Image: The Jazz Estate
Twiggy Stewart and Alex Wilson
Most poets may be content to publish chapbooks sold in small press bookstores, recite their work at slams and, if things go especially well for them, land a deal for a paperback anthology later in their careers (careers?!). Milwaukee's Twiggy “Twigz” Stewart (born Isayah Bailey) has other ambitions for rhymes. Recording them with musical accompaniment that blur distinctions between poetry and hip-hop rapping, including musical accompaniment, is the way Stewart has put the 12 poems comprising Late Bloomer into the world.
Per the album’s title and her own moniker, arboreal and horticultural metaphors couch many of Twigz’s explorations of young womanhood, self-worth, romantic desire and, the troubles facing African American manhood and finding one’s place in the world. Beyond the music accompanying more than half of Bloomer, ranging from acoustically minimal neo-soul to bumptious electronics, is Stewart’s occasional propensity to shift from recitation to singing.
If her precedent in that tactic would be Queen Latifah, Twigz shares that same trait with current hit maker Doja Cat. Were Stewart to call what she’s on about here rapping, she could still go pretty far with it, though perhaps not with the distinction and wider parameters that may come with classification as a poet. Whatever she wants to call herself and Late Boomer, Stewart distinguishes herself in her field.
Stewart joins with guitarist Alex Wilson and singer Jazlyn Ellis in a show entitled Blues & Poetry at the Jazz Estate, 2423 N. Murray Ave. at 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 31.
