Today I went to a poetry reading as part of a local literary festival. With readings and conversation by fabian m smith and John Agard.
Fabian was new to me, a Jamaican poet full of life, love, laughter, steel and song. John Agard I feel I have known for my whole life although that is not strictly true, I may not have found him until much later.
It was clear how much both poets locate themselves in history and legacy, fabian with ancestors and the custom in the Diaspora of asking who is your kin, and John placing himself in a literary tradition from Chaucer to contemporary east Europeans.
Both are great performers, and so, so charming to interact with personally. The conversation extended, and then the book signing after it, which eventually crashed into the "interactive workshop".
This was fun, rough groups chose one of six poems to work with for fifteen minutes, to find new interpretations. Some included dramatic performance, others individual readings with different nuances and emphasis, one re-arranged lines to tell a contemporary story, others became completely new and very moving poems.
The image shows an interpretation of middle passage and we still are by fabian.
The group I was in worked with a poem by Claude McKay, If We Must Die. fabian talked in his reading about intentionality, finding intentional joy to counter wrong-doing, intentional grace.x
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