Poetry and Media #014
Savannah Sipho's voice opens a recent episode of the Decolonization in Action podcast. Sipho is reading (in German) Maya Ayim's poem "Blues in Black and White" (“blues in Schwarzweiß”). The reading took place during a recent critical walking tour ("Dekoloniales Flanieren") organized to mobilize demands to change a racist street name in the Berlin's Mitte district. While the opening poem is in German, the ensuing interview with Sipho is in English. The interview covers a lot of ground, but here's a few things Sipho touches on: bringing her private writings into public spaces, her experience being Afrodeutsche in Berlin, and why she felt it was important to share the poem "Blues in Black and White" during the anticolonial walking tour event. Click here to listen to the episode. For extensive show notes and additional readings tackling the issues discussed on the episode, click here. Many of the articles are in German, but not all, including "The Bones of Reparation," an excellent essay from Decolonization in Action host edna bonhomme (who shares a poem of her own at the end of the episode).
- Miguel Hernández, a Spanish poet who died of tuberculosis during the fascist Franco regime, will be celebrated through a series of upcoming events in his hometown of Orihuela. "There will be music, exhibitions, book presentations, as well as poetry recitals," said Mar Ezcurra, Orihuela's cultural councillor. Click here to learn more about the upcoming festivities, and click here to read "Elegy for Ramón Sijé," a stirring remembrance of the friend who introduced him to literature.
- Kate Clanchy discussed how to write your first poem in a video posted to the YouTube channel for England's National Poetry Day organization. The video ends with five-year-old poet named Nadim reciting his first ever poem (written using Clanchy's prompt). Click here to watch.
- Mark Richardson, a street poet from Scotland, was recently featured as part of the "Elmugid Presents" YouTube series. Click here to watch Richardson do his thing (and if you haven't listened to spoken word poetry recited in a Scottish dialect, you're in for a treat).
- Christina Coffman, a graduate student at Nebraska's Wayne State College, was on the local news recently discussing her quest to win the title of "America's Best College Poet." Click here to watch.
- Abdülhak Hamid Tarhan, an enigmatic experimentalist who was born in Istanbul in 1852, is the subject of a recent profile in the Daily Sabah, a Turkish website that reliably celebrates the work of unheralded poets of yesteryear. Click here to read Hakan Arslanbenzer's profile of Tarhan.
- Vasyl Stus, a Ukrainian poet who was imprisoned for his writings and who died in a Soviet labor camp at the age of forty-one, was the focus of a recent installment of the Ukrainian Weekly's "Turning The Pages Back…" column. The column was published to mark the thirty-fifth anniversary of Stus's death. Click here to read.
- Yilma Tafere Tasew has passed away. Tasew, a poet, was born in Ethiopia, lived as a refugee in Kenya, and eventually settled in New Zealand. The Dominion Post has written about Tasew's tumultuous journey and the way writing served as a medicine for him throughout. Click here to learn more about Tasew. To listen to Tasew speak on his experience directly, check out his recent interview on the Pax Christi International YouTube channel.
- Sara Borjas recently appeared on the Fresno, CA, radio program Valley Edition to discuss her American Book Award-winning. debut collection Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff. Click here to listen.
- Antoine Cassar's road trip from Malta to southeast Italy, and the poet's goal to turn the audio recordings he made during his journey into a poetic novel, is the subject of a recent Times Malta profile. Click here to read.
- Finally, unable to do a traditional promotional tour, Eileen Myles has booked a bevy of virtual readings marking the release of For Now (Why I Write). Click here for a full listing of Myles's October offerings.