young, avery r. 2019
Blue Hour Reading Series with avery r. young and Tara Betts
Chicago Water Taxi (Loop to Chinatown’s Ping Tom Park)
liquor heavy | backseat | cognac chevy | him a fine-fin(d)
hammerin kin(d) | three round(s) after midnight | two mo(re) befo(re) sun shine(d)
so much fo(r) dat innocence of mine | sho nuff gorilla(d) dat thrill(r) dat firs(t) time
– avery r. young, from “dem time(s) when aunt esther use(d) skinRite complexion correckor to look like Josephine Baker &/or Elizabeth”
Watch avery r. young’s conversation with WGN News on being named Chicago’s first ever poet laureate:
1. He reminded me of the character Willis Jackson from the TV show Diff’rent Strokes. This prompted me to reimagine a dark narrative of a Willis who would be bullied for having all of blk Harlem caked on him inside his new Manhattan boarding school. In front of a studio audience who wouldn’t laugh.
– avery r. young, “from “peestain”
Listen to avery r. young read his poem fo(r) east garfield:
