Al Letson: Penumbra A One Man Performance featuring Poetry, Theater, and Film Henrietta's at 9th & Main, Jacksonville, FL For dedication to his craft, innate talent, and hard work, Al Letson deserves the title of "consummate professional." I don't use those words lightly. His delivery is precise, the emotion is fresh - Letson never seems to be on autopilot.

Al  Letson

Penumbra, Letson explained to a full house, means basically "in between." This night consisted of a mixture of poems and performance pieces that he has done in the past from different shows, as a kind of pause before he begins to put out new work, and to introduce himself to those who have not yet seen him. My favorite piece of the evening was called "Eunice". It's about a young black girl, a child in 1943, playing her first piano recital after much practice. During the recital she is distracted by a disturbance in the audience. Her parents are being told to move to the back of the room to make room for a white couple. Through this debacle she must keep playing, as her father mouths the words to her, "you know what you suppose to do." Near the end of the poem we find out that this is a true story and the young girl, Eunice Kathleen Waymon, later changed her name to become famous as the great Nina Simone.

Text and photos by Bill Ectric, except top right photo by Billie Anderson.

After Letson's live performance, we watched his segment on Russell Simmons Def Poetry.

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The audience raptly watches an intense video by Al Letson