GMCR/KURU 89.1 FM 9/12 POETRY BREAD PRESENTS: THE POETS

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I’m glad you don’t have to take my word for it that we have a terrific, poetic lineup for Poetry Bread Presents with Sam Castello on GMCR/KURU 89.1 FM’s Kindred Continuum segment this Monday, September 12, 2022, at 10am mountain, rebroadcast on Sunday, September 18, at 4pm mountain. You can view the lineup in the spreadsheet below, and, of course, you can listen to the show during its broadcast/stream.

It has been my pleasure getting to know a little about the poets whose work will air on the show through their poetry and their bios. I hope it will be your pleasure as well. With the exception of Grace Cavalieri’s bio the poets are listed in order of appearance in the program.

Although Grace’s poem, Who We Are, climaxes the program, I’m beginning with her bio because her decades-long show, The Poet and the Poem, which is accessible from her website, was the impetus of the idea for the 9/12 Poetry Bread Presents program.

Collective Voices

During Grace’s 2017, 40^th anniversary show, she interviewed Sistah Joy Alford, Sylvia Dianne Beverly (Lady Di), and André Brenardo Taylor (Collective Voices), and their poetry started me thinking about “message poetry,” which was my very loose “theme” for the show that Sam Castello allowed me to guest-host in his stead.

Grace and the other poets granted me permission to use their readings, and one reading from each of the poets, excerpted from the Poet and the Poem program I listened to, formed the backbone and guiding light of the 9/12 radio program.

In addition to the four poets from Maryland, USA mentioned above, the show presents the work of 18 poets from five additional states and five different countries. I’ve presented below most (sometimes more, sometimes less) of the information the poets submitted with their bios.

THE POETS

POET: GRACE CAVALIERI

POEM: Who We Are

Grace Cavalieri is the author of 26 books and chapbooks of poetry, and she's also written texts and lyrics performed for opera, television and film. She has had 26 plays produced on American stages, the 21st of which, Quilting the Sun, was presented at the Smithsonian Institution. Grace teaches poetry workshops throughout the country at numerous colleges. She produced and hosted The Poet and the Poem weekly, on WPFW-FM (1977-1997), presenting 2,000 poets to the nation. She now presents this series to public radio from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite and Pacifica Radio celebrating 42 years on air in 2019. 

Grace has received the 2013 George Garrett Award, the Pen-Fiction Award, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Medal, and awards from the National Commission on Working Women, the WV Commission on Women, the American Association of University Women, is the current poet laureate of Maryland, received the DC Poet Laureate Award from Dolores Kendrick, the Paterson lifetime Achievement Award, and more. She won a Paterson Excellence Award for What I Would do for Love, and The Bordighera Poetry Prize for Water on the Sun. She received the inaugural Columbia Merit Award for "significant contributions to poetry."

There is much more to Grace than I have space for here, but you can delve deeper at Grace’s website and a bit more about The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress.

POET: SISTAH JOY ALFORD

POEM: What Does Your Soul Say?

 

POET: JAY ROSE ANA

POEM: Do Not Be Afraid To Enter The Dark

PUBLISHED: YouTube

AVAILABLE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipnJsW5zkNM

Jay Rose Ana is a spoken word performance poet, host of Words Collide Poetry Open-Mic and The Poetic Podcast. Her written work, focusing on positive mental health, and life as a transgender woman, has been published in numerous publications. Her spoken word poems have been featured on both local and national radio. In 2021, her poem MY JOURNEY was featured on the BBC Upload Festival. Jay Rose Ana can be found on social YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/c/JayRoseAnasThoughts

POET: TERESA GALLION

POEM: The Peaceful Realm

Teresa E. Gallion is a seeker on a journey to work on unfolding spiritually in this present lifetime. Writing is a spiritual exercise for Teresa. Her passions are traveling the world and hiking the mountain and desert landscapes of the western United States. Her journeys into nature are nurtured by the Sufi poets Rumi and Hafiz. The land is sacred ground and her spiritual temple where she goes for quiet reflection and contemplation. She has published four books: Walking Sacred Ground, Contemplation in the High Desert, Chasing Light, a finalist in the 2013 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards and her most recent book, Scent of Love, a finalist in the 2021 New Mexico/Arizona Book Awards. She has two CDs, On the Wings of the Wind and Poems from Chasing Light. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. You can find more on Teresa at http://teresagallion.yolasite.com/.

POET: JULIAN MATTHEWS

POEM: Other (Lain, lain)

PUBLISHED: Delhiwallah Poetry Collective Anthology 2021 (India)

AVAILABLE:  https://www.dpcpoetry.org/books

Julian Matthews is an emerging poet from Malaysia, of mixed-race minority, who is published in The American Journal of Poetry, Beltway Poetry Quarterly and Borderless Journal, among others.  He stumbled onto poetry by accident five years ago at a writing workshop. That happy accident has turned into a rabid compulsion. He is still extricating himself from the crash. Welcome to his recovery. If you wish to support him, please paypal.me/poetjulian or send him Wordle answers at http://linktr.ee/julianmatthews

POET: RAWLE IAM JAMES

POEM: Human/male

Rawle Iam would tell you, that he is a student of life and thus life is his greatest teacher. He is a personal leadership and spiritual coach, and poet that uses poetry as an invitation to examine life. He is committed to being of service to those seeking a holistic and inside-out approach to understanding themselves and tapping into their vault of wisdom. You are your purpose. You are not broken, nor do you need fixing. Rawle was born in Trinidad & Tobago and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. He also spent time in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and lived the majority of his adult years in Toronto, ON, and Kelowna, BC, Canada. He spent over 25 years in the corporate world in a variety of roles performing various tasks alongside good-hearted and well-intentioned people. His book of poetry, in flow with Grace, will be out this September, and his work can be found at www.rawlejames.ca and https://linktr.ee/rawleiam. 

POET: FIZZA ABBAS

POEM: The Unburnt Toast

Fizza Abbas is a writer based in Karachi, Pakistan. Her work has appeared in more than 100 journals, including Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Poetry Village, The Cabinet of Heed and London Grip. She has authored two poetry collections: Ool Jalool and Bakho- A girl with unkempt tresses. She has also been a Best of The Net nominee and Oxford Brookes Poetry International Competition 2021’s shortlist. Besides writing, she runs an interview series forwriters on her YouTube channel. She can be reached at @fizzawrites on Twitter.

POET: JENNIFER ELISE WANG

POEM: Stinky Tofu

PUBLISHED: https://feralpoetry.net/stinky-tofu-by-jennifer-elise-wang/

Jennifer Elise Wang (she/they) is a non-binary femme in STEM from Dallas, Texas.  When she's not doing neuroscience research, she enjoys writing, dancing, and learning how to skateboard and snowboard.  She has been published in New Verse News, FERAL, and Southern Arizona Press.  She can be found at   www.facebook.com/jeniversewritings and @JeniverseAbr on Twitter. 

POET: DR. MICHAEL ANTHONY INGRAM

POEM: Shelling Beans

Dr. Michael Anthony Ingram is a retired university professor and social change activist. A Washington DC resident, he is committed to employing the arts, specifically poetry, to disseminate information and raise awareness about issues related to power, identity, and oppression. Widely known as The Counseling Poet, he has gained an international reputation as a spoken word artist and performance poet. A Pushcart poetry prize nominee, Dr. Ingram has traveled extensively, reciting his works and conducting workshops on building cultural competency and empathy skills through poetry and metaphor. He hosts Quintessential Listening: Poetry Online Radio, which “offers an online vehicle for artists to engage in conversational interviews about poetry.”

POET: MARY DEZEMBER

POEM: Rosalind Franklin Speaks

PUBLISHED: Still Howling: Poems by Mary Dezember (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2016)

AVAILABLE: Amazon.com

Mary Dezember, PhD, is a poet, an author of fiction and non-fiction, an educator, an arts scholar and arts advocate. She believes in inclusivity, pluralism and creating awareness that catalyzes healing. She enjoys performing her poetry and advocating the creativity of others. Her publications include several non-fiction essays and articles and two books of poetry: Earth-Marked Like You (Sunstone Press, 2011) and Still Howling (CreateSpace Independent Publishing, 2016) with the title poem being the First Place winner of Best Beat Poem Contest, 2016, sponsored by Beatlick Press. Her novel, Wild Conviction, a winner of the Inkshares 2020 All-Genre Manuscript Contest, is in the works to be published. She is the founder of Creatives in Conversation, an online venue that includes artist performances and interviews, and is also a guide for Santa Fe Art Tours in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is currently creating the website PoetryAboutArt.com. She teaches classes, offers events, and publishes through her business, Dezember LLC. Her author website is MaryDezember.com.

POET: JULIA FRICKE ROBINSON

POEM: Fireflies

Julia Fricke Robinson divides her time between visiting children and grandchildren in Colorado, Indiana and New York and living, dancing and writing in a community of artists, writers, performers, activists and otherwise interesting people in beautiful Silver City, New Mexico, where the weather is just about perfect. Her published books include All I Know and Between the Desert and the Wetlands, both available on Amazon.com.

POET: SIBUCO (TATENDA MURANGI)

POEM: A Soldier’s Dilemma

Tatenda Murangi is a Zimbabwean medical scientist currently doing a PhD in Clinical Science Immunology. He is a passionate writer with a wealth of short stories, articles, and poems. He is also the Editorial and Graphic Design Director for VaChikepe and The 100 Sailors which boasts of 61^st issues of a digital creative journal called The Sailors Review. When it comes to art his aim is to use creativity as a way of starting conversations around unspoken issues in society. Given the unpredictable nature of his works, he has been defined as simplifying complexity and bringing out the complexity in the simple things in life. Hence the name sibuco. Tatenda’s most recent publications appear in Don’t Give Up Africa and Married Too Soon, both available on Amazon.com. You can view his work on his social media handles (Meta/Facebook and Instagram: Tatenda Murangi).

POET: DOREEN SPUNGIN

POEM: After Listening to Wooden Ships

Brooklyn native, Doreen (Dd.) Spungin, author of the collection, Tomorrow Smells Invisible (Words With Wings Press, 2020), hosts events for Poets In Nassau and Performance Poets Association on Long Island. Her poetry can be found in anthologies as well as in print and on-line journals, most recently: L I Quarterly; Corona, An Anthology of Poems; Maintenant 16; First Literary Review East; Poets To Come; The Avocet; Paumonok, Transition; Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Review, and PPA Literary Review. Several of her poems have been set to music by NY composer, Julie Mandel. Spungin lives on Long Island with her very supportive husband, Neil. She lives for love, prays for peace and writes for her sanity and will read anywhere for a cup of coffee or an Earl Grey tea. Spungin can be found on Facebook. Search for Doreen Deutsch Spungin. A “sign-off” poem or daily/nightly thought is posted, often with an accompanying photo or piece of art. Tomorrow Smells Invisible is available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com.

POET: ANDRÉ BRENARDO TAYLOR

POEM: Draped

POET: HEIDI KASA

POEM: Notes Taken in Research for a Poem About School Shootings

Heidi Kasa writes fiction and poetry. Her work has appeared in several journals and at City Lights bookstore in San Francisco. Her work has been a finalist for a Black Lawrence Press award and shortlisted for a Fractured Lit award. Kasa’s fiction chapbook, Split, was published by Monday Night Press in August 2022. Whenever she can, Kasa returns to Massachusetts, where she grew from a sapling, and to California, where she started blooming. She edits nonfiction and currently lives in Austin, Texas. Find more of her work at www.heidikasa.com

POET: RICK LUPERT

POEM: Shelach

PUBLISHED: in God Wrestler: A poem for every Torah Portion (Ain’t Got No Press, 2017)

AVAILABLE: Amazon.com  

Rick Lupert has been involved with poetry in Los Angeles since 1990. He is the recipient of the 2017 Ted Slade Award, and the 2014 Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center Distinguished Service Award, a 3-time Pushcart Prize Nominee, and a Best of the Net nominee. He served as a co-director of the Valley Contemporary Poets for 2 years, and created Poetry Super Highway. Rick hosted the weekly Cobalt Cafe reading for almost 21 years which has lived on as a weekly Zoom series since early 2020. His spoken word album Rick Lupert Live and Dead featured 25 studio and live tracks. He’s authored 26 collections of poetry, including I Am Not Writing a Book of Poems in Hawaii, The Tokyo-Van Nuys Express, and God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion (Ain’t Got No Press) and edited the anthologies A Poet’s Siddur, Ekphrastia Gone Wild, A Poet’s Haggadah and the noir anthology The Night Goes on All Night. He also writes and draws (with Brendan Constantine) the daily web comic Cat and Banana, and writes a Jewish poetry column for JewishJournal.com. He has been lucky enough to read his poetry all over the world. See the following links for more on Rick: https://www.jewishpoetry.net/, https://www.instagram.com/rickpoet, https://www.twitter.com/rickpoet, https://www.catandbanana.com/.

POET: SYLVIA DIANNE (LADI DI) BEVERLY

POEM: Gracious Actions Prosper

POET: ELISE STUART

POEM: Blue Dark

Elise Stuart, Poet Laureate of Grant County in 2014-2017, has held numerous poetry workshops for youth in schools around Grant County. Students made poem flags of their original poems, which graced schools, libraries and coffee shops. She began an open poetry group in Silver City that is alive and growing, and also hosts a monthly poetry event at the Tranquilbuzz Coffee House. Her first collection of poetry, Another Door Calls, came out in the spring 2017, then a memoir My Mother and I, We Talk Cat in the fall of the same year. She is currently working on a new book of poetry and vignettes.

POET: J R TUREK

POEM: This Poem

PUBLISHED: Global Anthology, Cooch Behar Press, 2022

AVAILABLE:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BCXSXSCM/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tpbk_p4_i3

J R (Judy) Turek, Walt Whitman Birthplace 2019 Long Island Poet of the Year, Superintendent of Poetry for the Long Island Fair, 2020 Hometown Hero by the East Meadow Herald, Bards Laureate 2013-2015, is an internationally published poet, translated into Korean, Romanian, French, and Italian; editor, mentor, workshop leader, and 25 years as Moderator of the Farmingdale Creative Writing Group; she has 2 Pushcart Prize nominations and recipient of the Conklin Prize For Poetry, and was named a 2017 NYS Woman of Distinction. J R has written a poem a day for the past 18 years and finished 2021 with 487 new poems.

J R is the author of Midnight on the Eve of Never, B is for Betwixt and Between, A is for Almost Anything, Imagistics, They Come And They Go, and most recent 24 in 24. J R, The Purple Poet, hosts two events per month for Performance Poets Association (PPA); she’s the 1st Associate Editor for The North Sea Poetry Scene, PPA, and The Bards Initiative; she was the face of Princess Ronkonkoma Productions for 16 years, and will appear in as International Artist in the Lounge Interview for The Sailors Review Issue 62. Judy lives on Long Island with her soul-mate husband, Paul, her dogs, and her extraordinarily extensive shoe collection. She can be reached at msjevus@optonline.net.

POET: VINCENT J CALONE

POEM: The Ill Communication

Vincent J. Calone is a poet, playwright, actor, and director. He graduated SUNY Oswego '95, studied under Lewis Turco author of The New Book of Forms. Vincent considers himself a neo/modern formalist poet. He is glad to be part of the wonderful local poetry and drama scene on Long Island and can be seen reading live at any number of local events, including Neir's, Jack Jack's and Flash Mob Poetry, as well as online events such as Spo-fest and Cobalt Poets. Vincent's posted a new poem every day on Raven Wire Poetry Prompts on Facebook continuously from 08/01/22. He dedicates all his work to the two great loves in his life, Danyalle and Jewelia. Vincent is proud to be part of the Brater Agency writing collective.

POET: MBONISI  ZIKHALI  ZOMKHONTO

POEM: I Would Have Told My Carpentry Teacher I love Trees

Mbonisi Zikhali is his name and Zomkhonto is his totem. He was born in Makokoba, the oldest township in Bulawayo, the second largest capital of Zimbabwe, Africa. He currently resides in Windsor, Canada, and is a spoken word artist, storyteller, youth mentor, community services worker and mental wellness advocate. He won my first poetry award when he was eight years old. He considers himself an afro-empath and is driven to ensure that people find joy in the power of words and story-telling. 

He is a member of Artcite Windsor’sCommunity Connector and Free Verse Poets, which both seek to incorporate poetry and drumming as a way to re-engage the community in artistic ways, while providing a safe space to share stories and support each other emotionally. His most recent engagement with Artcite Windsor was as a featured artist in 2021’s Emancipate the Landscape, a month-long exhibition featuring digital artists Kiki Symone and Talysha Bujold-Abu, which ran from August-September. Mobonisi has also been the featured reader on multiple virtual open mics and will be the featured reader at Cobalt Poets on Tuesday, September 27, 2022.

POET: JC WAYNE

POEM: I Love You

JC Wayne is a poet, visual artist, cartographer of the unseen, mentor and adventure guide, certified aging teaching artist, emissary of beauty, perception, insight, and discovery. She created The Poartry Project (poartry.org) to light a path of good in the world through the practice of “poartry.” It is JC’s calling and goal that The Poartry Project and its Voicing Art programs and experiences of positive community gathering and creative collaboration engage, equip, and empower lives as loving world-builders who wield the energy of language and visuals as conscious acts of good to build loving worlds through loving words and art.

JC holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Art History with Honors from Brown University and achieved a Master of Arts in Diplomatic History and International Comparative Politics as a distinguished Sasakawa Young Leaders Fellow at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Harvard and Tufts Universities. She had an early career as a visible and celebrated futurist thought leader and adviser to world leaders. She continues to evolve her creative practice and collaborations with constant travel, circulating throughout the year among her three creative hubs of New Mexico, Vermont, and Chicago. She currently serves as Director of Youth Activities for the New Mexico State Poetry Society and Youth Chair of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. 

ADDITIONAL SUBMISSIONS

The following two poets will not have their work presented in the show but did submit poems.  

POET: CHIP WILLIFORD

POEM: The Scars of History (see video below)

Chip Williford is a writer of prose, poetry, and short stories. He is a photographer, videographer, filmmaker, documentarian, family historian, researcher, a good listener, and relatable storyteller. He is Director of Poetry Street and Poetry Street on The Road. He has had fiction and poetry published in SBC Magazine, Nassau County Poet Laureate Society Review, Vol. VIII, 2020, Performance Poets Association 25th Annual Literary Review, The Sailors Review, Issues #58 and #59, and Moonstone Arts. He was a contributing writer in Oh! What a Ride, 50 Years in the Airline Travel Industry by author Rev. ElTyna McCree in 2016. Chip was co-featured at For Better or Verse with poet Nina Yavel. Chip is also the stage manager for the Love of Vinyl Music Hall of Fame Awards. His poetry may be found at chipwilliford.com and www.poetrystreetontheroad.com

POET: HIRAM LAREW

POEM: Clatter (see video below)

Hiram Larew lives in Maryland and is the Founder of Poetry X Hunger which is Fighting Hunger One Poem at a Time (www.PoetryXHunger.com). His latest poetry collection, Mud Ajar, was published in 2021 by Atmosphere Press with the audiobook version narrated by T. A. Niles (www.HiramLarewPoetry.com).

 

 

 

 

 

HEIDI KASA'S SPLIT: NEW FROM MONDAY NIGHT PRESS

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Heidi Kasa

Way back in the day, I took a qualitative methodology seminar (can't remember the name of it now) with Dr. SarahAmira de la Garza at Arizona State University. Her teachings have stayed with me, and so I must disclose that I consider Heidi Kasa a friend after interacting with her the past few months. Those who know me will know that despite that friendship, I can only respond to the release of her debut chapbook, Split, authentically.

Sometimes you’re faced with a task that demands what you’re not sure you have. But it is a task that tingles you in anticipation and plumbs your depths, seeks your best wherever it may lay.

Responding to Heidi Kasa’s Split, the 2022 offering by Monday Night Press, is such a task. For an aged one whose neural pathways have been patterned by a lifetime of reading, listening, and expressing in relatively linear and literal confines, the wide-ranging freedom of Kasa’s prose was a mind-muscle stretch. It pried open new crevices of thought and left me in a puddle of wondering.

Does the title, Split, refer to rips in time fabric? A split personality? The split between the actual and imagined self? Maybe it is referring to a split screen where you’re watching multiple movies in disparate dimensions simultaneously? Or perhaps it pertains to none of the above...or all of the above. Kasa dares you to untangle the strands of Amy and Dan’s relationship to each other and to themselves.

If standard fare with a tightly woven plot, with clearly delineated protagonists and antagonists, with beginning, middle, and end marching obediently in step to the beat of “normal” drums is what you seek, then saunter by Split with a wary glance. Yet, if a jagged journey into the space of a wondering, wandering mind unleashed beckons you, then open the pages of Split…and your mind.

At first glance you might think that Amy and/or Dan are the protagonists in this short story, and perhaps, in some sense, you’d have hit the mark. But the Now, the mischievous, nebulous, shapeshifting Now, snatches the stage from Dan and Amy’s lenses, fractures the inner scope of their tentative beings.

The Now always has the last laugh, dances the last jig as Amy and Dan struggle to embrace the cruel humor, to hear the mocking music. In Kasa’s words, “Sometimes the Now is slow and endearing, like cookies cooling off. Other times it stops you sharp and hard and you don’t ever want to get back to know it.” Kasa seems to dare the reader to put their finger on the elusively swirling Now.

Split, this first chapbook offering from Kasa, a poet, a philosopher, a mom seeking to do her share to shape the world her little beings are to inhabit, is not the shiny, polished fare tailored for the masses. It is a challenge for questing minds, for reaching spirits to take up and treasure. It offers a glimpse of what is to come from one who dares to scoff at well-worn forms, from one whose literary chops are forming right beneath our thirsty eyes.

Kasa leaves a trail of philosophical crumbs that congeal to make a meal throughout the work: “Odd things have to pile up to be noticeable and alarming.” “Sometimes in relationships, unseen parts of people turn visible and become connected.” “But the deeper you get into any world, the more interesting it becomes. Stay open. Find people who like opening.”

And her poetic penchant populates the pages like dandelions in a green field of a summer’s day, using metaphors from film, photography, music, baseball…yes, her mind and words wander freely: “Dan either zooms toward her or Amy dollies toward him, the room stretching past as his dark eyes suck her in.” In the following passage, she combines music and film: “Sometimes he heard diminished notes more than augmented ones, but his axe remained unaffected. Maybe he didn’t have his money shot, but he felt the mise-en-scène was whole nonetheless.”

It is perhaps the variety of pools into which Kasa and Split dive that resulted in a glossary. However, I must confess that the glossary, a full third of the book, furrowed my brow. From my limited perspective, it did not add but pages to the work. It took me away from the free-flowing Kasa I had just read. But perhaps, for those unfamiliar with the wide range of fields into which Split treads the glossary will be nourishing.

That bit of dissonance notwithstanding, I purchased a copy of Split to send to my niece Joans, an aspiring author and screenwriter. It is my way of saying to her, “You need not limit yourself to the conventional. You can let your mind and heart roam where they will and weld their travels into fertile descriptions and Star trek destinations." In sum, a hit of Split took me on a trip of psychedelic wonder. Mayhap it will do the same for you.

Thanks to jessica wickens, editor in chief of Monday Night Press, for bringing Heidi Kasa’s mind, spirit, and work to light! You can better acquaint yourself with Heidi and her work at her website, heidikasa.com, and check out one of her recent poetic expressions below or on the The Human Room Open Voice  (THROV) YouTube channel. 

BIG DAYS...FOR ME ANYWAY

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A Fab Friday

Last Friday (8/12/2022) was big day. I Joined Chanson Antonio Byrd (@soulinkspeaks) Christpher T.George (@CThompsonGeorge) and Terri Rose Jertson (@INotFunniez) on episode 2 of Phynne-Belle’s (@Twitter Space podcast: BYOPC (Bring Your Own Poem Cover).

Phynne-Belle does it all

 Each guest brought and read a poem that touched them, and discussion of the pieces followed the readings. I brought Shawna Johnson’s Drains to the table, as it was one of the more moving pieces I encountered during the Stroll of Poets 30/30 Challenge this past April.

Linda & Renya Craig

Friday was also the final component of the Linda Anderson led Cartonera Workshop that I shared with several other artists and poets. After the presentation and selected readings from the Cartonera books we created, Elise Stuart, former poet laureate (2014 – 2017) of Grant County, New Mexico hosted a gathering at her enchanting home. Among the highlights of the gathering was the pedicure (maybe “puppycure” would be a better term) from Tomás, her adorable dachshund.

Every bit as exciting was Poetry Bread Presents host Sam Castello confirming that I’d be hosting the show on Monday, September 12. Poetry Bread Presents with Sam Castello happens every second Monday of the month, 10am Mountain time. It is a segment of Kindred Continuum on KURU 89.1 FM, streaming at GMCR.org.

Grace Cavalieri

This episode will revolve around four incredible poets, three of whom I refer to as “message poets,” because in addition to their mastery of their craft, they bring messages that I believe contribute to the enhancement of the human collective and condition. Small hint: These poets were interviewed and read their poetry a while back on Grace Cavalieri’s The Poet & The Poem, a podcast listed on the Library of Congress website.

Another Big Day

Saturday August 27, 2022 is HUGE on my calendar. Stephanie (6:30 – 8:30pm EDT) and I (9pm EDT) will both be “featuring” on that day. Stephanie Niles will be joining Molly Powell in delivering a New Moon Sound Healing session at Shiva Shala in Fort Myers, and I’ll be co-featuring with Heidi Kasa at Saturday Night Special (SNS) on Zoom.

Mbonisi Zikhali Zomkhonto

As if that isn’t big enough, Mbonisi Mikhali Zomkhonto will be a featured reader at Poetry Street on The Road on the same day at 2pm EDT. Mbonisi may have featured somewhere else recently, and if so, I missed it. I won’t be missing his performance on the 27th. If you check out his reading on Cultivating Voices Live last Sunday (9:20 of video) you’ll know why.

Ok, that’s all I’ve got for now. Like Mobonisi might say, “Stay inspired!”

    

THE POETRY NEVER STOPS! BIG EVENTS OVER THE NEXT 72 HOURS

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As always, I have to start the announcement posts with a caveat: I know I'm missing good stuff, but I can't stay on top of it all. Plus, time is short. Anyway, does your poetry travel well? I hope so. 

Poetry Festival Singapore Sizzles

The highlight of this poetry weekend for me is the Poetry Global Network’s partnership with Poetry Festival Singapore this Sunday, Aug. 7th (7am PT / 10am ET / 3pm UK / 10pm). It is being

LKN of Poetry Global Network

made available via a special edition of Bottoms Up, our International Poetry Jam which is usually held on the final Sunday of the month. Other organizations collaborating in production of Sunday’s event include Word Forward (Singapore), Morocco Poets (Morocco), and Let’s Unmesh Life (India).

Lawin Bulatao
Host of PGN's Bottom's Up

I only know a few of the poets performing, but the ones that I do know ensure that I’ll be waking up for the 8am start my time. If you wanna get on board the Singapore poetry train, click here for the Zoom link to join the event.  Passcode: Browning.

Poetry X Hunger Raises Awareness & Funds

If you’d like to see and hear poetry making a tangible difference in real lives, Poetry X Hunger’s Hiram Larew and Fizza Abbas Rabbani of Fizza Writes will be hosting a special 90-minute fund-raising reading this Monday Aug. 8 at 11am PDT/2pm EDT/7pm UK/11pm Pakistani time. There is a full slate of readers, but the more the merrier…especially if we can show that poetry can feed more than minds and spirits by raising some funds for the cause. Email poetryxhunger@mail.com if you’re interested in being a part of the effort.

Got Phynnecabulary in Your Poet’s Library?

Most of you probably know Phynne-Belle, the San Fran poet who is the founder and coordinator of Phynnecabulary, and who hosts about 3 dozen events so varied you’ll have to check out her linktree to see what I mean. Anyway, she hosts writing and readings events several days, sometimes multiple

times per day, per week. Tonight (Friday, 8/5) she hosts Get Inspired & Speak Up (GISU), a writing and reading session for SocietyX starting at 7pm PDT. I believe she does a rerun of GISU on Sunday. If you’re into early morning quiet writing, Phynne hosts Wake Up & Write at 9:30am EDT, the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month, and she rocks an open mic every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, so check her out.

Moore Poetry at Reach Arts First Friday

Chris Moore

Lee Eric Freedman and ReachArts First Friday Open Mic (7pm EDT) is featuring Christopher Moore who hosts his own open mic (WIW Moore Poetry) on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays at 7:30pm EDT. As a heads up, this coming Wednesday, Aug. 10th, Moore Poetry will be featuring R. Sen, the author of Introspectrum.

Super Lupert Merges onto Poetry Super Highway

Rick Lupert of Poetry Super Highway and Cobalt Poets fame is holding a special Facebook Live event on Saturday Aug. 6th at 3pm PDT. Special guests include Mariko Kitakubu, Live from Japan, Aviva Rosenbloom and Joel Siegel. This is a free event, and you can be there by clicking here.

CHRIS BOGART'S "THIS CONVERSATION": MY RESPONSE TO A "WHITE" MAN'S TAKE ON RACE RELATIONS

Note: You will usually find references to "White," "Black," "Red," "Yellow," Brown," and any other such references to a group of people by misnomered skin-color in quotation marks.  

Preamble for Days

Chris at Barnes & Noble
reading, 2019

As I struggled to bring this piece to life, I realized that it was going to be more about me than it would be about the book, This Conversation, or the author, Chris Bogart. I wondered if this would be the first time that anyone who has read my responses to written texts will get what I mean when I say, “I don’t write reviews. I write responses.” People have continued to mislabel my responses as “reviews” despite my protestations to the contrary. Oh well…

For those wondering about my perceived difference between a review and a response, a review is a description of the text, what it’s about, the format, the content, other works that it’s reminiscent of or contrasts with, what the reviewer thinks of the quality, its entertainment or educational value, etc. A response on the other hand is simply what the work does to and for the responder, in this case, me. That might include all the elements above, but not necessarily so.

I have my speculations about why Chris asked me to respond to This Conversations, but I haven’t explored those speculations with him. My suspicion is that he held certain assumptions that were linked to my appearance, to other responses I have published, and, perhaps, poetic expressions of mine he has heard or read. 

That’s an awful lot of preamble isn’t it? Well, I figure it’s only fitting since This Conversation, itself, has plenty of preamble. Before the main body of the work, there’s a Letter to the Reader, an Introduction, and a Preface. I’m not well read enough to know if that much preamble is common practice, but hey, I’m all for it. And I’m not even done with my preamble!

Most people I know—or even heard of— seem to subscribe to the practice of categorizing and defining people by superficial characteristics. The superficial characteristic relevant to this writing is skin color or “race.” It is a practice I have grown out of or grown through, and I think it only fair that you know my perspective of this book—and all such like it—is…uh…colored by this growth and development. On to the response…

A Response to This Conversation
From an aesthetic standpoint, the book is creative, uniquely designed, and well written. The blending of dialogue with poetic pieces in a variety of styles and forms renders the book worthy of perusing and appreciating simply as an artistic creation. It is an easy read, and for someone with sensibilities unlike my own, it is likely to be a thought—and emotion—provoking, educational, affirming, and even hopeful read.

I mentioned the practice of categorizing and defining people by superficial characteristics above. The author announces his subscription to this practice early in the book. In his Letter to the Reader the author writes,

“I wrote this book of poetry, my fellow white Americans and anyone else who chooses to read it…to convince those of you with whom I share a skin color…” and still in the same letter, “It is your minds, my fellow white Americans, and, more importantly, your hearts, that I will be talking to today in this book of poetry.”

Yes, I had known that I would have to wrestle with myself as I read This Conversation and the bell rang before I had even gotten to the main body of the work. From the first line of the Letter, my worldview and I were circling each other squinty-eyed, seeking an opening. 

I was prepared for a lot of references to people being “black” and “white,” so the wrestling was quite tame at this point. I could expend a lot of time and energy trying to explain why I believe the notion of referring to people as “black” or “white” is destructive to the collective, but I’m trying to keep this down to chapbook size. Click here if you’d like a taste.

Anyway, despite my jangled emotions and internal resistance, I believe the author’s good intentions are clear. It’s obvious he believes conversation can make a positive difference in "race" relations, or in his own words, “This Conversation…must ultimately change the America in which we live…” referring to the disparity between his interpretations of “…the promises that the Founding Fathers had made in the Declaration of Independence” and peoples’ real, lived experiences.

The first poem of the book, This Conversation: When?, also provides a clear indication of the author’s constructive intent. In asking and answering when we might experience equity in our society, Chris expresses immediacy and urgency in the last stanza and line:

    no. this conversation we will start here today

    must finally answer
    this one simple question
    at last and forever,
    and for all time eternal
                with only one answer—
                and that answer
                needs to be

               Now.

I applaud the author’s intent. Not crazy about his methodology, as you'll see below.

Disturbing Dissonance: Redacted “Nigger”
This Conversation isn’t a dead ringer for a CIA or FBI document, but it sure did ring clandestine bells with the prevalent redactions. The first one appears even before the Table of Contents:

    “I might be poor white trash, but at least I ain’t

    no xxxxx!
    —Poor Southern white sharecropper, 1965”

In his poem Carefully Taught, there are six (6) such redactions. 

Page 22

The primary disturbance for me here is if you find the word “nigger” offensive, or think that others might, why are you quoting others who use it, and why are you writing poems using the word in disguise? Does anyone not know what the word is that you’ve redacted? If I shoot you with a concealed weapon, does that decrease the damage? I have many more thoughts on this, but this response is going to be plenty long enough already. If interested in some of those thoughts you can find some here.

Conversation = Skirmish?
Another drizzle of dissonance descended when I noted that the exchanges between the interactants in This Conversation were conceived of as skirmishes: "A Civil Discourse: Second Skirmish." I wondered why "skirmish?" A skirmish is a fight, a battle. Is it merely poetic license, a catchy title to attract eyes? Which is it, a conversation or a battle? Does the author see a distinction? Yes, a ton of questions arose, and I extended that wondering to, "Why, in our society, is so much framed in terms of winning and losing, games and battles?" 

Us and Them Mentality Prevails
Perhaps it is my limited perspective, but inconsistency usually nudges me into closer examination. There are snippets of dialogue during the “skirmishes” that indicate the author recognizes the “us and them” mentality as problematic. An excerpt from Civil Discourse: Seventh Skirmish suggests as much:

Regardless of color.

Regardless of race.

This is the “we” I was talking about,

Rather than the “us” and the “they.”

However—and this may merely be a function of language— the author also writes in the Introduction:

“…institutions built to support a segregation of the races hardened like a stone wall around African Americans, denying them most of the freedoms that should have been afforded to them by full citizenship and participation in a fully integrated society…the hearts and minds of many white Americans were still hardened against their full equality.” 

The “us” and “them” mentality appears to be on full display.

Persistent Othering
Within the “us and them” mentality and resultant behavior, the “them” is the “other,” and seldom in human relations is the “them,” the “other” valued as highly or treated as well as the “us.” While I suspect good intentions are behind the following, I find the capitalization of “Black,” while failing to capitalize the color designation of other groups, problematic. It feels like more subtle “othering.”

From the Sixth Skirmish:

Don’t you have people of color in your life?

Black friends, Black coworkers?

    Do they have any friends
    Who are not white?

From the Seventh Skirmish:

    And does your son have any Black friends?
    In fact, he does,
    I said, sipping my own.
    And brown and white friends too. 

[emphasis added]

What is that disparity about? Perhaps Chris will decide to respond to this response and we can continue this conversation.

Relatedly, something I’ve noticed on many occasions, in written and audio versions of fiction and nonfiction texts, is a particularly deft method of “otherizing” people who are not categorized as “White.” In the Third Skirmish on page 31, the author writes:

    In an effort by whites
    To keep the Blacks out.

Two questions here: 1) Again, why is “whites” lowercase and “Blacks” uppercase? 2) Why is it “by whites,” and “the Blacks,” and not “by the whites” as is the case with “the Blacks.” Often when I hear this reference it feels like “the dogs,” “the cats,” “the others,” as though they—as in anyone who uses this sort of construction—are speaking about some sort of nonhuman objects.

Listen, I can speculate about the inconsistency until my pigment disappears, but regardless of my speculations, the fact remains that, once again, those categorized and identified as “Black” are set apart from those identified as “white” and “brown.” Despite all the good intentions in the world, the “othering” persists.

Okay, I can’t really address everything in my 12 pages of notes here, but perhaps you get my drift:

• I choose to believe that Chris Bogart has good intentions
• I think that This Conversation is well designed and scripted
• Many are likely to find it a fascinating read
• It can serve as an excellent catalyst for conversation
• It remains shackled to the enduring skin-color categorization paradigm.

Chris at Barnes & Noble, 2019

When I review purchases online, I am usually asked whether I would recommend the product. Although this is a response and not a review, I highly recommend Chris Bogart’s This Conversation for those interested in the morass of “race” in the United States. 

I thank Chris for the opportunity to read and respond to this work, despite the inherent challenges and I welcome a response from him to this response, which I would be happy to post and share. After all, conversations are not monologues.