RICCARLO PORTER (A.K.A. Makoka Zawadi) was a significant presence in my early 90s poetry scene here in Los Angeles. He has remained true to his “form” which includes engaging performance art (he’s one of the few artists to use authentic, Shabbazz bean pie boxes in his work), magnetic tape recordings as well as astute verse. This presentation comes out of his basic black, untitled chapbook that you might have bought from him a few years ago on the streets around Leimert Park here in Los Angeles or in Oregon, Florida—wherever the man is walking throughout the United States (and a few times abroad). His latest efforts has been in the Mumia Jamal freedom movement. But he is still out there exploring the word, sound and gesture, changing phone numbers and addresses. —We are more than sand on the sea shore; we, more than numbers…