Frequency North, March 29

The last of this season's series at the College of St. Rose, hosted by the inappropriate Prof. Daniel Nester, was like deja-vu all over again: tonight's poets had been presenters at last week's Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington DC. Georgia A. Popoff & Quraysh Ali Lansana had presented in DC a workshop titled "Walking the Distance of Your Vision: Generating Poetry through Community Awareness and Self-Identiity," based on their book, Our Difficult Sunlight: A Guide to Poetry, Literacy & Social Justice in Classroom & Community. Tonight they did a joint reading from the book, with other poems.

Georgia Popoff began with a couple poems from her book The Doom Weaver (Main St. Rag, 2008), "Matrilineage" & "The Implausible Diameter of the Moon," a chilling description of desperation. Similarly Quraysh Ali Lansana read from his collection of poems in the voices of Harriet Tubman & others, They Shall Run (Third World Press, 2004) 3 poems: "Long way Home," "Faithless" & "Hole."

They continued with a joint reading of the Prologue from their book, explaining their approach, & a criticism of traditional approaches to literature. Georgia read an excerpt from her essay "The Power of Language: the Struggle Continues," followed by Quraysh reading an essay "Name Calling: the Language of the Streets" & a poem "Sixth Grade," both on the words used on the street: nigger/nigga, bitch, ho.

At the end Georgia read "Tupelo Roses" on a childhood visit to her grandfather in the South, & Quraysh read a poem on his mixed, Okie background, pulling in the inspiration of Gwendolyn Brooks.

It was a good mix of poetry & pedagogic meditation, a book that sounds like an important resource for the imaginative teachers in our schools.

For NaPoWriMo, my version

Although I did publish a chapbook last year of poems written during a month of prompts, Poeming the Prompt (A.P.D.), I'm not one for this form of assignment, mainly because I don't like doing something because everyone else is doing it. But I know it works for some writers, & there is value in having a task & working at completing it. So I came up with my own version of NaPoWriMo.

For the month of April I will be reading/studying a different poet each day. If this (or anything else in my day) inspires a poem then I will write it. I am keeping a small notebook to record what I've read & anything I write. For April 1st, my poet was Adrienne Rich, who died last week at the age of 82. I'd been reading her work over the weekend & did a tribute at the Poetry + Prose open mic at the Arts Center on Sunday.

On Monday my poet is Robert Desnos (1900 - 1945).

& here's a little surprise fragment from Sunday afternoon:

in the rain, obviously
like tears, & a time
to speak pledges,
dinner, the richness
of cheese, pasta the
wine filling empty
glasses left over
how we got through
the Winter, with me
with you, & now rain

Poets Speak Loud!, March 26

Back on my home turf to one of the most "spirited" open mics in the area, perhaps because our host, Mary Panza, is usually spirited herself. With our featured poet, Leslie Michelle, herself, waiting in the wings, Mary began the open mic.

Leslie Gerber (proof that that first name is not gender-specific) read a poem by Tara McCarthy "The Considerate Boyfriend," then his own about "Meeting the Famous in Manhattan." Being the season that it is, I just had to read my favorite Spring-time poem, by e.e. cummings "In Just Spring --" then a new piece inspired by the 100th birthday of the Oreo cookie, "Ode to the Oreo." Jay Wenk read his meditation on history, the grim "On the 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, March 25, 2011." Cheryl A. Rice read from her chapbook, Coast to Coast, the poem "You Let Me" (a kiss in the parking lot of the old Lark Tavern), then a recent poem on the death of her partner Michael's father, "Irises." Ed Rinaldi has been writing a poem a day for 2012 & read a couple, "Waiting for My Bones to Dry" & "A Child Never Asks to be Born," & you can read them at his Blog.

Leslie Michelle is a regular at UGT & at the Nitty Gritty Slam, often serving as a judge. Tonight we got to hear her stretch out a bit from the usual 1 or 2 poems we usually hear from her. She began with a poem written after her mother's illness, when she was out on her own, "Woman," then what she said was one of her favorite poems (from a time when she was homeless), "Why Can't You?" ("… live with it"), & a poem for her ex-husband, "When Blue is Love Jonesing." A poem written for a UGT Power of Praise event described a spiritual journey, pondering the nature (& the name) of the deity. She ended with a relationship poem titled "Foolish" in which the guy takes & takes but the woman gets her life back. We like happy endings.

Speaking of relationship poems, Carolee Sherwood began with one that both described a relationship as a runaway train, & was about writing the poem, "Don't Try This at Home We Are Trained Professionals on a Closed Course," then "How the Body Decomposes, a Love Poem." The youngest poet here tonight was Lexi with a love poem in rhyme, but filled with cuts & pain. Shannon Shoemaker's new piece also had cutting, & "the hollow shadow of a ghost." Kevin Peterson's poem "Clancy's" was a sketch of a woman in a dive bar in Saratoga; "Train Ride" was about his grandparents, in 2 parts, one for each set. Avery's first piece was in pop/rap rhymes, "Your Words Ripped Through Me Like Tumbling Bullets through Ripped Flesh" (another relationship poem, oh well), then the long, fussy shopping list for which he took much heat later on, "Someday Something Better" (maybe, if he's not too fussy we all agreed). Elizabeth Gordon (Elizag on the Slam stage) followed Avery's example with another list poem, this like a bureaucratic form with many checkboxes to answer the question "can we be lovers?"

Much to talk about tonight in the aftermath!

Poets Speak Loud! every last Monday of the month at McGeary's on Clinton Square in Albany, NY, 8PM -- but come early, the food is great, the service attractively attentive. Read about it on www.AlbanyPoets.com.

Split This Rock -- The People

Thurgood Marshall Center

One of the joys of this Split This Rock Festival that is beyond the price of admission is meeting, & re-meeting, & then talking with other participants, presenters or audience -- we are all poets here. I’ve been to all 3 of these Festivals & my circle of friends has grown & grown. Even if it is 2 years since I’ve seen them, when I meet a friend from a past Split This Rock Festival it is with great joy & warmth, a hug, a kiss, & a big smile. That's what I'm here for, as much for the conversation, the words.

This year there was yet another Albany poet hanging out at Split This Rock, Carolee Sherwood. Our tastes in panels & workshops were decidedly different so we didn't share much, but we enjoyed the readings in the evenings together, had lunch a couple of times at Busboys & Poets, & an occasional drink in the evening.  I hope she enjoyed it even half as much as I did.

Sarah Browning, Executive Director

Another poet with a looser connection to Albany was Yael Flusberg, a DC resident & member of the Board of Directors who combines writing & yoga in her work & has many (woman) friends in the Capital District through the IWWG.  I had attended Yael’s workshop on yoga & poetry at the first Split This Rock. Susan Brennan was back this year; she had read poetry in her younger days in Albany at the QE2, still has family in the area & read in Poets in the Park in 2008. Another Poets in the Park reader (in 2009) who I ran into & had dinner with, & with Carolee, was Lori Desrosier, the editor & publisher of Naugatuck River Review. And there was Kazim Ali who as an undergraduate student at the University at Albany (then called SUNY Albany) read in Don Levy’s poetry series at the Albany Art Gallery on Jefferson St.

Jill Brazel doing her job.

Sharing images with my favorite ripped-knees photographer, my Canon-comrade from Chicago, Jill Brazel, has been a tradition for these Festivals -- we take pictures of each other year after year (is there a clinical psychological term for that?).

Of course there are the fabulous & beautiful folks who worked/work so hard to bring this Festival together each year, & who I am so glad to see every-other year: Sarah Browning, Melissa Tuckey, Alicia Gregory, Bob LaVallee, Jaime Lee Jarvis, & others from the Board & Planning Committee (Thanks for another great Festival).

Rachel McKibbens, Melissa Tuckey, Susan Brennan

& the folks I have met here for the first time & who knows when (if ever) I will see again, George from Madison, WI & Sonja de Vries, who I shared dinner with here back in 2010, from Kentucky (& who brought her sister his year), & countless others whom I flirted with at the bar at Busboys & Poets, or met at a workshop or reading or just hanging out waiting for someone to sign a book.  I'll see you in 2014.

Then there were the famous poets where we share a connection: Sam Hamill with my friend Charlie Rossiter in Chicago, Patricia Smith whom I interviewed in Albany, NY at Poets in the Park, Douglas Kearney who was snowed out from a reading in Albany, Georgia Popoff who was an early supporter of 3 Guys from Albany, & the countless others we really want to sit down with over beer or coffee & just talk & talk.

Words come from people & what we do is connect to people & so the words connect & the people connect & that's why we do this. Right?

Check it out at www.splitthisrock.org.

Split This Rock, March 24, Evening Reading

Back in the auditorium of the Carlos Rosario International School for another fine reading. Before the reading I was chatting with Sarah Browning & having her sign my copy of her book, Whiskey in the Garden of Eden, when Sonia Sanchez came over to ask Sarah to sign her Split This Rock program. We talked briefly, I praised her Shamanistic performance here the night before, & she asked me to sign her program too. Unfortunately my program was in my bag a number of rows back so while Sonia Sanchez now has my autograph, I, sadly, do not have hers.

The MC for the reading was the effusive Reggie Cabico, who introduced the night's recording of June Jordan reading "Dear Somebody," like having her in the room, as perhaps indeed she was, especially in the hearts & work of all the poets has touched.

DC Youth Slam Team poet Asha Garder gave a charged performance of her piece on domestic violence, "Daddy Dearest." The young poets are out there.

Rachel McKibbens, who came up through the Slam poetry scene (as well evidenced in her work), read work from her book Pink Elephant (Cypher Books, 2009). Most of her poems were tales of violence, such as the 2 poems from what she called her "escape trilogy" from bad domestic situations at different stages in her life, finally making it on the 3rd try. Amidst the violence, her images were often humorous in a Surrealist way, as in "Tom Boy" about bringing a mermaid home, or the title poem of her book, "Pink Elephant" (her brother's costume one Halloween that became an image of comfort for her). She mentioned that today was her son's 10th birthday & read "Central Park Mother's Day," & a poem about his birth, "Finally the Author Gets Personal."

The power of Alice Walker's words come through quietly, even when she was half-hidden by her laptop that she was reading from. She deftly & seamlessly wove commentary, more often political, but personal too, together with the poems, from her work in progress The World Will Follow Joy, beginning with the funny, adoring "What Makes the Dalai Lama Lovable?" Then to a different type of musing, "If I Was President…" the first person she would call, to the "troublemakers." Similarly, her poem "The Joyful News of Your Arrest" is addressed to Prof. Cornel West. "The Foolishness of Captivity" is a letter of advice to a ruler on how to escape from what she called "the Devil's hands." "Despair is the Ground Bounced Back From" was dedicated to parents, others, who have felt the death of children. She ended with 2 more political pieces, a poem of praise "Occupying Mumia's Cell," & the political manifesto with a list of heroes, "Democratic Womanist." & somewhere from Alice's musings I picked up this quote, "Every revolution needs fresh poems…" A quiet voice of truth can be very powerful.

Split This Rock, Afternoon Reading, March 24

This reading at the Carlos Rosario International School, up 11th Street from U Street, included 4 poets from the Beloit Poetry Journal special edition for Split This Rock, José Padua, Khaled Mattawa, Minnie Bruce Pratt & Marilyn Nelson. The MC was Split This Rock Acting Assistant Director Bob LaValllee. The June Jordan clip they played tonight was her reading her bitterly ironic poem about chopping down the cherry tree, turning American mythology inside out.

This afternoon's Youth Poet from the DC Youth Slam Team was Alexis "Wordplay" Franklin with an in-your-face, hit-you-over-the-head slam piece "For Fatherless Colored Girls who have Considered Suicide…"

José Padua's poems were unsettling narratives relieved with humor enough to take the edge off (or put it on in another way). He began with "P. Funk Reshapes the Redneck Landscape of the Town I Live In," then on to a poem about talking to his wife's doctor as Nick Cave. The recent poem "An End of the World Cult of My Own" was followed by "7 & 7" about George Allen, both the politician & a boyhood schoolmate of the same name who beat his brother, an intricate meditation on anger & powerlessness. He ended with "Pizzacto Five" on learning English & his mother learning Japanese, cultural clashes & surviving in America's racism.

I had seen Khaled Mattawa earlier in the week at a panel here, now had a good chance to hear a bigger chunk of his poetry. He began with a poem of remembrances, "Summertime Cavatinas." Then on to poems from his latest book, Tocqueville (New Issues), "On the Difficulty of Documentation" (not as dry as the title sounds, images of woman carrying water), "Ecclesiastes" with the contrasting repetition of "the trick…" & "the rule…" & concluding with a reading of the complete "After 42 Years."

Minnie Bruce Pratt read a variety of poems from both her new book Inside the Money Machine & from the Beloit Poetry Journal 2012 Split This Rock Chapbook, including talking about drones ("The New Commuter War"), police brutality ("Breakfast Again"), fracking ("Burning Water"), as well as the more intimate parts of life in "Waking to Work" & "The Difference between Inside and Outside." And work, again, in "Making Another Phone Call," "A Temporary Job," & "Turning the Switch Off."

Marilyn Nelson ended the afternoon reading with one piece in the form "rondeau redoublé" (she likes working in forms), "Millie Christine" about conjoined slave twins --  a metaphor for the one/divided states, & on the freak-show of exploitation & racism. A good use of a form to carry the story along.


Afterwards I wandered off in the rain with poets Carolee Sherwood & Lori Desrosier (lucky me) to a cute little neighborhood cafe we found at 11th & Lamont, 11 Room, for dinner & the inevitable, ongoing, poet-conversation, combining high intellectual analysis, literary criticism & gossip.  It was exquisite.

Split This Rock, March 24 -- Panel

Perhaps one of the most moving, or at least emotionally complex, panels I attended was "White Poets Writing About Race: An Invitation to Conversation" held at the DC Center for LGBT on U St. The place was packed & folks kept trying to get in.

Ailish Hopper, Jake Adam York, Martha Collins, Susan Tichy, Tess  Taylor

The panel was chaired by Martha Collins, whose books White Papers (Pittsburgh, 2012) & Blue Front (Graywolf, 2006) explored the issues of race from a white woman's perspective. Also on the panel were Ailish Hopper, Tess Taylor, Susan Tichy & Jake Adam York. Martha said that the topic would be explored from not "why," but "how" with a more roundtable approach rather than long presentations from the panelists. So there was a lively, wide-ranging discussion that sometimes veered off more into group therapy.  Apparently this same panel had been presented at the recent AWP conference in Chicago.

Susan Tichy described "the personal as an instrument," that there is no "right way" to talk about family, race, etc., & there is no right way to be silent about it either. Another point made in the discussion was that we, as writers, can't beat ourselves up when writing about any of these sensitive issues, that we can't get it perfect. I also particularly liked Jake's reading of his poem "City of Grace" about Jackson, Mississippi.

Interestingly enough I bought Sarah Browning's book of poems Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works, 2007, 2011) while at the Festival. She has a number of fine poems in this collection on race issues from a white woman's perspective that could serve as models for other poets who want to write from their own history & want to confront the world around them today.