Bennie used to lead the drum section at the Flash matches. She often sits in with Margaret Explosion, playing one of her Brazilian percussion instruments. Martha, Bennie’s long time partner, wrote poetry before she passed and Bennie set them to music. She performed them, mostly on ukulele, to a packed room last night at the Spirit Room.
Inspired by the poetry of John Milton and Lord Byron, most of the poems are metered and rhyming. Major themes include death, love, sex and religion – often in the same poem – as well as the pain of lost love and the various manifestations of mental illness that she wrestled with most of her life. Despite the dark subject matter, many of the poem/songs were funny and irreverent. Bennie says, ” The experience of presenting these songs to an audience with honesty and vulnerability has helped me grow as a person in ways I could never have imagined.” It was a beautiful performance.
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