Home » Articles posted by hocopolitso (Page 16)
Author Archives: hocopolitso
Sekou Sundiata and Ed Hirsch ‘The Writing Life’ Episodes Now Available On YouTube
We’ve recently added two episodes of The Writing Life, one featuring Sekou Sundiata and the other Edward Hirsch, to the growing HoCoPoLitSo YouTube channel.
Sekou Sundiata
In this edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s “The Writing Life”, poet and cultural historian E. Ethelbert Miller talks with poet and jazz musician Sekou Sundiata. Both men grew up in East Harlem housing projects, and Sundiata says the many cultures and voices of that neighborhood are heard in his poetry. The “citizen poet,” as Sundiata calls himself, arose in the 1960s and 1970s, when he started writing activist poetry, poetry that appeals democratically to many. Sundiata explains that he and his band arrange the music and the poetry he authors in a synergistic way. “Poetry is part of the music itself,” Sundiata says. The music and rhythms of the black church experience, as well as blues, affect his work, he says. “For me, the blues is a philosophical stance.” His poetic influences include Gil Scott Heron, Amiri Baraka and Linton Kwesi Johnson, whose “Naked History” album is poetry and music people can live with, a goal Sundiata looks to attain with his own work.
Ed Hirsch
On this edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s “The Writing Life,” poet Michael Collier and mid-westerner Ed Hirsch huddle in shirt sleeves to talk poetry. Not only American, but international poets he read in translation, says Hirsch, enable him to discover his vocation. From his fifth book of poems On Love, they consider “The Poet at Seven,” “Colette,” and the moving “Ocean of Grass.” Recorded in 2000, the show features the pair discussing Hirsch’s seminal nonfiction book, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry.
Check It Out: The Baltimore Sun Previews This Year’s Blackbird Poetry Festival
The Baltimore Sun‘s Explore Howard website has previewed this year’s Blackbird Poetry Festival. The article reports:
HoCoPoLitSo executive director Carla Du Pree says her group “promises a night of poetry, slam and song from contemporary poets who aren’t afraid to push the boundaries of our comfort zones. Addonizio’s red dress poem, ‘What Women Want,’ has people writing about what they want in that same saucy manner of hers. Cirelli directs one of the leading youth literary organizations in the country, and Mother Ruckus … sings for women and the men who can handle them.'”
This year’s Festival features Kim Addonizio, Michael Cirelli, Naomi Ayala and Mother Ruckus. Click here to read the article in full, including insight into the poet performers, then, we’ll see you at the Festival’s Nightbird reading, 7:30 pm in the Kittleman Room – Duncan Hall 100, for a wonderful evening of poetry adventure through slam and song.
This Thursday: The 4th Annual Blackbird Poetry Festival
Festival Poets: Kim Addonizio, Mother Ruckus, Naomi Ayala, Michael Cirelli
Featuring the Nightbird Reading, Poetry in Harmony, and a day of workshops, talks, and readings, even the “Poetry Police,” the 4th Annual Blackbird Poetry Festival returns Thursday, April 26th, to the campus of Howard Community College, this year presenting Kim Addonizio, Michael Cirelli, Naomi Ayala and Mother Ruckus.
Nightbird Reading
The Nightbird reading, the day’s main event, is a coffee house style reading with music from Mother Ruckus (spoken word poet Gayle Danley and songstress Sahffi) and readings from Michael Cirelli, the nationally renowned slam poet, and Kim Addonizio, “one of our nation’s most provocative and edgy poets.”
Last year’s Festival presented Martín Espada in the evening reading for which local blogger Tom Coale proclaimed it was, “the most engaging and thoughtful live entertainment that I’ve seen since leaving the storm-swept streets of New Orleans,” where culture bubbles up from living rather than ordaining down from academy. High, high praise. Read that blog post here.
Tickets for the Nightbird reading, which includes refreshments, are $10 for students, $15 general admission, available at the door or online at brownpapertickets. The Nightbird Reading starts at 7:30 in Duncan Hall room 150, aka The Kittleman Room. The event is sponsored in part by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Division of English/World Languages and Office of Student Services, Howard Community College and the Sheraton Columbia.
Workshops, Talks, Readings
Throughout the day on the campus of HCC, a number of workshops, readings and talks will occur. Kim Addonizio will speak to a creative writing class in a private session; Michael Cirelli will meet with students and the community in an open session presenting a talk on “Hip-Hop Poetics, Education, 50 Cent & The Olive Garden.” An early afternoon reading will feature the Festival poets as well as readings by students, faculty and local writers. See the schedule below.
Festival events actually begin off campus when Naomi Ayala will present to teachers during the Howard County School System’s Professional Development Day.
The Poetry Police
Warning: April 26th is National Poem in your Pocket Day. Get caught on the community college campus by the Poetry Police without a poem and you’ll find yourself with a citation. Simple math: No Recitation Material = A Citation.
While it’s a bad thing, it is not that bad a thing. The jovial officer will likely provide you with a poem so you don’t get caught again. Actually, if you are caught and you produce a poem to share, you’ll find yourself rewarded for good civic behavior.
Need a poem, click here to find a variety to choose from, print one out to carry around.
Festival schedule:
- 9:30 – 10:30 Naomi Ayala speaks at Howard County School System (HCPSS) Professional Development Day Session I
- 10:40 – 11:40 Naomi Ayala speaks at HCPSS Prof. Dev. Day Session II
- 10:00 Poetry Police start to patrol HCC at campus looking for National Poem in Your Pocket Day violations
- 11:00 – 12:20 Kim Addonizio meets with HCC’s Creative Writing Class (closed)
- 11:00 – 12:20 Michael Cirelli meets with students and community (open and free)
- 2:30 – 4:30 Readings by: Naomi Ayala, Michael Cirelli, Kim Addonizio and regional poets, HCC students and faculty (open and free)
- 7:00 Doors open for “Poetry in Harmony,” a coffee house style reading
- 7:30 – 9:30 Readings by Michael Cirelli and Kim Addonizio, and a performance by musical group Mother Ruckus, which includes performance poet Gayle Danley and songstress Sahffi. ($15, $10 for seniors and for students with an id)
30 Things You Might Do To Celebrate National Poetry Month
- Read a poem. Out loud. Feel it the sound of it move through you and into the air.
- Watch and listen to Billy Collins’ Ted Talk.
- Practice the math of counting syllables by writing a 5-7-5 haiku.
- Follow HoCoPoLitSo on Facebook. And Twitter.
- Read a Poetry Blog.
- Stop by the library on the way home and borrow a volume of poetry.
- Read the latest issue of Little Patuxent Review.
- Tweet some poetically purple prose. Retweet someone else’s.
- Email a friend a favorite poem.
- Print out a poem and put it on a bulletin board for others to see.
- Watch a poet on YouTube.
- Bilingual? Have a go at translating a poem. Not? Try the exercise with a friend that has a second language.
- Write a love poem, just for fun. Share it with the intended.
- Subscribe to Poets.org’s Poem a Day email.
- Make a comment on a Poetry Blog.
- Find a soon to be significant other and read Neruda’s 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair to each other.
- Donate to HoCoPoLitSo.
- Read a poem out loud to someone else.
- Go to a poetry reading at a coffee house. If it is an open mic, share your own work.
- Jot down an ode to something ordinary in your life.
- Buy tickets for yourself and a friend to the Nightbird Reading, featuring Kim Addonizio, Michael Cirelli, Nayma Ayala, and Mother Ruckus. After the evening reading, post on the HoCoPoLitSo page about your experience.
- Support a poet, buy their book. Now really support them: read it.
- Celebrate National Poem in You Pocket Day, April 26th, by carrying a poem in your pocket and sharing it with others.
- Take on Poets.org’s list of 30 things to do for National Poetry Month.
- Tweet about poetry. If it’s Friday, tell your followers to #ff @hocopolitso.
- Memorize a poem and carry it around inside you. Let it out again and again when the occasion warrants.
- Add a quote from a poem to your email signature for a month. Switch it with a new one next month. (No reason to stop the practice just because it isn’t National Poetry Month in May.)
- Watch an episode (or two) of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life on YouTube.
- Tell a poet what their work means to you. They’d love to hear. Face to face, in email, in a good old fashioned card.
- Encourage someone else to join you in taking on this list. After all, poetry is a thing best shared with others.
National Book Critics Award Winner Edith Pearlman to Read in Columbia, Maryland, June 27th
Edith Pearlman
Now that Edith Pearlman has won the National Book Critics Award for fiction, what is she going to do? She’s going to visit Columbia and read from her acclaimed work, that’s what. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, June 27, 2012 and get yourself reading a copy of her Binocular Vision, wonderful stories often exploring the theme of accommodations people make in life. You’ll be glad you did.
Who is Edith Pearlman? some find themselves asking… like, um, even The New York Times, “Why in the world had I never heard of Edith Pearlman? And why, if you hadn’t, hadn’t you? It certainly isn’t the fault of her writing, which is intelligent, funny and quite beautiful.”
Pearlman’s website touts:
Edith Pearlman has published more than 250 works of short fiction and short non-fiction in national magazines, literary journals, anthologies, and on-line publications. Her work has appeared in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Collection, New Stories from the South, and The Pushcart Prize Collection – Best of the Small Presses.
And yet it is just now, in her seventies, she is finding the greater fame and public attention she deserves. The National Book Critics Circle board, a group of 600 reviewers selecting Binocular Vision for the award, stated the recognition “a triumph for Pearlman’s distinctive storytelling, bringing it to a larger audience.” We are all glad for that — this is work that deserves to be read. And we at HoCoPoLitSo, working with the Columbia Festival of the Arts and the Town Center Community Association,* are ecstatic to be bringing Pearlman in person to Columbia so soon after this accolade.
We’ll keep you abreast of details, like ticket sales, here and on our Facebook page (you are following us, aren’t you?) as they develop. In the meantime, share this wonderful news with friends in email, on Facebook, with your book clubs, everywhere. And get yourself a copy of her work to enjoy! It won’t be long till you are listening to her in person, getting a chance to ask her questions you have and to sign a copy of your new favorite book.
* Guess what intimate venue the reading is going to be held in….
Little Patuxent Review hosts North Carolina Literary Exchange Events March 2-4 in Columbia and Bethesda’s Writers Center
Our friends at Little Patuxent Review are celebrating a literary exchange with three poets from Chapel Hill, NC, this weekend. Read on for event details:
Friday evening, 3/2, we are sponsoring a reading at a new wellness center: Wisdom Well 8955 Guilford Road Suite 240, Columbia.
Meet our visiting poets, featured readers for the evening:
Richard Krawiec of Jacar Press
Debra Kaufman
Stephanie Levin
You can pick up a copy of LPR’s groundbreaking Social Justice issue and share wine, food, and music with the LPR editorial staff.
The free reading begins at 7 PM, with open mic at 8 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM.
Saturday, 3/3 — spend the whole day at The Writers Center with LPR, or stop by for a free evening reading.
12 -3 PM All-genre workshop “Crafting Images” with three “literary exchange” poets from Chapel Hill, NC.
Workshop Leaders: Rich Krawiec, Debra Kaufman, and Stephanie Levin
Images vitalize prose and are the primary components of poems. In this workshop we’ll explore the different ways images are written, structured, and organized for prose and poetry. In prose, we’ll look at how to integrate images with action, dialogue, and interior monologue to make your work vital. In poetry, we will look at ways to create and develop images, from simple phrases to lines to metaphors that extend throughout a poem. This workshop will be taught by three writers, so everyone will get personal attention for their work. Bring selections of your own writing to work on.
$70 Non-member registration: https://www.writer.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=353&nccsm=21&__nccspID=2349
3-6 PM Poetry Workshop “Ripped from the Headlines: Writing Poems about Hot Topics” With LPR editor Laura Shovan and contributor Patricia VanAmburg
Sound bites on the evening news, compelling news articles, and blog posts have to provide big impact in a small space–similar to poems. In this workshop, we will discuss how to tease both facts and emotions out of the media’s “hot topics” in order to produce new poems. In addition to discussing what it takes to get from headline to poem, we will focus on controlled voice as a crucial element in how a poet presents current events to readers.
$70 Non-member registration: https://www.writer.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=353&nccsm=21&__nccspID=2351
7:30-9:30 PM — Free! Social Justice Reading and Panel Discussion
Truth Thomas moderates
Join poet Truth Thomas, guest editor for the Winter 2012 Social Justice issue of Little Patuxent Review, as he brings the power of poetry and prose to bear on the movement toward a more equitable world. LPR contributors will read poems and participate, along with audience members, in a panel discussion led by Thomas on the various ways literature can facilitate understanding and change. Light refreshments will follow, providing opportunity for additional interaction.
Participants include: Truth Thomas (Presenter) and Poetry Readers/Panelists: Deb Kaufman, Patricia VanAmburg, Stephanie Levin, Richard Krawiec, James Toupin, Kathleen Hellen, JoAnn Balingit and Tony Medina.
TOMORROW: Irish Evening w/ Hugo Hamilton & Music by The Narrowbacks
HoCoPoLitSo’s 34th Annual Evening of Irish Music & Writing will be held tomorrow evening in Smith Theatre at the Horowitz Performing Art Center on the campus of Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. Show time is 7:30 pm. Tickets will be available at the door; the lobby opens at 7pm, seating starts at 7:15.
Hugo Hamilton, author of The Speckled People, Sad Bastard and Headbanger.
The evening features a reading by novelist and memoirist Hugo Hamilton, followed by traditional and original Irish music of The Narrowbacks – Terry Winch, Jesse Winch, Brendan Mulvihill, Linda Hickman and Eileen (Korn) Estes – who will be joined at times by step dancers from the Caulkin School of Traditional Irish Dance.
The event, a fundraiser for HoCoPoLitSo, will feature a raffle of three different baskets*, two Irish themed and one themed for the upcoming Blackbird Poetry Festival (April 26). Among the raffle items: two tickets to attend brunch with Mr. Hamilton and the HoCoPoLitSo board the following morning. This year’s evening also features the return of ‘the bar’, an intermission drink selection including Guinness, Harp, and Irish coffee.
Read Columbia Flier critic Mike Giuliano’s preview article of the occasion.
NEW LOCATION: Note the location of this year’s Irish Evening differs from recent years. Directions to Smith Theatre can be found here.
*Items may vary slightly than those listed in the linked image.
Duly Noted: Terrance Hayes, HoCoPoLitSo Vistor Last Fall, Appointed to President Obama’s National Student Poets Program
Terrance Hayes, Monteabarro Hall, October 2011
Congratulations are in order for Terrance Hayes who was recently chosen for President Barack Obama’s new National Student Poets Program (NSPP) panel. “Hayes is one of four literary leaders who will judge students who received a National Scholastic Art & Writing Award for poetry. Five high school students will be selected to serve for a year as national poetry ambassadors.” He is a wonderful choice for the task.
In October of last year, Terrance Hayes joined Tara Betts on stage at Howard Community College’s Monteabarro Hall to launch HoCoPoLitSo’s 2011-12 season with our inaugural Lucille Clifton Poetry Series reading. In 2010, Hayes won the National Book Award for his 4th poetry collection Lighthead. He is currently on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
- CMU press release: http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2011/december/dec7_hayespoets.html
Hugo Hamilton Makes an Appearance in Howard Magazine
Check it out: Hugo Hamilton leans out of the latest Howard Magazine calendar in dramatic fashion. He will be reading as a part of HoCoPoLitSo’s 34 Annual Irish Evening fundraiser on February 17th. Tickets online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/211558
Little Patuxent Review Launches Social Justice Issue, Saturday at 2pm
This Saturday, Little Patuxent Review, a twice yearly literary and arts publication out of Howard County, hosts a free contributor reading at Oliver’s Carriage House to celebrate the launch of its latest, Social Justice issue. The issue features Columbia resident and HoCoPoLitSo board member Truth Thomas as its guest editor.
Scheduled to read at the event are Melinda Abbott, JoAnn Balingit, Dylan Bargteil, Ann Bracken, Susan Gabrielle, Stephanie Gibson, Jen Grow, Clarinda Harriss, Kathleen Hellen, Alan King, Michael Salcman, Lauren Schmidt, Jill-Ann Stolley, James Toupin, Susan Turner-Conlon and Patricia VanAmburg.
Copies of the issue, which also features an interview with Martin Espada by another HoCoPoLitSo board member, Susan Thornton Hobby, will be available for sale ($10).
Details:
When: Saturday, January 28th, 2pm
Where: Oliver’s Carriage House, 5410 Leaf Treader Way, Columbia, MD 21044
Unable to make the event, track down a copy of the issue online.
HoCoPoLitSo 
