On Friday, the Griot & Grey Oul Black Southern Writers’ Conference, kicks off down the road in Durham.

Here is a link for the full schedule  https://griotandgreyowl.org/events/

Second Sunday Poetry Series @ Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC.
Sunday, November 10, 2024. 2:30 pm

Embodying Biodiversity: Sensory Conservation as Refuge and Sovereignty Epilogue Books, Chapel Hill, NC Nov 14th 6pm

Embodying Biodiversity: Sensory Conservation as Refuge and Sovereignty

The post some cool events I have coming up first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

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:

Not Wellness = Care + Time

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

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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.

The post half note 004: Connecting the dots –> The Value of Black Womxns’ Poetries. first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

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.

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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.

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)

The post Happy Birthday, Trane first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

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…

The post Lessons from “the Studio” #3 first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

I know updates have been scarce…what can I say except, soon come. In the meantime head over to BOOM FOR REAL Bamako and check out a few updates over there.

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The post ICYMI: For your visual arts education edification and listening pleasure first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

I have had the privilege of knowing Bro. Yao  ( Hoke S. Glover III) for quite some time. I don’t really remember how long it has been, but I do remember the conversations we used to have at the Karibu Books that was in the Landover Mall.  We did not learn that we were both poets until a bit later.

Today on Rattle’s website‘s, Bro. Yao’s poem “PUTTING THE NIGGERS TO REST“ is the poem of the day. After reading it, I immediately thought of The Roots song 75 Bars (Black Reconstruction) ( I also thought of DuBois’ Black Reconstruction in America, but that is a much longer discussion for another time), from their 2008 album Rising Down; on which Black Thought uses both Nigger(s) and Nigga(s) repeatedly in punctuating his lines.

Right of the top, in Yao’s poem, I do notice various types rhymes and sonic pleasures that Yao layers into the poem.

I am going to spend some time with these two pieces to look for similarities beyond the repetition of Nigger(s)/Nigga(s) and the strikingly similar distribution of the word throughout, but I  couldn’t ignore both poets’ use of Nigger(s)/Nigga(s) , perhaps as a way of pointing to some other layered meaning …….

Other Links to check out:
Bro. Yao’s (Hoke S Glover III) new book, Inheritance

Mos Def and Black Thought rhyming 75 Bars (Black Reconstruction)

The post Random Hip-Hop & Poetry Thought 01 first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

As usual, the end of the year puts me an introspective mood, which sends my mind all over the place. Very often I find myself thinking about the future, what the next move will be for me, my art and my family.  But quite often before I dive into the future, I find myself thinking about the year that has passed, what I have lost, gained, learned or even what I am going through at the present moment.

As those thoughts pass through my mind, I am in a mood of gratitude in general , but also because of some recent good news…

A few months ago, one of my poems was accepted by The Editors (Mahogany L. Browne and Amanda Johnston) for the #‎blackpoetsspeakout‬  issue of Pluck! Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture (click here & here for more info). Needless to say it is an honor to be a part of the sea of poetic voices speaking up for our people as we face the crisis of state sponsored and sanctioned violence, through police and law enforcement who are supposed to be serving and protecting. Because I am living abroad, it hard to watch and to hear about all the things going on and not to be present to be a part of protests or to help out in someway. But I also realize this is a global issue and that the work I am trying to do with empowering Malian (and other West African artists) is a part of that struggle too.

Because of the vision of the guest editors, that this issue of pluck! was intended to be used as “a personal amulet, a tool in the classroom and a hammer in the streets. Get it either way, but carry it forward.” Editor Amanda Johnston goes on to say “Because this work is for the people and these poems have work to do, pluck! issue 13 is now available for FREE online. Click here to read now.”

Here is how you can get a print copy for you or your institution:

Pluck! $15/copy mail to:
pluck!, 1215 POT
University of KY
Lexington KY 40506

$30/subscription for individuals
$100/sub for institutions and organizations

Click Here for more info

———————–

Secondly, I am grateful that Sarah Browning accepted a few of my poems for a forthcoming issue of the Delaware Poetry Review that will be out Spring of 2016.

And…

Last, but most definitely not least,  I just found out a few days a ago that a small dialogue that I recorded with Kwame Dawes ( find him here & here) will be included in the final cut of Furious Flower III. I cannot even explain the kind of honor this is, mostly because even though I have been to thelast two Furious Flower Conferences and other tributes and events in between, I still walk around kind of starstruck to be among some of my super accomplished peers and folks whose work has shaped and continues to help me shape, my own work. So to be in the video presentation really means a lot me.

I am beyond grateful, thank you to Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin, for grabbing me by the hand that day back in September “to go with her to talk to Kwame” and many thanks to Judith McCray, of Juneteenth Productions for crafting Kwame’s brilliance and my babbling into a really nice dialogue (I almost sound like I know a little something).

I also want to thank the few of you who take the time to read my random and often infrequent thoughts on this and my other web presences. Please know that it is EXTREMELY appreciated!

Onward & Upward…

***I am also super thankful for my parents, The Joiners of Bowie coming to visit The Joiner of Bamako for 5 weeks and for our upcoming trip home to the States for the holidays, this is the first time we will all be home together for the Holiday Season.

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