With all the faux drama and hoopla surrounding Common's appearance at this week's Evening of Poetry at the White House, I didn't even realize that anyone else was on the bill, much less Jill Scott. I'm clearly slipping on my Jilly from Philly stannery to have missed that she also performed during the event and was the picture of loveliness while reciting her poetry to an audience of the President, First Lady, and other dignitaries. Jill showed how down to earth and like one of us she is when she got to the podium, a smile plastered on her beautiful face, and expressed how "geeked" she was to be there. Her mixture of excitement and anxiety was such a human moment, which she followed with spoken word pieces just as real. Jill dialed back her rawness and didn't perform anything along the lines of "Thickness," but she did touch on HIV, writing and the power of words, and even slipped in one last poem, "Womanifesto," which will be included on The Light of the Sun, at the risk of being carted off by secret service. You gotta love Jill. Watch her in action and fall even deeper.
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