CavanKerry Press brought me and my press-mates to read at the 2023 New York City Poetry Festival on July 30th! It was a great opportunity to meet fellow poets, read and listen to some amazing work, and just share the space with like-minded artists.
The Asian Arts Initiative’s gallery show, A More Perfect Union, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Loving v. Virginia case and the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision to legalize interracial marriage in the United States. Exhibiting artists explored the themes of interracial marriage, relationships, and identity, all made possible at least in part by this decision. I was honored to have my poem “you’ll always be baby to me…” selected, printed on canvas, and hung as a work of art.
The Philadelphia Free Library chose my poem “We can’t afford to be innocent” for it’s inaugural Cultureshare program in 2017. The program paired work from Philadelphia artists with work from the libraries collections; my poem was sent out with an essay from Ta-Nehisi Coates.
In my early days in Philly (I grew up in Jersey but escaped as soon as I could), I was fortunate to meet up with the great Yolanda Wisher and become a part of Poetry for the People. We held readings in laundromats, churches, and even one time on the Broad Street Line. It was always fun, and was a part of how I decided what poetry means to me.
My family is made up of performers–Christy is a singer and speaker, Zel is an actor and activist, and Elio just likes to make everyone laugh. So, it was a no-brainer when we had a chance to build a play as a family that we would take to it. Theatre Horizon ran its “Art House” program, where Philadelphia residents had the opportunity to craft a play, within the confines of their own home, that would then stream through zoom to their audience. We were delighted to be a part of it, and as a family we created something beautiful and meaningful, and it was a great honor to be a part of Theatre Horizon.
I am working on a series of essays on Trump and Trumpism, published on Medium, that examines some of the causes of Trump and the energies behind his rise. The series is called “Lazy Fascism and the Junk Merchants of the Apocalypse: Postmodern Nostalgia and Magical Thinking in the Age of Trump.” The first part examines nostalgia and MAGA, the second looks at magical thinking and American exceptionalism, and the third will examine the legacy of the racism in the time of Obama and how it fed into Trump.
I have been fortunate to have my poetry featured in Philadelphia Stories on 3 separate occasions. “Black Diamonds and Pearls,” (which is also in my collection Just/More) was featured in the Winter 2021 issue, “Peace is a dream” was featured in Winter 2019, and “Past the days of yes y’allin’…” was featured in Winter 2017. Winter & Philadelphia Stories & myself seem to go well together.
One of my first poems published was in Limited Editions, a journal put out by Community College of Philadelphia when I was a student at CCP (I since went on to teach there). The poem is called “How to cook for a benefit,” and marks the beginning of my transition from a spoken word/slam poet to one whose work (hopefully) stands on its own on the page. Community colleges are lifesavers, and community colleges with a writing program are an unbelievable resource–I say this as someone who who has taught and been taught at community colleges. They gave me a lifeline when I needed one, and seeing my work in print changed my life. While there, I began experimenting with writing fiction, and even began a novel. The encouragement I received led me to keep writing it, all the way to grad school. They have posted an early draft of the opening here, and while it is clearly a work in progress I am glad to see it archived.
The first writing I was paid for was an essay called “The King of Rock,” in Arts & Letters. It is a creative non-fiction piece, about the ways that hip-hop, especially Run-DMC, changed how I saw myself, and how I wanted to be seen.
“A self-made monster,” in The Northern Virginia Review, is a poem that also examines the tangled connection between hip-hop, childhood, masculinity, and the ways we are expected, or expect ourselves, to act. The title, like many of my titles, comes from a song–from Ice-T’s “6 ‘N the Mornin'” to be precise.
Philly has been blessed with a vibrant poetry scene, and journals like Apiary have helped nurture it for years. My personal favorite poem of mine to perform is “Poetry is a verb,” which appeared there in Spring 2013.