A New, Old Freestyle & Re-posted Poem for National Poetry Month

Yes, it is National Poetry Month and Yes, I'm a sentimental poet. That being said, my CC fam has been on the brain all this month so I thought I'd post Detroit poet-emcee, Jamal May freestyling at Cave Canem and Evan absolutely murdering a poem in our dorm room last summer. Turn your speakers up!



Jamal CC Freestyle






When Dre Jumped from the 14th Floor of the Projects

All Things Blue

I know that I'm a fly-by-night-blog-updater, but I've been blue (and I mean that in the best way), so I had to share. I was walking to class, listening to a frat boy's woofers blasting some hideous sample, when I started thinking about all the half-ass producers who snatch the drums or bass from an old jazz tune, then attempt to hide the source beneath synthesizers and (not nearly as cool as) Zap and Roger auto-tune sound effects. And that thought, folks, that thought made me blue (in the worst possible way). So when I got home today, I soaked up a few artists who really do blue justice.

Madlib: If you're going to sample Blue Note, this is the only acceptable way.








Blu (and Exile): Good West Coast Hip Hop? Yeah, Foreal.







Terrance Hayes: Just Read it.

The Blue Terrance

If you subtract the minor losses,
you can return to your childhood too:
the blackboard chalked with crosses,

the math teacher's toe ring. You
can be the black boy not even the buck-
toothed girls took a liking to:

the match box, these bones in their funk
machine, this thumb worn smooth
as the belly of a shovel. Thump. Thump.

Thump. Everything I hold takes root.
I remember what the world was like before
I heard the tide humping the shore smooth,

and the lyrics asking: How long has your door
been closed? I remember a garter belt wrung
like a snake around a thigh in the shadows

of a wedding gown before it was flung
out into the bluest part of the night.
Suppose you were nothing but a song

in a busted speaker? Suppose you had to wipe
sweat from the brow of a righteous woman,
but all you owned was a dirty rag? That's why

the blues will never go out of fashion:
their half rotten aroma, their bloodshot octaves of
consequence; that's why when they call, Boy, you're in

trouble. Especially if you love as I love
falling to the earth. Especially if you're a little bit
high strung and a little bit gutted balloon. I love

watching the sky regret nothing but its
self, though only my lover knows it to be so,
and only after watching me sit

and stare off past Heaven. I love the word No
for its prudence, but I love the romantic
who submits finally to sex in a burning row-

house more. That's why nothing's more romantic
than working your teeth through
the muscle. Nothing's more romantic

than the way good love can take leave of you.
That's why I'm so doggone lonesome, Baby,
yes, I'm lonesome and I'm blue.

Shameless Plug #2

Contributors
Fiction
César Aira (translated by Chris Andrews), Mai Al-Nakib, Keith Lee Morris, George Singleton, B. R. Smith, Allison Titus, James Warner

Nonfiction
Naton Leslie, Bruce Petronio, Mike Scalise, Julie Wittes Schlack, K. G. Schneider

Poetry
Neil Aitken, Tara Betts, Joseph Campana, Peter Cooley, Patricia Chao, Curtis Crisler, Kwame Dawes, Mitchell L. H. Douglas, Christopher DeWeese, Jehanne Dubrow, Jeannine Hall Gailey, Megan O’Reilly Green, Eamon Grennan, Lwerence Goeckel, Terita Heath-Wlaz, S. Whitney Holmes, Michael Lauchlan, Adrian Matejka, Louis McKee, Cheyenne Nimes, Ed Pavlic, Hannah Louise Poston, Isaac Pressnell, Anne Marie Rooney, Patrick Rosal, Patricia Smith, Barbara Buckman Strasko, Rob Talbert, Frank X Walker, Marcus Wicker, David Welch, Ryo Yamaguchi

Punch a Ballot, Son

Alright, so y'all already know how I feel. I'm riding with Obama and you should too. Lord willing white folks don't change they mind once they get behind that curtain (yeah, I said it).

I'm sure you've all noticed Palin doing her publicity bit like she's supposed to get a nod in four years based on her Alaskan residency or something. But if that should happen, I have the answer...

Mos Def for president, 2012

Shameless Plug #1

The Drunken Boat

It's been a minute since I've updated but I had to shout out the Cave Canem edition of The Drunken Boat, guest edited by Nicky Herd. This sexy piece features:

Opal Palmer Adisa, Lauren Kizi-Ann Alleyne, E.J. Antonio, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Tara Betts, Antoinette Brim, Derrick Weston Brown, Christian Campbell, Cyrus Cassells, Curtis L. Crisler, Jarita Davis, Toi Derricotte, Kimberly Dixon, Cornelius Eady, Aricka M. Foreman, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Richard Hamilton, francine j. harris, Niki Herd, Lita Hooper, Randall Horton, Ashaki M. Jackson, Marcus Jackson, Amanda Johnston, Alan King, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Charles H. Lynch, Adrian Matejka, Jamaal May, Colleen J. McElroy, David Mills, Marilyn Nelson, Carl Phillips, Iain Haley Pollock, Khadijah Queen, Robert R. Reese, Ed Roberson, Kamau Rucker, Metta Sáma, Nicole Sealey, Evie Shockley, Kevin Simmonds, Patricia Smith, Christina Springer, Cedric Tillman, Anastacia (Stacey) Tolbert, Qiana Towns, Nagueyalti Warren, Ian Williams, Phillip Williams, Sharon Dennis Wyeth and yours truly.

Check some fierce poems and a mixed media collab between myself and Wallace Bridges, Jr. here: http://thedrunkenboat.com/

Cake and Potatoes

I realize I've been rather inconsistent with updates here but I promise I'll work harder in the fall. In any event, I thought I'd direct you all over to Jackson Brown's new blog/comic strip/work of staggering race-humor-genius, Cake and Potatoes. Check out this week's installment, "In the Weeds". I'm definitely a fan.

Abdel Shakur on Post No Ills

Drop by to check out former IR editor Abdel Shakur discuss all things Funky on Kyle Dargan's new joint, Post No Ills Magazine.