MUSELETTER #34
6/4/2000
Happy June, all!
This week's Museletter brings the latest poetry news from Florida (Leonardo DellaRocca) & the Rocky Mountain region (Ta'Shia Asanti), plus lots of useful links to Po-Biz features at About.com Poetry. And don't forget to browse the reader-submitted items & click on our Reader Submission page to send us your poetry news.
Margy Snyder & Bob Holman
Your About.com Poetry Guides
POETRY IS EVERYWHERE AT ABOUT.COM
Tomorrow (June 5th) is the 102nd anniversary of Federico García Lorca's birth. Spanish Culture Guides Martina Charaf & David de Prado have devoted a series of weekly feature articles to this greatest of 20th century Spanish poets:
- They wrote about García Lorca's mythical status as a Republican martyr, his work as a populist educator & his use of gypsy culture in 1997.
- In 1998, they featured his connection to the art of flamenco through the concept of “duende,” the topic of his famous lecture.
- They followed with a feature article on the celebration of his centenary in June 1998.
DENVER/ROCKY MOUNTAINS
Denver Has Words! The Poets of the Mile High City:
Brothah Jeff's National Poetry Conference
Brothah Jeff's Cultural Cafe in Denver, Colorado, is hosting and organizing the first annual “National Poetry Conference” in Kansas City, Missouri in August 2000! We're talking featured artists like Amiri Baraka, Haki Madhubuti and many more! Brothah Jeff has arranged for buses to transport people across the nation. If you'd like more information or would like to register and be a host organizer in your city, e-mail Brothah Jeff at Brothahjeff@earthlink.net. After the conference, many of the participants will caravan to St. Louis' Black Arts Festival for more poetry, fine art and performances by celebrated artists from the local parts and abroad.
Ego Trippin'
Fellow poets, keep your ear to the ground for the release of Ego Trippin', the live CD version of a national tour of poets originating from the Five Points District, produced by Brothah Jeff. I heard a sample of it and this CD will take us into the new millennium with words and performances that will transform and uplift our entire lives. I'll keep everyone posted on the actual release date.
SpokenWar
June 22nd, 8:00 pm at 13th and Sherman in downtown Denver, SpokenWar, a celebrated poetry group, is hosting a phenomenal showing of poetic performances and fine art, wine and snacks included for a lovely cover price of $1.00. No B.S. Visit their Web site at www.spokenwar.com. It's sure to be a blast.
Bare Knuckles Poetry in Colorado Springs
I'm thankful to Aaron Anstett, a brothah poet up in Colorado Springs who forwarded me a whole slew of poetry readings in the Colorado Springs area. They were too many to post here, but you can find all the listings online at Bare Knuckles Poetry. Also, Westword, a local free paper in Denver, lists most of the readings. So whether you're visiting Denver or are a resident, pick up the Westword to find out about the hot poetry spots up yonder. I'll be visiting some of them this summer and will be reporting back here at Poetry Currents. So keep your ear to the ground y'all!
Besides the Mercury Cafe on Friday eves and Brothah Jeff's Cultural Cafe on Saturday nights in Denver, I want to plug Cafe Nuba, organized by Sistah Ashara Ekundayo and Sistah Matima the last Friday of every month at the Gemini Tea Emporium at 28th and Welton. Sistahs have it going on up in there y'all! Poetry, prose, political prose, even excerpts from screenplays are read. Last month, two rappers from New York performed their new single. It was off the hook! Don't miss June's gathering: a special show dedicated to Pride Week (if you know, you know) and it promises to be off the chain this time!
If you can't wait for the weekend to read that new poem, on Thursday nights you can visit the Daily Grind Coffee House at the Tivoli, 900 Auraria Parkway. Get there at 7:30 pm for the featured reader and 8:00 pm for open mike. Call (303)722-9944 for more information.
Sonia Sanchez Comes To Colorado
As a not-quite-last tidbit, Ms. Diva, the Diva of all Poets, the Ms. Sonia Sanchez, is coming to Colorado. The Iliff School of Theology in Boulder, Colorado, will hold a class called “Poetry As A Spiritual Practice” and Ms. Sanchez, along with nationally celebrated poet and writer Lucille Clifton, will facilitate the class. The scholarship application deadline has passed but you can still register for the class. Call the school for more information.
Naropa Doings
Akilah Oliver, celebrated poet and performance artist, will teach a unique class centered around the spoken word in the summer writing program at Naropa College (the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) in Boulder, Colorado. Amiri Baraka, revolutionary poet, lecturer and activist, will give an historic performance at Naropa this summer as well.
Kudos To Onyx
I want to give a special shout out to a poet named “Onyx” who blew the house up at Brothah Jeff's Cultural Cafe with a poem about religious oppression. Poetry is about saying the stuff that everyone else thinks but is afraid to say. And sistahgirl embraced this practice with her courageous stand, using poetry as the medium to express her innermost thoughts. Keep doing what you doing, sistah.
I'll be busy this summer. . . . Denver has it going on, y'all!
Peace,
MIAMI/FLORIDA
In Memoriam: Rita LaFlamme Logan
Greetings from Florida. Regrettably I open this edition of the Museletter with bad news: Prominent South Florida poet Rita LaFlamme Logan died of cancer after struggling with the disease for a few years. Rita was cofounder with her husband, poet, artist and teacher, Henry Logan, of the now defunct Palmetto Review. The Palmetto Review was a landmark publication in the region, publishing some of Florida's best poets. Its publisher Palmetto Press still operates from time to time, lending its credentials and securing ISBNs for other noteworthy publications such as Fodor's Pocket Zion, which produced the work of noted Miami poets Peter Hargitai, Richard Senori and the late iconoclast Bob Welke. The press also published These Poems Are Not Pretty by performance and neo-dada poets Bruce Weber and Jan McLaughlin. The press, as with many things in the lives of her friends and family, would not have been possible without Rita's love and support. She was a friend and inspiration to all of us. Rita was a former board member of the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation (HKPF). For years she taught at-risk youth in the Miami/Dade County area. We all miss her.
Seethe!
Jonathan Rose, that dancing fool, author of the ever growing Cultural Newsletter and past president of HKPF, hosted another HKPF poetry series, Seethe! This innovative reading brings two poets on stage at once to read poems in tandem. Last week Gwen Cooper, the Diva of South Beach, and Mr. Kenyatta, performance/rap artist, slayed the audience at Meza Art Gallery and Restaurant in Coral Gables. Kenyatta was hypnotic as well as tongue-in-cheek, poking fun at the recording industry, while Cooper sizzled messages -- in one of her poems she asked a fictitious third party to look at her face while he talks to her because her “large breasts” are not microphones. Wow. Wow.
Mia Leonin Knocks `Em Out at Wild Horse Poetry Series
HKPF sponsored an important emerging poetic voice on Saturday, May 20: Miami poet Mia Leonin was featured, in her first solo reading, at the organization's Wild Horse Poetry Series at Warehaus 57, 1904B Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, FL. Leonin was paid (as is the tradition with this series, the only South Florida open-to-the-public poetry reading in which a local poet is paid to read) $50 to read from her first book, Braid. Leonin's mother is from Louisville, Kentucky and her father from Havana, Cuba; she was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and now lives in Miami Beach. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at the University of Miami. Her poems have appeared in Fathers: An Anthology of Poetry (Saint Martin's Press), The Miami Herald, Prairie Schooner, New Letters, Alaska Quarterly Review, Indiana Review, Witness, Kalliope and River Styx. Leonin, a poet and grant writer by trade, currently writes theater reviews for the weekly Miami New Times. Here is an excerpt from her recent review of O'Keeffe!, a play based on the life of the artist:
The theater's intimate setting and a wonderfully written script transform the roles of woman, painter, and lover into lenses through which we see not the woman, painter, or lover but Georgia O'Keeffe the person.
Leonin's reading transfixed the audience who gathered around the small coffeehouse to hear her exquisite poems. She opened with “July,” which I excerpt here:
God let the blood
Out from between my legs.
My mother looked up from her thin beer,
She said, For every one of those you gonna have,
There'll be some boy trying to tell you you're pretty--
Don't believe it.
Well, the boys came around--
The same ones who'd punch me in the arm
Every summer before.
They looked at me all cautious.
Started talking country music,
Calling me Honey, Sweetie, Darlin.
Only one made me nervous.
Schoolboy called me by name.
When I talked, he listened,
Still as leaves turning.
He moved like papers in the wind,
Wore sleeveless undershirts yellowed at the armpits.
His body smelled of sleep and warm vodka.
Braid is the second book published by Anhinga Press' Florida Poetry Series. Latest release in the series is James Brock's In the West: Under a Greater Miami. Tampa Bay poet and poetry editor of Organica Quarterly, Sylvia Curbelo authored the series' first book, The Secret History of Water. Leonin's, Curbelo's and Brock's books are all available at anhinga.org.
John Balaban Leaving Miami for North Carolina
John Balaban, author of nine books of poetry and prose, professor of English (creative writing and poetry) at University of Miami, is packing his bags and heading to North Carolina. His first book of poetry, After Our War, was awarded the Lamont Prize of the Academy of American Poets, and was nominated for a National Book Award. A student of Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon, Balaban left graduate school at Harvard during the Vietnam War to volunteer as a field representative for an organization that rescued war-injured children. He has since gone back to Vietnam to record native folk songs and poetry. He directs the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida. His book, Locusts at the Edge of Summer, New & Selected Poems, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 1997 and was a finalist for the National Book Award. Balaban loves to talk zen over a good bottle of wine. A regular at the Tuesday night poker table of local poetry legend Larry Donovan, Balaban co-hosted Dana Gioia, John Haag and Carolyn Kizer with the Hannah Kahn Poetry Foundation about 4 years ago. I sat and chatted a while with Kizer at Balaban's house, mainly about the Seattle Review. (Kizer is good friends with the editor who had previously taken one of my poems.)
Barbra Nightingale's Greatest Hits
Poet Barbra Nightingale was chosen by Pudding House for its invitational-only chapbook publication series, “Greatest Hits.” One of the “boat poets” of Poetry-in-a-Pub back in the late 70s and early 80s, Nightingale is a professor of English at Broward Community College. Her work appears in Poetry Tonight, among other places on the Web.
Denise Duhamel Coming Back to Miami in September
Denise Duhamel finally got the word from Florida International University -- she's got the job. Duhamel, whose list of credits is too long to appear here (get a brief taste of her work at Zipzap or right here at About.com Poetry), will come back to Miami for good to teach at FIU. Her books, Girl Soldier, Kinky and The Star Spangled Banner, to name just three, have made big waves in the poetry world. Her uncanny ability to capture pop culture in poetry continues to inspire and amaze. Duhamel was poet-in-resident at FIU last year and applied for the full-time slot. She has appeared in Best American Poetry three times. Her husband, poet Nick Carbo, is currently editing a book of Filipino poets.
Quartetto Poetica
Miami poet and master of the surreal Howard Camner appeared with Lucille Gang Skulclapper, Mark Time and Lourdes Simon in March at HKPF's Quartetto Poetica. The event was co-hosted by the YMCA's Writer's Voice and took place at ArtServe, 1350 E. Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale. Camner is the author of 14 books of poetry. His works are included in 100 distinguished literary collections worldwide, including 10 historical archives and six royal libraries. In 1980 he received a state nomination for Poet Laureate of Florida. Camner has published 1,370 poems to date, and his work is included in Florida in Poetry, the Pineapple Press retrospective tracing the history of Florida in verse. Recordings of his poetry are in audio archives worldwide, including the permanent poetry collection of the Library of Congress, and the Yale Collection of recordings of American Authors. His most recent collection from Camelot Books is Brutal Delicacies, which was featured in the 1996 Poetry Publication Showcase in New York. The Vatican Library and the Victoria Library at Buckingham Palace most recently acquired the book. Camner is currently writing his autobiography which is scheduled for release in September.
The Road That Leads Away
Palm Beach County poets and vagabonds John Arndt, Stacie M. Kiner, Michael O'Mara and Sharon Durond recently collaborated in what Arndt calls “a poetical theatrical” entitled “The Road That Leads Away.” The hour-long performance debuted at Flamingo Park Studios in West Palm Beach with music by Patrick Wilkinson. About 60 people attended the event. Arndt and Kiner cofounded the Beach Road Poetry Workshop at Arndt's home on Singer Island. Arndt recently had great success with his one-man poetry/theater show called “Gleaning Laughter, Gleaning Light,” which ran in West Palm Beach, Nova Southeastern University (as part of the HKPF's Quartetto Poetica), The Milagro Center in Delray Beach, and in New York.
Sultry Lourdes Simon Acts Out
Poet and performance artist Lourdes Simon makes her debut as a theatre actress in “Lila la Mariposa,” a Cuban play by Rolando Ferrer which opens the International Hispanic Theatre Festival (IHTF) on June 2 at Teatro Avante. The festival runs from June 2 to 18 in Miami, Coral Gables and Miami Beach. For more info, call the Festival hotline: 305.445.8877.
The IHTF includes premieres, productions in English, Spanish, bilingual and with subtitles in English, children's and street theatre, and dance. This year, the IHTF will host fifteen productions from ten countries: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, United States, Uruguay and Venezuela. It will feature after-performance discussions, several workshops on acting, a national conference entitled “Differences Among Us - Part VII - Theatre: Immigration and Exile,” the popular, admission-free celebration of International Children's Day, and the presentation of three books on theatre. This event will include a video showing of “Macunaíma” and other works by the world renown Brazilian theatre director Antunes Filho. For the first time, the newly renovated InterAmerican Campus of Miami-Dade Community College will be the centrally located site for the International Children's Day. In addition, important collaborations continue to grow with prestigious South Florida organizations such as Miami-Dade Community College, Florida Dance Association, Miami Book Fair International, and the Spanish Cultural Center for Iberoamerican Cooperation.
Florida Links & Poets
Check out Jane Anderson Jones' links to the poets in Florida In Poetry for a look at some of the best Florida poets then and now.
In response to the dearth of truly vanguard poetic writing on the Web, the Rush-Ins Poetry Collective has launched a Web site with information about the South Florida poetic “scenesters,” including pictures, reviews, articles and of course, poetry. Why not pay them a visit the next time you are online?
Email your Florida poetry news to:
READER-SUBMITTED POETRY NEWS BRIEFS
From Jackie Sheeler:
WANTED: Poems on or by the police. If you've ever been a cop... convict... perpetrator... survivor... bystander (innocent or otherwise), if you've ever been frisked, rescued, or subdued, then you have the personal, poet's-eye view of this subject that we want. Poems with heart and grit and power that explore the complexities of the cop/civilian dynamic. Send poems to cops@poetz.com or via snailmail to Poetz, P.O. Box 705, Bowling Green Station, New York, NY 10274. Because the pen is mightier than the pistol.
From 101 Artists' Colony:
Full Moon Poetry at the 101 Artists' Colony Friday, June 16th at 7:30 pm. Located at 897 South Coast Highway 101 at "H" Street in Encinitas, CA. Inviting poets to bring your own written works or the words of your favorite poet to share in an open mic gathering. Throughout the centuries, in various cultures, the full moon has been considered a very powerful time to speak your truth!!! Next gatherings on Sunday, July 16th and Wednesday, August 16th. Always at 7:30 pm. Call (760) 632-9074.
