#robert lashley

[bostonpoetryslam]

For your garden, I will find you hot corner petals. I will put them in my crown royal bag. I will search past the weeds—the thickets—the nettles —search past the Suckas and their impossible tags and share with you my world in stems and colors beyond reds and blues (those handkerchief flags). I will give you my lavenders beyond the hard metals in 45s, concrete, and faded doo rags for your love creates me, and love never settles for environment, so I work. I’ll pick them. I’ll snag. For your garden, I will find you hot corner petals. I will put them in my crown royal bag.

Tonight’s Cantab feature is Jack Straw Fellow and Small Doggies Press author Robert Lashley! This is his poem “The Gang House Garden Thief’s Love Ballad,” as published in Nailed Magazine

[smallpressdistribution]

SPD Recommends Up South by Robert Lashley (Small Doggies Press).

"And it seems I am home again. In Up South, Robert Lashley continues his tradition of world-building with a keen eye facing the varied blacknesses, and the interiors of each one. There are aunties and mamas and deacons, yes. But there is also Icarus. There is also a personal emotional battle raging underneath the narrative, and an invitation for the reader to find their own emotional beasts and drag them out into the light. This is a beautiful, black, biblical work. There is no bolder or more fearless formalist writing poems right now, and Lashley continues to do the hardest work of all: building homes for his people where there may have been none before."—Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

[bostonpoetryslam]

National Poetry Month Headliners at the Boston Poetry Slam: Robert Lashley, April Penn, JR Mahung, and Jonathan Mendoza CAMBRIDGE, Mass., – Central Square’s world-famous Boston Poetry Slam at the Cantab Lounge  at 738 Mass Ave. presents weekly Wednesday headliner performances from local and national poets, as well as a chance to present your own work in the 8:00 p.m. open mic or 11:00 p.m. poetry slam. •    Wednesday, April 5: Robert Lashley http://bostonpoetryslam.com/?p=7509 A 2016 Jack Straw Fellow, Artist Trust Fellow, and nominee for a Stranger Genius Award, Robert Lashley has had poems published in such journals as Feminete, Seattle Review Of Books, NAILED, Drunk In a Midnight Choir, and The Cascadia Review. His work was also featured in Many Trails To The Summit, an anthology of Northwest form and lyric poetry. His full-length book, The Homeboy Songs, was published by Small Doggies press in April 2014, and his latest book, Up South, will be available in March 2017. Seventh open poetry slam in the 8x8 series: 3-, 2-, and 1-minute time limits. •    Wednesday, April 12: April Penn http://bostonpoetryslam.com/?p=7561 April Penn’s work explores daily life in Boston as a queer artist and member of a co-op for people with autoimmune disease. She writes about chronic pain, sexuality, gender, and the internet. She has poems published or forthcoming in The Deaf Poets Society, La Redactrice, The Fem, The Offing, Maps for Teeth, Provocateur, and Hoax Zine. Eighth open poetry slam in the 8x8 series: 3-, 2-, and 1-minute time limits. •    Wednesday, April 19: JR Mahung and the Champion of Champions Poetry Slam http://bostonpoetryslam.com/?p=7574 JR Mahung is a Belizean-American poet and educator from Chicago’s South Side. He is currently based in Boston where he helps organize the Louder Than a Bomb MA youth poetry slam and co-coaches Northeastern University’s slam team. JR is currently working on his second collection of poems on Pizza Pi Press, titled “Since When He Have Wings.” He has work published or forthcoming in Freezeray Literary Journal, Maps for Teeth, and Moko Literary Magazine. His mixtape is not for sale but he’ll ask you to buy it anyways. Following JR’s feature, eight previous slam winners are invited to slam off for the season championship and the opportunity to challenge Kylie Noelle, the current reigning Champion of Champions, in a speed-slam-style event with 3, 2-, and 1-minute rounds. •    Wednesday, April 26: Jonathan Mendoza http://bostonpoetryslam.com/?p=7576 Jonathan Mendoza is a Boston-based activist, poet, educator, and musician. He is the founder of the Board Bucks For Boston food drive and the Berklee Activist Network, and organizes for immigrant rights, campaign finance reform, and more. He is a 2015 National Poetry Slam champion with the House Slam of Boston, Massachusetts, has been featured twice on finals stage at the College Union Poetry Slam Invitational, once as a ‘Best Poem’ award winner, and is a proud Louder Than A Bomb Massachusetts alumni, coach, and organizer. He is currently completing a self-designed bachelor’s degree, Arts for Social Advocacy, at Berklee College of Music, and will soon be releasing his first chapbook, “When the Crows Come,” under Pizza Pi Press. To learn more about his work, please visit MendozaPoetry.com. Last Chance poetry slam to obtain an invite to the World Qualifier: 3-, 2-, and 1-minute time limits. Doors for the show open at 7:15. The open mic begins at 8:00 and the featured event begins at approximately 10:00. When indicated (most nights), an open poetry slam follows the feature. The show is 18+ (ID required) and the cover charge is $3 unless otherwise noted.

[spottersplace]

Lamentations for Lost Lives: On the Poetry of Robert Lashley - bookfreak.us

The poetry in Robert Lashley’s two collections Up South and The Homeboy Songs from Small Doggies Press is a poetry of sanctuary and salvation written by a poet who has taken refuge in the written word and understands its value bone deep as demonstrated by the first line of the final stanza of “Portrait of a Homeboy, After Being Frisked by Crips and Then by Library Police”: “Youngblood, the promised land is interior.” It is the juxtaposition of the interior “promised land” of the mind and the exterior world rife with sorrow and despair that gives these poems their Quixotic continue reading

[seattlish]

~Midweek Reading~

There are too many incredible people in this damn city. Read some things they wrote this week.

Omar Wiley’s essay “That’s When I Became Black” in Nailed—for the Robert Lashley curated/edited series Actual Space—is incredible. WHAT A DREAM TEAM.

Speaking of dream teams, Sarah Galvin interviews Clyde Petersen about his life (and duh, his new film Torrey Pines) for City Arts.

#BlockTheBunker is demanding answers and action from the city, conveniently laid out in Real Change.

It’s a bummer to see Larry Mizell Jr’s The Stranger column, My Philosophy, go, but make sure you read the last one—reflecting on the moment in history and hip hop when he started and now.

[bostonpoetryslam]

The light that never lit for you will burn fierce but distant.
 The day you never saw will come, and then go.
 The home you so begged for
 but never received
 will be here, but now you're away.
 Jerusalem will be free (for a day) from that book
 but it will take on the countenance
 of your face.

Tonight’s Cantab feature is Northwestern poet and author of The Homeboy Songs Robert Lashley! This is from his poem “11th and Tacoma Avenue, the Morning of Pride Parade, 15 Days After Jermaine Smoked Himself Away,” published in Drunk in a Midnight Choir.

[poetrypressweek]

Poet Spotlight: Robert Lashley

We like to ask the current season’s poets about the conversation between their work and the process of creating a runway show. Here’s what Robert has to say:

How are different elements of your work (subjects or forms) showing up in your stage concepts?

Though Sean Bowers has hinted that he will touch on aspects of the blues, jazz, and funk, I am going to find out along with everybody. Bowers is my literary soul brother: I have complete trust in him. I also believe that there comes a point in the creation of a poem where it isn't yours anymore. I'm excited to see what he does with my work.

What most excites you about showing your work at Poetry Press Week? What’s most terrifying?

The most exciting and terrifying aspects of this are the risks that I’m taking. I'm beyond proud of The Homeboy Songs. It was the book I needed to write before I could write anything else. I had to name and make sense of my home turf and do it in the street and lyric languages inundated in my head growing up.

Up South is different in a lot of ways and has to be. I'm not a political writer, but current events shocked my imagination into a sort of surreal state. I have less rights and am in more danger as a conscious black person than any time in my life or my parents’ life. The voting rights acts is gutted, stand your ground is the law of the land in over half the states in the union, and the right wingers and moderate liberals who make excuses for the deaths of Trayvon and Eric Gardner, sound EXACTLY like the right wingers and moderate liberals who made excuses for the death of Emmett Till.

My response to this was to go inward, create art about grandparents, great aunts and great uncles, and try to understand the rituals and coping mechanisms they had to make it in society. My political act wasn’t to make poems that served as rhetorical statements but to center my imagination around the world of my ancestors and the complex ways that they affected the community that they lived in. These poems have called for a different style than the “Street/Schooled Lashley Voice”. My primary fears is getting out that voice, that comfort zone, and whether or not the poems succeed or fail away from it.  I’m scared. But I’m also excited.  

What elements of the fashion industry do you most identify with in planning your show or choosing the work that goes into it?

I don’t know as much of the fashion industry as I should, and I apologize for that. However, I am sure that Bowers being himself—an artist, a unique fashion dandy, and person of integrity—will be a worthy person on that stage.

How would you like your show to challenge public and critical opinions of what poetry can be?

By showing that creating art-something that lasts, something that isn’t just a lecture-is a way of speaking truth to power.  And that being a good brother should mean something.

I have been an outlaw in some black PNW circles. I don’t think that the only thing a black poet should do is hit a white person in the head. I don't think hip hop is above questioning. I believe the Black Arts Movement was fraught with racism, sexism, anti semitism and homophobia, and I hate the fact that there are so many respectability politics policemen trolling women of color. Like all thinking men, I am not perfect and am working through my own issues with machismo; and anyone can feel free to call me on my bullshit when I slip in it. I also do not think that sexism is the province of black men. However, I am sick of creepy militant cat daddies, fake conscious brothers, and respectability politics poets shaming black women and then holding up and ideal sister as someone who has no life except to cook, clean and fuck them. Those men don't love black women: they love body parts and free labor.

I don't want to ask for a cookie in what I’m saying. No one is obligated to like me for speaking things that pass a rudimentary level of decency. The only thing that matters and will truly matter is my actions. What I want to show-in my conduct and the aesthetics of my art-is my actions as a thoughtful artist and black man.

What are the trends you see emerging in American poetry? What should we be watching for this season and beyond?

I don’t know what’s hot right now, but I read a lot and there are a lot of contemporary poets that I like very much. I am very moved by what Terence Hayes, Jamaal May, Joshua Mehigan, and Tarfia Faizullah are doing with lyric, language and form. Claudia Rankine has been a needed disruptive force in American poetry, a complex poet who brought experimental aesthetics uptown and connected them with the immediate foundations of the African American experience, all while challenging constructs in relation to voice, point of view, narrative and style. I love a lot of what University of Hell press is doing and think Leah Noble Davidson is the most underrated poet in the Pacific Northwest (Bowers has a superb book on U of H’s press).  Also, I believe there are a lot of very promising poets who are writing excellent work and deserve more attention and exposure: Kris Hall, Dee Dee Chapman, Elizabeth Vignali, Jessica Lohafer, Graham Isaac, and McKendy Fils-Aime to name a few.

What else do you find intriguing or challenging about presenting at Press Week that you’d like to share?

The only other things I can say is that I was honored to be invited to read with this lineup, and really worked hard to make the new poems worthy of their class. Thank you for the interview, and a thank you to Poetry Press week for inviting me to read.

[bostonpoetryslam]

Love, our legs are a nation of labyrinths. I want to wander with you with no thought to go home and no law greater than your conceit.

Robert Lashley, “When God Lets My Body Be (After the E.E. Cummings Poem Of The Same Name),” published in Drunk in a Midnight Choir