Cross-Streets

Welcome to the tumblr home of Tara Betts. Author, professor and performer. The intersections of media come together like a street corner where all your friends meet.

[poetrysupportgroup]

extract longing.                                                     fold its edges in gold paper                                                     to rest on a scale. the catapult of one                                                     plate plummets the other swings                                                     bobs and waits for a leaf of one’s                                                     want to waft down. such gentle collisions                                                     crush more than steel crack more than bones           upon slight contact.

Poem of the day: December 29, 2015 Gentle Collisions // Tara Betts

(via poetrysupportgroup)

[poetrysupportgroup]

extract longing.                                                     fold its edges in gold paper                                                     to rest on a scale. the catapult of one                                                     plate plummets the other swings                                                     bobs and waits for a leaf of one’s                                                     want to waft down. such gentle collisions                                                     crush more than steel crack more than bones           upon slight contact.

Poem of the day: December 29, 2015 Gentle Collisions // Tara Betts

(via

poetrysupportgroup

)

[lastnightsreading]

Sandra Cisneros at La Casa Azul Bookstore, 4/26/15

[lastnightsreading]

Naomi Jackson at Greenlight Bookstore, 6/30/15

[lastnightsreading]

John Keene at McNally Jackson, 7/1/15

[chitownbetty]

This does not really look like John Keene, but I am happy to see him quoted.

[lastnightsreading]

Esmeralda Santiago at Brooklyn Book Festival, 9/20/15

[evelynnalfred-deactivated201608]

Enjoyed reading (Tara Betts’) chitownbetty ’s “Runway Blackout” in Octavia’s Brood.

[danielriddlerodriguez]

HIP HOP ANALOGIES –Tara Betts

After Miguel and Erykah Badu

If you be the needle                 I be the LP. If you be the buffed wall,                 I be the Krylon. If you be the backspin,                 I be the break. If you be the head nod,                 I be the bass line. If you be a Phillie,                 I be the razor. If you be microphone,                 then I be palm. If you be cipher,                 then I be beatbox. If you be hands thrown up,                 then I be yes, yes, y’all. If you be throwback,                 then I be remix. If you be footwork,                 then I be uprock. If you be turntable,                 then I be crossfader. If you be downtown C train,                 then I be southbound Red Line. If you be shell toes,                 then I be hoodie. If you be freestyle,                 then I be piece book. If you be Sharpie,                 then I be tag.

If you be boy,                 then I be girl                 who wants to                 sync samples                 into classic.

[theoffingmag]

Two Haiku by Tara Betts

“Send him each one of the old Prince records, spread them on the living room floor, glide over him like a needle following grooves.” “Lips half-pucker surround a tiny bud, a stud in his ear.” 

[eveewing]

BreakBeatPoets.com is now live! You can preorder the book or get ready for the release on April 7. Look at all these gorgeous folks. #breakbeatpoets

[poetsandshoes]

Tara Betts (Binghamton, NY) is reading If One of Us Should Fall by Nicole Terez Dutton, History And Other Poems by Brenda Marie Osbey, and What We Ask of Flesh by Remica L. Bingham. Tara is wearing Sanita clogs from Dansko.

[evelynnalfred-deactivated201608]

"White Lies" by Tara Betts

Each one starts small and saccharine, puffed bundles of confectioner’s sugar, cottony chicks peeping softly.

Then the down molts and they grow. Feathers fall to the ground, thicken settling excrement. Sharpened shanks

and spurs supported by growing claws create unintended guests. The plush gone, stiffened quills. Each lie is released—

clucking and alive.  They fly anywhere they please. No one knows where they might decide to descend and take roost.

*****

Source: http://www.burrowpressreview.com/tara-betts/

[burnsideonburnside]

Spark/Recycled Poetry: Tara Betts

crushed zirconium gloss & glory

glides across her lips. she looks

in the mirror, puckers, pops her gum,

knows what would

happen if mama saw her

[bibliomancyoracle]

If you be hands thrown up,                 

               then I be yes, yes, y’all.

*

from “Hip Hop Analogies” by Tara Betts

[chitownbetty]

Tara Betts reading June Jordan's "Poem about Police Violence" in Directed by Desire: the Collected Poems of June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2005). #blackpoetsspeak  #Every28Hours #Ferguson #Indictthesystem

[lastnightsreading]

[chitownbetty]

Ntozake Shange at the Schomburg Center, 10/15/14

[gabrielteodros]

Octavia’s Brood is being released April 2015 on AK Press, and is available for pre-order now wherever books are sold! Check the amazing list of contributors… so excited to be a part of this project.

The book will include short stories from LeVar Burton, Terry Bisson, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Alixa Garcia, Autumn Brown, Bao Phi, David Walker, Dani McClain, Dawolu Jabari Anderson, Gabriel Teodros, Jelani Wilson, Kalamu ya Salaam, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Mia Mingus, Morrigan Phillips, Tara Betts, Tunde Oluniran, Vagabond, adrienne maree brown and Walidah Imarisha, essays by Tananarive Due and Mumia Abu-Jamal, as well as an introduction by Sheree Renee Thomas.