POET LORE

Yesterday was Poet Lore's 126th Birthday Reading. A celebration of "Pintura: Palabra, a project in ekphrasis" at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland. This was all made possible because of the creative work and energy of Francisco Aragon.

Here are the opening comments I made:

After the joy of reading and writing comes the joy of editing. For the last several years I've been blessed to work with a wonderful Poet Lore team. I say team when talking about a literary publication , the same way I use the word community when referring to my fellow writers.

Poet Lore is where you go if you want to read championship poetry. It's where you go to discover new voices. It's where you go to find the new work of established voices. It's where you go for book reviews and the translated work of poets who live beyond the horizon but whose words find a home inside our hearts.

A good magazine will always enter into a love affair with the reader. A good poem will seduce you into wonder and amazement.

Poet Lore might just be the mother of all poetry magazines, our Eve as well as our Eden. Each page a garden of delight.

Before we talk about poetry being universal, let us first talk about poetry being American and what that means in the 21st Century.  America is not just Texas or the Tea Party.  America is the wide arms of the world. It's the land not of gold and rainbows but of people as beautiful as trees, rivers or stars.

This afternoon the poets who read (Elizabeth Acevedo, Carmen Calatayud, Samuel Miranda, Yvette Neisser Moreno, Carlos Parada Ayala, Maritza Rivera, Dan Vera)  will remind us that how we see is as important as how we sound;  poems being lifted from the canvas to join the color in our eyes and lives.

This afternoon is made possible because the city of Washington not far from The Writer's Center is a place where secrets bloom. One day Francisco and I sat in the Penn Quarter in the basement of Teaism. We made the type of agreement that once pulled Union troops out of the south and changed the course of history.  We agreed to do something that needed to be done - perhaps launch a "Reconstruction" of American poetry.

Open our ears to the new music.

Francisco and I met not far from the National Portrait Gallery and agreed to open the pages of Poet Lore. I shared his ideas with the Poet Lore team and here we are. A line-up of beautiful voices about to read and share their work with us.

This is made possible because of Poetry Saint Francisco Aragon of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is the man of our America, our vision, our partner.

This man who seems to be always on the move, is the man I turn to if one wishes to chart the migration of the heart. Francisco - rise and bless us with your words.


 - E. Ethelbert Miller

Below the poets: Samuel Miranda, Dan Vera and Elizabeth Acevedo.

POET AT WORK

I was at Ballou High School in SE Washington today. What a beautiful school.  Gosh - I remember the old Ballou which was very depressing if you took one step inside. I met with two classes that had been reading my poetry. Both sessions were Big fun. I met a number of students that just made my day. Good questions. One student had written an original poem in her book based on one I wrote. It was nice seeing her text on top of mine. It was like "tagging" a page in a poetry book. My visit was sponsored by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation's writers in the school program.

http://www.penfaulkner.org/writers-in-schools/

E-UPDATE

People keep asking how I'm doing. It's a funny question. Howard is not the center of the world it's just on Georgia Avenue.  I'm doing more than ever before. I just need to adjust my schedule, cut down on wasting time and be sure that I'm staying ahead of the curve. Important to rise early. Find spiritual time to focus...read the newspaper before going outdoors. Blog and read email.

In the morning  think about money matters and how the day will either be one of profit or loss.

Since I'm going to be writing more, I need to develop a writing time.  I have yet to do this. Right now I have too many morning meetings that take me out of the house.

I need to avoid going downtown unless I have to. When I turn 65 in November the first thing I'm going to do is get my Metro card for seniors. This will reduce my transportation expenses.

I want to read more. Maybe 1-2 books each week.  Here is what's on the reading desk in my bedroom:

Trouble Sleeping by Abdul Ali
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Disgruntled by Asali Solomon
Carole King: A Natural Woman - a memoir
Black Mountain by Martin Duberman

I started Beatty's novel and got distracted by a number of deadlines. I also missed his reading when he came to Washington.

Next week I'll start working on my June Jordan lecture.

One of those legacy moments...

It's always wonderful being in the presence of activist Dorie Ladner...

E-NOTE INTERVIEW WITH DERRICK BROWN

Q. How long did you work at the Teaching for Change Bookstore (located at 14th and V Street, NW)?

I worked at the Teaching For Change
Bookstore for nine and a half years.
   
  
Q. What were the challenges in coordinating the spoken word activities in the Langston Room?
 
 
Some of the challenges were figuring out how to keep the events fresh
with a wide variety of visiting artists as well as keeping the open mic fresh as
well. I didn't just strictly have  poets as featured artists, but musicians as
well such as Monica and Marcia Mcintyre, Chrystylez Bacon, Carolyn Malachi.
Other challenges included trying not to repeat featured artists or that I have a
problem with folks featuring everywhere but there becomes a point where I want
to make sure the audience is getting a new voice  ( well, new to them). That
also meant figuring out how to bring in artists from out of town and pay them
well for their travel beyond the honorarium we would provide. In those cases I
was able get funding for events from Poets &Writers to help with
travel.

Other challenges at the beginning were just trying to organize ticket
sales, line control, and develop a format for the open mic that was able to fit
in everything within the two -hour limit.

   
 Q. How did you go about building an excellent poetry selection in the bookstore?

 Ethelbert, a long time ago before I even moved to DC, you told me in an email that D.C. was a great place to be a writer and of course that was true. Given the rich community of writers I called friend and teacher, I was put on to amazing books of Poetry. At Howard University, Tony Medina gave his workshop participants some major poetry reading lists and then combined with the poets I met or read who came to or out of Cave Canem, I was put onto more titles. Working at the bookstore and especially being given the responsibility of ordering books for the Poetry section was like being given a blank check. I'm an avid reader of Poetry (I'd better be) and honestly I'd add the titles that I liked. I also liked the fact that we ordered books from several different distributors, so our reach into the poetry world extended beyond just the Baker & Taylors, Penguins, and larger presses, but we'd order books through Ingram and Small Press Distibution which enabled me to grab titles from small presses by poets I knew or heard of. But the biggest influences came from customers, who suggested titles, especially once word got out that the poetry section covered a lot of ground, and styles, and schools, and perspectives and we also carried work by folks who self published as well. My only regret is that we didn't really carry chapbooks. 

Q. How did working in the store influence your own writing?

Working in a bookstore influenced my writing by forcing me to view publishing as a business. I became aware of how writers marketed their books, set up tours, and most times appreciated seeing their books on the shelves. When I was working on my manuscript for my first book after it was picked up by Busboys and Poets/PM Press, I really got a full view of what it means to really go through your work with a fine tooth comb and tighten up all of the errors and visual aspects of the work before it even goes to the editor. It was also hammered home that poetry doesn't sell as nearly as much as so many other genres, so I knew that if this was my one and only chance to put out a book, I'd better make it my best. The bookstore also influenced my writing by the availability of the books that were on hand. I could grab whatever I wanted buy it at a discount (Yes!) or get the reader copy and just drink in the words. It was also a big plus that when poets came into the store, we could talk, usually right then and there, in the store. I don't know if I would recommend working in a bookstore. Well at least not for the pay. But I would say you get an education on the blood and guts of what folks buy. I got to know the preferences of certain customers and they trusted my recommendations in not only poetry, but fiction, anthologies,arts and culture. I also got to witness the dreaded act of "returns" when books didn't sell at all, either during an event or they just sat too long on the shelf. I also had the rare opportunity to hand sell my own book which is both an experience that tests your ego and humility. Most times I wouldn't push my book at all, but I damn sure put it out in a prominent space where folks could see it. The experience of seeing someone pick up your book, thumb through it and then either put it back on the shelf or continue to read through the book more intently is definitely nerve racking. Its like waiting to see if someone is going to pick you to join their kickball team or not. I've held my breath more than a few times during that moment. But I'll say again my experience was a little different and I was at the bookstore long enough to establish relationships and familiarity with customers and authors alike. Closest thing to being a fly on the wall. 

Q. Do you recall who were some of the best selling poets at the bookstore?

Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Pablo Neruda, Rumi, Bukowski, Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, Some guy named E. Ethelbert Miller, Sherman Alexie, Patricia Smith, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Richard Wright's book of haiku always sold well. I did alright too as well as Tony Medina's children's books!  

Q. Who are your favorite poets?

Today, because it could change tomorrow: Jan Beatty, Mahogany L. Browne, Alan King, Truth Thomas, Nikky Finney, Tim Seibles, Douglass Kearney, Treasure Shields Redmond, Elisavietta Ritchie, Yona Harvey, Silvana Straw, Monet Cooper, and my current class of students at Emerson Preparatory School. Whew!! Thanks Ethelbert!

E ON DC

http://www.capitalcommunitynews.com/content/words-cut-diamond

THE SINATRA WAY

I told my Buddy Bev yesterday that she needed to tilt her hat.
Beverly Hunt is helping me organize my E-Tour.

Quote of the Day:

"Testimonies like those are usually reserved for people being laid to rest, not for those who apparently have been laid off."

 - Courtland Milloy Jr.

Taken from his article on E. Ethelbert Miller in today's Washington Post.

E. Ethelbert Miller's tribute to James Early. Busboys and Poets (Takoma) - May 4, 2015

Andy Shallal and James Early

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "an institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Washington, D.C. is a city with many institutions and monuments. This evening we gather to pay tribute to James Early, a man whose life and light has touched many in this room. A man who is a living monument to those who believe in freedom and justice, and those things so fragile as hope and democracy. A man named "Early" because perhaps too many of us are late and need to be reminded now and then about what it is we are struggling for. What I admire, and have always admired about James Early is his clarity of vision, his ability to carve through the bitter BS of our ways. This man who speaks in English, Portuguese and Spanish, is known to always speak truth to the people. While other tongues may have been tied, Jame Early's voice has been a rudder for our ship, a compass for our young. His life and work will be a destination others will have to be blessed to reach.

Yet, there are things we many never know about him. There are rumors that this man has more passports than Jason Bourne. It is believed he will live forever because of a Santeria ritual that took place in Harvard Hall. Why should a man help plan a Folk Life Festival when he is already the folk?

And so this is where we begin because there are no endings. James Early has retired from the Smithsonian Institution. What does this mean?  Are there only 10 minutes left, like the name of a show he once hosted on WHUR-FM?

Do Morehouse men ever really truly retire or do they simply continue to work after work? Consider Benjamin Mays, Lerone Bennett or the King himself. For James, it seems his days always consisted of another nation to visit, another conference to address, and no rest for the activist traveler.

But the Early life has always been filled with music and laughter - late into the night. He has always been surrounded by friends, his wife and his boys. If you pass his home on 13th Street, the frontyard seem protected by spirits from the Gullah or ancestors from an ancient time or maybe simply a page from a Henry Dumas story. If there is a lull in traffic one might just hear the ghost of Mongo Santamaria playing those drums as if 13th Street was some kind of crossroads and perhaps even Marion Barry could find a way back to the living.

From the Center for Folklife and Cutltural Heritage, the Anacostia Museum, the National Endowment for the Humanities, TransAfrica, IPS and Howard University, from places near to places far, there is that river Vincent Harding often talked about; that river forever moving and changing, and what Baraka might in his terribleness called the changing same. What we knew in the past is what we know now -today - James Counts Early is our bright and shinning star. For years we looked to him for direction, insight and knowledge. He has guided us out of darkness so that like DuBois we might see the dawn, like Mandela our feet will know that long walk to freedom.

Or as June Jordan would write - James - "let us turn the face of history to your face." We thank you with the words written inside our hearts. We thank you with our love now made visible by your strength, by your dedication and service not just to an institution but to life itself.

Which brings me to my final comment before I introduce Bernice Reagon, the woman whose voice made me understand that the ear was an organ made for love.

If you get a chance, search the Internet until you find a photograph of James Early, Amiri Baraka and myself walking across the Howard University campus. It is James, on the left doing all the talking. The picture is important because it documents that James Early walks with the poets. It was his love for Sterling Brown that made Brown the poet laureate of Washington, D.C.  It has been our friendship that has often pulled me out of my own despair.

So, I conclude my remarks by reciting the words from the poet all poets love.
Here is Neruda's Sonnet 27.  This is a poem I think everyone in this room would dedicate to you - dear James. It captures what you mean to us...

I love you without knowing how or when
or from where
I love you simply without problems or pride
I love you in this way because I don't know
Any other way of loving
But this, in which there is no I or you
So intimate that your hand upon my chest
Is my hand
So intimate that when I fall asleep
It is your eyes that close

What I like about this poem is how it embraces the mystery of love. In the poem love is to be found in humility. Love in this poem is intimacy and oneness. In Neruda's work this type of love embraces not just man and woman, it also represents one's love of land, life and country. It represents a love for the people.

This is what you have always given us James Early. This is why we praise you today and tomorrow.

Other Updates Call for Proposals: Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2016! Million Moms March includes Split This Rock and the DC Youth Slam Team May 8-9   Upshur Street Books and Split This Rock Present the BreakBeat Poets May 28, 7pm Quick Links       Join us, Busboys and Poets, and Public Conversations for May's Sunday Kind of Love reading and open-mic featuring poetsAbdul Ali and celeste doaks! Read more about the event below. We're looking forward to seeing you there!  In Peace & Poetry,  Split This Rock   Sunday Kind of Love Featuring   Abdul Ali  & celeste doaks   Sunday, May 17, 2015  5-7pm Busboys & Poets  2021 14th St. NW Washington, DC 20009 Hosted by  Sarah Browning & Katy Richey $5 online or at the door Tickets go on sale midnight on May 17th! As always, open mic follows!  Co-Sponsored by Busboys and Poets &  Split This Rock Purchase tickets and learn more here.  Abdul Ali is the author of Trouble Sleeping that won the 2014 New Issues Poetry Prize and teaches in the English department at Towson University. His poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in Gargoyle, Gathering of Tribes, National Public Radio, New Contrast (South Africa), The Atlantic, and the anthology, Full Moon on K Street, among other publications. He has received grants, awards, and fellowships from The DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities, American University, College Language Association, and the Mt. Vernon Poetry Festival at George Washington University. He is a member of the board of directors of the Hurston/Wright Foundation. You can visit him online at abdulali.net. Poet and journalist celeste doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields, Wrecking Ball Press, UK (March 2015). In 2012 she received the Lucille Clifton Scholarship to attend Squaw Valley Writers Workshop.  Her work has garnered a variety of accolades including the 2009 Academy of American Poets Graduate Prize, the 2010 AWP WC&C Scholarship, and residencies at Atlantic Center of the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Her journalism has appeared in the Huffington Post, Village Voice, Time Out New York, and Quarterly Black Book Review. Her poems have been published in multiple on-line and print publications such as Chicago Quarterly Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Bayou Magazine and Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Celeste received her MFA from North Carolina State University; currently, she teaches creative writing at Morgan State University.   Support Split This Rock  Please support Split This Rock, the national network of activist poets. Donations are fully tax-deductible.  Click here to donate. Or send a check payable to "Split This Rock" to: Split This Rock, c/o Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036. Many thanks! Contact info@splitthisrock.org for more details or to become a sponsor. Split This Rock www.SplitThisRock.org  202-787-5210  info@splitthisrock.org

ALEXANDER

An excerpt from my  introduction of Elizabeth Alexander yesterday at Busboys and Poets (14th & V St.)


It is difficult to introduce Elizabeth Alexander this afternoon. I wish she had never written THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. No, I am happy she has written this book, this memoir of memories that is a celebration of love.

Percy Sledge recently died and our lips, tongue, - our mouths filled with the sweet wetness of those lyrics "when a man loves a woman, can't keep his mind on nothing else."

Now comes Elizabeth Alexander and her new book describes what it means for a woman to love a man.

Many people, including presidents have been moved by this woman's amazing grace, intellect and beauty. I once published a poem that was called "Elizabeth Alexander." How can one not write about a woman who is fabulous.

Elizabeth Alexander always bring a light into the space she enters, and this is why her personal loss was a rain of darkness on so many of her friends. It was a darkness we didn't want to taste or smell - or even imagine. When her husband's heart stopped we too were heartbroken, we too wondered if the shores of love would ever be reached again.

The LIGHT OF THE WORLD moves us from grief into an appreciation and celebration of life. If there are many references to food in this book, it is because we hunger to be better, we hunger to touch, we hunger to be inside that circle we define as family. A memoir is but a slice of life, hopefully filling the reader to see the writer's words as bread. To witness is to feast.

THE DESPAIR IN THE AIR

Too often one can become trapped inside a narrative.  That's where we might be when it comes to race matters between blacks and whites. We keep saying the same things again and again and being shocked by the violence that too often takes our lives or decides to play catch with our future. We keep looking for answers and explanations by turning to the past. How often do we quote DuBois as if he were Jesus? After Malcolm and Martin who do we turn to or better yet - how do we move beyond the cliche- where do we go from here?  The future narrative openly mentions that many people will be obsolete and not just unemployed. There is of course the "do-over" in history. After mass destruction we try to start all over again but of course it's nothing but Babel talk. Yesterday I was watching a clip of a person I once worked with. The individual was discussing Baltimore. Out of his mouth came nothing but rhetoric. I needed an umbrella just to stop the rain and keep me dry. For many years I surrounded myself with the ideas of African American intellectuals. What if none of them were Copernicus and they all had the wrong way of looking at the universe - as if Miles Davis horn was broke and he went back to St. Louis. Where would our ears be - and would we blame all the suffocating noise on racism? Beauty should always come with a knife. The time is now to free ourselves from the past. Slavery is for slaves. Reconstruction opens the door to robotics. There is a new narrative coming naked with a key.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE SCHOOL ON THE HILL

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/30551-a-university-is-not-walmart

America's celebrated poet Natasha Trethewey  Inaugurates the Hurston/Wright Foundation's  Craft Master Class Series "Poetry, Prose and Historical Imagination" Natasha Trethewey will discuss how the "muse of history" affects and shapes her writing. This master class talk will focus on how we write about history and how we are changed by what we discover and imagine about it. This interactive seminar is open to writers in all genres. Ms. Trethewey is a former United States Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry collection, Native Guard. The author of several collections of poetry, Ms. Trethewey is currently writing a memoir. She is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University. DATE: Sunday, May 31, 2015 10am-1pm (lunch included) LOCATION:   Campus of Howard University Click Here for Ticket & Registration Information

Breaking from Newsmax.com Prosecutor: Freddie Gray's Death a Homicide Baltimore police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray will face criminal charges, including manslaughter and murder, in the death of the 25-year-old black man, the city's chief prosecutor said on Friday. Read More Here

STERLING BROWN

Today is Sterling Brown's birthday. He was born on May 1, 1901 and died on January 13, 1989. Here is a link to an essay I wrote:

http://www.eethelbertmiller.com/essay11.html

In Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire (Volume 14, Issue 2, Fall 2014) you can find "Sterling Brown and the Browning of My Life" which was a lecture I gave back in April 2104 at the Watha T. Daniel  Library in DC.

PUTTING OUR HATS TOGETHER TO PLAN THE E-TOUR

After spending the early afternoon at IPS discussing human rights issues and organizations, I took the metro red line to Takoma. I met my friend Beverly Hunt at Busboys for food, conversation and work.
We are planning the E-Tour which will promote my Collected Poems (due out in 2016) edited by Kirsten Porter. If you want more information - contact me at: emiller698@aol.com

The Annual Michael Van Dusen Lecture on the Middle East ISIS is about the Arab Past, Not the Future Speaker: Rami Khouri Former Public Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson Center;Senior Public Policy Fellow and former Director, Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, American University of Beirut; and syndicated columnist, The Daily Star *   *   * Khouri will analyze the many causes in the past two generations that converged to give birth to ISIS, noting that it reflects more the poor and often brutal quality of modern Arab statehood than any mass religious movement. ISIS also was not a surprise, in view of the fact that all serious mass movements in the Arab world since the 1970s have revolved around Islamist politics in one form or another. ISIS can be easily defeated militarily, but unless the underlying weaknesses and the poor quality of Arab statehood are resolved we will probably see even more brutal movements emerge in the future. *Coffee will be served at 9:30 am RSVP NOW » Forward to a Friend Monday, May 11, 2015 10am - 11am 6th Floor Flom Auditorium Directions Wilson Center Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center One Woodrow Wilson Plaza 1300 Pennsylvania, Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20004 Phone: 202.691.4000 mep@wilsoncenter.org Privacy Policy

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DANA FLOR - THE SCHOLARS - UDC-TV

Next up on The Scholars (UDC-TV) is my interview with filmmaker Dana Flor. We sat down yesterday and talked about making documentary films. Flor discussed in detail the making of THE NINE LIVES OF MARION BARRY. The show should be edited and ready for viewing by next week. Look for my posting.

BEISBOL

Some baseball to think about.
Maybe the Nats will turn it all around if they sweep the Mets in New York.
Nice to see Uggla hitting. This guy could carry a club if he gets hot. Hey - who is that "Z-wonder" playing a nice first base for the Nats. Are we talking a gold glove for the Zimm?  Harper is looking much better at the plate this year. He continues to bring the energy this team needs. The bullpen needs to define it self during the month of May. Meanwhile, I checked and saw LaRoche only hitting .200 in Chicago. So, his absence might not be that big. I still feel the Nats need a dangerous PH to help them win games in late innings. Well, I need to get back out to the park. It was great to catch two games against Philadelphia.