Yeah, I know…

This a picture of me when we first moved to Bamako, Mali, and had just started blogging at one of my other sites BOOM For Real Bamako.

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.

Photo by Jati Lindsay

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.

Gratitude #1

Today I sat on a panel, called “Blacker than a hundred midnights”: Public History and Memory and the Souls of Blackfolk in the South”  with Nikky Finney, Randall Kenan, and Dr. Danielle Purifoy, moderated by Dr. Jennifer Larson here at UNC-Chapel Hill. It was a distinct honor to be a part of the conversation in such a distinguished and accomplished company.

I started my initial comments with this poem by Lucille Clifton:

why some people be mad at me sometimes By Lucille Clifton

which really set the tone for everything else I said. You really cannot go wrong with Ms. Lucille, her poetry just keeps on giving.

I have more gratitude to share, but I am going to let this sit here a moment.

Gratitude #0

Jati Lindsay on Lens

Over the years it has been so cool to see the work of so many poets who are friends, who I have met or whose work I just love on The Academy of American Poets website (and Poetry Foundation too).

To quite honest, I never thought anything I had written would find itself there. So you can imagine how beside myself I am with gratitude and jot that 2 of my poems Austerity and Currency are now on The Academy of American Poets’ website.
One of those poems, Currecncy is included in The Next Verse Poets Mixtape Volume One: the 4 X 4 (Central Square Press) which you purchase here.