By Faras Aamir
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
At a time of racial tension in Baltimore and around the country, one local artist is trying to use the power of poetry to bring people together.
Madea Bailey, better known by her stage name, Da Truth, is a 29-year-old poet from Rosedale, Maryland, who says her image as a gay black woman has never gotten in the way of her message of unity.
“There’s so much segregation in the world,” Truth said. “People want to classify and label but my [poetry] is about being unified, being universal, being one.”
Truth has been participating in poetry events since middle school and has filtered through many different competitions and events since she started writing her own poetry in high school. When the poetry is recited out loud as a performance, it is known as spoken word.
Her success in competitions made her name well-known among other Baltimore spoken-word artists and now gets booked for shows nearly every weekend.
She was recently the featured performer at the Floetic Friday event, which took place at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore on April 8.
One of the pieces she recited was “The Speech” in which she talked about black people’s battle against oppression. One of the lines she uses is “we need to take ourselves out of that bowl of black cherries and start complementing the fruit salad.” She explained that this was for oppressed groups who cause their own suffering by dividing themselves rather than acting as a community with other races.
“We believe that people are being racist against us but a lot of times I feel that we’re being racist to ourselves,” Truth said in an interview. “We’re too focused on racism from insignificant others when we could really be concentrated on building our own communities.”
Other poems she recited in front of the crowd of about 150 people included “Ghetto Princess” and an untitled poem about love.
In “Ghetto Princess,” Truth speaks about girls who grow up in neighborhoods with bad circumstances. She talks about the struggles of potentially not being able to succeed in life due to limited opportunity.
In the love poem, Truth expressed the ability to love others and yourself freely. She said that she wants to be loved for who she is without her race or sexual orientation being judged.
“Because of who I am sexually it can be a challenge performing, for example, a religious piece because at that point people who are religious don’t think I’m worthy enough,” Truth said. “It’s an automatic label I get anywhere I go…and that is fine, but the challenge can be people diminishing my words because of who I am.”
Angel Wilson, the event organizer, said she was excited to have Truth perform at Floetic Friday. She said Truth is able to move people with her powerful topics and humble approach.
“Truth really affects the black community, but she doesn’t even identify,” Wilson said. “She just tells her story in the midst of being black so for her to say her views and where she comes from is very strong for the black community to hear.”
Kevin Burnham, another poet who came out to perform at the event, said Truth has a way of identifying society’s harshest problems.
“Truth is always going to be the truth,” Burnham said. “If she represents the truth, no matter how ugly, how pretty, or how colorful, it’s always going to be relevant.”
Truth hopes to continue her efforts in helping her community with motivational speech and working with children and support groups. She also has plans of publishing a book filled with her poetry.
Her next performance, “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, Da Truth,” will take place on April 29 at 9 p.m. at the Baltimore Cultural Arts Center.