By Melina Paris, Music Columnist
In a space inhabited with luminous, clouds Jimetta Rose provided both poetry and music, June 30, during her Resonance presentation at Zebulon in Los Angeles. It was about, in her words, “healing tones, words and visuals.”
Jimetta Rose’s Namesake
The “metta” in Jimetta Rose’s name refers to “loving-kindness” expressed in Buddhist texts. In Buddhism, loving kindness leads to a meditative state by being a counter to ill-will.
True metta is devoid of self-interest. It evokes within a warm-hearted feeling of fellowship, sympathy and love, which grows boundless with practice and overcomes all social, religious, racial, political and economic barriers. Metta is a universal, unselfish and all-embracing love. Jimetta Rose embodies “metta” fully.
Looking enchanting in a satin and lace violet gown and tiara atop her curly up do, she greeted everyone with hugs and plenty of love.
Rose is proving herself a renaissance woman. She writes, sings, performs and she also hosts an eclectic weekly online radio show called The Garden of Sound on Worldwide FM. She is spreading her boundless joy bringing about awe to everyone around her.
“I tried to create an alternative reality to the one we all reside in,” Rose said. “We must breathe and let our breath come out as love, creativity and joy. We must breathe together.”
She was backed by percussion from Carlos Niño, who utilized natural elements such as shells, gongs and bells. Rose opened with her poetry. But first, she explained the clouds. She was inspired by an Instagram post she saw where someone was controlling temperatures inside a room by using clouds. Rose described herself an agent of love.
“Right now the world is heavy and burdensome,” she said. “I want to fill the room with the energy of love. This space is free for us to feel.”
Her verses of unflinching truths with her melodic delivery draws you in. She is a calming force of nature. The soundscape behind her enhanced this journey into deeper realms as she bares her soul. Her prose cuts right to the core of whatever she speaks, communication between lovers, stories the government tells us and actions it takes, war, living as a black woman in America and the human spirit, to name just a few.
As she spoke, the clouds changed hues in pinks, purples, oranges and blues. Echoing graphic shades appeared on a screen behind her and she summoned her audience closer.
She led into a piece saying, there is a time for everything, isn’t there?
“Now is not the time to tip-toe around these elephants in the room,” she said. “The shit piles are too high and the stench is acidic cutting to the core. The core of the apple is rotten and they keep making this pie.”
She is always honest, powerful and elevating.
“How is it more cost efficient to manufacture cancer causing, fruity, smelling poisons when real fruit grows on trees? Why can’t we just eat that? Why can’t you be honest about one thing? Just say that you want us all dead. Be honest about that. Just say that you only want our labor lining your bank accounts with our blood, sweat and fears.”
Before closing out her poetry, harnessing the rooms the energy, Rose stirred it to climax. Following prose on the historical suffering of the black body she flipped it into positive, saying she still finds joy in the darkest places within herself.
Her words evolved into harmonized melody. Rose emanated pitch perfect, pronounced tones in declaration wherein each word sounded like a resonant bell.
“I – still – find – joy, ” one note low, the next high in repetition and each verse more powerful. Like a bell towers faithful chime she sang out, dispensing her healing elixir, metaphorically lifting us onto her clouds.
“Are we feeling alright?” she asked. “I am too.”
After raising the room’s energy she guided us into her song, Welcome To the World. How appropriate to sing this story of her birth, her beginning. She describes it at as flowing into “the open waters” into this world.
As Rose sang she became even more alive. She performed a combination of songs from her album, The Light Bearer. Rose even gave us a taste of a new adventurous song called Black Museums. Stay tuned for it.
Resonance is the first art and sound installation Rose has done.
“I can say I’m officially a performance artist now,” she deservedly stated.
Rose presents elevating and unforgettable experiences when she performs. With Resonance, her intention was to create a multi-sensory environment. She surpassed herself.
“In this world, where all illusions of safety are gone, I feel there is a need for a place where magic, truth, beauty and fearlessness have space to flourish,” Rose expressed in her Facebook invitations.