LYN HEJINIAN ~

 

R E A D   M E

     Wesleyan, 2023

ROBERT PETE WILLIAMS ~

 

     Arhoolie Records

Producer: Chris Strachwitz Producer: Harry Oster

FOREVER ALICE NOTLEY ~

 

November 8, 1945 Bisbee ~ May 19, 2025 Paris

A L I C E   N O T L E Y    I N T E R V I E W

         Photograph by Nigel Beale / The Biblio File

BOB ARNOLD'S ~ WHILE ALIVE ~

Secret Love

Tucked inside the large

wheel well of the old fire

truck is the robin's nest

Painting

She is walking

in a soft blue dress

through splashed summer

grass and I can watch

her from faraway come closer

a bell-shaped bag with our breakfast

swings lightly in her hand and

I still can't believe that I

have known her forever

and may meet her again

_____________________________________________

New, perfect bound, 115 pages of poems

with an introduction by Margaret Randall

Limited:

$20

plus $5 shipping

by Paypal or check

_______________________________

LONGHOUSE

P.O. Box 2454

West Brattleboro

Vermont

05303

MARIE-NOELLE AGNIAU ~

Escapade (17)

The poem has come to speak to you

of things that are not yet there.

Escapade (51)

    . . .come get a kiss from me,

I have plenty, put cool water in my mouth,

lodge the obscure in me, the heights,

and in your abundance ground

the unstable air, come to me, be devoured,

and assuage my

hideous, hideous, hideousness. . .

Escapade (54)

    Nazareth, Pontacole, great disorders, punishment

    Pruning shears where the sun shines, butterfly dried like a

fruit on exhibit, warmth, veranda, your cheeks are all red, school-

yards, an empty square on every floor.

You knock at my door on a rocking horse.

Escapade (55)

    Take off your gardening gloves and come between my thighs.

They harbor more than one fold. A second.

The light. Our Eden is a meadow: still, like the calves.

                        Chante-Merle is jealous

of my long musculature.

Escapade (56)

        Wind shifted from shoulder to shoulder

like a heavy backpack,

earth in flight in one corner of the rear-view mirror,

here I am, back in place.

The broken white of millstones. Your cry routs the phantoms.

I wear your clothes. Naked without my bracelet. And always come

to see you in the same dress and my mane like almond milk.

Escapade (57)

You make animals flee. You panic them with your voice.

It waits for me, mischievous: it waits for me despite the world.

A cut on the foot prevents me from fleeing

faster than the bullet you've made your target. Big

as a hairpin. Although. . .

                                A stride's distance between two bodies.

Escapade (58)

We call for the grand telescopes to see Venus

in front of the sun. A large pair of glasses

and aluminum foil.

What are we supposed to see? The shepherd's star. A day lasting

months. There the sky. There the books. The faces, a black room.

Escapade (59)

            As a beast, I'm afraid of me.

Even in thought. A rubber band holds back my shirt and all sounds.

___________________

The Escapades

Marie-Noelle Agniau

World Poetry, 2024

translated by Jesse Hover Amar

A.B. SPELLMAN ~

 

Kansas City Blues, 1934

Coleman (Bean) Hawkins Hung Up 

      Seeing is believing, but hearing is a bitch.

      Lester "Prez" Young

                        in '34 america partied wet again

                        & you didn't have to hide your booze

                        not that pendergast's kay cee

                        ever tried life dry

                  the Cherry Blossom

was the hot new spot

its japanese motif flashed

red & white flowers

in the wallpaper & in the kimonos

of the fine brown geishas who served

& flirted for tips

bill basie from jersey swung the house band

& when fletcher henderson & his boys

hit town they all fell by

& coleman "bean" hawkins

founder & absoloute monarch

of the tenor sax

made the dauntless error

of sitting in

bean didn't know the kay cee tenors

so they lined up on his ass

                                            herschel evans

hawkins' texas tenor progeny

deep voiced & blowing blue note thunderstorms

stretched him all the way out

& would not be cut

next came the mighty ben "frog" webster

a peer coleman didn't know he had

whose breathy chain of azure dreams

fell gracefully out of each other

on their way from the root to the new

& then

             o shit what winging hell is this?

                                                                 lester young

sax cocked at 45 degrees

the cool voice that fired the hottest sounds

tone light enough to ride

across the room on clouds of smoke

five choruses to warm up but then

& then & then & then a new indigo lyric

flowed over the joint

without floor or ceiling

                                       mary lou williams' sleep

was broken by frog webster's tap on her window

"wake up pussycat

coleman hawkins is hungup at the Cherry Blossom

& all the piano players are sweated out"

& there she found great bean in his singlet

shirt neatly folded on the chair

searching his horn for a lick

that would win this all night chase

he never found it

                             the music

never closed in '34 kansas city

Jim Crow

so there never can be a question of where you walk

you must get the hell off the sidewalk

if a white person approaches

elevators put you much too close to us

go to the freight lift as that is what you are

at the bus & train stations you will be in the colored waiting room

even if it costs us twice as much to maintain one

use the colored window at the post office

& callon the colored public telephone so we won't have

nigger earwax rubbing on our ears & nigger breath

laid near our mouths

if you reach an intersection before a white person

wait for the white car to go through before proceeding

& never pass a white driver on the road you arrogant bastard

any accident with a white driver is your fault as you know

never speak first to a white person or contradict a white person

or be first to offer your hand to a white person

never speak to or look at a white woman unless you want to be      chopped up

& barbecued

park in the colored parking space across the street

if we have to drag your thieving ass to court

swear on the colored bible as the testaments

& gospels don't mean the same for you & us

god will explain this when you die & your black soul

goes to whatever garbage dump nigger souls go to

___________________________

A.B. Spellman

Between the Night and Its Music:

New and Selected Poems

Wesleyan, 2024

MC5 ~

 

R EA D   M E

     Hachette 2024

BARBARA DANE TONIGHT ~

 

DON'T GO TO THE WOODS ~

 

    YABB Records

BEING JEWISH AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF GAZA ~

 

     Knopf 2025

Andrés Neuman ~

 

R E A D    M E

RUNNERS ~

WE STUDY FASCISM AT YALE.

WE'RE LEAVING THE U.S.

New York Times

May 14, 2025

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT ~

 

DR. CARLA HAYDEN, LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS ~

 

Dr. Carla Hayden

 Librarian of Congress

R E A D   M E

In 1995, Hayden received the Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal, becoming the first African American to receive the award.^[71][72]

• 1995: Library Journal, Librarian of the Year Award^[72]
• 1995: Loyola University Maryland, Andrew White Medal
• 1996: National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Torch Bearer Award^[73]
• 1996: DuBois Circle of Baltimore, Legacy of Literacy Award
• 1998: Johns Hopkins University, President's Medal
• 2000: University of Baltimore, Doctor of Humane Letters^[73]
• 2001: Morgan State University, Doctor of Humane Letters^[73]
• 2003: The Daily Record, Maryland's Top 100 Women^[74]
• 2003: Ms., Woman of the Year^[40]
• 2004: College of Notre Dame of Maryland, Pro Urbe Award^[73]
• 2004: YWCA, Leader Award^[73]
• 2004: Greater Baltimore Urban League, Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award^[73]
• 2005: Barnard College, Medal of Distinction^[73]
• 2006: American Library Association, Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture^[73]
• 2007: McDaniel College, Doctor of Humane Letters^[75]
• 2013: American Library Association, Joseph W. Lippincott Award
• 2015: American Library Association, Jean E. Coleman Library Outreach Lecture^[76]
• 2016: Fortune, The World's 50 Greatest Leaders^[77]
• 2017: College of William & Mary, Doctor of Humane Letters^[78]
• 2017: American Library Association, Melvil Dewey Medal^[79]
• 2017: Women's National Book Association, Centennial Award^[80]
• 2017: Hurston/Wright Foundation, North Star Award^[81]
• 2017: Time, Firsts List^[82]
• 2017: New York Public Library, Library Lion^[83]
• 2017: Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, W.E.B. Du Bois Medal^[84]
• 2018: American Library Association, Honorary Membership^[85]
• 2018: Newberry Library, Newberry Library Award^[86]
• 2019: Wake Forest University, Doctor of Humane Letters^[87]
• 2019: New York University, Doctor of Humane Letters^{[citation needed]}
• 2019: American Academy of Achievement, Golden Plate Award^[88][89]
• 2022: Columbia University, honorary Doctor of Letters^[90]
• 2022: University of Pennsylvania, Doctor of Humane Letters^[91]
• 2023: Tufts University, honorary Doctor of Letters^[92]
• 2023: American Library Association, Ken Haycock Award for Promoting Librarianship^[93]
• 2024: Council for Advancement and Support of Education, Circle of Excellence Award^[94]
• 2024: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Chair’s Award^[95]
• 2024: Daughters of the American Revolution, History Award Medal^[96]
• 2025. PEN/Faulkner Literary Champion from the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.^[97]

      George Saunders     

The New York Times

HANIF KUREISHI SHATTERED ~

 

R E A D   M E

Hanif Kureishi in 2024, two years after a grievous injury.Credit...

Raphael Neal/Agence VU, via Redux

A PARADISE OF SMALL HOUSES

 

R E A D   M E

    Beacon Press

    2024

OGUZ ATAY ~

R E A D   M E

       NYRB, 2024

MUDDY WATERS, 1960, NEWPORT ~

 

     Live Newport Jazz Festival

      July 3, 1960

VASHTI BUNYAN ~

 

ESSEX HEMPHILL ~

 

American Hero

I have nothing to lose tonight.

All my men surround me, panting,

as I spin the ball above our heads

on my middle finger.

Its a shimmering club light

and I'm dancing, slick in my sweat.

Squinting, I aim at the hole

fifty feet away. I let the tension go.

Shoot for the net. Choke it.

I never hear the ball

slap the backboard. I slam it

through the net. The crowd goes wild

for our win. I scored

thirty-two points this game

and they love me for it.

Everyone hollering

is a friend tonight.

But there are towns,

certain neighborhoods

where I'd be hard pressed

to hear them cheer

if I move on the block.

In the Life

Mother, do you know

I roam alone at night?

I wear colognes,

tight pants, and

chains of gold,

as I search

for men willing

to come back

to candlelight.

I'm not scared of these men

though some are killers

of sons like me. I learned

there is no tender mercy

for men of color,

for sons who love men

like me.

Do not feel shame for how I live.

I chose this tribe

of warriors and outlaws.

Do not feel you failed

some test of motherhood.

My life has borne fruit

no woman could have given me

anyway.

If one of these thick-lipped,

wet, black nights

while I'm out walking.

I find freedom in this village.

If I can take it with my tribe

I'll bring you here.

And you will never notice

the absence of rice

and bridesmaids.

_______________________

Essex Hemphill

Love is a Dangerous Word

New Directions, 2025