some shameless self-promotion: Fred L. Joiner X Studio Museum in Harlem X Phillips Collection

Over a year ago, I attended an online session of the Studi Museum in Harlem’s  Museum Education Practicum. It was an amazing opportunity to say the least. Ieft that practicum so full I have yet to finish a reflection I started writing about for this site…soon come.

The practicum was fruitful in many ways, one of which was meeting so many cool and smart people in the museum world and expanding my circle of creative folks worldwide. Another awesome personal outcome of the practicum and the community I found there were the opportunities it created for me to talk about my ideas about the intersection of other art forms and poetry…Big Thanks to Erica Harper for asking me to be on the Phillips Collection panel for Teaching with Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle Then and Now

Another opportunity that was so meaningful to me was when Ilk Yaska invited me to write a reflection for Studio Museum in Harlem’s Museum and Systems symposium. It is hard to describe my respect and reverence for the Studio Museum. I know the idea of the museum itself comes with its flaws, including the Studio, yet I love the work the Museum has been doing and its efforts to define an “us”, “our”, & “we”

Needless to say, it was an honor to write this reflection, and I hope to get more opportunities like this. The version that is on the website is a bit different from the one I turned in, so if you want to read that one hit me up, I will send it to you, but go here if you want to read the version they published.
One correction I noticed is that they misprinted my equation for Wellness  represented it should read:

W(ellness) = C(are )/(T(ime))

Not Wellness = Care + Time

Anyway,  enough running my mouth,  here is the link to my recap /reflection….click here

half note 004: Connecting the dots –> The Value of Black Womxns’ Poetries.

A few weeks ago, while surfing around on my IG feed  I came across the Health Promotion Practice podcast by Dr. Shanae Burch.

This episode features  Drs. Bettina Judd and Amber Johnson are both poet-scholars who are using poetry and poetic lens to engage their work in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies and  Social Justice respectively.

You should really check out this episode of the podcast and their back catalog which often features poetry.

I have known Dr. Judd for quite some time and have always appreciated the rigor she brings to her poetry. As many of us poets attempt to do, she brings together an interdisciplinary mix of influences to her poetries and other writing.

Judd’s book patient (which you should go get), included some poems which joined in the chorus of Black (and other) women poets to creatively engage the history of  Saartje  Bartman.  I think I first became aware of  Bartman’s story through Dr. Elizabeth Alexander’s book , The Venus Hottentot. Since then many Black writers have added their voices Some of the writers and artists have added their voices to mentioning or telling  Bartman’s story in their creative works, Wikipedia has a list here that I think is a primer, but it missed both the poetry books of Dr. Bettina Judd (patient)  and poet-educator Dominque Christina (Anarcha Speaks). Both of these books give voice to the history of medical experimentation that Black women have endured in the name of advancing “Western medicine.”

I know that Wikipedia is not meant to be comprehensive by any stretch of the imagination, but I  expect more of Harvard, the Hutchins Center, and of the Resilient Sisterhood Project.

The Hutchins Center recently mounted an exhibition, Call and Response: A Narrative of Reverence to Our Foremothers in Gynecology. It is an amazing selection of artists, curator Dell M. Hamilton, places in conversation with paying homage to the “foremothers” of gynecology.

I was excited to see an exhibition guide that has images of the works, curatorial statements, and artist bios. Also included is a list of further reading on both the static website and the pdf exhibition guide.

While perusing the further reading, I was surprised to not see any of the Black women poets and playwrights on the website or the exhibition guide. What was even more curious was none of the creative works by Black women (Elizabeth Alexander, Suzan-Lori Parks, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Lydia R. Diamond, Jamila Woods, Zodwa Nyoni, Tessa McWatt, Meghan Swaby, Bettina Judd, Dominique Christina…i am sure there are others) were included, yet a very recently published book (SAY ANARCHA by J.C. Hallman) by a white male author was later added to the list

I must admit I am quite surprised and disappointed that the works of these Black women were not added to the list of resources, Alexander and Parks in particular, because I speculate that the acclaim and reach of their works ( and many others prior to 2002) added to the discussion that moved the French National Museum of Natural History to return her remains to Bartman’s home in South Africa.

This to me speaks to the lack of value placed on the poetics (and other production) of Black women, even when telling the stories of Black women. While I understand that Hallman’s SAY ANARCHA is “staggeringly researched”, I can say no less of not just the scholarship and rigor of the work of the Black women who have engaged with Bartman and others, but also of their lived experiences which surely render them as experts to be included a “further reading” and to broaden the discussion and scope of the exhibition.
What is further confounding is the exhibition that was co-sponsored by an organization called the Resilient Sisterhood Project would not privilege the work of Black women creative writers. **** Hallman does make one small reference Judd’s patient, the online archive of the book

We have to do better. Black women poet-scholars are continuing the long tradition of producing work that merges their creative and critical expertise, and we are better for it, but we should be taking every opportunity we have to put their voices in our conversations, especially when the conversation intersects with both their expertise and their lived experiences.

 

 

 

 

Arts & the Pandemic & “the Archive” & so on

Although Biden has declared the pandemic over and “the machine” has started to devour us with the business of business again, I have been thinking about some practices and maybe some lessons learned in the art world during the pandemic that I think we need to consider and continue. I think this is particularly true for Black artists, arts organizations, curators, and creative practitioners of all stripes.

If you are reading this and you know me well, you know I have been on my soapbox about Black artists creating repositories of our work for some time. I always think about the importance of repositories like PennSound, From the Fishhouse, and others and how much I learned from being able to listen to those recordings.

In the Early 2000’s  I bought a mini-disc recorder to start documenting poetry readings, lectures, and other activities I wanted to make sure I had in my own “archive” to re-visit and enjoy. A few years later, artist Holly Bass included me in a grant she was writing to do a production of Langston Hughes and Charles Mingus’ Weary Blues. We used a Zoom H4n to record and document the session at Busboys and Poets (14th&V).
These two devices have enabled me to document so many events that will be important in the study of our cultural production.

In thinking about how the pandemic has changed us and how things are starting to return to “normal,” I am also thinking about how we may miss some really important opportunities if we are not mindful.
Although we grapple with technological advancements, they also provide opportunities for us to document, preserve, share, and connect beyond the boundaries of what we may think of as our target “communities.” During the pandemic, we were all enabled to connect beyond geographical and time boundaries.
Zoom and other virtual platforms enabled us to build relationships in places we may never get to travel. These platforms also gave us the ability to record and share these convenings with greater audiences.
What has disappointed me over the last year or so, as the pandemic has been  “winding down,” fewer and fewer events are offering virtual viewing options, which could very well mean the opportunity to record, document, and preserve these events. The added injury is that those communities that were able to connect during the pandemic are now cut off from that programming.  To flip it another way, it is also quite possible that arts orgs are now cut from potential supporters and new donors because they can no longer take part. For Black artists, I think it is a unique missed opportunity because these networks amplify our work and put us in conversations and spaces that help us build the kind of community will need, particularly as our books are being banned, our art being challenged by aesthetes who try to keep us in the crosshairs of their can(n)ons.

If nothing else, the pandemic has definitely shown us (again) that we cannot only use technology to build communities that overflow boundaries and create connections we not ordinarily make but also to build and maintain archives at a time when continued and sustained attacks on our narratives, our work, and our lives are raging.

As I was writing this reflection, I came across this fascinating conversation at the Harvard University Center for  African Studies.  It is the pilot episode of the Black Archive Visual Podcast featuring a conversation between Sihle-Isipho Nontshokwen and Siseko H. Kumalo.

I love the conversation they are having…I was having all the feels listening to this conversation; they are continuing to ask questions that our elders and ancestors asked and creating targeted work as tactical approaches to repair, re-member and redeem our people to one another …I will be chewing and churning on this one for some time. I look forward to the next episode of this podcast.

Heathens

Over the past weeks since the shooting in Buffalo and now this shooting in Texas I have just been tired and angry.

What does it say about a society that targets its elders and its children? I won’t get started because I would never stop writing…

What often helps me out of the dark holes that come for me at times that we have been experiencing, is re-visiting some powerful sermons and some of my favorite poets. I picked up  Amiri Baraka’s Transbluesency collection.  There are so many poems and ideas in this collection that have given me so much but there are two in particular that I return to. I think it is because of their humor, their audacity, their ability to move “both directions at once”, their ability to be in the present, yet speak to the past and the future.  Both “In the Tradition” and “Heathens” sit in their own section of Transbluesency.

This time it was “Heathens” because I wanted to laugh, but not the kind of laugh that turns off the critique and the anger at a system that continues to have us in the crosshairs.

Baraka’s “Heathens” take the form of his African American echo of the Japanese haiku form; Baraka called them lowcoup.
After reading I did not feel my usual sense of satisfaction, so I opened up a Word document and started writing a few… here they are

 

Heathens
after Amiri Baraka

Heathens think
there is only one
Amendment
To the Constitution

Heathens think
All life is sacrificial
Outside of the womb

Heathens think
hate speech
Is Scripture

Heathens think
Blood splatter
Is fine art

Never Forget : May 13th 1985 “This is America”

This is a poem I wrote last year around this time for a project called “Say Their Names.” This was a collaboration between photographer Donn Young, writer and historian Mike Ogle, and County Commissioner Renee Price. You can Google it if you want to find out more about it.

This was one of my contributions to the project. The poem was me thinking about the MOVE bombing of 1985 on Osage Avenue in Philadelphia; it also includes some thoughts on the revelation that the remains of those killed in the fire were at the University of Pennsylvania and how they studied and disposed of those remains last year.

Click here to view a PDF of the poem.

 

 

Happy Birthday, Trane

Tomorrow September 23, 2021, would have been John William Coltrane’s 95 birthday. This year, after 5 years of living in Trane’s home state of NC for almost 5 years now, I finally got to celebrate his commemorate his birthday in a way that I think got me thinking again about what his life and music have meant to me.

My friend and neighbor, Jazz Incognito,  (WXYC 89.3 FM Chapel Hill) has an amazing radio show that spend so much good music, invited me on his show to speak about John Coltrane, poetry, and what his work has meant to me. Not only was it a lot of fun, but I think it could be a step toward my own re-engagement with his work. Some time ago, I remember being discouraged from writing poems inspired by Jazz and Trane by some folks whose opinion I really took to heart, so I had stopped. Today, as a poet and writer, I have a little more confidence in my voice and more tools at my disposal, so perhaps I am better equipped to reflect and more fully say what I want to say about Trane’s life and music.

Here the interview I did with Jazz Incognito and a portion of the show. I encourage you to check out the whole show when it air and check out the amazing archive of shows on Jazz incognito, you won’t be sorry .

Here is one of my poems inspired by Trane and his experiences in Japan. Thanks to Kim Roberts for publishing this poem on Beltway back in 2007, it was (and still is) such a blessing to have my poems published there among writers and thinkers who love.

TRANE’S BLUES @ NAGASAKI

in a world where calls to prayer
are interrupted by the hot wail

of breaking bones and the rhythm
of blood spilling.

i have learned to question.

what is this way of seeing, viewing
the world through a ring of brass?

what is the sound that follows sight
whole notes blown

to be a force for good…

a drone calls me at the hour of God;
the sound is like that first hit.

the high that begins the search
more inward, than interstellar

i have found that the warm space
under sheets of sound

is my sanctuary, the calm center of a whirlwind
trapped in fire-shaped brass; every whole

note is a prison for all
the suffering I have ever seen.

Here are some links to other poems I had published on Beltway
Fred Joiner: The Wartime Issue
Fred Joiner: DC Places Issue

Fred Joiner: Audio Issue

Here is a piece I wrote for Trane’s 81st birthday on the now-defunct website Everyday Citizen:

A freestyle first meditation on _being a force for good_ on Trane’s 81st birthday (done in one take) (Everyday Citizen)

Lessons from “the Studio” #3

I know you are looking at the title of this post and thinking, ” what happened to #1 & #2?” The answer is I am getting there…This is my attempt to show the process by which some pieces of writing or projects happen.

I am 3 weeks into The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Museum Education Practicum and I am having a ball. There are so many smart and accomplished people in this class, I am really happy to be a part of it and I hope that it spawns some opportunity for collaboration and future projects together.

Because of a project that I am currently working on, I started thinking about the people who are not in this class and who might benefit from hearing about what we are doing. So I decided to try to do some brain dumps or some kind of summary after my class.

Today the readings were all about the term “post-black.” I think it is almost impossible to talk about The Studio and not at least mention this term. The Week #3 readings were very interesting, they were the following:
1. “Is there a ‘post-black’ art?” by Cathy Byrd
2. Introduction to Freestyle by Thelma Golden
3. “The Multiplicity of Multiplicities–Post-Black Art and its Intricacies” by Nana Adusei-Poku

I remember when i first heard this term amongst my poet and writing comrades we were like, “WTF is a post-black.” My first inclination is that is was another way to call Black artists the N-word and if not it would be used that way. The other thing that happened too is that i feel like there was a lot of backlash at the suggestion of a period “after” black. One of my mentors turn the whole discussion on its head and said, “Nah, the real discussion we should be having is is “post-whiteness.” After our last 4 years it is clear that we as a country and a world need to think about the reality that the construct of whiteness has wrought an continues to impact in our world and what kind of world is possible “post-whiteness.”

Some the important topics that came up in the small groups I was in were:

  1. Commodification: All art is commodified, that is why they call it the “art market.” That said we discussed because Black artists represent such a segment of said market, establishing a term like “post-black” that could be (or be used as) a package marketing term to tell the “art market” that this artwork will not make you feel guilty, you can view without having to think about that old, pesky Race, or Racism, or Blackness.
  2. Tensions: To be Black and creating is filled with tensions because black life at large is filled with tensions. Even Black artists that art not creating expressed “Black” work feel the pressure of being who they are in the world.
  3. Process (& Material): In our discussions about the artists in the videos we were asked to watch (Senga Nengudi, Jack Whitten, and Kevin Beasley), it was so instructive to see the artists talk about a piece of work and walk us through its creation and the ideas and craft that go into the work.
  4. Our instructor also asked us to consider the term post-black and more specifically how the term made us feel and how we thought the term functions/(ed).

There was much more but I think this captures the main elements….

Stay Tuned. I will fill you in on #1 & #2 later. See you next time…

More Goodness…

I had the good fortune to be on a panel as part of the Mosaic Literary Conference a few weeks ago. Ron Kavanaugh has been a literary activist and warrior for the Black literary world for a long time. One of my first published writings was published in the pages of Mosaic Magazine, so it was an honor to be on this panel with such accomplished folks: Tai Allen (moderator), Janice Lowe, and Dimitry Leger.

With thanks to NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green and Timothy Crowley, I have a poem included in this cool anthology that just came out. So far, I only see it listed on Amazon, but you can ask your local bookstore to get it from Chapel Hill Press. For those who are local to Chapel Hill, check Epilogue and Fly Leaf.