Things...Today

I am having a weird day already; I got up early and managed to plow through the million things that seem to need to be done before work in the morning, but am still a bit out of it, whatever "it" is. Some random things for today:


1.) Things I'm reading today:

• Chapters from the Book of Luke
• Poems from all the National Poetry Month e-mail lists (namely Poetry Daily, Knopf, and the Academy of American Poets)
• The Undomestic Goddess - Sophie Kinsella (Given to me by Jane--my best friend since eighth grade--as a present)
  

2.) Things I can't stop singing today:

• Homecoming - Kanye West ft. Chris Martin (from Coldplay)
• Feels Good - Rahsaan Patterson (Thanks to Dr. Campbell, who reminded me what a soulful voice Rahsaan has)

3.) Things I want my parents to get to do today:

• Capital Jazz Fest Cruise
• All-inclusive trip to the Big Island
• Any kind of vacation this year

4.) Things I'm looking forward to today:

• Jon Pineda's reading/book release party this Thursday
• Finally seeing the Alvin Ailey Dance Company (While Ms. Jamison is still director...)
• Salsa Bootcamp (or some dance class) with the Road Dawgs

5.) Things I've browsed on the internet today:

• We seem to even prefer dieting in the womb, girls.
• You think you know Big Will, but you have no idea...
• The Bluecast Variations on Funk Reading sponsored by Indiana Review. Take a listen.

You MUST see this...

The hardest working man in poetry is back at it again. He's completed a new groundbreaking interactive project that we all need to look at and learn from. Click the picture below to find out what all humming is about:

So You Think You Can Write?

This Saturday, 3/29, I'll be participating in a one-day publishing festival sponsored by Old Dominion University. They have a bang up MFA program and fabulous teacher/writers like Tim Seibles, Sheri Reynolds, and Luisa Igloria. The festival will run all day and will have a series of panel son publishing in small and large venues and on techniques to get your work noticed by editors. Please come out to the festival if you're in the area. You'll find all of the pertinent details here.

You might even get more tips like the ones below ( I just love these, especially 4, 6 and 9):

Been thinking about all kinds of writing things this week, got a lot on my plate. I'll be at the ACTC Conference next week delivering a paper on August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Wilson is certainly one of the best and, arguably, the most prolific playwright the United States has ever produced. My paper deals with identity and spirituality, so contemplating those things on the page has made me think about the definitions I've set for those things in my own life.

Benn reading some great books in preparation for the upcoming Emerging Writers Festival at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. Right now, I'm in the middle of Emily Rapp's memoir Poster Child and I am riveted. I can't wait to hang out with some of these fantastic writers. More on that as it approaches.

I also have a big exam coming up at work, so my students are getting antsy. Breathe guys, breathe. The comic strip below is just for them (though they better be studying and not on the computer reading my blog!):

Reading at William & Mary on Tuesday, 3/11 @ 7:00 PM

The Ringing Ear at The College of William & Mary, Tucker Hall 120, Williamsburg, Virginia. Remica L. Bingham, Matilda Cox, and Kendra Hamilton, with guest poets Tim Seibles and Toni Wynn, present an evening of poetry at the nation's second-oldest institutions of learning. Professor Hermine Pinson hosts. The event is co-sponsored by The Patrick Hayes Writers Series. If you're in the area on Tuesday, 3/11, please come out to hang with us!

Dance, Dance Revelation

This weekend's performance with INSPIRIT and VTDance was amazing. The movement of the body is such an intense and introspective art. I was awed by the fact that company directors Christal Brown and Vincent Thomas (pictured above) both found ways to mold their dancers into one continuous form, but not make them a homogeneous unit. Each dancer moved in his or her own skin precisely the way it was made to move, but each dancer was in unison with the others as well.

Both Vincent and Christal used various artistic mediums in their work. I couldn't help but think of Venus Thrash during INSPIRIT moving piece "Past Her Rites", in which the dancers begin their magnificent choreography to the voice of Nina Simone. Later, during the "Isms" piece that tackles various social boxes we find ourselves relegated to, INSPIRIT used some poignant lyrics from Goodie Mob and allowed me to recite my poem "Initiation" and pen a new, extemporaneous poem during the piece. There was constant music--live and recorded--even a saxophonist who was lifted into the air while still playing during a VTDance piece. There were media images--photography, newspapers, even conglomerate ads flashed at a dizzying pace across the stage's far wall. In short, I was blown away by the constant beauty and was blessed to spend time with so many brilliant artists.

Shoutouts to some of the cool folks who came to the show, touched base or hung out while I was in D.C.: promising poet Patricia Biela, Pat Washington (of the Poem-cees), my good friend Anita Taylor, Derrick Brown holding it down at Busboys, Kyle Dargan (check out his new venture), Thomas Sayers Ellis who loves to scream a poet's name while hanging out of a car window on U Street, and my Aunt Eunice and Uncle Frankie. You know family always shows love.

Thanks again to Christal for allowing me to be a part of something bigger than all of us.

Reading in D.C. with INSPIRIT Dance, March 8th and 9th

Something very cool has happened--I've been asked to be a part of a performance with INSPIRIT Dance Company in the next few weeks. Big ups to poet John Murillo ,who put me in touch with Christal Brown, the founder of INSPIRIT, after I made a trip to NYC last year.

The Company is using a few of my poems--about womanhood and sensuality, I believe--from my book, Conversion, in their new piece. I'm so excited to finally get to meet them and see the words come to full-bodied life. Needless to say, I am thrilled :-)

If you're in D.C. or will be there the weekend of March 8th and 9th, please come out to the performance. Details about the location are below:


Dance Place

3228 8th Street NW

Washington, DC 20017
Ticket Prices: $20 general admission;

$15 members, students, teachers (Pre K-12), professional artists & seniors;

$7 for children
For more information and directions, call 202-269-1600



It's only appropriate to end this post with a poem about dance that dances...

American Smooth

We were dancing – it must
have been a foxtrot or a waltz,
something romantic but
requiring restraint,
rise and fall, precise
execution as we moved
into the next song without
stopping, two chests heaving
above a seven-league
stride—such perfect agony
one learns to smile through,
ecstatic mimicry
being the sine qua non
of American Smooth.
And because I was distracted
By the effort of
Keeping my frame
(the leftward lean, head turned
Just enough to gaze out
Past your ear and always
Smiling, smiling),
I didn’t notice
How still you’d become until
We had done it
(for two measures?
Four?) – achieved flight,
that swift and serene
magnificence,
before the earth
remembered who we were
and brought us down.

--Rita Dove

Tina Turner and Beyonce -- Grammy Awards 2008

Tina Turner will be 70 years old next year. She was born in Nutbush, Tennessee. She wears four-inch stiletto heels and silver lame'. My mother and I agree that we both want to be Tina Turner when we grow up...or at least get personal trainers now and hope for the best.

How does staying up until 11:30 watching the Grammys help one to write??? Well, I am still inspired by this performance and am thinking the eternal questions. How do you reinvent yourself (in song)? What are the extended metaphors in the Turner catalog? I always imagine that singing "Private Dancer" was especially painful for Tina, so she'd beat that song down every time she came to it. How did Ike's being gone, really gone, affect the way she showed the stage no mercy last night? Where are the odes for Tina? What line(s) can I use to write her Bop? Plenty of inspiration in tradition and history, the melding of classic and new.

Oh, and stop hatin' on Beyonce. She worked it, too. And girlfriend had to work pretty hard to keep up with Ms. Turner.

Something poetic from Tina:

PRIVATE DANCER

All the men come in these places
And the men are all the same
You don't look at their faces
And you don't ask their names
You don't think of them as human
You don't think of them at all
You keep your mind on the money
Keeping your eyes on the wall

I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
I'll do what you want me to do
I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
And any old music will do

I want to make a million dollars
I wanna live out by the sea
Have a husband and some children
Yeah, I guess I want a family
All the men come in these places
And the men are all the same
You don't look at their faces
And you don't ask their names

I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
I'll do what you want me to do
I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
And any old music will do

Deutch marks or dollars
American Express will do nicely, thank you
Let me loosen up your collar
Tell me, do you wanna see me do the shimmy again?