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Get hit with 20+ years of Poetry wisdom! Cory “Bess Kepp” Cofer cliques up, bringing with him his deep bag of poetry tricks and hip hop clout. Bess illuminates black struggle and pain like Big Daddy Kane during “Threads and Lines” and the boys dive deep into the poetic pond and get salty and sweet during the “2 Piece Combo”.

[Episode Index]

• “Shockwave” 0:36
  
• Threads & Lines: 3:21
  
• 2 Piece | “Raise Up” 11:49
  
• 2 Piece | #poetry: 28:34
  
• 5 For Your Eye | 38:11

Low lit school theatre and palpable hip hop in the air to be a heard for blocks around. People of all types out front feeling the ability to share art in a public parking lot; A Mic and Dim Lights has always been a safe haven for this poetry generation. Bess Kepp had a message for us all and JB brought a community together through music and good vibes. Dim lights is where I met Bess Kepp and JB ten years ago, and it is a place I am happy to call my artistic home.

I would hit Dim Lights sporadically throughout my early twenties. It was one of the only spots for all of us who were just out-of-reach of the abundant LA open mics. For severals years, I never shared or performed; instead, I quietly popped in, often to just get into something of worth on a Thursday night. After poetry became more of a focus in my writing, I began going regularly and Bess and JB were always welcoming, quickly making me feel like I was a part community. Bess had a style of hosting that always made you feel like he loved art, and through your own art, loved you as well. As I developed more of my work in spoken word, Bess was ever encouraging, and I always felt that Bess and JB were grateful to the folks who came out to Dim Lights just as much as we are grateful to them. It was that encouragement and gratitude for the AMDL Community that really set me out on this whole Pen Clique thing.

Bess told me once that I could really do something with this poetry thing. I struggle finding value in my own work and it helped to have him tell me something opposing the critiques my mind would whisper. I have been doing a lot of different things with art for a lot of years and thought that the one thing missing from poetry was consistent and developed poetry content in the digital world. My initial intention in entering the community was to show people that this community is dope, and I was at first hoping to be someone behind the scenes far from the camera. After realizing this was going to have to be something I was more involved with, and after meeting Kuya David through community leader and dear poetry brother Charles Williams, I had what we needed to show someone the power of poetry.

Bess signed up for the show early and recorded last. I wanted to end strong and knew he would be an exclamation point for the end of our season. I had the flu the day of filming, but Bess’ sheer presence perked me up though; he hit the show hard, and it makes me proud to say that the first thing Bess Kepp said on Pen clique was,

“Shock value lost its value When Emmett Till happen…”

Moving through the episode with his poetry, I had several moments of gratitude to Bess and JB, actualizations of their place, and positive influences in our lives. Bess rounded out the episode with a piece not in defense of trap music, but in support of the blacks arts as a whole. I believe through the black arts, poetry and hip hop, people like Bess Kepp and JB  are doing work to save Americas soul, redeeming this country one dope line at time.

Now that we’ve ended the season with one of my inspirations for doing this all in the first place, the mighty Stockton-bred Bess Kepp, I imagine ya’ll are wondering what next?! Did we succeed?! Will we move forward? The answer is, of course we will. We are still the most LIT poetry podcast in the known universe and making this show is a joy to Kuya and I; we are grateful to you, the audience, for rockin with us and giving our podcast a home: your eyes and ears. It is a lot of work though, work we are willing to keep doing to keep all you exposed to art that may change or potentially save your lives. Bess Kepp told me once through a poem we could all get together and do some dope poetry shit, and I think we’ll keep doing that until the wheels fall off.

Writeup by Daniel Hees

[Footnotes]

• Bess Kepp: Facebook | Instagram
• 2 Piece Combo: “Raise Up” – G Yamazawa 
  
• 2 Piece Combo: #Poetry @c.j_peterson
  
• Music by The Dope Spot Studios Produced by Dom V
  
• Intro title & segment transitions animated by Seth Garnes