 "Photo: Harold Green")
At first glance, poet Harold Green appears to be just another normal guy. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the long, full beard that covers half of his face and the tattoos that cover his hands. His friends and family members describe his demeanor as quiet and laid back, but his poems are powerful and sharp and his messages are penetrating.
Green’s father introduced him and his sister to poetry when they were young, but Green never understood it until much later.
“Poems about how we were a prince and princesses, royalty, just the overall theme would always be how special we were. And now that I look back on it it was such a powerful thing,” Green said. He aspired to be in the NBA, and then thought of going to college for graphic design. “It’s been times where I even told my English teacher I was gonna be a garbage man. It’s been all kinds of things,” he chuckled while we sat in his car. He admits that while he did attend college for a short period of time, his mind was all over the place.
Green was always into art. When he was younger he would rap, but the discovery of his hidden talent was born out of necessity. He stumbled upon poetry at the age of 18 during the holidays.
“It was kind of [an] accident. I was joking around with it and then Christmas time came, I didn’t have any money so I had to do something for my family. So I wrote them all poems and they thought [they] were really good. And my sister just kept pushing me to go ahead and perform at church and from there I just kept on going,” Green said.
His cousin and manager, Excell Hardy, first heard Green rap their freshman year in high school, but was unfamiliar with his talent at poetry reading. Hardy remembers that Christmas. “We were blown out of the water. It was like a second nature to him, so we knew it was a gift. He found a gift out of necessity. He didn’t have money to give Christmas gifts, so he wrote poems for his family. They were blown away. That was the greatest gift he’s given,” the 23 year-old Hardy stated in a phone interview.
Green’s inspiration comes from all over the place: art, as in life, has to come naturally. Sometimes Green digs into his previous work and motivates himself. He explained that anything and everything can trigger a poem.
When Green performs on stage it comes naturally, but he claims that it did not come easily at first. It has taken much practice and time for Green to learn how to perform in front of an audience. His god sister Lisa Manuel has seen his confidence grow over the years. “One thing he would do was close his eyes. He would see the poem with his eyes closed.” Green explains that he would perform the poem directly as he wrote it, right from his book. “Now he’ll perform to you, he’ll look directly at the audience. He makes everyone in the audience feel like he is talking directly to them.”
When Green came to Loyola two years ago for the Black Cultural Center’s poetry jam, and again last year, he left a profound impact on the audience. Manuel stated that Green always leaves his audience contemplating and has the ability to be very motivational without being too wordy. Her favorites? “I always love to hear him talk about love.”
There doesn’t seem to be an issue that Green cannot tackle, and he makes it his priority to stay out of the box. When asked if he usually adheres to a single topic he said, “No. One thing I pride myself on is being versatile. I feel like I can take any kind of subject and make it my own, for real.” Green has had the opportunity to travel to several places, but one memorable moment for him was when he performed at a maximum security prison in Santa Cruz, Calif.
“These folks have killed folks, raped folks, whatever they did to be in there for life. And to see some of those guys who have nothing else to live for come up to me and tell me what I’m doing is inspiring them and how much respect they got for me — to sit down and break bread with those types of guys, that’s the stuff that really means a lot to me.” He was able to build up a rapport with some of the inmates.
Many times when people are held on a pedestal they tend to think they have a responsibility to their followers. Green is in the position to inspire others and give back, something he takes a lot of pride in. He is a special education teacher’s assistant at Robert A. Black Magnet Elementary School, teaches a creative workshop class and is also a mentor to young teenagers. Many of these teenagers need guidance and an ear, and Green is enthused to be a positive role model to them. He teaches the kids hope, character, and helps them find their voice in their writing. “Sometimes seeing your writing is a reflection of yourself.”
Green’s mission is to let the world hear his voice, even if they only get a little taste. And as long as they’re listening it is imperative that he says something worthwhile. But he does not limit himself to just poetry. He is in two bands, a fusion band called Black Orchard, and Fat Boy Skinny, which consists of Green and another poet named Ugly, rapping over beats. He’s also in several up-and-coming plays and has released two mixtapes called Dessert before Dinner and The Daily Harold. He is currently working on a YouTube video in which he posts a poem every day for the first 14 days of February called Flowers for the Living, an ode to Valentine’s Day.
Whether Green is performing in one of his bands or simply reciting a poem, his duty remains the same: to change people’s lives. He refuses to remain complacent. “I’ve touched some lives. People have hit me up and told me like, ‘I was on the verge of taking it all away from myself, and I sat and listened to your CD and over a period of time it changed me.’ Someone said they didn’t commit suicide ’cause they listened to your work, it blows your mind.”
Green will be performing in Zips on Feb. 17 for the poetry jam.
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