Album Notes

About the CD:

Uncircumcised (Raw & Uncut) is truly encompassing of Samantha's overall poetic philosophy: it's not what you say, but how you say it. This unique project keeps listeners captivated for the entire 74-minute journey through her creative consciousness. This word sorceress has mastered the use of metaphor, humor, and witty rhyme, all the while displaying her keen intellectual capabilities.

Samantha shows her diversity by speaking on a wide range of subject matters from smooth revolutionaries, unwanted pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, Black history, coffee eyes, to finally coming to terms with her university's mascot: the Seminole Indian. Samantha is successful in achieving a divine balance between social reality and the whimsical, the recording studio and the live stage, music and silence.


About The Artist:

Though she spent the majority of her life in West Palm Beach, Fl, Samantha was born and raised in Trinidad & Tobago. Ever since she began writing poetry at age eleven, writing has been her means of self-discovery and interpreting the world.

Samantha's first encounter with spoken word was during her first year at Florida State University when a local spoken world collective, Back Talk Poetry Troupe performed at a function organized by the Black Student Union. Samantha was fascinated by the way the Back Talk members made their words "dance." She simply called it magic.

Now and forever an invaluable member of Back Talk Poetry Troupe, the family of poets that host Black on Black Rhyme, the longest and strongest running weekly poetry venue in Tallahassee, FL, Samantha proudly embraces the nickname Lady Griot ( a West African storyteller/historian) because of the trademark storytelling style that defines her poetry.

Ever since she joined Back Talk she has traveled extensively doing solo features as well as performances with her family in rhyme. Samantha has also recited at several community functions dealing with the AIDS epidemic and juvenile delinquency in the Black community.

The moment she released her much-anticipated solo CD Uncircumcised (Raw & Uncut) in June 2002, Samantha began touring continuously. Some of her adventures include the House of Blues at the Essence festival in New Orleans, Jimmy's Uptown Cafe in New York City, and a comprehensive tour throughout Florida from Jacksonville to Miami.

Samantha recently graduated with her B.A. in Creative Writing from FSU and is now pursuing her MFA in Poetry at the University of Virginia, rated by the Princeton Review as the #2 public university in the U.S. Though this academic diva wants to eventually attain her PhD in English, after graduation she plans to travel the world with what she calls her "life ballad".

Samantha proclaims, "I don't want to leave a mark on this world, I want to create an indentation; I want the future to know that I sat here."