Split this Rock!, March 23

The first workshop of Friday for me was titled “Writing the Disaster,” held in the Langston Room of Busboys & Poet. It was moderated, & recorded for subsequent radio play by Marc Steiner of WEAA 88.3FM, Baltimore. The participants were Patricia Smith, whose 2008 book of poems Blood Dazzler was about the human & environmental aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, & Mark Nowak, whose book Coal Mountain Elementary (Coffee House Press, 2009) confronts the Sago & Sunjiawan mining disasters.

M. Nowak, M. Steiner, P. Smith

The back & forth discussion, with trenchant questions from the audience to expand the topic, soon centered on the contrasting methods of the 2 poets. Mark talked about gathering the actual stories of workers about the closing of Ford plants in the US & South Africa (see my earlier Blog) giving the workers a place to tell their own tales. Patricia, on the other hand, had no personal connection to New Orleans, but used, as she said, what she had learned as a poet to get close to the Katrina story, the poems as conversation. Ultimately it seemed that both are needed: the real stories from the workers themselves, & the practicing poet's skills to channel or transform these stories, to reach audiences that otherwise would not hear them.

Both poets stressed that it was important not to be boxed in by the type of writing, to lose the "attachment to genre" (as Mark put it, explaining that he does "labor history with line-breaks"), & as Patricia said, "we're all story tellers."

Patricia also shared some poems in her quietly intense performance style, one in the voice of an undertaker whose clients are increasingly young men killed by bullets, another, "Still Life with Toothpick."


The afternoon workshop I attended was titled "Poet's Forum: How Political Engagement Affects the Writing Process" & was held in a conference room in the Thurgood Marshall Center on 12th Street, NW. One might call it the Beloit Poetry Journal panel, as it gathered 3 poets, Douglas Kearney, Khaled Mattawa & Minnie Bruce Pratt from the BPJ's 2012 Split This Rock Chapbook & was co-chaired by editors John Rosenwald & Lee Sharkey. The poets were asked to describe their "leap from political engagement/insight to the poem on the page."

D. Kearney, K. Mattawa, M. B. Pratt, J. Rosenwald, L. Sharkey

Each poet read briefly & commented on their poems, beginning with Minnie Bruce Pratt reading "Turning the Switch Off" (from the Chapbook), & another about caring for her ill partner, "What Do I Do Next?"

Khaled Mattawa read an excerpt from his poem in the Chapbook, "After 42 Years" on the capture & death of Moammar Gadhafi. He described literature "as a space for contrariness & a space for conscience," also, poets as ones "capturing the echoes."

Douglas Kearney's poem in the Chapbook is in 5 parts, each dealing with separate aspects of the way "black babies" are perceived, focused on the recall of Costco's "Lil Monkey" doll. He read the sections titled "We don't operate in that kind of thinking," the dramatic section, "We have a really diverse, family operated company …" with it's "performative typography" (see my previous Blog on his reading) contemplating the question of Evil, & the first section, again bringing up the spirit of Trayvon Martin.

There's something implicitly counter to the recent AWP Conference (Academic Writers Project) here at the more plebeian Split This Rock, although the comparison sometimes became explicit, as it did at the first panel I attended when Philip Metres & Jennifer Karmin described an un-official human mic at the last day of the AWP Conference in Chicago. However, every once in a while I did hear what I would call an "AWP question," asking about such (non) things as "authenticity versus innovation," etc., though these moments were rare. If Split This Rock is anything it is diverse.

Following the afternoon sessions (most of) we headed over to the Supreme Court building behind the Capitol for Split This Rock's customary confrontation of the seat of power. At the first Split This Rock we demonstrated at the White House, the last time we were at the Capitol, now we were at the 3rd Chamber of government, the Judiciary. Our message was directly counter to the 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case: we proclaimed "Money is not speech! Poetry is speech." And we gathered to create a Cento, a group poem composed of random lines of poetry of no more than 12 words recited person (real people, not corporations) by person. I spoke Walt Whitman's grand line from the end of "Song of Myself," "I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." You could hear the hammer ring against the pillars of power.

Split this Rock!, March 22 -- Evening Reading

Executive Director of Split This Rock, Sarah Browning served as our MC for the first evening reading, held at the Carlos Rosario International School, a brisk walk up 11th Street from U. Street. The 2012 Split This Rock Festival is dedicated to the memory of poet, activist, teacher June Jordan. Sarah invoked June’s memory & that of Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, & the long list of other murdered black men & women throughout history, then played a recording of June reading one of her poems in the voice of Valentine Jones.

Each of these readings included a performance by a young poet from the DC Youth Slam Team. Tonight, Lauryn “Poetic Hyst” Nesbitt gave a stunning recitation of her piece beginning, “It’s taken me weeks to write a first line…” about disrespect of students in school. Watch out for these young poets, they are coming up fast.

The last few days I had been reading the poems of Kim Roberts in both the current issue of the Beloit Poetry Journal (a chapbook anthology of Split This Rock poets) & in her most recent collection Animal Magnetism (Pearl Editions, 2011), & tonight she read from both. She began with 4 of the medical museum poems from Animal Magnetism, “Blood Letting,” “The Apothecary Doll,” another about the skeletons of a giant & a dwarf at the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia, & “IUDs”. She finished with a poem from the Beloit Poetry Journal, “The International Fruit of Welcome” (pineapple, if you must know), & a new poem, a childhood memoir, “A Boy Named Schmudge.”

Douglas Kearney began by flopping himself onstage to demonstrate how James Byrd Jr. was dragged (face down, by his feet) behind a pick-up truck, then read his poem “Big Thicket Pastoral.” Two of his poems referenced modern musicians, the intense, repetitive “No Homo” from a phrase of Lil Wayne, while a poem on domestic violence, “Live Evil,” referenced Miles Davis. In between he performed “The Black Automaton #3” (from The Black Automaton, Fence Books, 2009, 2011) described as a work song. He ended with a dramatic (actually, they were all dramatic) piece on the Middle Passage in which he used, among other borrowings, lines from T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Kearney presents his poems with shouting, whispering, stuttering repetitions, his voice rising & falling as needed, true performance poetry not constrained by a single style of performance as often seen on stage. His performance also helped me to understand his often puzzling layouts on the page. I had been puzzling over his poem in the Beloit Poetry Journal until I realized they should be “read” as musical scores, or scripts for performance.

Finally, how do I even begin to write about Sonia Sanchez reading? I didn’t audio or video record the reading (though the folks at Split This Rock did) & sometimes I was so enthralled I forgot to take notes. But there she was, “the conscience of poetry” as Sarah Browning described her, the Poet Laureate of Philadelphia, a giant hiding behind the lectern. She began expressing thanks for being “in this place called Washington DC” & with a commentary & a poem -- as throughout the edges were frequently blurred into one continuous stream of performance -- (“man is an alien in this world…”) reading for Trayvon Martin (as others have, & will, throughout the Festival) & another 17 year-old boy dead. “A Poem for Sterling Brown” was written after reading in The New York Times about a 3000 year-old mummy. A poem dedicated to the folks at Split This Rock on the themes of death, loss & words, wove in singing lines & scat-singing, lingo & sound words, like a voodoo ceremony in a Baptist Church. Then on to “Peace Poem for Maxine Green,” & a poem for her father & her brother, interrupting, or glossing, the stanzas with commentary. Her concluding performance started off recounting some of her conversations with June Jordan, as she came from behind the lectern, microphone in her hand, more scat & voodoo words, chanting, crouching, touching the stage, like a Shaman, ending with “JuneJuneJuneJune… JorJorJor… Done!”

Sonia Sanchez made the hammer ring tonight at Split This Rock.

Split this Rock!, March 22 -- Workshops & Panels

Back again in Washington, DC for the fabulous Split this Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness. After attending the first one in 2008 I went on record (over & over again, as I am wont to do) to proclaim this “the best poetry festival, ever,” & vowed to come back. I did in 2010 (the festival is held every 2 years), & am back again this year. As I initially write this Blog in my hotel room, I’ve got to say I am once again having a great time: great poets & activists, great, informed/engaged audiences, tons of poetry books to buy, even great food (especially at Busboys & Poets). All of the venues are in the historic U St. district.

Appropriately enough the first panel I attended was titled “Poetry as Activism, Activism as Poetry: Poetic Interventions in the Public Sphere.” The panel was chaired by Philip Metres, who talked about the Peace Show in Cleveland, OH, an annual Labor Day alternative to the Air Show there, as well as a student project to collect stories from peace activists. His presentation focused on poets as writers & as people who are connected to the community.

Jennifer Karmin, from Chicago, showed images from some of her street performances, including one in which artists rented parking spaces to set up art projects & performances on the street. She also described collaborative events, like the Walking Project & “4000 Words 4000 Dead,” both of which take place on the street in public places.

Ken Chen is the Director of the Asian-American Writers workshop & talked movingly & graphically about working with immigrants’ rights organizations in Arizona, witnessing assembly-line like plea bargaining for captured immigrants in chains. See www.wordstrike.net.

Mark Nowak began with drawing the distinction, & comparison, of the poem as a noun (a thing), & the poem as a verb (action). He is currently working with international organizations on a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (similar to, & expanding on, the law passed in New York State). He described his work in running creative writing workshops as an organizing tool for workers in Ford plants, both here in the US & in South Africa.

Later in the day I attended the "Tribute to Sam Hamill and Poets Against the War" held in the True Reformer Auditorium. Sarah Browning, Executive Director of the festival, served as host & MC. After reading one of Sam Hamill’s poems she read a couple of her own from her own fine collection Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007, 2011).

Marilyn Nelson read the poem/letter “To Bill & Chris” by Hamill, a meditation on printing books & changing technology. She also read her poems “Honor Guard,” a moving story of an illegal immigrant’s military funeral, a commentary on existence & on being human, “Nothing Stranger.”

Martin Espada began by reading “Blasphemy” which he dedicated to Hamill -- poetry can save us--, then his poem about returning to his old Brooklyn apartment many years later, & ended with his poem, "Alabanza: In Praise of Local 100," that is in the Poets Against the War (Nation Books, 2003) anthology, before introducing the honored poet himself.

Sam Hamill brought about a fire-storm of poetry in response to the fire-storm of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 when he responded to Laura Bush’s invitation to read poetry at the White House by inviting folks to send him anti-war poems to read instead. Thousands of poems later, & a best-selling anthology, Poets Against the War is an example of the community of poets rising up with their varied voices to say “No!” to war.  Laura Bush called off her planned poetry symposium.  The poems Hamill read today ranged over a series of issues confronting us, including a New York poem written in September 2001; the long, angry & pensive “Body Count;” “The Road to Rama” (on displaced Palestinians); “Eyes Wide Open” on an anti-war exhibit of military boots; a poem about a murder in Mexico during the on-going drug wars; a poem on immigration “Border Song;” & ended with an image from 1963 as a Buddhist immolates himself to protest that war. Even (especially?) with the overt political context (after all this is Split This Rock, isn’t it?) his poems are filled with stirring language & the rich images of the best poetry.

The rest of the festival was filled with other engaging, provocative panels, & readings. Split This Rock calls poets to a greater role in public life & fosters a national network of socially engaged poets. From its home in the nation's capital, it celebrates poetic diversity & the transformative power of the imagination.

Check back at this Blog for more entries on this fabulous Festival.

Nitty Gritty Slam #14, March 20

Starting only about a half hour late, el presidente, Thom Francis began the open mic with his poem of being "… in your cold embrace …" "Shackle" followed by Prof. Daniel Nester's long piece about being run over by a lawnmower when he was 19 & suing the manufacturer. Leslie Michelle's poem "Poetry High" was just written tonight, right here.

D. Colin, Slamin'

Then Mojavi jumped in with the duties as host. Jess Listen to my Words read a new poem from her notebook, the deathly "A Mirror." Ed Rinaldi's poem "Old Pain" was for Spring (which began today!). Mojavi read a new poem, "Intervention," ripped from the pages of today's newspaper on the shooting of Trayvon Martin, in Sanford, FL.

I had seen Rainmaker (Peter Charles Seaton) perform at UGT last week & he was back tonight as the Nitty Gritty Slam's first Featured Poet. He began with a bar poem/love poem, playing on names of drinks & beers, strung together in his breathless, surging ahead style. Also in the same style was "Move Me" (on spoken word performance), & the political "Uncle Sam is my grandfathter…" He thought he was done, but Mojavi called him back to the stage to perform an erotic piece, "Please Let Me" done in a slowed down version of his usual style.

When Dain Brammage took the stage to host the Slam (& perform his "Slam Poem" with unbidden help from the audience, i.e., me) he had forgotten to select a "sacrificial lamb", so Rainmaker came back again to perform another piece in his interchangable style.

Elizag, Dain Brammage, D. Colin, Victorio

I thought I was a shoe-in for the second round with only 5 signed up, but with the last-minute addition of another walk-in poet my chances grew slimmer. Still, my 4th slot reading of "One Poem" earned me a respectable 26.1. In the second round, D. Colin's perfect 30 was marred by an over-time penalty, but she went on to win the final round, going toe-to-toe with Eliag; Victorio had sewed up the 3rd slot. In my opinion (which I know ain't worth much without a judge's clipboard & marker), D. Colin's final round poem on Haiti was a much better piece than her second round poem that got 10s.  But I guess that's Slam for you, real poems don't get a 10, as someone once said.

Full scores, etc. are at AlbanyPoets.com.  Come back on the 1st & 3rd Tuesday of the month at Valentines in Albany, NY for the Nitty Gritty Slam, starts with an open mic at 7:30PM, $5. will get you a stamp on a body part.

St. Poem Reading Series, March 19

There was a group gathered in front of the UAG Gallery on Lark St. at 7:30 for the 7:30 sign-up, but the gallery was dark, so we wandered off, collectively & singly, but then wandered back & there was Rob dragging out the sign & the lights were on & some folks were signing up & Beat Generation Night was about to begin. Actually, it was mostly Kerouac/Ginsberg night.

Our host, RM Engelhardt, began with a short lecture & history of the Beats then read Jack Kerouac's "Spontaneous Prose."

Ed Rinaldi talked about Jack Kerouac's influence on his work, then launched into his own poems, "At the Corner of Wood & Sublime," the kitchen poem "At the Moon with my Poem in Her Mouth," & "The Shad Run." Rob was up with a somewhat serious reading of Allen Ginsberg's hilarious "America." & I followed with a botched recitation from memory of Bob Kaufman's "Believe, Believe," then my own poems "Midnight Fog" & the "hot-pants poem" from my Florida vacation. Rob returned with Kerouac's "How to Meditate."

The night's poetry virgin was Justin with a fine experiment using repetition (& referencing Lorca), "Frisco in the Fifties," then a class assignment to try to not make sense "Visions of Jack." Rob talked about the "old days" of his open mic at Stephanucci's coffee shop, of Jack's cats & Rob's own encounter with a cat.

Nick was another new voice tonight, with a cluster of poems, some like random notebook jottings, like "Hummingbirds" (on night & hash), & "Night is Gone," & the more developed "I am the Monster Under the Bed." The night ended with 2 renditions of Allen's poems, first Rob doing "Father Death Blues" (but check out this version of Ginsberg hisself on YouTube), then Avery Stempel reading part 1 of "Howl."

It was good to know that young poets are still reading Jack Kerouac & Allen Ginsberg, but, unfortunately, all too like the Beats there were no women poets reading tonight. But they could have, because as the gallery was closing up Mojavi arrived with a posse/entourage that included some of Albany's fine poets, both male & female. Maybe next time.

Every 3rd Monday at the UAG Gallery, figure 8PM (or thereabouts) start time.

Urban Guerilla Theatre, March 16

This was a special UGT titled "Herstory" for Women's History Month hosted by Tenesha Smith (but of course Mojavi was there too). In fact, in addition to the usual performances of spoken word, music & comedy, there was a fashion show by Shekihah Beauty with 4 gorgeous (of course) models, & a presentation of awards to women for community service. I didn't catch every act, but those I did were well worth the admission price.

MC: Tenesha Smith

Among the performers were Poetyc Visionz, comedienne Carlisle Carey, Midori (?) with a poem to a strong black woman, her mother, & Tenesha Smith wondering "Where My Sisters At?" Jentri did a hip-hop piece "Herstory as the Event," then some songs from CJ, Kat-so Poetic first did a double positive piece praising women as queens, then on what's it like to be normal after being molested, & Rainmaker did one of the best pieces of the night, a tribute to his great mother with a great flow of images from the islands.

Jess Listen to my Words wove a love poem into a poem about waiting for the results of a biopsy ("Yesterday"), ILLiptical did a couple pieces with a beat behind him, "Invisible Woman" & "Sentence Complete" (to his wife), & Leslie Michelle read a tender poem that she had read to her mother just before she died.

Rainmaker

Bklyn Shay was back with a piece on unity, Shatieka Ross included "Rest in Peace" from her 2009 CD, & Alessia (?) Ortiz, with her stunning voice sang & read a couple of journal entries, one on the strength of women, the other on love gone bad.

Among the women getting awards for their work in the community were Payton Johnson Harrison, Leslie Michelle, Bklyn Shay, Jessica (aka Jess Listen to my Words), & tonight's MC Tenesha Smith.


This is where you need to be on the third Friday: the Linda, 339 Central Ave., Albany, NY for Urban Guerilla Theatre.

Third Thursday Poetry Night, March 15

So we gathered once again, this time on the Ides of March, at the Social Justice Center not to stab Caesar but to read poetry. It looked like a short night but as the evening progressed more readers showed up. Tonight when I invoked the Muse it was the recently departed Wisława Szymborska, winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Alan Catlin had gotten there earlier & signed up first to read a piece he had written at last week's Write Here! Conference at the Arts Center in Troy, "War Stories," about a school friend who goes to West Point.  Avery showed up with a description of "Field Hockey Practice" (in Clifton Park).  Joe Krausman came up with a new word in his poem about looking for a companion, nerzeditor, i.e., a combination nurse & editor.   D. Alexander Holiday, instead of one of his own poems, read the short poem by Kenneth Patchen, "Nice Day for a Lynching."

Tonight's featured poet, Tess Lecuyer, has been around in the Albany poetry scene for many years & should have been featured in this series long before now. Now that she is back out reading her fine poems at open mics on a regular basis, it was time to have her here. Tess likes to play with forms & she read a number of sonnets, beginning with "Crow Sonnet 1" (in the Park), then another "On Jason's Bag," leading to "Lilly Villanelle" from WordFest a few years ago. Then on to a cluster of love poems, "Climb," "The Co-Dependent Sonnet," & into the end of the affair with "Leaves," and "And Your Little Dog Too." "May Day Chant" is an old, seasonal poem Tess said she had no memory of writing. As a fan of old, gnarly fairy tales, she wrote her own gnome story in her poem "Spectacles," then ended with a ballade about her experience years ago as a counselor at Camp Little Notch. It was a wonderful, lyrical turn around the poetical world of Tess Lecuyer -- nice work.

After the break & the ritual taking of money, I read "Birthday Poem 2012". Sylvia Barnard's poem "River" comes from her weekly bus trip across the Hudson to teach Latin. Miriam Axel-Lute's column in today's issue of Metroland was an examination of the contradictions of neo-classical economy, the same theme she confronted poetically in "Demand Curves Always Slope Down." Sally Rhoades read "a prayer poem" so that they will get back to fixing their house.

Moses Kash III found a ride from his new residence in Troy & brought along a recent letter/poem he wrote to President Obama. Dan Rain's unfinished, untitled piece was about see-saws (or, as some said, teeter-totters). Appropriately Eric Randall read his "unconventional love poem" from his iPhone, the poem titled "Apps of the Heart."

We are at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany, NY each Third Thursday, 7:30PM, for a featured poet & an open mic. Your $3.00 (or more) donation helps pay the featured poet & supports the work of the Social Justice Center.