Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha on Tour

The lovely Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha has a new book of poetry coming out, Love Cake, and is going on tour. For those of you who unfortunately missed seeing Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha when she promoted The Revolution Starts at Home, this is a great opportunity to check her out. As of right now, she will be touring Ontario, New York, Connecticut and Vermont and Pennsylvania, hopefully adding on additional dates. If you in the area for one of her events, check her out.

Poetry Chalking

The Center for Poetry, an organization I use to work for (and still tweet for) are having a poetry chalking next week on the 29th, from three to five, on the Lansing River Trail behind Shaw Hall.
Poetry chalkings are always fun. It is really satisfying to be able to write a poem down. You are welcome to bring your own poem, but poems will be provided, so do not let your uncertainty about poetry stop you from going.

The Tropics of New York

Claude McKay was an Afro-Caribbean poet and a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance and I recently found myself marveling at his "The Tropics of New York." You cannot tell from this work, but his writing was often in his native dialect, which was considering a lesser form of English. His work is similar to that of Robert Burns, who too wrote in a looked-down upon dialect. Unlike Burns, McKay had to deal with crippling racism, since so many white elites were not interested in the writing of a man of color.
"The Tropics of New York" begins describing "exotic" fruit, and the reader is lead to wonder if the speaker is in Jamaica, McKay's birth country. At the end of the first stanza, McKay reveals that this fruit is for sale for a high price, drawing the connection between the fetishistic aspects of American life on other places and people and capitalism. This poem may be about fruit, but the fruit stands in place of his island home that is misrepresented and exploited by racist and colonial cultural and economic forces. The second stanza of the poem is McKay's authentic version of Jamaica, one that is sacred, as obvious by his use of the words "benediction" and "nun-like." The third stanza expresses his homesickness and reminds readers that New York's version of the tropics is not the true tropics and will only make his or her longing worse.

Amy Levy

My undergraduate thesis was on "forgotten" 19th century female poets. Although in the initial stages of research I worked on British women, I ended up focusing on American women, including Francis E.W. Harper. That said, I was shocked at how many women were writing and were known as writers. (I was unsurprised by the amount of poems published by "A Lady" or some other basically untraceable name.) One of these women happened to be Amy Levy.
Levy's life was fascinating. Her first novel, Romance of the Shop, focused on the conditions of the "new women," women who refrained from marriage and instead pursued careers. Her novel would make an excellent study, both from a literary and historical perspective, of how women grappled with a society that looked down on their choices. Other of Levy's writings are probably worth exploring, since her novel Reuben Sachs dealt with the Jewish community in London.

To all of the kick ass, beautiful fierce femmes out there...

This is an amazing poem by Ivan Coyote. I love all the details in this. I love that he acknowledges how painful heels are sometimes. And I love his catalogs, especially of the various, so-called "imperfections" on the body.
There are so many amazing lines like "Please don't stop looking at me." I also loved his "sometimes my chest is a field of landmines."
And finally, the wonderful sense of humor that Coyote has here. His comments about accidents involving pendants was great.
The political message, about queer pride and acknowledging how we fight oppressions in our everyday life.

Anne Carson Interview

The Paris Review has a great interview tradition to the point where the interviews have been collected in books. I really enjoyed the interview with Anne Carson, a Canadian poet who now teaches at the University of Michigan.
One of the things that interests me about poets is what they do on their off time, that is to say the time when they are not doing "poet" things like reading and writing. The vast majority of poets teach, and that is interesting to, but I want to know about the smaller details of their lives like their hobbies, the things that don't necessarily come out in their poetry. Frank O'Hara, for example, once said he liked movies, and in this interview Carson mentions she does shadowboxing. I can't think of any poet who has done boxing, or anything close to boxing.
One of the other hobbies of Carson is making books, things that she gives to one another person. The tradition of bookmakers being poets and vice versa is well documented, the most famous being Emily Dickinson, who would collect her then-unpublished poetry into little books that she'd give her neighbors. Someone is going to have to do an academic study of Carson's book creations one day.
I also love it when poets talk about other poets. I really enjoyed Carson talk about Catallus, who I've always loved. She talks about his infamous 101 poem, which is my favorite Catallus poem. Later on, she quotes Sappho's Fragment 31, which I also love.
I also love the Lacan quote that she uses, "The reason we go to poetry is not for wisdom, but for the dismantling of wisdom." Once again, Lacan manages to get it right exactly. Carson has some great one liners too, like when she says "Model yourself on Oscar Wilde and you just lie all the time."

Gil Scott-Heron's "Lady Day and John Coltrane"

With the recent death of Gil Scott-Heron, I've been listening to his great poetry and music.  I love the beat of this particular song.  This is one of less-overtly political songs, which I think is fascinating, because Scott-Heron is so famously associated with his political art. 

Love Like Hate Wins Fiction Prize

Linh Dinh, better known as a poet but also a fiction writer, has just won the Balcones Fiction Prize for Love Like Hate, which explores characters in Vietnam. Dinh himself was born in Vietnam and often depicts characters who are marginalized because of their race or place within a national framework.
I reviewed Dinh's poetry performance in New York City last December, if you're interested in hearing more about him as a poet.
Congrats Dinh!

Slash Artists

There's a great interview up today about Marcellus Hall, a musician/illustrator.  I love people who are more than just one kind of artist. (Joy Harjo?  Ethan Hawke?  James Marsters?  Check, check and check!)  As a general art nerd, I love the idea that someone could create within multiple genres and be just as respected for all of them. 
It's acutally pretty rare that happens though.  Edgar Allen Poe is the only artist I can think of who is equally respected for his poetry and his short stories, and in both cases, they are writing, so that might not count.  In the above examples I've listed, Harjo has a band but is better known as a poet, Hawke has published novels but is better known as an actor, Marsters has a band but is better known as an actor.  (In the interview, Hall lists several other examples.)  Many writers, once they have been writing in a particular genre, find it difficult to break out into another one.  I'm hoping this is a function of the capitalist system, that wants to peg people as one thing only.  I want to see more of these "slash" artists break out of their molds and do more and interesting things. 

Tweeting for National Poetry Month

Because I don't write enough all ready for this blog and my review blog, I'm also writing regularly for Arthur, a zine my friend Erin started. I don't post everything over on that blog, but I do post the vast majority of posts. And, starting last night, Erin granted me access to the mythical twitter account that Arthur has. By now, an announcement has appeared on their blog, explaining how, for National Poetry Month, I'll be tweeting poetry bits from Cherrie Moraga's The Last Generation.

I fell in love with Moraga several years ago while researching Latina poets for a class project. There is a wonderful tradition of Chicana and Latina activists writing amazing poetry, and Moraga, the author of Loving in the War Years and co-editor of This Bridge Called My Back, is at the forefront of that political poetry. She's wonderful, and hopefully, through tweeting, we can celebrate her work and National Poetry Month.

If you have a twitter, feel free to tweet along your favorite lines of poetry.

Why Girls Should Read: Romance and Feminism: A Manifesto

My friend Lauren pointed me towards this little piece called You Should Date an Illiterate Girl, which is about girls and literacy and romance, and weirdly, calls out feminism. 
Regarding my heterosexual friends, I have observed more than a few friends in my life in relationships they are not passionate about.  This makes me sad for them, and also for the people they are with.  Once you have had that passion, even if it is unrequited, everything else palls in comparison.  It is like listening to pop music after weeks of Girl Talk on endless loop: everything is simple, and in a bad way, in a where-did-all-the-riches-go? way.  And when you see people who aren't really passionate about each other, who are with each other people so that they aren't alone, who are getting married because it's apparently that time in their life, who are with someone so they don't have to think about the other someone they actually want to be with but has broken their heart and left them to pick up the pieces, I concluded that "romance" for so many people is about having the wrong priorities.  So I sympathize with this, because I feel these things too, even though I am generally not as poetic about them (except, hopefully, in my own poetry) and don't look at it holistically but as it applies to my own personal circumstances. 
And then there's the feminism.  I always find the intersection between romance and feminism to be interesting.  If you read romance novels or see rom-coms, there are a lot of things that are disquieting about what love for women should be.  Rom-coms are about a woman making a sacrifice.  Rom-coms are about a woman realizing how wrong she is and how her guy friend who really wants her is right.  Rom-coms are about a woman fixing herself to be acceptable to her true love and society as a whole.  Oh, and if she just didn't have a career and ambition and thoughts, then really, she'd find it easier to find someone.  I like that this piece subverts that, explaining that no, men, you don't want a dumb, unread, unromantic woman; you want one who is thoughtful and reflective, who is brave and smart enough to take care of herself.  Because if she's not smart enough to take care of herself, she won't really take care of you either.  If she's not able to be brave for herself, she won't be brave about you.  If she's not thoughtful enough about who she is and needs, she won't think about who you are or what you need.  And for heterosexual women, this is the same thing.  If a man isn't capable of realizing how valuable you are and how special you are and how deserving you are of someone who loves you truly, fully, and for your gifts and not just as a ploy to stave off loneliness, then you shouldn't be with him.  As a feminist, I know the value in teaching women not to be "selfish," as it is so wrongly called, but to be self-aware and to assert their needs.  As a romantic, I want people to find each other and work for their relationship, but I am often disappointed and saddened by romances that are more about boy-meets-girl, girl-subverts-herself-for-man-or-else-is-alone stories and images.  I want there to be such a thing as romantic feminists or feminist romantics, who see the problems between these two things and subvert the anti-woman "romances" out there and make women who are happy and well-adjusted and have agency in their lives as sexy as I know it is for those of us who experience and strive to experience it. 

Italian Medieval Fanfiction as a TV Show

So, in Canada, they are apparently working on a tv show called Leonardo. Reading this description, it's clear that it's some very loosely based on history show like Jack of All Trades and Relic Hunter only clearly marketed to a younger audience.
I really hope they decide to bring in lots of different characters based on other Italians from the Renaissance and late Medieval history.
Here's my wish list:
1. Matilda of Canossa. The most underrated medieval woman. Basically, she made an entire career fighting her nephew, Henry III of the eventual-Holy Roman Empire, in defense of the Papacy. She's the greatest female general of all time. If this show wants adventure and action, they couldn't do any better than having this kickass girl.
2. Savonarola. Every story needs a good villain, and who better than a man who spent so much time enforcing his particularly myopic form of Christianity on the masses?
3. Dante. Italy has had some amazing poets, one of whom happens to be this guy. This man managed to write some great stuff, and he's perfect for a romance with a certain young lady.
4. Boccaccio. Okay, so he's also a poet, but he's also important because he influenced the likes of Chaucer (who should also get a guest spot in this show) and wrote about women. I imagine him as a proto-male feminist type.

5. Clare of Assisi. I know, her cousin/best friend/rumored-to-be-lover Francis is more famous, and would be totally fun to have on the show too, but who else is the Patron Saint of Television? That's what I thought.

(I realize these people did not, in fact, co-exist or necessarily interact with each other, but since we are playing fast and loose with history anyway, we might as well go all out.)

Steak Jackson

This little screenshot is pretty much perfect.  I'm not sure it's poetry, but I love that someone had accidentally submitted this review for one of those massive Norton Anthologies, this one of poetry.  (I have a massive one for English Literature sitting on the shelf about my desk, and I'm pretty certain just getting off the shelf qualifies as a workout.) 
My favorite part is the name he uses: Steak Jackson.  That's gold. 

Chrystos's "Shame On!"

Found this great poem today called "Shame On!" by Chrystos. Chrystos is an amazing poet, always political. I love the slam feeling of this poem, especially the clever play on words with shaman and shame.

Amazon Feedback Poem(s)

As my regular readers know, I'm a poet. Even though I write relatively tame free verse, I am interested in poetry that takes unusual forms. There's been talk this week about how poetry may have been revitalized thanks to Twitter, but that's seeing the issue too narrowly. Technology is adding all sorts of interesting forms to poetry, and sometimes people take advantage of this. This is a really interesting bit of internet poetry, written in Amazon's feedback program.
The poem might, for instance, be several poems, as they fit together but also could easily sit on their own. The third poem/stanza starts out sounding like it's from the view of a book purchaser, yet as it goes on, it identifies itself as a wall. This is a clever thing to do on a couple of levels. One, it tricks readers, and two, a wall is apparently writing on a metaphorical "wall" of a website, so it is also a joke. The fifth poem/stanza is rather silly too, using a metaphor that only half works. And the sixth is just the short bit we need to wrap it up.
I also like this form of poetry because of its guerilla nature. With technology being what it is, it would be easy for poems to be transferred and subjected onto people without them intented to see poetry. I can't wait to see more of this kind of thing.
If anyone knows of any other bits of technology-aided poems or guerrilla poetry, post in the comments.

Suheir Hammad's TED Talk

I love Suheir Hammand. She's an amazing poet and performer.
One of the things I find interesting is how similar the first video she reads here is to another poem I saw her read, which ended with "this war drum ain't louder than my breath." I'm curious is this first poem is the same poem I heard read, but revised.
I also enjoyed listening to her when she wasn't reading poetry. I hate to admit it, but the few times I have performed my poetry, I have totally spent more time on my outfit than I should have.

James Franco, Ph.D.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
James Franco
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> The Daily Show on Facebook

Here's a clip of James Franco talking about what it is like to be nominated for an Oscar. I actually find it both really endearing that he refused to skip class and that he's working on a Ph.D. in English literature from Yale. As a once undergraduate who refused to skip for anything less than the GRE, loved Shelly and Keats, and, yes was an English major, I am totally in love with this guy. I use to just admire him for bravely playing Ginsberg in Howl, now I know his love of poetry is real.

Irene McKinney Comes to MSU

Irene McKinney, the amazing Appalachian poet, is coming to MSU next week. McKinney is the author of multiple books of poetry, including The Girl with a Stone in Her Lap and has been featured on radio shows, including Daily Verse. She was the Poet Laureate for West Virginia in 1994.
The Center for Poetry and the MSU Museum are going to be hosting some events featuring her. They're both free and open to the public, so you should go. She will be giving a free poetry reading on the 14th at 7 pm in the basement of Phillip Snyder (for those of you who go to Poetry Center readings, this is where they almost always are.) She'll also be hosting a writing workshop on masks at the MSU Museum on the 16th at 7 pm. Workshops are free but have limited space, so if you want to go, please register by emailing the them (cpoetry@msu.edu) ASAP.
Hope you make it out and have a lovely time.

Wonder and Wilson

There's this great profile of E.O.Wilson, the famed scientist.  I actually don't know that much about him personally, so reading about what his workspace and childhood was interesting. 
I encountered Wilson in a biology class several years ago, and I was instantly smitten with his writing style.  Science is usually considered dry and boring, but I've always felt there was something wondrous about it.  Wilson's writing has always done a good job at capturing that wonder, which is the first thing I feel in love with.
Wilson has recently published fiction, and he's well-known for his nonfiction, but I am curious to see Wilson the poet.  His sense of wonder would be wonderful for poetry. 

Allograft

As promised, I am now able to post some links to my poetry.  The Red Cedar Review is now up for all to see on Project Muse.  If you're able to access Project Muse, you can read my poem that was published with them in May, "Allograft." 
Enjoy!