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Jackson, Raych 2019

Saturday, October 12, 2019
Six Points Reading Series with Raych Jackson and Camellia-Berry Grass
The Whistler

 

 

he forced me awake by snoring after
commendable I was able to fall asleep
this is his bed now he is rooted I am
snapped hanging on to assault charges by
splinters commendable I was able to fall
asleep maybe it was the best defense

            – Raych Jackson, “pantoum for his snoring”

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Watch Raych Jackson perform her poem “Numbers 16”:

Raych Jackson – Numbers 16

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A black girl is happiest when rooted to the scalp are braids.
She dances with them whipping down her back like corn in winds of harvest.
Braiding forces our reunions to be like the shifts your mothers work, long.
I find that being surrounded by only your own is more useful.
Gives our mixed blood more value.
Solidifies your place with your race, with your sisters.

– Raych Jackson, “A sestina for a black girl who does not know how to braid hair”

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Watch Raych Jackson perform her poem “Jonah Was Trapped Before He Met the Fish”:

Raych Jackson – Jonah Was Trapped Before He Met the Fish

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More info on Raych Jackson⇒

Jackson-Opoku, Sandra 2017

Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Reading the Black Library: Celebrating Brooks with Quraysh Ali Lansana
Bing Reading Room

 

 

What you mean, you trying to catch a train? I don’t care a bit more than nothing about no train. You know what they say about trains. If you miss one now, there’ll soon come another. You don’t want to be riding on an empty stomach no how. 

              – Sandra Jackson-Opoku, “Dirty Rice”

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Read this interview with Sandra Jackson-Opoku from the Journal Standard:

THE READERS’ WRITERS: Interview with Sandra Jackson-Opoku

Chicago author and dedicated educator Sandra Jackson-Opoku took some time to share a few thoughts with me. Her debut novel, “The River Where Blood is Born,” is considered by many to be one of the premier literary works describing the 300-year journey of women stolen out of their native Africa, and their struggle to survive in the Americas through enslavement and beyond.

You are just like your father. I would only say those words in tenderness. When he was born with that booty chin,
a cleft just like his father’s. When the baby fat began to melt from his bones and long, lean warrior limbs emerged. When I noticed that his laugh was developing a husky vibrato. 

              – Sandra Jackson-Opoku, “Muskmelon”

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Watch Sandra Jackson-Opoku speak here:

Sandra Jackson Opoku: The Tie Between Past, Present & Future

Sandra Jackson-Opoku is an award-winning poet, fiction writer, screenwriter, and journalist who writes frequently on culture and travel in the African diaspora. Related link: http://voices.cla.umn.edu/artistpages/jacksonopokuSandra.php

More info on Sandra Jackson-Opoku⇒

Jemc, Jac 2016

Wednesday, July 20, 2016
with Kevin Coval
Innertown Pub

JAC_JEMC_DZANC_PHOTO_EDITS-2

This the longing
Housed beneath my shoulder blades
Therefore
My lungs became like this for me:
small and unsteady. 

– Jac Jemc, “Wound”

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Read this interview with Jac Jemc from The Austin Review:

An Interview with Jac Jemc, Author of My Only Wife

At this year’s AWP conference in Seattle, we passed booth after booth of beautifully decorated books. Yet, none held our gaze longer than the black-and-white patterned cover of Dzanc Books ‘s My Only Wife , which-after a quick and enjoyed read-proved to be so much more than a pre

the catenary course of depression
like italics forced the opposite
if you get depressed remember
you have a body

– Jac Jemc, “Subterranean Triptych”

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Watch Jac Jemc read her work at Notre Dame University:

Jac Jemc Reading on September 9, 2015

Uploaded by Notre Dame Creative Writing on 2015-09-10.

More info on Jac Jemc⇒

Johnson, Denis

The traveling salesmen fed me pills that made the lining of my veins feel scraped out, my jaw ached… I knew every raindrop by its name, I sensed everything before it happened. Like I knew a certain oldsmobile would stop even before it slowed, and by the sweet voices of the family inside, I knew we’d have an accident in the rain. I didn’t care. They said they’d take me all the way.

– Denis Johnson, “Jesus’ Son”

Listen to Denis Johnson’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Read this interview with Denis Johnson in the Yale Literary Magazine:

Denis Johnson Interview

At 19, Denis Johnson published his first book of poetry, Man Among Seals. A couple of years after that, he got a BA from University of Iowa and MFA from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, where he studied under Raymond Carver. Johnson is prolific.

Watch the trailer for the movie version of Denis Johnson’s book Jesus’ Son:

More info on Denis Johnson⇒

Jordan, A. Van 2007

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
with Tyehimba Jess

A-Van-Jordan

If one rainy night you find yourself
leaving a phone booth, and you meet a man
with a lavendar umbrella, resist
your desire to follow him, to seek
shelter from the night in his solace.

– A. Van Jordan, “Old Boy”

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Listen to A. Van Jordan’s 2007 reading with Tyehimba Jess at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

A. Van Jordan begins at 21:22 minutes.

Watch A. Van Jordan read some of his poetry:

In my car, driving through Black Mountain,
North Carolina, I listen to what
sounds like Doris Day shooting
heroin inside Sly Stone’s throat.

– A. Van Jordan, “‘Que Sera Sera'”

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Read this interview with A. Van Jordan from storySouth:

An Interview with A. Van Jordan by Jessica Plante : storySouth

JESSICA PLANTE is former Poetry Editor at The Greensboro Review and a graduate of the UNC-Greensboro MFA Program and the MA program at University of North Texas. Her book reviews and poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in the American Poetry Journal, Birdfeast, The Collagist, storySouth, Tirage Monthly, The North Texas Review, and Writer’s Bloc.

More info on A. Van Jordan ⇒

Justice, Donald 1979; 1997

Friday, November 9, 1979
Wednesday, April 16, 1997
Vintage poster of Donald Justice's reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Donald Justice’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

We have climbed the mountain,
There’s nothing more to do.
It is terrible to come down
To the valley
Where, amidst many flower,
One thinks of snow…

– Donald Justice, “Here in Katmandu”

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Read this interview with Donald Justice from The Iowa Review:

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You would not recognize me.
Mine is the face which blooms in
The dank mirrors of washrooms
As you grope for the light switch.

– Donald Justice, “The Tourist From Syracuse”

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Watch a short documentary on Donald Justice:

Donald Justice, Poets On…

Pulitzer Prize winning poet , Donald Justice is the subject of a half-hour documentary, that includes readings and short films of his work. This film is one of a series of educational documentaries made for a series called Poets On. Hosted by Carol Frost, and produced, edited and directed by Gerard Meola.

More info on Donald Justice⇒

Joseph, Allison 1999

Wednesday, October 13, 1999
with Carolyn Kizer

rather scurry to my driveway to study
the moon’s abrupt phrases than kneel
with bucket and mop to banish shadows
that have sprung up on my kitchen…

– Allison Joseph, “Little Epiphanies”

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Listen to Allison Joseph’s 1999 reading with Carolyn Kizer at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Allison Joseph begins at 5:00 minutes.

Watch Allison Joseph read her work:

Poetry@Tech: Allison Joseph

Poetry@Tech Presents: Allison Joseph September 25, 2009 http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/index.php Produced by the Georgia Tech Cable Network

Don’t show your face in a sundown  town,
or forget your race in a sundown town.
What ancient shame flushes my cheeks?
Reminded of my place in a sundown town.

– Allison Joseph, “Sundown Ghazal”

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Read an interview with Allison Joseph from Lunch Ticket:

Allison Joseph, Poet, Interviewed by Kiandra Jimenez

Allison Joseph is the author of six poetry books: What Keeps Us Here (Ampersand, 1992), Soul Train (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1997), In Every Seam (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), Imitation of Life (Carnegie Mellon, 2003), Worldly Pleasures (WordTech Communications, 2004), Voice: Poems (Mayapple Press, 2009), and My Father’s Kites: Poems (Steel Toe Books, 2010).

More info on Allison Joseph⇒

Jess, Tyehimba 2007; 2016

Wednesday, October 17, 2007
with A. Van Jordan
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
with Aricka Foreman
City Lit Books

you got to have the wildweed and treebark boiled
and calmed, wating for his skin like a shining baptism
back into what he was before gun barrels and bars
chewed their claim in his hide and spit him
stumbling backwards into screaming sunlight.

– Tyehimba Jess, “martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935”

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Listen to Tyehimba Jess’ 2007 reading with A. Van Jordan at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

 

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Tom Raworth, Diane di Prima, Kimiko Hahn, Eugene Gloria, Patricia Smith, Luis Rodriguez, Robert Bly, Brian Turner, Bruce Weigl, Tyehimba Jess, A. Van Jordan, Arielle Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Franz Wright, Czeslaw Milosz, Louise Glück, and Alicia Ostriker.

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Tom Raworth, Diane di Prima, Kimiko Hahn, Eugene Gloria, Patricia Smith, Luis Rodriguez, Robert Bly, Brian Turner, Bruce Weigl, Tyehimba Jess, A. Van Jordan, Arielle Greenberg, Billy Corgan, Franz Wright, Czeslaw Milosz, Louise Glück, and Alicia Ostriker.

Buy this audio recording featuring Tyehimba Jess⇒

I sing this body ad libitum, Europe scraped raw between my teeth until, presto, “Ave Maria” floats to the surface from a Tituba 
tributary of “Swanee.” Until I’m a legatodarkling whole note, my voice shimmering up from the Atlantic’s hold; until I’m a coda of sail song whipped in salted wind…

– Tyehimba Jess, “Sissieretta Jones”

Continue reading this poem⇒

Watch an interview with Tyehimba Jess:

An Arts@UNH Interview with Poet Tyehimba Jess

Jess, a Detroit first book of poetry, leadbelly, was a winner of the 2004 National Poetry Series. The Library Journal and Black Issues Book Review both named it one of the “Best Poetry Books of 2005.”

Watch Tyehimba Jess read for the Chicago Poetry Center, with Aricka Foreman:

Six Points Reading Series

Poets Tyehimba Jess and Aricka Foreman are featured in an event hosted by the Poetry Center of Chicago and curated by Natasha Mijares. This program was recorded by Chicago Access Network (CAN TV).

Tyehimba Jess starts reading at 25:41. 

More info on Tyehimba Jess⇒

Jarman, Joseph 1977

Friday, March 25, 1977
Vintage poster of of Joseph Jarman's solo concert for the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of of Joseph Jarman’s solo concert for the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Read this interview with Joseph Jarman:

Joseph Jarman interview

Joseph Jarman

Listen to Joseph Jarman’s “Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City:”

Joseph Jarman – Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City

Info Joseph Jarman (recitation, alto sax) Christopher Gaddy (piano) Charles Clark (bass) Thurman Barker (drums). Recorded October 20th 1966, Chicago Sound Studios. ‘Song For’, released on Delmark in 1967, is one of the earliest documents of the Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), and was pianist Christopher Gaddy’s only recording.

More info on Joseph Jarman⇒

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