Toi Derricotte & Vanessa German: Saturday Poets-In-Person

Come join us on Saturday, September 20^th, at the Main Library in Oakland, for the inaugural reading in our brand new series, Saturday Poets-In-Person. The series will focus on well-known Pittsburgh poets, with the featured poets for the first reading being Toi Derricotte and Vanessa German. Readings will take place from 3 to 4 pm on Saturday afternoons. Sign language interpretation will be provided for our Deaf community.

Toi Derricotte is an important American poet whose work resonates deeply with the sorrows and the joys of being human, utilizing elements of her own life to inform us all what it is to be alive in the late 20th and early 21st century. An award winning poet who is the co-founder of Cave Canem, an organization “committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets,” she was elected Chancellor of  the Academy of American Poets in 2012.

Vanessa German is a multidisciplinary artist based in Pittsburgh’s historic Homewood neighborhood. Her performances have been described by Creative Mornings  as being in a “style called Spoken Word Opera; a dynamic hybrid of spoken word poetry infused with the theatrical elements of Opera, Hip Hop, and African Storytelling.” Her love of Homewood, her personal courage in the face of adversity, and her performance work, the stuff of Pittsburgh legend, are well-known both nationally and internationally.

All readings will take place in the International Poetry Room on the second floor of Main Library. The poetry collection housed there contains over 4,500 books and is one of the largest standalone poetry collections in a public library in the US. The collection was begun by the Carnegie Library in collaboration with Dr. Samuel Hazo, the founder and Executive Director of the International Poetry Forum, with a few dozen books back in 1976 and has grown into a destination point for poetry lovers in Pittsburgh and throughout Allegheny County.

For lovers of the written word, performance art, or poetry, this is a program not to be missed. I hope to see you there. FYI, here is a flyer for the complete series. Just click to enlarge:

~ Don

Hate Ain’t Sexy, and Other Wise Things You Can Learn From Poetry

“I write poems, and I am a poem.” — Vanessa German

copyright 2003, wisarts.com – all rights reserved

Everybody is a poem waiting to happen, even those of us who flinch at the word “poetry,” perhaps those of us especially, because at some point in our upbringing or education we were taught that poetry is only for the special, or the weird, not for us. Poets are either safely dead or dangerously alive, and either way, you’d best give them a wide berth because poetry stains, like blood and chocolate, and good luck washing it off of you once it’s had a chance to seep in.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Scared? Don’t be. You are a poem. You may never put pen to paper in all your born days, but your life is a poem. Some people just take it one step further and put themselves (and other people) on paper, so the rest of us can step back from our own perspectives and see the world around us in a new way. Exploring poetry is simply another way of exploring your world.

If you do not like poetry, I strongly suspect is simply means that you have not yet found your poet. Or maybe it’s just one poem, your poem, buried somewhere in the stacks or lost in the tangled web of the internet (Indra net?).  Does the possibility disturb you? Excite you? Send you back to bed with the covers safely pulled up over your head?

Good. That means you’re getting somewhere. Treat reading poetry like speed-dating: flirt shamelessly, experiment prodigiously. Walk away from whatever doesn’t resnoate with you, but be willing to try anything at least once. Allow your eyes to be seduced, romanced. Extend the same courtesy to your ears.

Consider the possibility that your poem hasn’t made it to the library yet. Maybe your poet, your poem, are out there in your city, the next county, half a world away.  Go to readings. Introduce yourself to the poets you meet at readings and ask them what they’re reading these days. Listen to podcasts. Talk to bookstore owners and librarians and random people reading poetry in coffee shops. Hunt for your poet, your poem, as if it were a golden ticket, because it is.

If you still doubt me, I can only shake my head and retreat back into the dumbstruck wonder of my own experience. I am not a poet, and yet, when I surround myself with poets, and dive into their work, my own writing gains something it would not otherwise have had. Poets have taught me that hate ain’t sexy*, that the devil is in the details, that children’s stories are secretly for grownups, that incremental repetition can be an effective technique for making your point. Poetry reminds me that, no matter how much I have learned, there is so much more to learn. It’s the most real thing there is, poetry, and it’s yours.  Free. For the taking.

–Leigh Anne

also a poem

*This line was uttered by the aforementioned Vanessa German, during a reading here at the Carnegie Library. At the time she read the work she called it “Jorge,” and it’s either just never been recorded and posted anywhere, or I simply can’t find it.  It’s my favorite poem that apparently only exists in my head.

living, speaking poetry

Poetry is necessary!  It supplies our minds and souls with valuable access to this mysterious gig we call life. Beyond that, I’ll let you in on a secret: poetry is fun. Somewhere along the line, poetry got a bad rep for being indecipherable, cryptic and awkwardly rhymed, but I prefer Emily Dickinson’s description quoted in this passionate essay:

“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know. Is there any other way.”

With her own visceral response to inspire us, it’s fitting that Dickinson is the first poet we’ll discuss in our brand new book discussion called “3 Poems by…” The 3 Poems by… Poetry Discussion Group will discuss three poems by a selected poet or about a selected topic. Join us for lively discussions of your favorite poetry!  Here’s our schedule:

October 9, 2008
3 Poems by Emily Dickinson

“Because I could not stop for Death”
“There’s a certain Slant of light”
“After great pain, a formal feeling comes”

November 13, 2008
3 Poems by e.e. cummings

January 8, 2009
3 Poems by Mary Oliver

February 12, 2009
3 Poems by Billy Collins
(Attend the discussion to enter to win tickets to the Drue Heinz Lecture Series on March 2, 2009!)

March 12, 2009
3 Poems about…Time

April 9, 2009
3 Poems by Sharon Olds

All discussions will meet from7:30 pm to 8:30 pm in the Center for Museum Education – Classroom A. Discussions are free and open to the public.  Registration is encouraged, but not required.  To register or ask questions, contact poetry fans and Eleventhstack blogonauts Renée or Don at newandfeatured@carnegielibrary.org or 412-622-3151.

p.s.

As long as I’m talking up poetry, I have to remind you to treat yourself to some live and in person (and free, of course!) verse by going to the next Sunday Poetry and Reading Series at 2:00 pm on September 21st: Barbara Edelman and Sharon F. McDermott will give readings.

p.p.s.

Also, don’t forget to check out the phenomenal International Poetry Collection on the second floor of the Main branch. Collecting poetic works in both the original language and in translation plus plenty of poetry recordings, it’s a poetry lover’s dream come true!

–Renée