And on a non-gay cooties note, I went to the Dodge Poetry Festival today.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

First, I met up with my former HS teacher, now friend, to whom I will forever be indebted and then we went to a reading by Lucille Clifton. Clifton's rantings about Britney Spears and Flava Flav made her 100x cooler in my mind (and she was already pretty damn cool to me). Then, Mark Doty, whom I absolutely adore, gave a reading. I had to leave that early because my blood sugar was dropping, so I went in search of food. I found pizza and some more friends, plus another former HS English teacher of mine. Finally, I finished off the day by going to "Conversations: Going public with private feelings" led by Lucille Clifton, Toi Derricote, Mark Doty and Linda Gregg. I had never heard of Toi Derricote before, but she was fucking awesome, so I'll need to be checking out more of her stuff. Lucille Clifton once again proved her coolness by responding to an audience member's statement that "we are angry at Bush because we do not understand him" by stating, "No, I precise reason I am angry at Bush is because I understand him and I understand what he is doing."

Then, I went home because I was supposed to have a family dinner and that's already been covered in another thread.

I'll be going back on Sunday, because I need to hear Gerald Stern and Anne Waldman read. I also intend to track down Peter Murphy, so he can sign my book.

Yup. I am a geek. I admit it. Poets get me excited. I am a poet groupie.

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. D'oh! So close on the grammar, and yet... not quite...

you were so wonderful to say "to whom I will forever be indebted" - pure brilliance on your part - but then you added the "to" at the end anyway.

:cry:

Otherwise, sounds like a fucking great time! And I'm glad you got hear someone new that resonated with you. Experiences like that are so fricking exciting!!

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

2. Oh well, I still did better than most.

I'm kind of disappointed that Marie Howe isn't on the itinerary. She hasn't read around here in about five years and she's my favorite.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll discover a couple more new people over the weekend.

[idgiehkt]

3. wow, this is awesome.

That is so cool you saw Lucille Clifton, I love her. It sounds like a great day. I loved your journal entry that you linked as well, sorry you had such a hard time with your family with the coming out stuff. I guess I am a geek too because I love poetry but I don't go to readings or do much stuff like that. I need to get out there and hear some fresh stuff, Chrystos is my favorite poet and I just stick with her and a few others mostly. I need to expand my horizons but I find it hard to find people who write about stuff I feel is really pertinent. Chrystos has an interview online where she makes some pretty strong statements about poetry being written today that would probably piss alot of people off but I have to say I agree with alot of what she says. If you're interested it's here: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_200309/ai_n9281944 (from 2003)

here's one of her controversial statements:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_200309/ai_n9281944/pg_3

"I do scan the N Y Times Review of Books and I look at the poetry books that are being reviewed. There's a woman here on Bainbridge Island who last year won a Macarthur Foundation for some $90,000 and I went into the bookstore and skimmed through her book and you know I didn't get it. I mean there's a lot of poetry being written which is very, um, I don't know if I should say this or not but I will, I feel like there's this nostalgic racism going on in the literary world at the moment. In nostalgic racism you have books like the Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells. You have Fannie Flagg. You have a whole bunch of really popular writers who are essentially writing about all white worlds in which there is no recognition that they ARE that white world.

So I call that nostalgic racism or nostalgic white supremacy. It's a way of recreating a world which actually doesn't exist anymore. Most of the literature that is considered "important literature" in the United States is white supremacist literature. By that I mean there are almost no people of color in it and if there are, they're literally the maid mentioned in passing. John Cheever's like that. John Updike is like that. Norman Mailer is like that. All of those people that I call the dead white men have this nostalgic white supremacy going on in their work. And the publishing industry itself has a sort of quota system happening where there can be four Asian women writers, there can be four Black women writers and two Indian women writers. So I look upon the publishing industry as a white supremacist organization and a lot of people flinch when I say things like that because they think I'm over reacting or I'm not being nice.


You know, the world is not an all-white place. And anyone who doesn't want to acknowledge that has an investment in white supremacy. I got into a big time argument with somebody about that Ellen show. (I don't care if it's about someone who's gay), there's no brown people in her shop and it's in Los Angeles! Are they trying to say that no brown people in the world read? You know, I'm not going for that stuff anymore. I've gotten quite crabby as I've aged."


And it just gets better fromthere, lol.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

8. Sounds interesting from the article.

I've never read her stuff, but I'll check her out.

Also, Clifton discussed her poem about abortion and how most teachers say it's about a miscarriage. It was High School day at the festival, so she announced, "it you were told it was about my miscarriage, they lied. It was about one of my abortions, but people worry these days that if you read that I had one, you're going to run out and get yourself one. And it doesn't work that way."

[idgiehkt]

9. sad she even has to make that statement

Just makes me sick to think we've moved this far backward. Depressing.

here's a great poem by Gwendolyn Brooks talking about her abortions:
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/24515

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

10. Yes, I've read that before.

I was lucky to hear Gwendolyn Brooks read before she died.

[miss_american_pie]

4. That is incredibly cool

I'd sell a kid to hear Gerald Stern. ;)

And I'm sorry about your family stuff.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

7. Haha...last time I heard Stern read was at...

the Warren County Poetry Festival (held on the years between Dodge). At the end, he just randomly started dancing around on stage and singing Dylan's "Everybody must get stoned." It was awesome. I love Gerald Stern.

[RetroLounge]

5. I am so so jealous!

Why do these things never happen in the midwest?

Poetry Flyover Country...

:cry:

RL

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

6. Well, does anything happen in the midwest?

I just thought they had corn and cows there.

:hide:

[RetroLounge]

11. and bookstores

:shrug:

RL