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"7 Generations Forward, 7 Generations Back"

Uni Q. Mical performs "7 Generations Forward, 7 Generations Back", a poem which engages the physical and ancestral realms. Uni Q. imagines the words of ancestors, delivering guidance to their descendants on earth about their responsibility in the present day.

"Why Can't You Just Dress Like Her?"

Uni Q. Mical performs "Why Can't You Just Dress Like Her?" an original poem addressing the complexities of discussing gender across generations of Black women in their maternal lineage.

"Confessions of a Punk"

Uni Q. Mical performs "Confessions of a Punk A**", an original monologue detailing the tribulations of being a seven-year old Black girl growing up in Park Heights in the 1990s, but feeling too awkward (and well, like a punk) to be a fighter - much to the dismay of her family members and peers. The scars she avoided (and, endured, as a result) had more than physical impact. Here, she shares her funny, heartwarming, and, at times, agonizing story on just how.

Tha Flow State: A Poetic Manuscript

THA FLOW STATE: A Poetic Manuscript
 
Poems included in this collection:

  • "the new plymouth (aka, NePly, 1620-20??)", 2019 
  • "landscape for the home/less", 2019
  • "a rat race to the bottom (or, yet another eulogy)", 2021
  • "a social experiment (tuned to the frequency of baltimore club)", 2021
PDF icon Tha Flow State: A Poetic Manuscript

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About Unique

Baltimore City

Unique Robinson's picture
Unique Mical Robinson (a/k/a Uni Q. Mical) is a multimedia performance artist, poet, professor, and proud Baltimore City native. At immediate glance, it becomes clear that Unique’s work embodies the widely circulated feminist phrase, “the personal is political”. And yet, for her, this is no cliche, but a lived principle. Unique pulls inspiration from Baltimore's terrain, with all its pride, pitfalls and contradictions, 1990s Hip-Hop & R&B icons, and the cathartic verses of the Black Feminist... more
View Unique's Resume

The State of Black Bodies

Uni Q. Mical performs a series of poems and monologues: "7 Generations Forward, 7 Generations Back", "Why Can't You Just Dress Like Her?", and "Confessions of a Punk". These performances are excerpts from a poetic stage production, The State of Black Bodies (directed by Mona Webb & Dazie Grego). Unique co-wrote the manuscript for The State of Black Bodies as a part of Pr3ssPlayPoets (a 4-part Black Women's Poetry Collective formed at Mills College) from 2015-2018. 

The State of Black Bodies was featured as part of the 2018 National Queer Arts Festival, organized by San Francisco's Queer Cultural Center. This footage was filmed June 2, 2018 at Eastside Arts Alliance, Oakland, California.
Videographer courtesy of Queer Cultural Center.

  • "7 Generations Forward, 7 Generations Back"

    Uni Q. Mical performs "7 Generations Forward, 7 Generations Back", a poem which engages the physical and ancestral realms. Uni Q. imagines the words of ancestors, delivering guidance to their descendants on earth about their responsibility in the present day.

  • "Why Can't You Just Dress Like Her?"

    Uni Q. Mical performs "Why Can't You Just Dress Like Her?" an original poem addressing the complexities of discussing gender across generations of Black women in their maternal lineage.

  • "Confessions of a Punk"

    Uni Q. Mical performs "Confessions of a Punk A**", an original monologue detailing the tribulations of being a seven-year old Black girl growing up in Park Heights in the 1990s, but feeling too awkward (and well, like a punk) to be a fighter - much to the dismay of her family members and peers. The scars she avoided (and, endured, as a result) had more than physical impact. Here, she shares her funny, heartwarming, and, at times, agonizing story on just how.

GETCHA LIFE! EP

Getcha Life! EP is a collaborative musical project between Unique (a/k/a kLefta*maniak, in MC form) and MRDJXZ, a DJ/producer living in Brooklyn, NY. This project was written during Unique's first year in recovery, and so represents an overcoming of one of the most tumultuous emotional spaces of their lives. It also becomes a triumphant return to deeper truths, ones only found in the darkest nights of the soul. This project is soul-filled, both musically and lyrically, and harkens to 90s energy - an oft nostalgic era in hip-hop, yet simultaneously breathes 21st century life and perspective, with Unique existing as a Black queer artist, navigating the intersections of poetry, academia, and Baltimore's cultural arts scene.

Getcha Life! was released September 24, 2021 on all streaming platforms. It is the second collaborative project between Unique and MRDJXZ, the first being Tha 27th Letter, Vol. II: Tha Remix (2020). 

Alternatively, the full project can be heard here: https://klefta.bandcamp.com/album/getcha-life

  • "Tha Funnies"

    "Tha Funnies", an original song written by Uni Q. Mical (a/k/a kLefta*maniak) and produced by MRDJXZ. Here, kLefta*maniak discusses a day in the life of being 8. Inspired by Beverly Cleary's book, Ramona Quimby Age 8 (one of Unique's favorite books as a child). Track 4 on the Getcha Life! EP, by kLefta*maniak & MRDJXZ.

  • "Overbite"

    "Overbite" - An original song, written by Uni Q. Mical (a/k/a kLefta*maniak) and produced by MRDJXZ. Here, kLefta*maniak turns a flaw into empowerment. Track 3 on the Getcha Life! EP, by kLefta*maniak & MRDJXZ.

  • GETCHA LIFE! EP Cover

    The Getcha Life! EP cover, designed by Unique Robinson. It represents the past, present, and future state of Black life: what influenced them (Black radical resistance efforts, eliminated by COINTELPRO); poor living conditions, shaped by disinvestment in Black communities in Baltimore: Lexington Terrace - where Unique's family was raised (along with the similarly structured Flag House Courts, and Lafayette Courts, pictured here); and the future of possibility and new paradigms, as symbolized by the Kaballah (also known as the Tree of Life).

Tha Flow State: A Poetic Manuscript

In this collection, "THA FLOW STATE", Unique’s writing investigates the celebration of forgotten spaces and spirits, and asks viewers to imagine the connections between these spaces, and the current space we inhabit, which would rather we forget by in favor of progress without reverence for proper foundation (ie, gentrification and/or upward mobility). In the near 20 years since she entered her first poetry slam, Unique has infused every performance with the voices and vibrations of the forgotten which left influence for us to follow, with audiences awestruck from tuning into ancestral invocations in her voice.

Poems included in this collection:

  • "the new plymouth (aka, NePly, 1620-20??)", 2014 (published in Four Wings & A Prayer: A Charm City Churn, 2019)
  • "landscape for the home/less", 2014 (published in Four Wings & A Prayer: A Charm City Churn, 2019)
  • "a rat race to the bottom (or, yet another eulogy)", 2021
  • "a social experiment (tuned to the frequency of baltimore club)", 2021

  • Tha Flow State: A Poetic Manuscript

    THA FLOW STATE: A Poetic Manuscript
     
    Poems included in this collection:

    • "the new plymouth (aka, NePly, 1620-20??)", 2019 
    • "landscape for the home/less", 2019
    • "a rat race to the bottom (or, yet another eulogy)", 2021
    • "a social experiment (tuned to the frequency of baltimore club)", 2021
    PDF icon Tha Flow State: A Poetic Manuscript

Connect with Unique

[email protected]

Unique's Curated Collection

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