Ka'Afrique aka Khefri Riley MANNAFEST is the performance company of two London base performance poets, Khefri Riley and Vanessa Richards. Hailing from the West Coast, LA and Vancouver, they first started working together during 1994 in London to organise events for the seminal Black poetry group, Urban Poets Society (UPS). Riley, a founding member of UPS, helped cultivate the current renaissance of the Spoken Word. Open to poets, rappers, and anyone with lyrical skills, these timely gatherings became forums of creative talent. Attracting three to four hundred people through word of mouth alone, these jams helped to establish the significance of the poets, and drew the attention of the media. "Vocal heroes..." The Face, November '95

Poems in this collection:

and I lost myself Text AFTER THA SHOW Text

and I lost myself
 
i want to talk to you all the time
i think about you in my meanwhile
which is seemin to grow very quickly
until the next moment
when I am close to you
and we can chill and get high and i
really only want a companion
but its Impossible with my travlin
so i have to settle for the couple of days
i had with you / to ourselves /
which was really selfish.
cause i know that all we wanted was
some warmth. so thats cool, but i dont
really feel lonely only
want you next to me
and hear the tone of your voice
which i find so sexy. really comforting.
makes me laugh all the time and then
you sing to me
or whoever
to you
to yourself maybe
but ill listen and dont want u to stop
and want u to keep on going and i
hear you perfectly well and Just
really want you to sing what Iyrics I have Just written
or a favorite soul singa of ours,
ours cause the singing of the soul belongs to earth/
I'm deleerious In your skin/
its hard not to speak the truth
its easier than being with all these
ice ice liking the snow people.
sure, the snow is pretty
but some sand dunes
woici be better
to tumble down and blow the bits out my mouth
and hate how their
all in my eyes
but i'll shut them tighter
next time/ next time/
and will keep on rollin.
 

AFTER THA SHOW (2 b personally margenillized)
(livicated to pharoah sanders)
 
 saturnous space birds/with wings polarized to freedom/
lift an elephant ton of Iynchings to a grave / (this is love?)
emancipate this tusk from a heart of white bread inside my fist?/
 
how harsh is a black currant runnlng through the viens/
extended all/ the way past/
the tips of fossil feathers/ (where's the pharoah?)
 
my middle finger has three teeth from 3
   gargoyles encountered on the way
      to the launching pad/
i'm tri'n to ex-it /
  i'm ex-it-ting / I need to get my/
petal back/ fuck a brake/
i sald i'm tri'n 2 ex-it/
	a petal child/
         flowers wilt i love
          them not	transform to
         bee mode 		 to string sting
         marks
         on my calllng card
         hi!     				 ...Just lettlng you
		know     			that demons die!
		w/ continued pollinatlon of black blossums/(rare is the
love.)
	  Interracially this exists/i bet i'll
	beat you next time/in the mental race I mean/
 
		sperm donation time 4
	  black men/freeze for future preparation/
	genocide reparatlon/ladies love
	creamatozoon heart proJections
heating ovums nine x divine=/ bcame free.
 
   ballerina flight chords/
   (DOITGOOD)/open beauty boxes/
   (DOITGOOD)/into pirouette dreams/
(DOITGOOD)/protecting your fly!mac!daddy!love!skills/ from
my/
	hiiigh!pimp!stress!, make your heart still/ smile.
 
Smiles/
after love/satin cherry
piano keys
my heart/ is open/
for completion with your composition.
 
I grab your white beard/ZOOOOMM!/
& forget about time./ ... "bout time./
 
yes umm ...     that was 4 an O.G man of the sand(ers) er ah ...
 
	can i get a pen check
	aone2aone2/Peep ...
 
I was makin sex sounds and smelin male skin with Biz Markie
  playin in the background/
		  the beat boxing stopped, the tape flipped off/
		but my finger was on my trigger
		   and I might have killed a nigga/ u know/
engulfed him back into the primeval juice/
  no use in having homosexual gangsters hagin about my pussy hairs/
but!!		   if i get a beeper nasty nas says i can/
		be his bitch/oooh oooohhh/
		cool me up with your breath on my chest/my titties luuuvvv
		you/
if it's possible for a mamagland to luv
u
 w/out my entire being
   i was jus say ying!/dang!
 
  eve ( you know eve, well she) stepped on my face last night
there's a stye in my eye cause her leaf fell off
and landed in my orbital/
	I dreamt unashamingly of refertilizatrion of this earth probe/
	     yea, the upper soil is foiled by a male myth
	of me
	wanting to cover my
	beatiful couchie
		with a green leaf instead of a cowrie loinclothe/ with
		midnight blue satin inside./
		look into my sky
		  your sky/ our child/ we ride
the sanke/ and slide into worm holes of allah.
 
		my head comes out the sand/ ...there was a river/
there/
		its scary when u think ya can't breathe underground or
	     maybe it is because we are taught to think deathe is the 
end/
		that negro is necro/ but float on the niger/ there was a river/
there/
		under this train of thought/
   ah! check it out yo!/ i sample myself/
  i sample my ancestas/ i&i are pure love
please jus get your freak on!!!/
 
	um/
 
	the black tre'angle Is a muthafucka cause the white man made
bad love
	w/ our mothers/ spread us round the earth. planted us In
anothers land,
	sprinkled us with the virginal blood of our baby sisters/ straight up:
...... "NIggerl! Grow!!!"/
      "We know U R of THA SUN/ i took your magical ass out of
Akibulan...
		I want you to sprout
		an outer medulla obiongata cord/
			I havta cllmb and meet tha maker/ heartbeatmeup/
		as I climb/
				sadistfy my every craving/
     I'm having a hard time trascending w/ all thls tradlng"...
..... "Negress! Come!!/
      "wash this bleeding sheet for me/
		I want it before your mlstress comes home/
	better not let there be a stain, bltch, or I'll whip ya ass, and make
you
	wash your blood from the ground i leave you on to die, before
you
......	die."/
 
  	 the amerlcas are so frultful w/ soll so enriched/
 
if you look behind ourselves sometimes you'll see red footprints/
		our feet oozelng our lineage/
paths of forbearers should show us where not to
	step/
I think i will seriousiy learn how to fly/ fly/ fly/ so i/
	won't leave
     markings/
gotta teach my babies how to FLY / & have no fear of blood/
CRlstaLlZed/ on the tlps of fossil feathers/
 
		lick them and be nourished/
 
		never./ never./
 
		give your toungue to anyone.
 
 

Ka'Afrique aka Khefri Riley