Notable Philadelphia: 11/19–11/25
Literary events in and around Philly this week!
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Posts Tagged: Amiri Baraka
The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #199: Stuart M. Ross
“Ty is, you know, tied in a knot. On a very old shoe.”
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Staying Syncretic: A Conversation with Kool A.D.
Kool A.D. discusses his debut novel, OK, the war on drugs, systemic destruction of left-leaning movements by the government, and the inability to escape American capitalism.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Yona Harvey
Yona Harvey talks about her path to becoming a poet, Winnie Mandela as an artistic inspiration, and what it means to write more publicly.
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The Rumpus Interview with Erik Kennedy
Poet Erik Kennedy discusses literary community and his formative years as a young writer in New Jersey, and shares two new prose poems.
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Multitudes: Policing Black Art
Editors and producers skin my art and wrap my entire face with it, asking me to write and read in Black face.
...morePoem of the Day: “Dope” by Amiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka was a provocateur, a radical, an activist, and an amazing poet who remains relevant for all the wrong reasons and some of the right ones. “Dope” is an explosion, a satire, an investigation, an accusation, a poem that kills. His energy was and is unmatched, accomplishing even in recording a mesmerizing, enrapturing, anxiety-inducing […]
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Color at the Mercy of the Light
What if I said: while people still believe they are white in America, that delusion, and the dream upon which it is founded, needs to be seriously examined.
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The Conversation: Jayson Smith and A. H. Jerriod Avant
My responsibility is to not be negligent and cause unnecessary harm. To a listener or reader. My allegiance is only to truth.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Phillip B. Williams
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Phillip B. Williams about his new book Thief in the Interior, form in poetry, and balancing editing work with one’s own.
...moreA Rumpus Book Club Subscription Makes a Great Gift
We’re at that point in the holiday shopping season where if you don’t already have a gift for someone, you either have to deal with the other last-minute shoppers in stores, pay an outrageous shipping rate online and hope the post office/shipping company gets it to you on time… or buy something a little more abstract, […]
...moreDo We Need a Poet Laureate?
For Literary Hub, Nick Ripatrazone breaks down—and defends—the poet laureate.
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The Rumpus Poetry Book Club Chat with Paul Vangelisti
The Rumpus Poetry Book Club chats with Paul Vangelisti about Amiri Baraka’s S O S Poems 1961-2013, as well as Baraka’s place among American writers and the ways in which his poetry and politics intersected and collided.
...moreReflecting Your Radicalism, No Matter the Cost
Amiri Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones), known for his poems, plays, and for the initiation of the Black Arts Movement, died on January 9th. Though there have been many articles talking about the man as legend, over at The New Yorker, Hilton Als discusses the man as human through the lens of Als’ personal relationships with […]
...moreDavid Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Something More Than Style
Earlier this week, while speaking to some younger poets, I became intrigued with their nascent fascination, to the point of headiness, with all things poetically elliptical, non-linear, and disjunctive. I say intrigued, but in my heart it felt more like exasperated. Listening to them, I realized that it was as if style —not form, not […]
...moreRare Footage of O’Hara, Ginsberg, Baraka Emerges
Yesterday, avant-garde cinema legend Jonas Mekas posted remarkable archival footage of Allen Ginsberg, Frank O’hara, Amiri Baraka (who still went by Leroi Jones), and Ray Bremser reading together in 1959. The reading, which took place at the Living Theater in New York City, was a benefit for Yugen magazine. No audio was recorded at the […]
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