It's Poetry, Man!

So there is a part of my life that I haven't really talked about too much right here on It Ain't Truth If It Doesn't Hurt...and that is ma vie comme un poet. Growing up I can't say that I was wowed by poetry. As a matter of fact, the poetry that I loved the most...which is no surprise now...was poetry in the vein of Shel Silverstein and Maya Angelou...the poetry that you could read outloud and instantly hear the rhytym behind the poetry. You knew the minute you read Boa Constrictor that this was a poem that was meant to be shouted irreverantly so that the thoughtful cadence behind the words would be manifest to all those within earshot. For those of you that have never picked up Where The Sidewalk Ends or The Light in the Attic you are truly missing out on some of the best lyrical poetry out in the world.

I wrote poetry all through high school as way to keep myself sane and to work through my budding queerness...and trying to reconcile what I knew of my sexual orientation with what the world was telling me about sexual orientation...and the fact that I was a queer boy that had no sexual attraction to woman but was very much in love with a woman. Figure that one out Dr. Kinsey!  But from 1997-2003 I basically retired my pen. I wrote a plenty in that time...but it was all political commentary...op-eds...that sort of stuff. And since I tend to have a very incidiary form of prose writing...I tended to be able to get what I wanted to published and out in the world...but that was not allowing me to get out some of the more below the surface shit I was dealing with out into the open.

Then one magical March, I joined a crew of friends on a short road trip to St. Cloud, MN. My friends Coya and Juliana (and a woman who was later to become my friend...Tatiana Ormaza) were reading in a show called Women Hold Up Half the Sky...a women of color spoken word performance for International Women's Day. The show blew me away. Here was poetry with which I was able to viscerally connect. It was written with beautiful rhythms...it was evocative...and it was poetry that spoke to my world and the world in which my friends were living and moving. In essence it was poetic form rooted in a person of color experience. And, indeed, Spoken Word is an oral poetic form with roots in West Africa...where griots...would travel from village to village sharing stories, histories, and news in poetic form...engaging the people...and keeping ancestory and history alive. This art form can be found in Negro Spirituals...in the poetry of Langston Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance writers...in the beat poetry of the 40s-60s...and in Spoken Word which sprung up en masse in the 70s and has gained great momentum since then. Oh yes...the most beautiful things come from the Mother...and spoken word is another of the gifts that Africa has given to the world.

In Minneapolis I was blessed to have some amazingly talented friends that were already experienced spoken word artists by the time I decided to throw my words into the ring. The poetry community, unlike in Albuquerque, is not centered around Slams and Slam culture...there are Slams in Minneapolis...but the poetry scene is centered around open mics, poetry shows, and excellent performances such as Bao Phi's Equilibrium show at The Loft Literary Center (www.loft.org).  Because of the non-competitive nature of the community in Minneapolis, I received much nurturing, encouragement, and opportunity starting out as a spoken word artist. And I have been blessed to have many wonderful people that have continued to support my work, invited me to perform, put together gigs for me, and in general been great great great fans. In Albuquerque, I have also recieved a warm welcome, although the furthest I've gotten in any Slam is the second round...I would have won that last slam if I hadn't gone over time by 1 minute...FUCK THE RULES...sorry...had a flashback.

For those of you that have had a chance to engage with my poetry...you'll be pleased to hear that I am going to finally put out a chapbook. The chapbooks will be available December 13th...and will sell for $10. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the first 250 chapbooks sold will go to YouthAction to support our kick ass work to radically alter the political landscape of this country from the ground up. We are working in partnership with young people across the country for a new world centered in peace and justice. For those of you that aren't familiar with my poetry...well... I'll close today's blog with a couple of my pieces...you can also find more of my work on the web at www.calacapress.org as part of the collection "Under What Bandera"...also you can check out Queer Codex: Chile Love...which is available through Evelyn Street Press.

PS I will include some poems tomorrow. Friendster Blogs is being dumb again.