Poets of Color



Elmaz Abinader, Instructor Office: 313 Mills Hall
510 430 2225 elmaz@earthlink.net
office hours: 5-6:30 Thursday and by appointment

Here are the texts for the class.
• Asian American Poetry: the Next Generation edited by Victoria Chang
• Voices from Leimert Park, ed by Shonda, Buchannan
• Effigies, An Anthology of New Indigenous Writing Pacific Rim, 2009, Okpik, Rexford McDougall, etc (Salt Publishing)
• The Wind Shifts, New Latino Poetry, Edited by Francisco Aragón
• The Essential Etheridge Knight by Etheridge Knight
• Mercy by Lucille Clifton
• Zodiac of Echoes by Khaled Mattawa
• Diwata by Barbara Jane Reyes


Sunday, November 4, 2012

Blues on pages

Booming thunders through the pages of The Essential Etheridge Knight was definitely expected but I found even more dimensionality in his short memos and haikus that packed so much emotion into such small words and space. Though I was familiar with Etheridge's seminal Poems in Prison through the loose pages handed out in my English classes, I found beauty in the abstraction of the set of memos and haikus presented in this particular volume.

His acute observations and a sense of hyper-awareness strikes as he creates emotive physical wrenching  on the pages because he's not afraid to speak about the things he's known and seen. You can't help but flux through a wide range of emotions while reading Etheridge; tears on one page, laughter on the next page, awe and shock on another.

I'm interested in the Etheridge's roots and how he was shaped by his environment as a poet and heavily influenced he was by his time not only in prison but also his time in the Korean War, Indianapolis, Corinth, Minneapolis, Memphis and what culminated into his body of work.

Now, I know I need to find Born of a Woman, as soon as possible to really understand his range and form.

The shaping of a poet is something I always enjoy researching especially when it's someone like Etheridge Knight.

During my Etheridge Knight binge/research I found a recording of him reading, "Feeling Fucked Up" and with that I look forward to the first group presentation this week!!!



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5 comments:

  1. ElmazwritesNovember 4, 2012 at 7:37 PM

    Joan, it was so great to hear his cadence and the punctuation of the poem. What's also interesting about the haikus is how they are juxtaposed to one another and the arcs and loops that are created
    E

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  2. ElmazwritesNovember 4, 2012 at 7:37 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. ElmazwritesNovember 4, 2012 at 7:38 PM

    iPad respelled your name not me

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  4. Venus JonesNovember 4, 2012 at 9:32 PM

    Thanks for sharing this Joann! It's always nice to hear how the author would recite it.

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  5. Uni Q. MicalNovember 5, 2012 at 12:10 AM

    "His acute observations and a sense of hyper-awareness strikes as he creates emotive physical wrenching on the pages because he's not afraid to speak about the things he's known and seen. You can't help but flux through a wide range of emotions while reading Etheridge; tears on one page, laughter on the next page, awe and shock on another." Yesssssssss to all!! He grabs fear by the horns and tells the stories that need to be told, and that ultimately outlasted his pain & hope to become a legacy to help many get through their pain, and achieve their freedom (or something close to it). And also to the fact that i NEED to get my hands on his other works, too. I mean, this anthologizes most of them, so I'm happy for that above all. But still!

    And listening to him read that is...*sigh* on the page it made the arms on my hair stand up (I know what I said, ahahahah), but hearing it is even more powerful. Love!!!!!

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