A "Contemplation Action" - A Simmering Titan Of A Work
author: Michael D. Main
Herrick's JUST WAR is a simmering titan of work, and this important audio document compels us to consider what it might mean to mount similar and supporting anti-war "contemplation actions". No mere polemic, this is a mysterious 'momentum engine' of poems and musical accompaniments. Herrick's fine honed performance sensibility at times brings to mind both Laurie Anderson and Gil Scott-Heron. But where Ms. Anderson too often reserves a cuning smirk just beneath the surface of the cheek, Herrick swims waist-deep streams of ambiguity and irony - but with all sincerity and strength of purpose intact. And where Gil Scott-Heron's classic utterances seemed to stand at a reserved distance from the pulsing drumbeat of his soundtracks, leading us at times to question his authentic motives, Herrick utterly commits, at heart, with each phrase. Yet commits herself quietly, and so ultimately co-commits the listener to her living currents. This is in no way a "diminished" war poetry. Rather than point to disinheritance, these works demand full accounting, a new recording of wider experience taken to begin at the social-personal extreme of witnessing and feeling presence. I know of no other activist poetics that is both so careful with matters of humanity's 'ultimate concern', yet so telling of truth. JUST WAR is not to be missed. I dare any listener to encounter these performances once, and not return tomorrow to again take up the greater gift of resonance as has been tapped here from such a vital throat and drum.
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A symbol of hope for peace and social justice.
author: M. L. Barrón
In a time of great need, Just War gives us that powerful, profound and lyrical voice that calls out, incites and moves us into action. A symbol of hope for those of us who believe in and continue to work towards peace and social justice.
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One hell of a poet. Even when playful, she jabs you.
author: Internal Rhyme
Urban drums. Marching drums. Artillery and nodding. And maybe more tribal than ever before. So Leigh goes for the hopeful pulse/heartbeat drumming that's next world up, that soul part that never, even in the most bitterly satiric of her lines, leaves her voice. She is one hell of a poet. Even when playful, she jabs you.
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Add this CD to your mix.
author: M. Ballard
I have this CD in my ipod. When it comes up during shuffle play, I am at first struck by the strength of Leigh's voice and drumming, then I am inspired by her words and message.
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