A CONGALINE front stage. People singing and dancing with gay abandon.
Scenes like these were the order of the night at the 2014 edition of Love, Poetry And Song on the grounds of Ilaro Court last Saturday night.
The night after Valentine’s was all about love. It was One Life, One Love, One Hope from members of the talented cast to the responsive audience and vice versa.
Love for people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS; love for victims of gender-based violence; love for the people who used their talent to help with the sensitisation who heightened awareness about the two issues, and for the patrons who showed support by turning up and donating non-perishables for the HIV/AIDS Food Bank.
Spilling all over the lawns of the Prime Minister’s official residence, patrons soaked up the love vibes relayed through dance, poetry, song and multi-media from the chairs they brought with them or the blankets they brought to get comfy on the lawns, and when the lyrics or the beat got really sweet, they jumped up and the rhythms took control of their hands, feet and anything else that could move.
Students from Arthur Smith Primary School got the show under way with Sweet Vibes and Hold On And Dance and it was an eventful ride from there on.
Songbird Betty Payne was in good voice and patrons also got a glimpse of Payne the spoken word artiste, who is not as well-known. She mixed in a self-penned poem into
I Am Ready For Love and it went down well with the audience.
She was accompanied on guitar by Rashad Sellman.
Spoken word artistes Janine White, Daveny Ellis, DJ Simmons and crowd favourite Adrian Green also made big impressions and got great responses from the crowd.
Saxophonist Kieshelle Rawlins grabbed attention from the first note of The Potter’s Hand right down to the last.
Dance group Multifarious got things further hyped with their choreography for the piece titled Heroes.
Bobo and Simon Pipe proved to be an interesting and impactful combination and they had patrons dancing and singing all over the grounds.
The ladies in the Girl Power segment and powerhouse Toni Norville also represented well.
Norville performed the popular Moving Out, Whatever and Love Will Never Let You Down among others, before returning during Biggie Irie’s set to pay tribute to the late Bunny Rugs of Third World with Always Around.
Biggie got things going with Ten Tons Of Love, mixed in some Beres Hammond then Garnett Silk before rocking the place with his 2007 Digicel International Groovy Soca Monarch winner Nah Going Home, Cyann Be Over and this year’s Groovy Soca Monarch contender Need Ah Riddim.
Kudos to all the artistes in the line-up for adding their touch to make Love, Poetry And Song the fun and outstanding show it was.
