & 90's!! So her death was not expected to me. In fact this past Saturday 02/11/12 was the first time I watched the episode of Unsung about Vesta Williams and she mentioned Ella's performance at that award show and said she wanted to keep singing until they had to help her onstage. Neither Vesta or Whitney will get that chance. I first saw Whitney on an episode of "Gimme A Break" with Nell Carter. I loved me some Nell Carter. After seeing Whitney in the episode I thought she was pretty and she was a good actress as far as for a 80's sitcoms went, but I'd never heard her sing. Boy once I heard her sing I knew she'd be a star. I just didn't realize how much because she changed music as we knew it. I hadn't made the connection that she was the daughter of Cissy Houston, Cousin to Dionne Warwick, God-Daughter to Aretha Franklin so with that background she was born to SANG!! Her career coincided with the growth of music videos and music was just never the same. Even remakes she did like Chaka Khan's, "I'm Every Woman" seem to take on new life with her voice. I never cared much for the jokes and statements made about her drug use and marriage to Bobby Brown. Maybe I looked at it as that family member that you wish can get out of a bad situation but you can't help them if they don't help themselves. After watching her interview with Oprah I understood why she stayed with Bobby. She believed in marriage and wanted to be committed to her vows. It's hard to see someone go through that but it does help you understand why they did what they did. I didn't watch the Grammys this year. I think like a lot of award shows it's too much pomp and circumstance. I knew any performances that were great would be available on youtube. I had planned to watch Jennifer Hudson's performance of, "I Will Always Love You" at another time but imagine my surprise when I was watching one of my favorite TV shows, "gLee" and this came up: I didn't think I would be ready but Amber Riley did such a phenomenal job that I enjoyed this immensely. Maybe because it wasn't meant to be as a tribute to Whitney but it was a part of the story line whatever the case, it touched me very deeply. I don't want to use the term, "gone too soon" but I do wish Whitney could've been around longer. I know this has to be difficult for her mother Cissy & daughter Bobbi Kristina but I also know that faith plays a large part in the life of her family so my prayer is that their faith will carry them through... I've become fond of saying, "Be All Glory" when someone transitions because it reminds me what we have here in this expression is glimpses of Divine but once we cross over we are able to experience the Glory of The Universe fully. So to Sister Whitney Houston BE ALL GLORY!! You shined so brightly here. Thanks for sharing your gifts. Now illuminate the Cosmos as only you can....

Bay Bridge Closed President's Day Weekend....