Published July 05, 2007
Bobby Wilson is a local spoken word and mural artist centering on American Indian politics, identity and humor. He performs here at the Bean Scene, a coffee house in north Minneapolis.
Call it performance art.
As other American Indian writers performed at the Loft Literary Center's "Making Oral History" program, Wilson belted out shouts of "Yeah, right on, brother!" The banter from the seats was his impersonation of the men he calls his "cousins," some of whom are homeless. It was a performance so real that the couple beside him shifted awkwardly in their seats.
Then it was his turn in front of the microphone, to speak from his heart as a poet. "I was really scared to get up there, to tell you the truth," said Wilson, 22. "But it's 2007. I'm healthy, I'm young, and this is what I'm seeing. I just had to go up there and push it like that."
His tattooed forearm reads "1492."I'm walking around with a tattoo on my arm and an Indian on my shirt, just exploiting myself," he said at another show, before breaking into a poem.
"I/ continue to carry Columbus/ he walks among us/ tattooed/ on our souls is the/ end of freedom and/ the birth of freedom/ and the birth of forced control to a whip"
Wilson practices at a Wednesday night open mike at the Bean Scene, a north Minneapolis coffee shop. While he waits his turn, he draws. His teenage dream of becoming the world's best graffiti artist was curbed when he got into trouble with the law and was placed in a juvenile group home for two years.
In those days, he worried about living on the streets, a fear he still has, although he rents an apartment in Uptown Minneapolis. Among the addresses he called home as a kid were motel rooms and Ain Dah Yung Center, a shelter for Indian youths in St. Paul. He calls this lifestyle "homeless in the homeland."
Wilson will perform his politically charged poetry twice in Minneapolis this week: Thursday as part of the Carol Connolly Writers of Color Series at Patrick's Cabaret, and this weekend in "Forgotten Pieces," a hip-hop show with other artists at the Capri Theatre.
His work has drawn nods from local writers such as Alexs Pate, author of "Amistad," and Bao Phi, curator of the Equilibrium spoken-word series at the Loft.
"Bobby is undeniable," Phi said. "You can't deny that he has talent and you can't deny that he has an important voice."
Wilson's verses are weighted with comments on poverty, Indian identity and a feeling of disconnect from his roots on the Sisseton-Wahpeton reservation in South Dakota, once home to the father he hasn't seen in more than 10 years. "I try to stay visible," he said.
At a recent reading, he asks if someone -- anyone -- from one of the region's tribes is in the room. Any Lakotas, Dakotas or Anishinabe? Any Indians at all? His eyes scan the room. A hand rises and his smile grows wider.
"I'm not the only one," he said, then repeats the statement in a near whisper. "I'm not the only one."
Mary Hudetz • 612-673-4109 • mhudetz@startribune.com
Come hear and see Bobby and the amazing Jae Ran Kim at Patrick's Cabaret Thursday night at 7:00 sharp!
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