Poet Laureate of Carrboro, NC 2019 -2022 / 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow
As a hip-hop head and poet, when I read Khadijah Queen’s Deleted Characters on LitHub, I could not help but think of Smooth Da Hustler’s Broken Language (f/Trigger Tha Gambler). Both pieces make great poetry simply by listing in very formulaic manner, but results in both cases are more than just a clever language game; they both use slang and colloquial language to play with the meaning (and energy) they are trying to convey.
Kinetic: Conversations in Contemporary Art Series with Titus Kaphar
Friday, November 6, 6:00-8:30 p.m.
AU Museum
A dynamic lecture series sparking critical dialogue about contemporary art and creative professional practices. Generously sponsored by Dr. Darryl Atwell. Free and open to the public.
Titus Kaphar’s ‘The Vesper Project’ is a massive sculptural statement—an encompassing installation, in which Kaphar’s own work is seamlessly woven into the walls of a 19th century American house. The culmination of an intense five year engagement with the lost storylines of the Vesper family, the project was “birthed in a state of extended disbelief,” according to Kaphar. As the artist’s muses, the members of the Vesper family and their histories are intertwined with Kaphar’s autobiographical details, and layered with widebased cultural triggers of identity and truth in the context of historical accounting. In ‘The Vesper Project’, period architecture, gilt frames, a vintage typewriter, a neglected wardrobe,and old photographs act as seemingly recognizable elements, but by employing every tool of his trade, Kaphar insinuates doubt and transports the viewer into a disrupted mental state. As the house fractures,so does the viewer’s experience. In so doing, Kaphar compresses times, conflates the continuum of history and postulates new powerful realities.With many of Kaphar’s interventions present in the installation including slashing, silhouetting, and whitewashing, this singular work is a complex map of overlapping timetables and collective genealogies. By obliterating the distance between the viewer and the work, ‘The Vesper Project’ is comprehensive,experiential, and it is the artist’s most ambitious expression to date.
I started writing this on the day after my birthday, but got caught up with family, putting together my thesis, planning our trips to Paris, Boston and DC. So I know that this is way belated, but I wanted to post it anyway as way to try to kickstart my blogging again. I hope you all will enjoy reading this nonetheless.
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I have learned a lot about myself in these past almost 2 years I have been living here in Bamako. Although it is easy to type or perhaps even to say, it is no small thing for African American like myself to make such a bold claim and internalize its weight in the face all that may be trying to tell me the opposite.
Last year, after hearing Lorna Goodison, Kwame Dawes and Brenda Marie Osbey speak at Furious Flower 2014, things become a lot clearer for me, in listening to what they had to say.
I was particularly struck by Kwame Dawes’ presentation, in which he spoke about his “absence of angst”, “absence of divideness” , “absence of struggle and identity crisis” , with regard to who he is and where he comes from.
Hearing how clearly and resolutely he spoke really affirmed a lot of what I have been feeling and trying to articulate lately.
Later that same day I got a chance to sit down with Kwame Dawes to be filmed for the Furious Flower Archive, it was really an honor and privilege to talk with him. I hope some portion of that will find the light of day. After our conversation while walking back for another session, I started ruminating on the following quote by Kwame Nkrumah:
“I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me.” -Kwame Nkrumah
This quote nailed it for me. I know some will find this problematic, or that perhaps that the Pan-African spirit that is undergirds what Nkrumah said is archaic and does not fit today’s reality, but I disagree. I think today more than ever we have access to so much more information about who we have been and who we are and that information used correctly can be empowering and perhaps build the kind of bridges necessary for Africa and America.
I have never felt more “African”, than I do today, despite being a “American” from the United States, by blood on the soil & by passport, despite difference, despite being called “white” sometimes (in a non-pejorative way…I think),despite only speaking one language fluently (our American dialect , not English), despite boarders, tribes & ethnicities, despite those who will not claim me, nor allow me to claim myself…I steal a/way, despite those who will claim a spot in my place, despite the magnetic black hole of the middle passage, where clocks run backwards, & the ark of bones left in that wake where time stands still…
I am clear. I am African
A few days ago I found out my poem was chosen as the winner for The Divine Comedy Poetry contest at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.
The contest is one the events connected to the new exhibition, The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists.
My poem was in response to Malian textile artist, Abdoulaye Konate’s 2008 Dance of Kayes from La Danse series, as seen above. Read the poem here.
I choose Konate’s work not only because he is Malian, but because his exhibition at the Institut Francais of Mali , was the one of the only art of a Malian artist I had seen other than Malick Sidibe, Seydou Keita, Alioune Bâ and a few others – all photographers. Painter, Amadou Sanogo, was the other Malian artist’s work that I had seen, aside of the famous Malian photographers.
I also chose Konate’s piece because of the cool colors he chose to represent Kayes are not what I expected given that the Kayes region is one of the hottest places on the planet, so the contrast was quite striking.
I was asked to read the poem at the Museum’s Divine Poetour this summer on July 2. Split This Rock’s DC Youth Slam Team and NMAfA’s Teen Ambassadors, will be reading their works that engage the The Divine Comedy exhibition. So come out and support the DC Youth Slam Team and NMAfA’s Teen Ambassadors. Peep the flyer below…
I am excited to be a part of The Divine Poetour, it looks like it will be similar to a project that I did afew years back as a collaboration between The American Poetry Museum and The Phillips Collection.
Being 4500 miles away from your family really makes you appreciate them so much more. Even though this is Mother’s Day, I also want to take a moment to big up my Father as well, while wishing my Mom a Happy Mother’s Day.
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I was probably just a twinkle in my Mom’s eye in 1973, when my Dad recorded this song with The Intruders, there is apart of me that wonders what was going through his head when he was recording this song. Perhaps it was just one of the many recording gigs for Philadelphia International Records, or maybe he was just in whatever mental state it takes to be a part of creating timeless art…Perhaps I will ask him when I see him this summer on our visit to the States.
What I am certain of however is what this song means to me at this moment in my life as a new parent and African American man. In a way the song is an artifact of my own past that I am re-discovering and it is also acts as a timeless double tribute to both my parents, who have done so much for me. I am honored and privileged to have parents that lived lives that I can be so proud of.
So here’s to you Mom (and Dad)…Happy Mother’s Day to you, from The Joiners of Bamako (Freddie, Melanie, & Naomi)
Here we are me and Naomi, standing in front of the now removed collaborative piece for CoDM featuring Don Camp’s images an and excerpt from my poem Seven Ways of Looking at Black Flowers.
I was told that piece would be relocated to Union Market, so any of you DC folks happen to be in the area let me know if you see it in the area.
Early this morning (Nov. 4th), the Ceremonies of Dark Men, posted an brief explanation as; to why the piece the Camp/Joiner collaboration was removed, it said the following
“A member of JBG Companies, a real estate development firm, had enough clout to render the agreement between them and the DC Commission null and void and had the piece by Camp and Joiner removed. Evidently, they took issue with Joiner’s poem.”
In addition to the the above explanation, CoDM posted a beautifully done video montage of the a gentleman named Frank X reciting my poem in its entirety, mixed with images by Don Camp. Although it would have nice to have read the poem myself, I am pleased with the outcome. Thanks to A.M. Weaver , Kelli Anderson, Frank X anyone else involved in making that happen!
The reality of this piece being removed and why it was removed may speak to larger issues around public art, who owns it and who gets to say whether it stays public or not.
That said, I would like to give a super shout out to developers who do not censor artists and who seek to understand art without projecting their own rigid and perhaps even racist views onto a piece of art.
Shout out Arch Development Corporation in Anacostia, in the many years that I have worked with them, I have never felt censored or creatively stifled in anyway. They have always allowed me or the artists that I have worked with the liberty to say what they want or need to say; so I am thankful for Arch Development for all that they have done and continue to do for art, artists, Anacostia and for DC overall.
Shout to Bozzuto, although I am new tenant in the Monroe Street Market and I have not been “working” with Bozzuto a long time, it appears that they open to trusting their partners (Cultural DC) to select quality artists to occupy their spaces and then letting the artists doing what they do best, create. That said I hope that I am not speaking prematurely, because if “a member of JBG Companies” had enough clout to lean on the DC Commission, perhaps he/she will have the same kind of influence on their fellow developer. Who knows, I guess we will find out…
I do hope that the billboard will be remounted somewhere else in the city, I am putting my bid in for Brookland or in Anacostia, since those are communities that I am connected to through The Center for Poetic Thought and through my long standing work with Arch Development
Stay Tuned
Update 8:32AM (UTC) Nov.5th 2014
The quoted paragraph above
“A member of JBG Companies, a real estate development firm, had enough clout to render the agreement between them and the DC Commission null and void and had the piece by Camp and Joiner removed. Evidently, they took issue with Joiner’s poem.”
has been removed from the statement made by CoDM on early in the morning on Nov 4th. I am curious as to why…
Well, not quite, but maybe censored is more like it.
I am/was honored to be chosen by curator A.M. Weaver to be a part her 5 X 5 Project , Ceremonies of Dark Men (CoDM), for the DC Comission of Art and Humanities especially with such an amazing group of visual artists (Donald E. Camp, Larry Cook, Isaac Diggs, Stan Squirewell and Michael Platt) and poets (Major Jackson, Kenneth Carroll, E. Ethelbert Miller and Afaa Michael Weaver).
I still have not gotten all the details, but A.M. told me shortly after my our piece (Don Camp and myself) went up the company that owns and/or manages the building were very displeased by the excerpt of my poem, so much so that they wanted them remove immediately. Here is the excerpt:
excerpt of Seven Ways of Looking at Black Flowers By Fred Joiner
A.M. warned me that they were threatening to take it down that weekend before the official opening of 5 X 5, but fortunately that did not happen. However they were not sure how long it would be allowed to remain up.
So a few days ago, while cruising Art Whino’s Instagram feed I noticed the our piece was taken down, because Artwhino’s new mural project was in progress. I asked the moderator of the Instagram handle what the deal was and he said that they were planning this for over a year, which makes me beg the question, Why would they put our piece in the first place if it was supposed to be up until Dec, if they had already promised the space to someone else…Sounds kind of fishy to me, but at least they will have some other nice art up and a ready made “scheduling mistake” rather than censoring a piece of art they did not care for.
Anyway, since they (JBG) did not bother to read, understand or reach out to me to to get clarity on the ENTIRE poem, I have posted it below.
I was told that A.M. and the CDoM project may post an official an update about what happened with the piece this week, so I am anxiously awaiting more details. For now all I have to go on is their decision to remove our piece because they thought it was divisive and would incite (or perhaps offend) viewers. The irony of that is on the day Melanie, Naomi and I went to go check out the billboard we came across at least 3 or 4 people who loved the billboard and did not think it was racist, divisive or inciting at all…go figure.
Anyway, I will post more details when they are available, in the meantime go check out Art Whino’s project and the ghost of mine at 51 N St NE (right near the NY Ave Metro and the ATF).
Seven Ways of Looking at Black Flowers By Fred Joiner
XIII
What is more beautiful than black flowers,
Or the Blackmen in fields
Gathering them?
– Raymond Patterson, Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Blackman
I
In what mellow tone
Do black flowers
Sing their blues?
II
Black flowers like black
Hands – colored: reaching toward
A mystery. Up South.
III
Black flowers, the gift
Of open palms
Facing North, but
Rooted South
IV
A man and a woman
Are one
A man and a woman and black flowers
Are dust
V
Against a sky white
Like a fists full of Sea
Island cotton the sky raining
Blood on black flowers
VI
In our world/ The tongue speaks
Only a binary song, always a black
Flowering problem, against a white
Canvas —blood in between
VII
The sound possibilities of black flowers
Were choices made by the hands, breath
And brass of a gifted man
Looking inward, blood on his lips
after
Gene Davis’s painting
Black Flowers, Raymond Patterson’s poem,
Twenty-Six Ways of Looking
at a Blackman, and Wallace Stevens’s poem ,
Thirteen Ways of looking
at a Blackbird
I
I wish I could remember this man’s name, i think his family name was Diop…The sand painting he is holding was done in probably 5 minutes. I probably should have taken a video, but I am quite self conscious about being exploitative or making the art and the artist feel like an object in my lens.
I have seen sand paintings before as finished products, but have never seen the process or materials that make the final product.
Below are a few photos of a quick “sketch” that Diop did to showcase the wide variety of sand that is used to give color and texture to these sand paintings. Every color that you see on the wood is a sand that occurs naturally in terrain of Senegal, from grey-blue to the volcanic black…
It took Diop longer to explain where all the colors and textures came from than it took him to actually lay down this sketch, which he actually considers a throwaway…beautiful stuff.
