New York (Harlem) 25 March
I travelled by Megabus to NY – usually comfortable, this one was not so great – it was a new bus with non- stop air conditioning that the driver did not know how to operate!
I arrived near Penn Station very early in the morning, before even the 24hr MacDonalds was open! (Closed between 4-5am – they KNOW that this is false advertising! and if I’d known that, would have gone to the deli that was open instead).
I was going to be staying with friends in Harlem. My friend Tim’s fiancée is a the very lovely and talented poet and playwright Melanie Maria Goodreaux. She is also the creator of the award winning project and book, ‘A Poem as Big as New York City.’
We went together on Monday night to the home of Rashedah Ishmaili in Harlem; a close, close friend of the late Jayne Cortez, currently the OWWA interim President.
Rashedah is one of those people who knows and has known everyone in the Black Arts movement – she affectionately rolled her eyes when Melanie said she was going to take me to meet the (in)famous Steve Cannon, publisher of A Gathering of the Tribes, (who also knows and has known everyone!)
A lovely warm gathering of women poets, with Ros King (Yari Yari conference co-ordinator), Gabrielle, Melanie, Jaira, Shruti, Rashedah’s grandson from Zimbabwe,Tichacunda and her son Daoud who recorded the event for us.
We honoured Jayne by each one reading one of her poems; Rashidah has all of her books. The poem I read was “For the Brave Young Students in Soweto.’ I hadn’t read it before – the ‘firespitter’ in Jayne Cortez is so powerful in that poem … it made me feel that I need to spit more fire in my poetry and performance.
The discussion spread to Lucille Clifton, transracial adoption, black arts in the UK, collaborating with visual artists and of course, the forthcoming Yari Yari Ntoaso conference.
We shared poems, stories and a lovely meal of vegatable soup, chicken, fresh fruit, vegetarian cheese and a heavenly apple cake laced with ginger.
I love evenings like this. I’m thinking that I should do something similar in The Gambia.
Yari Yari Ntoaso – 16-19 May
http://owwainc.org/index.html
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/yari-yari-ntoaso-international-black-women-writers
Jayne Cortez Memorial in London 19 July – contact George Padmore Institute for more information