Back in another lifetime, otherwise known as 2001, a young artist named Darel Christopher Hancock gathered all of his favorite poems he had been scribbling into a journal his girlfriend gave him. He named the collection after his new favorite word, circumlocution (n. to speak in a roundabout way). I'm not sure what it was, the artistic flux he was in as a musician and poet morphing into an emcee, the uncertainty in his immediate future as he dropped out of the University of Maryland, or his keen foresight that he mistook as cold feet leading into his impending nuptials, but this completed collection never saw the light of day.

As I look back at that collection of poems as Bomani Darel Armah, I see a young artist finding his voice, yet afraid to share that voice with the world. I've desperately wanted the world to hear that young man, but the more I read his poems the more I realize how much different I am than him. I see how much reading my favorite poets like Neruda, E. Ethelbert Miller and Yusef Komonyakaa has changed my use of angles and tones. My decade plus as a participant and host in the legendary U Street spoken word poetry scene has elevated my performance as a poet. Long nights watching local legends like Sonya Renee Taylor, the Poem-cees and the (original) 5th L has seeped into my writing. Years of being a drummer and keyboard player with (420) Lauda with such artists like Raheem Devaughn, Deborah Bond, V. Rich, Wayna Wonderwossen, has made me dig back through my collection of Frankie Beverly & Maze, Nina Simone, Bob Marley and Fela albums as a songwriter and producer, not just a fan. More importantly, my maturity as a man and as an artist has made me less afraid of my own voice, and willing to share my many feelings, flows and flaws with the public.

So I have made this commitment to myself, to make sure that I begin every year by releasing a collection of the art that I created from the year before, beginning with this one, "Circumlocution Vol II". One day I plan on releasing the original volume, when I've had even more time and space between that young man and the artist I've become. Until then, I'm embracing this new fearlessness, and presenting the world with some of my favorites from the last three years of art I've made.