X-Post: The LA Times covers Eric Priestly’s fight to remain in the neighborhood he’s written about for decades.

Rhyme and reason in Watts
By Erin Aubry Kaplan

Instead of despairing, Eric is furious. He is still waging a court battle, though he has no lawyer and is learning legal procedures on the fly. His many arguments for staying are not purely legal. He says he’s not a tenant (he never paid rent, after all) and therefore should not be subject to eviction. He says the city never informed him that it owned the warehouse. He says he’s kept up the property (he’s a bricklayer and handyman when he’s not a writer). For the last eight years, he’s been a neighborhood watch captain with the LAPD’s Southeast Division, surely the most thankless volunteer gig in town. He’s the unofficial flame-keeper of the Watts Writers Workshop, the one member who stuck around Watts while other alumni — Quincy Troupe, Stanley Crouch — made their fortunes elsewhere.

More here.

Bass in your face / Not an eight track

Some audio that’s been keepin’ me busy lately:

Douglas Kearney on Fishouse Poems
– Great talk on process, form, and reading poems out loud.
Highlights for me include “Live/Evil” and “The City Vs. John Henry.”
I suggest you head over to his website and download his free chapbook.

KUHF-Arte Publico Press Author of the Month: Javier O. Huerta
– Great interview, wonderful insights, and excerpts from Some Clarifications y otros poemas. The interviewer moves this podcast through with sharp questions and personal commentary that measures up well to Javier’s expert talk and fine poems.

Patricia Smith interviewed by Belinda Subraman
– It is always a treat to hear Patricia’s poems, but I wish Ms Subraman had done some more research on Patricia before hand. I was wincing when she tried to stuff Patricia’s broad poetics into the box of slam poetry. Patricia blurring that line and reminding the listener that consideration for audience should be something on the mind of all (slam, performance, experimental, narrative, formalist, confessional, political, visual, flarfist, humorous, serious, insert your label/title here) poets was the jam.

Latino Poetry Review’s inaugural audio segment
– Francisco has a great talk with María Meléndez about LPR, Javier and Corky’s Craft, and why some poems don’t make it into the manuscript. I’m looking forward to the next segment.

Acentos Live!
– or the Bonchiche News Network meets NPR meets Radio WADO.
Rich keeps Acentos moving forward with a roundtable discussion on the current direction of the series with Emiliano Bourgois-Chacon, Jose Olivarez, Bonafide Rojas, Urayoan Noel, LiYun Alvarado and Acentos host John Rodriguez. (Bios can be found here.)
Me, I’ll take a little step back and say this session sounds a lot like kicking it late night by the window of the Blue Ox Bar with Matt, Juancho, and Tata, as I ask Guy for advice on how to thwart the white male gate keeper/defender of the ivory tower who only wants classical poetry that doesn’t take a political stance. In that case, it turned out to be the actual owner of the venue who was Caucasian, did have the keys to the door, really did love rhyming olde English couplets, and continually begged me to tone down the ethnic poetry. Ah, memories.

X-Post: The New York Times on Subway Poetry


NYC 2008
Originally uploaded by
URBAN PHOTOS

M.T.A. Derails Poetry
By ROBIN POGREBIN

Those poems on the subways are going the way of the No. 9 line — that is, coming to an end after 15 years. Poems may still be posted now and then, but mostly the quotations seen on subways and buses will pertain to a number of different subjects, including history, philosophy, literature and science.

More here.

the turntables might wobble but they don’t fall down


. b o x e d . i n
Originally uploaded by js wright

Damn, I made it through NaPoWriMo with 21 drafts, and that has me feeling damn skippy.

And for anyone of y’all who took the NaPoWriMo (or NaBlogWriMo) challenge and came away 30 for 30– I salute you, word warriors.

I would have loved to present 30 drafts for 30 days but I knew early on that it wasn’t going to happen since I was out to stay on target and continue to add to my current manuscript and I wasn’t going to put the NaPoWriMo cart ahead of the manuscript horse. I also knew that 30/30 was not going to happen while reading four books of poetry, attending a ton of poetry readings, reading at two events, hosting one event, and blogging when it was necessary.

Looking back, I am proud of all but one of the drafts and stayed focused on expanding the manuscript with every draft except for #8, the ice worker palimpsest, which I am ultra-proud of for a whole different set of reasons and will be the only poem that will stay up.

Regarding Palimpsest. I came across the word while reading Beneath the Metropolis and saw a lot of possibility not only in the word but also in my interpretation of it. In the last month I have come to view it as a form of process, one where I insert myself into poetic traditions and take what I need while disregarding what I don’t. What is left is either homage or sacrilege, all depending on who is reading the poem.

The AudienceSpeaking of audience, this might be a good time to record the set-list from last week’s Achiote Press reading which was wonderful. I got to read with (and introduce) some amazing poets and had an attentive audience. What more can I ask for? (Gourmet food and fun music? Yes, the reading had that too! Thanks go to Craig and Jen for such a great event.)

Set-List

â‹… Palimpsest: Sonnet
â‹… Palimpsest: The Trouble with Poverty
â‹… Palimpsest: Zuihitsu
â‹… Palimpsest: B-Boy Prayer
â‹… Palimpsest: Congruence
â‹… Traffic Misdirector by Pedro Pietri
â‹… Palimpsest: A Bodega on Anywhere Avenue
â‹… Palimpsest: The Break
â‹… Palimpsest: Ghazal

It was great to read all the new poems and experience them in the format of a live reading. The start of the set was a little rocky but my confidence increased poem by poem and by the end I was feeling really strong. Looking forward to read some more of these in the future.

I did this NaPoWriMo thing on a fluke but I am glad that I did because it reminded me that when I want to write poems, they’ll get written. It might be painful, but it’ll get done.

To anyone thinking of doing it next year, I say go for it. I also say- Form is your friend. Well, at least it was mine.

Now it’s time to revise some older poems, get to writing a long poem, and then revise this group of poems for a future chapbook.

Word.