Four Corners and Four Awesome Poets

The California Institute of Integral Studies presented:

Rewriting America: Race and Reimagining in Post 9/11 America

on Saturday, October 6, in the Namaste Hall at 5pm

MFA faculty members were Pireeni Sundarallingam, Francisco X. Alacon, Ronaldo V. Wilson and Elmaz Abinader

This event was part of the Lit Quake, which runs October 5-13, 2012.  The event began with the Blue Angels flying over the building a few times fairly close. So Elmaz made a joke that America’s the only country where when fighter jets approach people run outside versus inside. 

The first reader was Francisco Alacon and he began by asking the audience to stand and honor his first poem by participating in a calling out to the four corners. He said it was a call for all that is creative and divine to come forth. We chanted Ta-hu-i twice and four times to our neighbor. It felt like a prayer and then he began to share his “Snake Poems.”  He got a laugh from a line about people eating chili and turning into snakes and he went on later in his set to take a stand against the immigration laws that deport people through racial profiling.  

Pireeni shared her stories about how it can be difficult to find publishers who will allow poets of color to self-identify without the need to place them in boxes labeled by country or origin or the food they eat.  She then introduced Elmaz who presented a set about growing up in Palestine from her upcoming book. Most of the poems were also inspired by some epigrams written by Adrienne Rich.  My favorite poem by her allowed us to imagine what would happen if we were a child and some one put a wall that stretched for miles through are neighborhood and we no longer knew how we would be able to get to school. She also spoke of the sacrifices mothers make. I found myself nodding at the hypnotic rhythm and truth of her work. 

Ronaldo also presented and he offered us some experimental audio readings after telling us about a ticket he got on his way to the reading. His performance included some free styling over the sound of his own voice and the echoing of certain words.  It was something I had never seen before.  He spoke of how important it is to

They answered a few questions and gave advice to aspiring writers.  Some of the advice was for poets of color must believe in themselves.  They are also welcome to challenge the mainstream by publishing their own magazines, books and anthologies.  The goal is and always is to invest in oneself and to remember that everything you write has an audience.