It’s National Poetry Month! (All the Poetry-Related Updates)

This is another sneak peek! This is from the second series I mentioned. This is text transfer of some of my own poems over paint on canvas panels. There will be other elements of collage added as well, and there are three more I haven’t started yet that go with this series.

I’m planning to participate in an open mic night at the Grand Rapids Art Museum on April 20th (thanks to Greg Bliss for the invite and for organizing it!). I haven’t come to a firm decision yet about which three poems to read. If you’re familiar with my work and you have a favorite, what is it?

Of course there are lots of other art and poetry events locally this month. I’ve already missed several, in fact, because I’m trying to balance my full-time job, a GRIID class, needing to get this art made on a schedule, and my health. I’m planning to show my progress on the collages to a friend after next weekend because I’ve asked him if I can use his venue for a show. I do have plans to attend an open mic next weekend with a friend, and another one on the 17th at Dr. Grins, put together by local poet and activist Azizi Jasper.

A-Poem-A-Day has not been as successful this year as previous years, in that I haven’t managed to write something new each day, but I working on it!

At the same time, I am beginning to read the poetry submissions for the Intersections Anthology and look forward to seeing some new and exciting work on the theme of the intersecting identities of being a Muslim woman artist.

Because I have so much going on, I have not set aside specific books of poetry to read this month as I usually do. I will be reading (and posting a review!) of Liz Henry‘s new collection, Unruly Islands. After that I will return to prioritizing WOC poets, most likely selecting from June Jordan’s Naming Our Destiny.

Also, please remember that I am trying to get to the Allied Media Conference and am fundraising and trying to sell out the Elephant and Dove shop towards that goal! Thanks!

The Big Fundraiser to Get Me to the AMC!

In case you missed the last post, I am currently trying to fundraise to get myself an my teen son to the Allied Media Conference in June. The AMC is a gathering of various independent media makers, artists, and community activists. It is completely a grassroots and skill-share-based event. As an artist, poet/writer, and activist, I’ve wanted to go for several years but am never able to. This year I’m trying to make it a priority, and now that my son is old enough to get a lot out of it also I want to take him along to support him in his growth in these areas. If you are able to support my son & I going and being a part of the awesomeness that is the AMC -

1. I’m looking for anyone local to us (GR, MI) who is planning to drive over and might have space for us for the offer of gas money (which is still less expensive, not to mention a better experience, than Greyhound). If you are that someone, hit me up in my ask box! I’d love to meet more local people anyway!
2. You can support my fundraiser.
3. You can purchase stuff from my Etsy – there is currently a 35% off sale (code SPRINGCLEAN) trying to clean out current stock, and 50% of my sales this month actually are dedicated to support for Sumayyah Talibah.
4. If you happen to be a Detroit peep who is attending and by chance willing to open your home to save us housing costs, I’m open to negotiations on that!
5. If you can help us out with pick up from the Greyhound and/or drop off at the Greyhound for our return ride, please let me know.

Many thanks to those who have already donated and who have helped by sharing this. <3

PS – Also, please let me know if you are planning to attend the AMC as I am keeping a running list of who I must meet up with! And if you are fundraising I want to make sure to signal boost for you too!

Fundraising to Attend the Allied Media Conference in June

The ChipIn page is HERE.

I would like to be able to attend the AMC this year, along with my teen son. We will need money for the Greyhound to get there, housing arrangements, food, and transportation costs between the Greyhound and campus. I would also like to be able to be prepared with copies of my zines to sell, and will have to pay someone to check on my cat for the 6 days we are out of town.

You can also support me by purchasing items from my Etsy shop.

Hyper Productive

Plans for the next few days (not including the day job and mundane things like grocery shopping):

• Working on a special Eid gift. Will take several days.
• Tomorrow (Thursday night) attending a local poetry reading.
• Friday, attending two local concerts. One is an outdoor concert at a small local park. It’s part of a series put together by a local artist, Hugo Claudin, to promote community and artistic use of public space. The second concert is also hosted by Claudin at his studio. I am, unfortunately, missing a great opportunity to hear some zinesters share their work, but I had already committed myself to supporting the concerts and roped in family to attend as well.
• Saturday is blood donation day.
• Finishing reading The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat, and then starting on Basquiat by Leonhard Emmerling.

I’m probably being far too optimistic, but that’s the plan…

Learning…

Tonight I attended a cool event put together by Art.Peers, a local arts organization. The event was “Tricks of the Trade”, a conversation with four local established artists talking about some things artists should know when trying to get into the local scene.

The conversation began in a panel-like discussion which was helpful for getting some basic questions answered and helping attendees get to know the panel members better as well. Ranging from censorship and how to find a venue to how to recognize when you are being offered exposure or just being exploited, the conversation was really basic but essential. The audience was given opportunity to share not only questions but also further insights/suggestions. For example, in the discussion of finding a venue, audience members were encouraged to name some local businesses that feature local art, as well as say if they have found those venues accommodating or difficult to work with.

The general take away for me was: be business savvy, be creative not only with your art but with how you bring attention to it, and be true to your art and vision.

Upcoming classes include are the basics of art criticism and tax issues. I hope to take advantage of the opportunity to learn new things and meet more local artists.

Call for Poets: First Draft Poems Guerrilla Poetry Relay

First Draft Poems Flyer

First Draft Poems presents: a guerrilla poetry relay

WHEN: Friday June 10, 7pm

WHERE: Veteran’s Park (downtown Grand Rapids, MI)

POETS WANTED

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 an idea presented by another poet at the event. Uncensored and diverse in style, content and method, First Draft Poems is an event for all word lovers.

Got questions? Contact me at aaminah.naksi@hotmail.com

***

i am especially interested in connecting with other women of color, queer and other marginalized poets. If you have felt unsure or unwelcome in local poetry circles, you are very much wanted for this event. If you have never read publicly before, you may find this relaxed style and the emphasis on first drafts less stressful than some other readings.

My National Poetry Month

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:

• Chosen Poems: Old & New (Audre Lorde)
• The Woman Who Fell From the Sky: Poems (Joy Harjo)
• The Dream of a Common Language (Adrienne Rich)
• Haruko/Love Poems (June Jordan)
• Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems (translated by Robert Bly)
• Langston Hughes: Before & Beyond Harlem (Faith Berry) – yes, i realize this is a biography (thought it did include a good amount of Hughes’ poetry) but i figured since it was poetry related it still counts
• Revolutionary Letters (Diane di Prima)
• An Anthology of Somali Poetry (translated by B.W. Andrzejewski with Sheila Andrzejewski)
• Next: New Poems (Lucille Clifton)
• To Be The Poet (Maxine Hong Kingston) – again, not strictly poetry, though much of it is, but fascinating and all poetry-related
• The Last Generation: Prose & Poetry (Cherríe Moraga) – some prose, mostly poetry, and honestly, even her prose is very poetic!

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?

Take It To The Street: Tag Team Poetry 4/15/11

me, reading!

As i mentioned recently, i was preparing for my first ever public poetry reading. The event was a local venue as part of a larger arts event, Art.Downtown. The poetry reading was described as:

An intrepid team of poets will read in rotation for a minimum of three hours without pause, concluding when we run out of material or lose our voices, whichever comes first.

Radically open and no-holds-barred, this marathon event features unpredictable collaborations and juxtapositions, putting words and word-lovers front and center.

Presented in conjunction with Art.Downtown. Sponsored by ArtPeers, curated by Katherine Marty, and featuring Grand Rapids’ most dynamic writers.

The venue was the West Michigan Center for Art & Technology (WMCAT), who generously allowed us to use space and also hosted displays of art for the Art.Downtown event. i went in with little idea what to expect. My friend Katherine had explained the basic idea being non-stop reading, in rounds. Basically, you have a line of poets and the first one reads a poem then goes to the back of the line as the next person starts to read and so on. All poets had to agree to read at least five poems, which means participating in five rounds. Where things get fun is that you have poets showing up after you’ve started and finding a spot in line, joining the group and increasing the rounds. i had no idea if this meant that i’d be surrounded by five or 25 other poets, nor what the set up would actually be.

For two weeks while preparing, i worried a lot about how to hold my paper and flip pages while holding a microphone, if i would trip on a microphone cord or my own skirt, etc. Needless to say, none of my fears came true. The set up ended up being really informal. The WMCAT center has a semi-open area with high-top tables and chairs that we used for the poetry area. Around us there were people coming and going as they checked out the art and moved on to other Art.Downtown locations. Katherine set up a row of chairs for the poets to sit on and move down the line. She also made cute notecards that read “POET” for each of us to wear (mine is now stuck to the center of my bedroom door; it feels really awesome to see that and really believe i can claim the title).

some of the other amazing poets

My son came with me, and a co-worker and her boyfriend also showed up to cheer me on. My mother was unfortunately out of town unexpectedly, and my father was late coming in so he only heard the tail end of my third poem, and then heard my fourth and fifth poems. These pictures were all taken by my father with his camera phone, so my apologies for the quality.

i just have to say, i was in the company of some pretty impressive poets, and all around nice people. i was so busy listening to the other poets that i forgot to be nervous! When it was my turn, i just got up there and read. i chose to only read the five-poem-minimum because i thought that was a lot for a first time. In the end, i wished i had brought more and could have stayed a while longer, but it was still great for having never read before.

reading

In retrospect, all my fears were completely unfounded and i came away wondering why i haven’t read before and why i don’t read all the time! Having thought about it since, i would recommend this sort of format for first-timers. It is fast paced and you don’t feel so much like everyone’s attention is directly on you. i am really looking forward to the next chance to read.

some of the poets

You can also read more about the event here and here.

Also, if you’re interested in poetry (as i am) and what’s new out there, i highly recommend TRNSFR Magazine. It’s a local independent publication that features many of the poets i had the pleasure to meet last Friday, as well as many others from all over. Even better, if you care about independent media and new poets, please please consider pledging to TRNSFR Magazine and get a spectacular thank you package!

cuz poets rock

April is National Poetry Month here in the USA, and one hallmark of the month is Poem-a-Day projects where people attempt to write a poem each day of the month.

i have created a blog to host my poem-a-day project.

Other amazing poets are also planning to write this month and you should check them out.

• Mai’a at GuerrillaMamaMedicine
• La Mamita Mala
• Noemi Martinez of Hermana Resist
• Latinegro
• will add more as i know of them

i am also trying to get caught up on reading great poets, so i’ve chosen the following five slim volumes to try to read this month:

• Week 1: Chosen Poems Old & New by Audre Lorde
• Week 2: The Woman Who Fell From the Sky by Joy Harjo
• Week 3: The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich
• Week 4: Haruko/Love Poems by June Jordan
• Extra: Mirabai, Ecstatic Poems

and, last, but certainly not least, i have two exciting announcements:

1. i will be participating, inshaAllah, in a local event where i will be publicly reading five of my poems (chosen from my zines) as part of a group poetry relay. i have never read my poems publicly before, so this is an amazing, and terrifying, opportunity.
2. i am putting the finishing touches on the Jewels for Survival Vol. 3 zine! it is all poetry, and the illustrations are, for the first time, all my own drawings, except for the cover.