April is here. . .

April is here which means I’m preparing for my daughter’s spring break in two weeks. I’m trying to line up some writing gigs as my internship will conclude end of April. There’s an exhibit I want to check out, America I Am, which is at the National Geographic museum.

The writing is coming along slowly but surely. I’m trying to balance writing papers for school with my own writing and there’s the culture writing I do which is an extension of my interests and personal writing but helps pay the bills.

There are some exciting new albums coming out: Raphael Sadiq, one of the sisters from Flo’etry came out with an album (whose name escapes me), and i’m listening to Les Nubian’s album at the moment.

Back in the Habit!

trying to keep stress levels down

It’s been a little over a month since I last posted. Here’s what I’ve been up to in the past month:

1. Started an editorial internship with the online news and culture magazine, The Root

2. Saw the play Let Me Down Easy and interviewed Anna Deveare Smith, the playwright-actress who conceived the fascinating show. She plays 20 characters in her one-woman show.

3. Been thinking a lot about the 1990s. I watched Dave Chappelle’s Block Party the other night and got a little misty-eyed when Lauryn Hill came out.

4. Trying to get organized: have to sign Kayla up for summer camp while it’s still early.

5. The spring semester began a few weeks ago. I’m taking a lit course in experimental poetry which is fascinating, all hands down. I’m also taking an Creative Nonfiction course while I rewrite my poems and make them better.

6. I just ordered networking cards for AWP. I’m preparing to talk about Folio’s poetry contest on Jo Reed’s On the Margins, tomorrow morning.

7. Seen way too much snow.

8. I’m happy to report that I paid of my credit card debt, almost $15,000 worth.

9. I finally purchased a copy of Danielle Evan’s short story collection, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self.

10. I’m also preparing to teach poetry over the next four month for the Arlington Public Schools–from elementary all the way through high school.

More soon. . .

Fall is Here

First, hear is one of my favorite tunes about autumn. It’s a cover that Miles Davis did in ’64.

There’s a lot going on at once. The goal is to surrender myself (or my literary voice) to do some new things. Yet, I’m interested in working on a continuum, if that makes sense. It’s been heartening to get to know a few of my colleagues outside of the workshop. There’s so much experience that we all bring (or leave) on/off the page.

I need to be work on an ekphrastic poem. If the rain slows, I may go see the Basquiat indie film.

Here’s something I did recently. It wants to be a sonnet. Here’s the first stanza.  What do you think?

Greatest Hit

        Tupac Shakur 6/71-9/96

My belly pressed on the speakers before

you were born. It was seventy-one, Ike

& Tina howled Proud Mary. I was Mary

you were proud, bigger than salvation.

A colleague of mine and I had a lengthy conversation last night about the need to challenge each other to write the poems we’re afraid to write. In any earlier poem, I mentioned how torn I feel in so many ways. One of the things I mentioned was the way I was raised to be a ‘respectable Negro” a credit to my race while simultaneously supressing the urge to do something absolutely wild and inappropriate like run out into the streets screaming motherfucker. So I was challenge to write a poem where I engage that other side without regard for the workshop since I won’t be presenting it in the workshop setting. It’s moments like these that I’m so grateful.

I’ve also resolved to pay more attention to form. Not necessarily traditional forms but form in general. As form can help you get to the what you are trying to say because the how is already decided.

Hiatus is Over. . .

 

I needed to throw my hat back in the race, and by race I mean, stating relevant in this tech-centric age of blogging and what not. So, what has kept me away from blogging….hmm.

• I’ve been doing a ton of reading, hundreds of pages, reading criticism, underlining and commenting in margins. Writing poems, reading poems, reading my colleagues’ poems. And being disappointed at parts of the workshop experience but I’ll get into that in another post.
•  I’ve been organizing a poetry contest for AU’s lit journal, Folio, which will be judged by Naomi Shihab Nye. This is really exciting.  I’ll be posting more details at a later date.
• Hustling- because my time is so absorbed in school this makes it difficult to apply for actual jobs. But, so far things have been working smoothly.
• Commuting back and forth to Baltimore to be with my six year old who just started first grade.The biggest adjustment so far hasn’t been all of the hours of reading or being a full-time student. It’s the utter culture shock of being in a very different space. And mixing my pesonality with very different ones. (More on this later.)

Along the way, I’ve made some discoveries about myself, the world, and I look forward to getting past this first semester.