My Mother's cornbread was otherworldly. I am sure that is why I associate it with being transported to another plane. “Hallucinating at the Velvet Lounge,” is an ode to black history, art, music, culture, survival, and my Mother. The poem’s title is a reference to the legendary Jazz club The Velvet Lounge located in Chicago, IL, where I lived for 25 years.

In this recording, I perform the poem with Todd Brown, who produced the music and plays guitar, Aaron Kierbel on drums, and Prasant Radhakrishnan on saxophone.

For those of you who want to hold the poem in your hands, you can find it in my third book of poems The Armageddon of Funk. It is widely available online.