Gabriel Giron and Kirk Latimer have been doing slam-style performance poetry together since 2006. They’ve overcome some rough pasts (see bio below), and used their experiences to fuel their mission, which is partly to create poetry, “but it’s a little bit more about the connections we make,” Latimer said.
Last New Year’s Fest they made a big connection with John Troxtel of RedMonkey Pictures. The Los Angeles-based TV and concert producer was visiting his hometown of Battle Creek and spent New Year’s Eve perusing the festivities.
After he saw Kinetic Affect, Troxtel “actually came up to us and said it was the most powerful performance he’d seen in his adult life,” said Giron, adding that this meant something coming from a guy who’d worked on stage shows for Dr. Dre, Eminem, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson.
Troxtel told them he’d help put together a TV show. The three put their heads together as co-producers and came up with the half-hour “Kinetic Affect Live.” It will be taped at Studio 246 every Saturday afternoon (excluding July 3) through Sept. 4. Starting Sept. 4, the episodes will run at 11:30 p.m. on Kalamazoo, Battle Creek and Grand Rapids cable access channels. Troxtel will also shop the show to commercial stations.
Kinetic Affect hopes their “Live” will be a worthy competitor to “Saturday Night Live,” the duo said. The show has music with house band Funk 211, comedy skits, spoken word and interviews with local and regional people who help the community. Latimer described the concept as parts “Dave Chappelle, Conan O’Brien and a splash of Oprah,” which caused Giron to burst out laughing.
Their spoken word performances are usually very serious, but Troxtel wanted them to try a bit of comedy. So for the first episode taped June 5, the duo found themselves in a nutty video skit as superheroes.Their spoken word performances are usually very serious, but Troxtel wanted them to try a bit of comedy. So for the first episode taped June 5, the duo found themselves in a nutty video skit as superheroes.
But on the serious side, in that episode they talked with a real hero: Keith Mumma, director of Kalamazoo-based nonprofit International Child Care, who got medical help to victims of the Haiti quake. They’re planning on bringing in subjects from outside of the area, such as Frank De Jesus Acosta, former East L.A. gang member who is guiding kids away from the gang life with his organization Barrios Unidos ().
“What we want to do is create this exciting energy that can really be community focused,” Latimer said.
On stage, “a lot of what we did was poetry, but a lot of people walked away feeling that it wasn’t, it was something more,” Giron said. Their mission was to shoot for “the positive uplifting side of things.” That will be included in the TV show, boosted by interviews with people “who are doing really good things,” Giron said.
Who Is Kinetic Affect?:
Kirk Latimer, 30
“I was not a very good person when I was younger. I was raised to be pretty brutal as a man. And I found ways to put up pretty big defenses to keep myself feeling safe and secure.” In his Detroit area high school he dealt drugs, hung out with wrong people, and acted the “tough guy,” Latimer said.
In his senior year, five friends committed suicide over three months, one died in car accident, one by drug overdose and four others went to prison. “I survived, I made it beyond. So I want to dedicate my life to those who didn’t have anybody to reach them at the time.” He became a high school English teacher and taught at Portage Northern High School until 2008.
Gabriel Giron, 28
Lived in upstate New York until 9 when his parents separated. He moved to the Gull Lake area with his mother, where he felt like an outsider and became angry at the world.
“I got into hanging out with the wrong crowd as well, got into selling drugs, making bad decisions. But I always had people around me giving me second and third chances,” Giron said. At Gull Lake in his senior year he was voted “Class Bully” and “Class Poet.” Giron felt he was “two completely different people.”
His best path was toward the Army, Giron thought. Seven months after enlistment Giron was diagnosed with testicular cancer. He fought the cancer for three years “and came out a completely different person.” Giron decided to do what he loved, studied creative writing and film at Western Michigan University and was a regular at poetry slams, where he met Latimer.
Their backgrounds are what drive their work, Latimer said. Kinetic Affect is also behind the nonprofit Speak It Forward, which does outreach work for youth in crisis.