Rochester, NY – 28 March
I flew to Rochester for a reading arranged by the Geneseo Literary Forum and a panel discussion at the Baobab Center.
I spoke to Professor Maria Lima’s class, who had all read the book. Their questions, were probing – around content, craft and use of symbols were revealing and pushed me – especially those about religion. I noticed as I did the reading later the same afternoon, just how many religions references I had. I converted an “I only liked one poem” student to “now I’ve heard you read the poems and after the discussion in the class, I and understand more what you’re doing and what the book is about– and I like it – Yeah! Success!!”
Then Maria drove us to the Baobab Center. I noticed an image of Buchi Emecheta that belonged to SABLE on the wall. A reminder that I must copyright /SABLE/my images in the future, before they go online
The audience at the Baobab Center trickled in, but by the time we started, a bit later than the 7pm advertised, The panel was on Race and Art. The panelists were across varied art forms and good presenters providing a really stimulating discussion, put together by Terry Chaka.
So we were able to explore what was happening in in various art forms, music, visual art, dance and spoken word, locally from artists of African and South American descent and in the African diaspora.
Visual Artist Shawn Dunwoody, Musician Jimmie Highsmith Jr., Writer/Editor Kadija Sesay, and Dancer/Activist Evelyn Cassano … and met Reena Golden! Terry Chaka had introduced us online but our schedules seemed to clash, so she took of rehearsal time out to come and meet me – and that ‘3 steps’ thing – she knows poet Khadijah Ibrahiim in Leeds, who she had met on the FWords tour in 2008 that I’d organised – How come we didn’t meet then, Raheema! That was a ‘love’ meeting. A warm and wonderful sistah.
Professor Maria Lima is always a fantastic host – this will be the third or fourth time I’ve stayed at her home – a dynamic supporter of Black British Literature. The next morning I returned to NYC by train. I like travelling by train. Long journey though and I prefer travelling by night since I can sleep for most of it. But everything now is ‘wired’ so its not too bad if you have to be online – it’s possible outside of tunnels and at least there is a power supply – and if desperate and you’re on a plane and need to browse – most usa airlines will do so for a $5 charge an hour. It does make me wonder though if we have become so ‘wired, that checking emails every minute and sending an sms as soon as we the seat belt sign is off is healthy for our mental stability. What it means for workaholics (a bit like myself) is that we are constantly working because we have the means to –not because we need to.
I have noticed my slowdown in book reading – so I at least try and use flight time creatively to express ideas off computer
Baobab Center
http://www.thebaobab.org/eventList.php?type=Book%20Discussion
Race in Civic Circle Series continues throughout April
Shawn Dunwoody started his own gallery
http://www.adhub.com/companies/fourwalls_art_gallery.html
Donna Marbach has the largest poetry mailing list in Rochester – send her information with lots of notice!
dmmarbach@gmail.com