Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Khalil Murrell, Program Associate, Poetry

Poetry may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “Music History,” unless you’ve been reading Rita Dove’s Sonata Mulattica, or leadbelly by Tyehimba Jess. Through poems in the voice of Leadbelly and characters in his life (listen to freedom and see martha promise receives leadbelly, 1935) and through letters, quotes, dialogue, song lyrics, and prose pieces (see harris county chain gang and home again), Jess brings the fascinating life of American folk and blues musician, Huddie William Ledbetter (Leadbelly),  into verse. Perhaps for him, history is not only a matter of fact, but one of perspective and imagination.

When asked in an interview what drew him to the “King of the 12-String Guitar,” Jess said the history was fascinating: “[Leadbelly’s] personal themes matched certain major themes in African American history: his relationship to The Prison Industrial Complex, The Great Migration, anthropology… The fact that he was grounded in myth, and on the edges of American folklore was also appealing to me.”

But these somewhat academic interests do not say enough about Tyehimba Jess. A two-time member of the Green Mill Slam teams in Chicago, the hometown of slam poetry, he attributes much of his performance and writing techniques to what he learned from slam poets, like Patricia Smith. An avid fan of blues, the Detroit native’s performance style has also been greatly influenced by blues and jazz. (see Jess read below). Still, he acknowledges The Last Poets, Black Arts Movement poets, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, and later on Cornelius Eady and Yusef Komunyakaa as literary influences.

Hearing Jess’ most recent work on Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins, an autistic savant and musical prodigy on piano, suggests his interest in the intersection between (musical) history and poetry show no signs of wavering. A Cave Canem fellow, Tyehimba Jess earned degrees from the University of Chicago and NYU, and is also the author of African American Pride: Celebrating Our Achievements, Contributions, and Enduring Legacy (non-fiction). He currently teaches at CUNY College of Staten Island. To hear more poems and an interview, visit Fishouse.

Please use the “Share your thoughts with us” box below to share other resources you may have found for this poet. In this way, we can build together a mini-wiki-encyclopedia on the 2010 Festival Poets.

Return in the weeks ahead as we continue to profile the 2010 Festival Poets.

Rebecca Gambale, Festival Assistant

Flip over Michael Cirelli’s debut collection, Lobster with Ol’ Dirty Bastard, and you’ll see an interesting combination: a blurb by The Best American Poetry editor and founder David Lehman, alongside one by Grammy-award winning rapper and producer Kanye West. Delve into Cirelli’s writing or see him read, and you’ll see why this could not be more appropriate.

This crossroad of culture is Cirelli’s circus; he sees an inseparable relationship between the literary and performative qualities of hip-hop and poetry.  This makes him not only an exciting poet to watch, but an accomplished writer on the page. Cirelli has been a National Poetry Slam individual finalist and, during his time on the West Coast, the only person to make all three Bay area slam teams in the same year, winning the finals in both San Francisco and Berkeley. On the East Coast, he has earned an MFA from the New School, where he studied with Lehman.

Penning sonnets about rappers such as Ol’ Dirty, Common, Talib Kweli and Kanye West, and writing answer poems to Walt Whitman and Jack Gilbert in the same collection, Cirelli brings together the worlds of hip-hop and academia through his unabashed love for the word. Equally inspired by music, he states in Poets and Writers, “Writing based on music has almost become a compulsion of mine…I could take a song…and spend hours trying to dissect each line, each metaphor, each double and triple entendre. The stuff of good hip-hop puts language in a rocket ship!” This approach to poetry puts Cirelli in the same category as the ancient poets, emphasizing that poetry is an oral/aural art. However, he makes no sacrifices in terms of form, as he gives careful attention to how his poems stand alone on the page.

Through his work, Cirelli embraces and also questions the lifestyle, imagery and issues of hip-hop culture. This is yet another crossroads, if you consider his Italian upbringing in Rhode Island and being told he looks “all Nascar,” mentioned in his poem “I Am Hip Hop”.  In his newest book, Vacations on the Black Star Line, based on an album by Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Cirelli explores the idea of race and privilege, also including a few pieces to rapper T-Pain, featured here on the online literary journal Segue.

But you don’t have to be familiar with the rap allusions to appreciate Cirelli. His carefully crafted poems candidly describe human experiences of all sorts; for instance, his poem “Dearest workshop” offers his take on a familiar writing workshop experience.

Perhaps what keeps Cirelli’s poetry fresh is his work with youth. Cirelli says in his piece in Segue (featured above) “I work with teens on a daily basis, so poetry is about so many things. For them (and me), it can be about saving lives.” He is the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, a grassroots non-profit organization that provides free, safe, uncensored and ongoing writing and performance opportunities for New York City teens. Stated in their mission is the goal to “promote active literacy, critical thought, and positive social dialogue across boundaries of age, race, class, gender, culture, and sexuality.” Central to their operation is the idea that teenagers should speak for themselves, and they provide free writing workshops and college prep year round, in addition to teen poetry slams. Through his work with teens, Cirelli has also developed teaching curriculum using hip-hop, called Hip Hop Poetry and the Classics.

Please use the “Share your thoughts with us” box below to share other resources you may have found for this poet. In this way, we can build together a mini-wiki-encyclopedia on the 2010 Festival Poets.

Return in the weeks ahead as we continue to profile the 2010 Festival Poets

* * *

The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark is October 7 – 10
For more information, visit the Poetry website.

Follow the Dodge Poetry Festival on Twitter
Become a fan of the Dodge Poetry Festival on Facebook
Join the Friends of the Festival (use the blue Donate button on our homepage)

Martin Farawell, Program Director, Poetry

Anne Waldman is deeply committed to an approach to performing that treats poems and songs as “word-scapes” or “sound-scapes” created with breath, voice and body. The German language has a word for this: sprechstimme, which translates into “spoke-sung.”

A lifetime celebrant and proponent of poetry as an oral art, Waldman was blurring the lines between reciting, chanting, singing and dramatizing poetry decades before terms like “performance poetry” “slam poetry” or “spoken word art” were in use. She digs down to language’s atavistic roots—coo and cry, whine and howl, whimper and growl—to get at the language below language: the rhythmic sounds hominids may have used before they developed anything we would recognize as speech, and which connects us to our non-human relatives.

And yet, Waldman’s work is also highly spiritual. A student of Buddhism since the early 1960’s, she was co-founder with Allen Ginsberg and others of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the first writing program in the United States rooted in Buddhist principles.

As the poems she reads in this clip from the 2006 Dodge Festival attest, Waldman is also passionate about the political and social issues of her time. An active peace advocate throughout her career, Waldman has also been outspoken as a protester, organizer and artist on nuclear arms, women’s rights and the environment. For Waldman, her art, activism and spirituality are all part of the ongoing struggle to remain deeply engaged with and committed to the world.

Anne Waldman is the author of over forty books, most recently, Manatee/Humanity. In the Room of Never Grieve: New and Selected Poems 1985-2003 includes selections from her earlier work.

Be sure to return for upcoming Poetry Fridays, when we will feature many poets from past Dodge Poetry Festivals in the weeks ahead.

* * *

The Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in Newark is October 7 – 10!
For more information, visit the Poetry website.

Follow the Dodge Poetry Festival on Twitter
Become a fan of the Dodge Poetry Festival on Facebook