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Piece: The Voice of Change
by Sheryl Wiser

Laura “Piece” Kelley is proof positive that – in the words of singer/songwriter Sam Cooke – “change is gonna come.” Youth educator, teaching artist, poet, MC, vocalist, writer, activist and mother of two, at 28, Ms. Kelley is one soulful force of nature, demonstrating that age is no barrier to changing the world.

Creating her own style of spoken word poetry, MCing and vocals, Kelley has been nationally recognized for her unique delivery and lyrical content. She integrates vintage soul and true hip-hop, and is blessed with a smooth voice. Her hard-hitting, complex lyrics are fueled by social consciousness and insight. Using metaphors of community and positive aspects of street life, she avoids explicit or graphic material.

Kelley began writing poetry in childhood. In 2000, she began competing for the Seattle Poetry Slam Team and earned her way to the National Poetry Slam competition two years in a row. Last year she was crowned the Seattle Grand Slam Champion, 2004-2006. Kelley has shared the stage with well-known masters of the spoken word, including Gil Scott Heron, Saul Williams, Angela Davis, Gwendolyn Brooks and Bobby Seale to name a few, and currently, she is a featured poet on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and in the Underground Poets Railroad, a national tour and film documentary.

As an MC and vocalist, hip-hop is the backbone of her artistic style and performance. Over the years, beginning with her first performance at the Broadway Performance Hall at 14, she has “wrecked shop” with some of the best in the hip-hop family: The Roots, Les Nubians, Zap Ma Ma, Spearhead, D.J. Jazzy Jeff and many more. Kelley co-founded Jumbalaya, the celebrated (and longest running at seven years) Seattle-based improvisational music ensemble featuring the best young players from different genres.

Kelley has earned deep respect for her craft. “Her poetry cuts to the bone on social issues and she delivers it with ferocity, but it is also from the heart,” says Seattle music promoter/club owner and activist David Meinert. “Beyond all, Piece is sensitive and knowledgeable about the issues affecting her community, and she not only brings them to the surface with her poetry, but also takes action on them with her work.”

But perhaps it is as a creative writing educator and teaching artist that Kelley most stands out. Her writing workshops are dedicated to helping young people, particularly those at risk. At the 2005 Washington Cultural Congress (produced by the Washington State Arts Alliance) at Sleeping Lady Mountain Retreat in Leavenworth, she reiterated the need for young people to “develop their own powerful voices as well as reclaim their own media.”

Kelley believes the recording and advertising industries have “co-opted” hip-hop, [They took] “one of our most sacred forms of youth expression in the culture, and filled it with violence, misogyny and mindless consumerism . . . The industry is trying to constantly sell their product, take over a youth culture that is celebratory. Because hip-hop is a youth-born, youth-sustained cultural art, it’s important for us to examine the messages in music. We need to be aware of how commercialization and programming influences our belief system. It is the responsibility of young people to reclaim our media.”

Arts producer and consultant Vivian Phillips has seen Kelley perform and participated in her writing workshops. “Given that I work with a lot of artists, those of the hip-hop generation are of particular interest to me and they inspire me. They have a pulse on what is going on right now and they are preserving important elements of our culture.

I can only describe Laura’s mission in the terms of how she affected me – she frees people to pull buried treasures from deep within. She’s like a raider of the lost heart. I can’t stop writing since that workshop. I’m a voracious journaler, but now I can translate my thoughts and feelings in a new profound and powerful way. She’s a griot who not only tells stories but also prods the telling of stories. She gave me the tools I needed to unlock suppressed creativity. Isn’t it wonderful when you get a gift and it’s not even your birthday? That’s what she was/is for me – a ‘Piece-ful’ gift.”

At the Cultural Congress, where Kelley presented a workshop and two keynote addresses, she was introduced by the arts commission’s Mayumi Tsutakawa as “a shining light unto herself.” She was clearly a favorite with the audience. All eyes were on this petite young woman, who barely rose above the top of the podium. Fiercely articulate, passionate and compassionate, she recited in a clear, dulcet tone. “I was refreshed, challenged and invigorated by her combination of wisdom, artistry and enthusiasm,” says WSAC staffer and Cultural Congress board member Bitsy Bidwell.

Seattle-born, Kelley is a fourth-generation Washingtonian. One of the most influential people in her life has been her grandmother Ruby Bishop, a jazz pianist who still plays around town. “From birth to beyond, she has been one snappy, sassy lady – I grew up with music, and more specifically, constant musical jams in her basement,” recalls Kelley. Her grandfather owned a pharmacy in Seattle and some real estate. “He was a huge influence as well, a hard-working man who never stopped working. We were a well-established black family. Grandmother was my big influence, musically speaking, but my mother was the definite poetic influence.”

Kelley’s musical upbringing was filled with jazz piano and the musical choices of her two much older brothers: ‘70s and ‘80s punk, hip-hop and soul music.

The real genesis of Kelley’s artistry was at the Seattle Public Schools’ Nova High School, where a counselor encouraged her writing. Leaving Nova after a year to focus on her poetry, she received her GED at 15. Nova, Kelley says, “was absolutely alternative in the best sense of the word – an absolutely incredible educational institution, which ultimately influenced my decision to become an educator.”

She became passionate about exploring her artistic avenues – influenced by everything around her, specifically her childhood neighborhood, the Central District. At 16, she began a journey into Sufism, hoping to understand the source of her creative inspiration. About that time, she also became a nationally recognized participant in poetry slams and began performing poetry and hip-hop at Seattle-area private schools.

In 2000, while living one block from the City of Seattle’s juvenile detention center, she called one of her early mentors who worked there and asked if there were any poets going there to work with kids. She told Bruce Bivens, then principal of the detention center school, “I rap, I MC and I want to work with these kids, do something positive in their lives.”

Bivens taught her how to write a curriculum and helped secure a grant. This experience led her to work even more closely with incarcerated youth, specifically juvenile girls through an organization called Powerful Voices. Kelley began using the creative arts with the girls, helping them to develop “an authentic voice on how to speak about their experiences – sexual trauma, violence, abuse, anger, addiction.”

She continues to work as an arts educator with local and national nonprofit organizations, developing progressive programs around the culture of hip-hop and spoken word, as well as conducting private workshops with writers and producing events through her production company, Piece Productions.

Kelley has “great rapport with youth and young artists and is very articulate about art and politics,” says Michelle Blackman, who works with the City of Seattle’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. “She performed for a youth project that I am working on at Rainier Beach High School and she is a teaching artist with Arts Corps (a nonprofit youth development program).”

Kelley is beginning to do workshops at the University of Washington and other colleges on the cultural anthropology of the street. She also plans to continue protesting the mainstream media, radio and recording industry and “their relentless selling of guns, violence and misogyny.” Her mission is to combat an “ideology of dysfunction as well as the relentless consumerism that targets poor young people who commit violence to get what they think they want.”

Kelley says her future will continue to “creatively circumnavigate” the pop culture and create a safe place where the experiences and ideas of young people are honored.”

Roots/rock songwriter Sheryl Wiser has performed throughout the Northwest and been a part of the local music community for over 20 years.

©2005 Caliope Publishing Company