Basically, just rounding up what i did in the past month, and some pretty excited plans for the immediate future.
First, i said i planned to read five books of poetry in the month, but i managed to do more than planned. What i read:
And yes, i recommend them all!
Second, i am planning one-woman guerrilla poetry readings. This is an effort to get myself more comfortable, and an attempt to earn the credit necessary to convince other local poets to work with me on a bigger project.
Third, i maintained a blog with a new poem written each day. Now i am going to transform that blog into an ongoing project called “First Draft Poems”. Each of the poems there are first drafts, and i will be taking them and working further on them as well. Over this past month i discovered an interest in the concept of the “first draft”: imperfection, what are the seeds of a poem, what errors do i commonly make (yes, i make similar errors in almost every poem).
Points two and three lead me to my Fourth, especially exciting, “announcement”:
Having done my first poetry reading really has excited, energized and inspired me. i am attempting to put together a local poetry reading called “First Draft Poems” (i had this vision before i decided to continue the poetry blog, and the poetry blog seemed like a logical extension of the idea).
First Draft Poems is a wild poetry ride where poets present poems, in relay fashion, that are first drafts or improvised at the moment. The goal is to encourage us to embrace imperfection and love of the original seed of an idea for a poem. Poets may even choose to present improvised work as a team, or to build off of an idea presented by another poet at the event. Un-censored and diverse in style, content and method, First Draft Poems is an event for all word lovers.
My goal is something fresh, though a throw-back of sorts to political poetry of the 60s (can you tell i read di Prima this past month? i have another book of her poetry and her memoir on my stacks to read next!). The plan is very guerrilla-style, no microphone, no “stage”, no real rules. i have a friend who i am talking to about videotaping it, but other than that, it’s simple, low-tech, street. i want it outdoors, and i am trying to find out the best way to put it together while thwarting my city’s ridiculous permit requirements. i would also like to find a local drum group or individual drummers to play at it, if possible. Tentatively set for Friday June 10, 2011 at 7pm at Veteran’s Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, i am still trying to connect with other local poets to participate. (Interested local poets or drummers can contact me at aaminah.naksi@hotmail.com).
i’m gonna ask my son to consider reading at it, and i definitely want very much to pull in non-Anglo & queer folks, and pretty much whatever poets/spoken word artists etc feel marginalized and unwelcome by the arts community here. i would love it if this helped us to make unexpected friends and connections to begin more such events, and my bigger vision is to help found a trans* inclusive women of color poets’ collective somewhere down the road.
yeah, my dreams are pretty damn big…
AND, In case you missed it, i also released an all-poetry issue of my zine, Jewels for Survival Vol. 3 in April. Have you ordered your copy yet?
