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for Gloria Vando

Slanting, light just won’t ignite
just anywhere: One sun at least
slung over one shoulder should trump
all slowed blue bowls of sky.

For light to slant we need a slide
to slip down, some tilting blinds,
sly trees, slow cows, some cloud.
Whose days and nights don’t lean?

The open-surgery gloriousness
of light laid out (neither patient nor
ethereal) shouts out the secret
Jesus, Buddha unmuted, and the Tao.

Al Young

Copyright © 2008 by Al Young

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Marina Swirling Clouds          Gloria Vando

 

  ____________________________________________

 

October in Oregon at Linfield College
Al Young

South studio window in October
Al Young

Graduating senior Jolene Nieves gives Al Young a late-morning tour of Seton Hill University‘s exquisite campus in Greensburg, Pennsylvania during his week-long visit in mid-September 2008 | Al Young

Michael Arnzen, fiction writer, poet and Professor of Creative Writing with Al following a gala Friday night presentation and book-signing reception at the Seton Hill University Theatre  | John Spurlock

At Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma, CA, poet Joyce Jenkins — in the musical company of her partner Mark Baldridge, a feeling flautist — reads from Joy Road and other recent work. |  Al Young

Mark Baldridge and Joyce Jenkins of Poetry Flash kick back to listen to Avotcja perform with her blues-koto trio at the Petaluma Poetry Walk 2008. | Al Young

Avotcja performing in the outdoor patio of the Bella Luma Caffe at the 2008 Petaluma Poetry Walk (poet-percussionist Avotcja, koto master Shirley Kazuyo Muramoto, and bassist Eugene Warren). | Al Young

Poets from every direction: Al Young, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Ishmael Reed (New York City, October 2008 following the Cave Canem Legacy Conversation at The New School).   |  Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Poet-broadcasters Bryan Sanders, Rafael Alvarado, and Corrie Greathouse of World Wide Word pose with Al at the Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica College, October 2008
Bruria Finkel

October in full glory at Linfield College (McMinnville, Oregon)
Al Young

Visiting Woodrow Wilson Scholar Al Young addresses a Linfield College classroom on the urgency of our times and the healthful role that poetry and artistic creativity play in the human struggle to survive.
© Rachel Palinkas (The Linfield Review)

Student writers from Camas, the Linfield College literary magazine, gather with Al at Dillin Hall for a late afternoon snack.

At Nick’s Italian Café with my host Fred Ross (Senior Adviser to the President of Linfield College), Cindy Ross, and their daughter Amy Ross. Photo: Carmen Peirano

With Pamela Z, composer/performer/sound artist/extended vocalist extraordinaire, at the 2008 Artful Harvest, an annual auction and dinner orchestrated to fund the Djerassi Resident Artists Program (Woodside, CA). Photo: Randall Schwabacher

Oklahoma Sunset |     Al Young

Quartz Mountain Arts & Conference Center:
One lake view (October 2008)
Al Young

The Quartz Mountains: Are these rock formations really mountains?
Al Young

Most of my energetic Oklahoma Arts Institute poetry workshop at Quartz Mountain, October 2008 [Names forthcoming] |     Emily Clinton

Jazz School poster design © John Malmquist

Bassist Robb Fisher, poet-vocalist Al Young, and drummer Akira Tana in performance at The Jazz School, Berkeley, Halloween night 2008. Our sympathy lay with pianist Susan Muscarella, whose father’s death forced her to cancel the trio-leading engagement she had fondly organized.
Mark Cohen

Johnson C. Smith University, an historically Black U.S. university established just after the Civil War.

With Professors Glenn Hutchinson (English and Foreign Languages), Kirsten Hemmy (English, Literature, Creative Writing), poet Donald Mager (Dean of Arts and Letters), and Pamela Richardson (Composition, English, African American Literature) in the lobby of the Sarah Belk Gambrell Auditorium, Johnson C. Smith University, November 2008. | Jamil Callub

With Dr. Ronald L. Carter, President of Johnson C. Smith University, in his office, November 2008. |   Donald Mager

To emphasize the power of sense-appealing imagery and metaphor in writing, Al Young reads a student poem to the afternoon workshop at JCSU, Charlotte.    |    Joshua M. Nypaver

Al and Don Mager with the JCSU poetry workshop on a Friday afternoon (Translation: Not everyone was present). Joshua M. Nypaver

Click here to access Flickr for Joshua M. Nypaver’s photostreams of Al Young’s 2008 visit to Johnson C. Smith University

Two People
Gary Gach, dispatcher |  The Buddhist Channel

Painter Eddy Monroe, guitarist-shopkeeper Fat Dog, and Moose (songster Marc Silber) at Berkeley’s Mediteraneum Caffè,
November 2008
Photo © 2008 Carl Martineau

Al Young and Ishmael Reed hold out the cherished sweet potato pies given them by Cave Canem fellow LaTasha Diggs.
Photo © Rachel Eliza Griffiths

OCTOBER 1, 2008 — The New School, NYC, New York

For the fifteenth program in its Legacy Conversation series, Cave Canem brought writers Al Young and Ishmael Reed together for a brief reading and dialogue about the historical and cultural influences on their work. The conversation was moderated by Cave Canem fellow LaTasha Diggs.

 Photo: Xenobia Bailey

 

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About Cave Canem

Mission and History | Who We Are

Cave Canem is committed to the discovery and cultivation of new voices in African American poetry.

HISTORY

In 1996 poets and teachers Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady began a weeklong summer workshop/retreat designed to counter the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in writers’ workshops and literary programs. From the beginning, Cave Canem has offered a safe haven for black poets—whether schooled in MFA programs or poetry slams—to come together to work on their craft and engage others in critical debate.

Beginning as an all-volunteer effort in 1996, Cave Canem has moved swiftly to become a non-profit organization with a full-time staff and an active Board, funded through individual donations and foundation and government grants.

Our program has expanded from a summer retreat to include regional workshops, a first book prize, annual anthologies, readings and events in major cities around the United States. We are a national community of emerging and established poets, a family of writers who create, publish, perform, teach, study poetry, and support each others’ work.

Cornelius Eady on Cave Canem at the 10-Year mark (pdf) from Poets & Writers Magazine

ABOUT THE NAME

When Toi Derricotte shared her dream of a retreat for African American poets with Cornelius Eady and his wife Sarah Micklem, they agreed to work together to make it a reality. In Pompeii, Italy, they found a fitting symbol for the safe space they hoped to create: the mosaic of a dog guarding the entry to the House of the Tragic Poet, with the inscription CAVE CANEM (Beware of the Dog). It symbolized for them the role that Cave Canem could play: it would protect the poets and, by breaking the chain, it would unleash these vital new voices into the literary world.

Copyright © 1997-2008 by Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.

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THIRTEENTH ANNUAL WATERSHED ENVIRONMENTAL POETRY FESTIVAL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, NOON TO 4 PM, BERKELEY, FREE Poetry should be able to comprehend the earth, … something of the earth beyond our human dramas.– Robert Hass For a poetic, pre-election update on the State of the Planet, join Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Robert Hass with musicians, artists, and environmentalists on Saturday, November 1, noon to 4 p.m. at the 13th annual WATERSHED Environmental Poetry Festival in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park, located one block west of the downtown Berkeley BART. Celebrate Writers, Nature & Community Updated September 9, 2008 WATERSHED Environmental Poetry Festival Saturday, November 1, 2008 • Noon to 4pm • Free Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Park, Berkeley One block west of Downtown Berkeley BART Strawberry Creek Walk • 10 am at Oxford & Center* Robert Hass • Jane Hirshfield • Brenda Hillman Al Young with bassist Dan Robbins • Joseph Lease Camille Dungy • Chris Olander • Mike Tuggle Avotcja with bassist Eugene Warren The Two Graces — Grace Fae & Grace Tea Student & Youth Poets from River of Words • Poetry Inside Out California Poets in the Schools We Are Nature open reading Sign up by noon on site Environmental Updates Ecology Center presents Climatologist Eugene Cordero co-author of Cool Cuisine: Taking the Bite Out of Global Warming EcoCity Builders update on Strawberry Creek River Village Literary & Environmental Exhibits Click here to Register Book Signing by Featured Readers Ecology Center Bookstore Tent * Strawberry Creek Walk Led by Chris Olander with readings by participating poets and talks by creek restoration experts. Meet on the UC Berkeley Campus, Oxford and Center Streets. SPECIAL EVENT A symposium moderated by Robert Hass ~ Creativity in the Face of Climate Change ~ The Role of Humanities in Awakening Societal Change Thursday, October 30, 2008 • 2pm to 5:30pm • Free Maude Fife Room — Wheeler Hall • UC Berkeley A presentation of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment Click to RSVP Check back for program updates! Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival is a collaboration of Robert Hass, US Poet Laureate 1995-97 Poetry Flash • EcoCity Builders Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers’ Market with support from The Watershed Keepers – our individual donors & volunteers UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Community Partnership Fund Zellerbach Family Fund • East Bay Municipal Utility District Civic Arts Program, City of Berkeley MLK, Jr., Civic Center Park is Wheelchair Accessible. Spoken Word Performances Sign Language Interpreted on request. ASL interpreters for the deaf and hearing impaired can be provided with notice by October 25 Email: mbb@poetryflash.org

 

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The words you are about to hear spring from the hearts, minds, and mouths of the youngest members of America’s prison system. Writing from within juvenile halls across the country, these young men, women, girls and boys reveal childhoods and teen years so often defeated by aspects of the lives they have lived so far. Refuge can be found in the inner life. A way back out is through our words. These beaten hearts write what they need to say as if their lives depend upon it each and every day… Hope, undeniably found: Read, heard, valued, and unexpectedly profound. From: The Beat Within by T’kaeu   LISTEN

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