More of this Feature • “Left Memories,” the poem Patricia Smith performed at the Community-Word benefit

Related Articles • The Teenage (R)evolution of Poetry; The Poetic (R)evolution Of Teenagers • The Poetry Kids from Pittsburgh • The First Rule of the Internet Is Access; But what about children?

Elsewhere on the Web • Community-Word Project Web site • Patricia Smith in Book of Voices

Patricia Smith is never less than riveting, but at the Community-Word benefit in October last year she stopped the room breathing a good five minutes. C-W is an amazing crew who teach po to kids, who get into it by writing a collaborative poem. The poem then becomes the basis for a huge collaborative mural, which the children paint, physicalizing the imagery, literally working words into the fabric of the visual art. What a concept! But the concept ain't nothing compared with the work itself -- massive color-laden love bombs, interlaced with Pure Poetry.

So Ms. Smith hits the stage at Bar 13, and her poem is “the moment,” as a griot must do: it is built on actual lines from the murals, with the murals hanging all over the room, so all of a sudden we are sitting in the poem as the griot inserts the poem into each of us. A collaborative poem, built on lines written by these children. A poem about possibilities and love, children and poetry. Dedicated to the children whose words are the poem's frame: total respect raining from one of the great poets of our time, nurturing the audience, the children-creators, poetry itself....

Bob Holman

Next page > “Left Memories,” Patricia's Community-Word poem > page 1, 2

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Patricia Smith was the subject of our feature, “Patricia Smith, Journalism & Poetry: Shall we meditate on Truth?” in 1998 & her response to the poetry community's outpouring of support was posted in Poetry Channel #48. In 1999, we brought you a ringside report from the New York Heavyweight Poetry Bout, Patricia Smith vs. Sherman Alexie. She also contributed to our articles in tribute to Gwendolyn Brooks in 2001, “Two poems for Gwendolyn Brooks” & “In Memory of Gwendolyn Brooks: An overheard conversation.”

You can read more of her work online:

• Kurt Heintz of e-poets.net made her Chapter 1 in his multimedia Book of Voices site: beautiful intro and lots of audio poems.
• “For Brother Blue” appears on her loudPoets page.
• “The Lounge Singer” is posted in Lioness Kim Holzer's Lid litmag.
• “Asking for a Heart Attack” & “Sweet Daddy” are in the SlamNation archives.
• “Grace” was published among the “Night Stanzas” (erotic poetry) at Clean Sheets.
• Julie Schmid's paper for the Poetry and the Public Sphere conference at Rutgers in 1997 analyzes Patricia Smith's merging of poetry & journalism.

Compare prices  to buy the book • Africans in America

She co-wrote Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery (Harcourt, 1998), companion volume to the PBS series, with Charles Johnson.

Compare prices  to buy the books • Close to Death • Big Towns, Big Talk • Life According to Motown

Her collections Close to Death (Zoland Books, Inc., 1993), Big Towns, Big Talk (Zoland Books, Inc., 1992) & Life According to Motown (Tia Chucha Press, 1991) are all available online.

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