Friday, October 30, 2015

POETRY EVENT - Washington, D.C.


Togolese writer Anas Atakora will read selections from his work and participate in a moderated discussion with Marieta Harper, Africa Area Specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division. This event is free and open to the public. Co-sponsored by the Library of Congress African and Middle Eastern Division, and presented in partnership with the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, U.S. Department of State.
Location: African and Middle Eastern Division Reading Room, LJ-220, Thomas Jefferson Building 
Contact: (202) 707-5394
Click here for more information.

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

POETRY event - chicago




 
READING

Poetry off the Shelf: Patricia Smith and Reginald Dwayne Betts

Tuesday, November 10, 7:00 PM
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free admission
Patricia Smith is the author of six books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler (2008), a chronicle of the human and environmental cost of Hurricane Katrina which was nominated for a National Book Award and Teahouse of the Almighty, a 2005 National Poetry Series selection. Reginald Dwayne Betts is author of the poetry collections Shahid Reads His Own Palm (2010), and Bastards of the Reagan Era (2015).

read this POEM OUT LOUD


The Thinker

 
William Carlos Williams

poet PROFILE



James David Corrothers was born in Michigan in 1869. He was raised by his grandfather until he passed away in 1885 ,when Corrothers was 16.

Two years later in 1887, Corrothers moved to Chicago, where through the persuasion of journalist, Henry Demarest Lloyd, who had read some of his poetry, he was hired by the Chicago Tribune as a writer.

In 1902 , Corrothers collected his most important poems and articles and published them in an anthology called The Black Cat Club. This publication established him as a major literary figure.

When he died in 1917, James David Corrothers was considered one of the leading Black literary figures in the nation.








To read a more detailed bio and sample his work GOOGLE his name

Monday, October 26, 2015

POETRY EVENT -chicago - this WEEK


 
POETRY OFF THE SHELF

Claudia Rankine: "An American Lyric"

Saturday, October 31, 2:00 PM
Northwestern University
School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
375 East Chicago Avenue
Tickets available at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org.
Claudia Rankine’s Citizen (2014) is an indictment of contemporary times. Using a poetic frame, the poet uncovers an insidious racism embedded in the everyday – from the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, to the lecture halls of the ivory tower. As Rankine’s observations move from bewilderment to disappointment to quiet ire, Citizen leaves readers unsettled, moved, and changed with every page.

 
POETRY ON STAGE

Claudia Rankine’sCitizen: Poetry in Performance

Saturday, October 31, 7:30 PM
Museum of Contemporary Art
Edlis Neeson Theater
220 East Chicago Avenue
Tickets available at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org.
As the country continues to reel from unending stories of police brutality and violence, hip-hop historian Jeff Chang(Can’t Stop Won’t Stop), jazz musician David Boykin, sound artist Christine Hume, scholar Lauren Berlant, and poetRoger Reeves, among others join Claudia Rankine for a powerful performance that reflects on race in the United States today.

 
YOUNG PEOPLE'S POET LAUREATE

Jacqueline Woodson:Brown Girl Dreaming

Sunday, November 1, 2:00 PM
First United Methodist Church
77 West Washington Street
Tickets available for free at chicagohumanitiesfestival.org.
Jacqueline Woodson takes to the stage for a conversation about her life and influences. Brown Girl Dreaming (2014), Woodson’s memoir in verse, is a rich, poignant description of life as a black child in the 1960s. Her memoir has won both a National Book Award for Young People and the Newbery Honor. In 2015, Woodson was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. 

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Monday, October 19, 2015

poetry EVENT - Chicago


POETRY FOUNDATION, CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL & MCA CHICAGO

Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: Poetry in Performance

Saturday, October 31, 7:30PM
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Edlis Neeson Theater
220 East Chicago Avenue
Tickets available at
tic
POETRY FOUNDATION, CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES, ILLINOIS HUMANITIES & MCA CHICAGO

Claudia Rankine: "An American Lyric"

Saturday, October 31, 2:00PM
Northwestern University School of Law
Thorne Auditorium
375 East Chicago Avenue
Tickets available at
tickets.chicagohumanities.org

POETRY FOUNDATION, CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION & THE LOHENGRIN FOUNDATION

Jacqueline Woodson: Brown Girl Dreaming

Sunday, November 1, 2:00 PM
First United Methodist Church
77 West Washington Street
Free tickets available at
tickets.chicagohumanities.org

Saturday, October 17, 2015

celebrate BLACK POETRY


Today we celebrate Black Poetry Day in honor of Jupiter Hammon, who is believed to be the first African American to publish poetry in the United States. He was born into slavery in Long Island, New York on October 17, 1711.
His poem “An Evening Thought” was first published on Christmas Day at the age of 49. Hammon is considered one of the founders of African-American literature.
In honor of Hammon’s birth, we celebrate the contributions of all African Americans to the world of poetry. Some of the most notable are Langston Hughes, Phyllis Wheatley, Paul Laurence Dunbar and Maya Angelou.

It’s no surprise that many of the early poems by African Americans spoke of overcoming struggles and hardship, often with encouragement and a look to a brighter future.
One of my favorites is by Langston Hughes, “I Too Am America.” 

I, Too

by Langston Hughes
written in 1932
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.

How will you celebrate this day?

1. Look up and reflect on the meaning of poems written by African Americans. See a list of a few athttp://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets_african_american.html and at http://www.ehow.com/list_5842906_famous-black-poets-authors.html
2. You don’t have to be an African American to write a poem of encouragement, telling how you overcame something in your life or celebrating freedom. Try your hand at a poem now. 
3. Learn about the Harlem Renaissance, a period after World War I when many Blacks migrated North. During this period,  Black poet and writers openly celebrated their history and contributions and opened the doors for many other Black writers to share and be recognized for their work.      

-By FLORA-


                                                      JUPITER HAMMON



Thursday, October 15, 2015

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

poetry NEWS

BLACK POETRY DAY

Black Poetry Day is celebrated annually on October 17.
CELEBRATE
Pick up some poetry written by black poets and use #BlackPoetryDay to post on social media.

Monday, October 12, 2015

poetry NEWS


Dawn Lundy Martin to Guest Edit PEN Poetry Series!

BY HARRIET STAFF
Dawn Lundy Martin
This just in: Dawn Lundy Martin will be guest editing PEN Poetry Series, starting in October. Yesterday, they posted a new poem by Martin, from “Good Stock”–check it out here. Martin’s newest book,Life in a Box Is a Pretty Life (Nightboat Books 2015) was recently reviewed at Emerson’s Ploughshares. An excerpt:
The book as a whole engages artist Carrie Mae Weems’s “Framed by Modernism,” a series of photographs that critiques the relationship of male artist and female model while at the same time reproducing it: a critique that acknowledges its weird complicity in what it analyzes. Once we realize that we are marching our bodies through socially scripted performances, do we then have a chance of freeing ourselves? Lundy does not take it for granted that we do. When she declares that “A boy is not a body. A boy is a walk”—that “boyness” is not an essence, not an inalterable natural fact, but a performance—a liberating possibility opens. But realizing the possibility can be elusive…
We’re looking forward to the possibilities at PEN!

Thursday, October 8, 2015

challenge twenty-nine

Write a poem in which your current self meets your future self.  What advice or warnings would you feel compelled to offer yourself.?


Wednesday, October 7, 2015

poetic BIRTHDAY


AMIRI BARAKA was born Everett LeRoi Jones on this day in Newark, New Jersey. He was a poet, writer, teacher, and political activist.


His first book of poems "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note,"  was published in 1961.


He was the author of numerous books of poetry during his writing career which spanned nearly 50 years. His themes ranged form Black liberation to White racism.


Baraka's poetry and writing has attracted both extreme praise and condemnation.

In July 2002, Baraka was named Poet Laureate of New Jersey.






Amiri Baraka died in 2014. He is recognized as one of the most respected and widely published Black writers of his generation.


To read his life and times, and sample his poetry and writings GOOGLE his name.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

poetic BIRTHDAY

CLAUDE MCKAY was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica on September 15, 1889.  His love for his island home inspired his first two books of poetry which were published in 1912. Most of these poems were in Jamaican dialect.

MCKAY'S best-known poems are militant and angry sonnets which urges people to fight against injustice.





In 1922 MCKAY published his most important collection of poems, Harlem Shadows. These poems express Black America's mood of desperation and defiance.

MCKAY was also a writer who wrote novels. His novel Home to Harlem, published in 1928, was the first best-seller by a Black author and won the Harmon Foundation Gold Medal Award for Literature.

MCKAY died in 1948.







For a bio and a sampling of his poetry and writings GOOGLE his name

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

sonia sanchez - a living legend SEPT 9, 1934


SONIA SANCHEZ is a living legend in  poetry.  She was born on September 9, 1934. Her work strongly uses urban Black vernacular. This is SANCHEZ telling the truth by using the language, dialect, and idioms of the people.

SANCHEZ  specifically directs her poetry to Black people, concentrating on themes of identity and pride. Throughout her work she has affirmed the value of strong family relationships and lashed out against all forms of racism, sexism, and ignorance. HONOR A LIVING LEGEND!





For more biographical info and a sampling of books and poetry GOOGLE her name.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Thursday, August 27, 2015

POET PROFILE

James Edwin Campbell (1867-1896) was born in Pomeroy, Ohio.



He was a poet, educator and journalist. Campbell created dynamic verses in "Gullah" dialect that were praised for their originality, realism, authentic voice, and spirit.

Although Paul Laurence Dunbar is credited with popularizing verse in dialect, Campbell had been publishing poetry of this type years before Dunbar became successful.


Near the close of the 19th century, Campbell moved to Chicago and was a staff writer for the Times-Herald. He also wrote articles and poems for other periodicals.  Like his predecessor, Dunbar, Campbell died of pneumonia at an early age. He was  28.


Campbell wrote two volumes of poetry.  "Driftings and Gleanings" (1887) and "Echoes from the Cabin and Elsewhere" (1895).



To read more about this early Black poet and sample his poetry GOOGLE his name

POETIC BIRTHDAYS IN AUGUST



8/28/1952 - RITA DOVE - was born in Akron, Ohio.



She is a highly acclaimed poet, author and college professor, who served as the Poet Laureate of the U.S. from 1993-95.

She won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1987 for her collection "Thomas and Beulah."  She also served as the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2004-06.

===================================================================
8/30/1852 - Henrietta Cordelia Ray was born in New York City.



She was a  poet, writer, teacher, and activist.

 She received national acclaim when her poem "Lincoln" was read at a dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C. in 1876. The event was attended by Frederick Douglas.

See "POET PROFILE" this blog dated 1/3/15 for further biographical info on Henietta Cordelia Ray.



*** SPECIAL NOTE:  These two poets were born almost exactly 100 years apart.



To read their bios and sample their poetry GOOGLE their names


CHALLENGE TWENTY-SEVEN


WRITE A POEM DESCRIBING A GREAT EVENT IN YOUR LIFE AND HOW IT UNFOLDED.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

READ this POEM out LOUD


After the Winter

 
Claude McKay

Thursday, July 30, 2015

POET PROFILE


MARY WESTON FORDHAM (1844-1905) was a poet, educator writer and teacher. Very little is known of her.

She is best known for her collection of poetry MAGNOLIA LEAVES, published in 1897.


To read a brief bio and sample her poetry GOOGLE her name.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

poetry challenge twenty six


WRITE A POEM WHICH DESCRIBES THE FIRST THING THAT COMES TO YOUR MIND WHEN YOU VIEW THE ABOVE IMAGE.

Monday, July 27, 2015

POETRY EVENT - CHICAGO


(In)visible

<em>(In)visible</em> : Foundation Events
Saturday, Aug 1, 6:00PM
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free admission
Featuring new work from Fatimah Asghar, Jasmine Barber, Britteney Kapri, Reginald Eldridge Jr., Dianna Harris, Tim Henderson, and Jamila Woods, (In)visible is the culminating reading and performance for the 2014-2015 Young Chicago Authors Teaching Artist cohort. (In)visible asks how the body considers trauma and space, and engages notions of the body as point of origin and as target for erasure.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

POETRY EVENT - NYC



Poet Claudia Rankine reads from Citizen, her recent meditation on race in America, then sits for a conversation on art, trauma and social justice with Cleonie White and Sarah Stemp, clinicians from the William Alanson White Psychoanalytic Society.

“Claudia Rankine’s Citizen comes at you like doom,” wrote Hilton Als. “It’s the best note in the wrong song that is America. Its various realities—‘mistaken’ identity,’ social racism, the whole fabric of urban and suburban life—are almost too much to bear, but you bear them, because it’s the truth.”

A co-presentation with the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis and Psychology

Poet Yusef Komunyakaa and actor Wendell Pierce—both Louisiana natives—share a stage for the first time.

Komunyakaa’s new collection is The Emperor of Water Clocks. “His voice, whether it embodies the specific experiences of a black man, a soldier in Vietnam, or a child in Bogalusa, Louisiana, is universal. It shows us in ever deeper ways what it is to be human,” wrote Toi Derricotte. Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, Pierce ("The Wire" and "Treme"), writes about “art’s power to transform us and the world” in his new memoir, The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken.


To learn more GOOGLE their names.      Log on to  92y.org for scheduled dates and times.

READ THIS POEM OUT LOUD


By the Stream

 
Paul Laurence Dunbar

poetry challenge twenty five

USING THE FOLLOWING WORD GROUP: IMAGINE, SOMEONE, LISTEN, WORDS, WRITE A POEM WHICH DESCRIBES WHAT A "BROKEN HEART" FEELS LIKE.


Wednesday, July 22, 2015

POETIC BIRTHDAYS FOR JULY


MARGARET WALKER - (7/7/1915 - 11/30/1998) - Was well noted for her poetry, but she was also a distinguished professor of literature at Jackson State College. A historically Black school, she worked there for 30 years (1949-1979). In 1968 she founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black people. It is now called the Margaret Walker Center.

Google her name to read her poetry and learn more





JUNE JORDAN - 7/9/1936 - 6/14/2002  - While serving as a full professor at the University of California Berkeley, in three departments, English, Women Studies, and African American Studies, Jordan was known as the "Poet of the People" (1989-2002).  In 1991 she founded the "Poetry for the People" program. It's aim was to inspire and empower students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression.


Google her name to read her poetry and learn more

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

poetry challenge twenty four


WRITE A POEM TO EXPLAIN WHY YOU WRITE POETRY. You know why! Now put it into words so we all can understand.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

POETRY EVENT - CHICAGO



A Celebration of International Poetry: New Generation African Poets Amy Lukau, Tsitsi Jaji, Ladan Osman, Viola Allo & Warsan Shire

A Celebration of International Poetry: New Generation African Poets Amy Lukau, Tsitsi Jaji, Ladan Osman, Viola Allo & Warsan Shire : Foundation Events
Thursday, Jul 9, 7:00PM
Poetry Foundation
61 West Superior Street
Free Admission
Website
The Poetry Society of America continues its 2015 national series, A Celebration of International Poetry, at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago. The series will travel to six cities and focus on major international poets from any era.
In this third installment, we celebrate five emerging poets from Africa, Amy Lukau, Tsitsi Jaji, Ladan Osman, Viola Allo, andWarsan Shire, whose work has been recently published in the New Generation African Poetschapbook series, a publishing initiative of the African Poetry Book Fund (APBF). View previous chapbooks in the series, including works by Jaji, Osman, and Shire at Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute's Poets in the WorldCo-editors Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes, along with APBF Editorial Board Member Matthew Shenoda, will discuss the project and introduce the emerging poets, who will then read from their work.
Co-sponsored with the Poetry Society of America