Here is an interview I did with Redbud Writing Project’s Arshia Simkin
click here to read it.

Pre-order link coming soon….

The post Long time… I know, but… 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

The post some shameless self-promotion: Fred L. Joiner X Studio Museum in Harlem X Phillips Collection first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

so much depends
upon

a white folding
chair

glazed with river
water

upside a white
racist head

(C) Fred L. Joiner

The post A Montgomery Brawl meditation first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

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.

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

The post Heathens first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

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.

The post Never Forget : May 13th 1985 “This is America” first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

If you have a moment, pop over to Boom For Real Bamako, for my quick first take on the choosing of the curatorial team for the 2021 Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography / Les Rencontres de Bamako, Biennale Africaine de la Photographie.

Click here and go there…now…please?

The post half note #? first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

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.

The post More Goodness… first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

I know my website needs a little updating. I am getting to it, please bear with me. In the meantime check a few links of me reading or talking about my work

While it is an honor to have any organization support or feature your work, this reading in particular was a distinct honor to be a part of because of what this organization means to African American Poetry in particular, and American Letters in general.

This program is in support of the newly published Furious Flower anthology, Furious Flower: seeding the future of african american poetry edited by Dr. Joanne Gabbin and Lauren Alleyne. My presentation starts at 49:03, but you will miss a poetry blessing if you don’t listen to the who thing.

This is a piece I did with the Sciences Po School of Journalism in Paris , France. Thank you to Pariesa Young for reaching out to me after finding my poem Currency.

The following link is a link to the business and economy program Marketplace, it airs on NPR. Thank you to Maria Hollenhorst for finding my poem Austerity on the Academy of American Poets website. I know some writers are used to a certain type of acclaim and recognition, but for me as a poet who does not have my own collection out in the world YET, it is an honor to have my poem on this website. It is hard to put in words.

Click here to check out the segment on Marketplace.

Last but not least, is a reading I participated in with some other amazing writers to celebrate the publication of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective’s new anthology All the Songs We Sing edited by Lenard D. Moore with an introduction by NC Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green.
It was such an honor to not only be included in this anthology but also to be welcomed into the fellowship of the Carolina African American Writers’ Collective, so needless to say that my gratitude abounds. Thanks to Lenard D. Moore for welcoming me into the fold.

The post Yeah, I know… first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.

Join us for a celebration of the rich legacy of Black poetry as contributors to the third Furious Flower anthology, “Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of Black Poetry,” read from their work and share their thoughts on legacy as poetic practice. The event features poets F. Douglas Brown, Dominique Christina, Toi Derricotte, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Terrance Hayes, DaMaris Hill, Tyehimba Jess, Fred Joiner, Nate Marshall, and Clint Smith, with a critical context by Meta DuEwa Jones, and remarks by Rita Dove, Parneshia Jones, and Joanne Gabbin. Register now and receive a discount code with your purchase of Furious Flower: Seeding the Future of African American Poetry

Designated Registration Links

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The post Honored to be a part of this recorded reading first appeared on Fred L. Joiner.