Interview Afaa Weaver and Jeffrey Skinner's Poetry Workshop at the University of Louisville

(12:27) [Nickole] Welcome to Sarabande in Education's author interview chatroom! Today from 1:00-1:50 EST Jeffrey Skinner's poetry workshop will be meeting with Afaa Weaver.
(12:44) * Afaa says hello to you all!
(12:45) [] Hi, Afaa! Jeff and his students will be here shortly. . .
(12:46) [Afaa] ok...
(12:57) [Nickole Brown] test test
(12:58) [Afaa] Hi...
(13:01) [Nickole Brown] Afaa, I'm not sure what's going on, but the phone lines have been kept clear. . . no call from them yet.
(13:02) [Afaa] I'm okay here....
(13:02) [Jeff] Hi, Afaa! —Jeff here—better late than never.
(13:02) [Afaa] Hi Jeff!
(13:03) [Jeff] We'll start with the first question, and see where things go.
(13:03) * Afaa says hello to you all!
(13:04) [Kelly Gilcrease] In the poem, Humility, in the last stanza, I was confused about why the teacher Mr. Charlie gave special privileges to the girls, but not the boys. Could you tell me why? I know your mom was telling you one thing yet you could only get away with so much in the white man's world (school).
(13:05) [Afaa] Mr. Charlie is a term referring to the white man..the last line refers to the way racism is much a struggle between men and then women..patriarchy in a word....
(13:06) [Afaa] The white man as in all white men...mythological...
(13:06) [Drew Crenshaw] Affa, I loved reading your work. Do you feel it is important to write about issues in society that you feel or wrong or could be changed? To speak out about injustice.
(13:08) [Afaa] I do, and it is more a matter, I think, of dealing honestly with your feelings. Not everything in life is racially inspired for sure, and there is the risk of racializing what should not be racialized. However, the determinant is so subjective. You know?
(13:09) [Robert ] In "Composition for White Critics…" you mention Flavo-Flav. What is your opinion of hip-hop in terms of poetic merit?
(13:10) [Afaa] Well Robert, it hs merit for sure...I'm more a RUN DMC man than Snoop Doggy....I liked Notorious B.I.G. "The Ten Crack Commandments"...
(13:11) [Gina] Your work from 1993 has a very spiritual feel to it; I would like to know what was happening in your life at that time? Was this a time of reflection on your beliefs and your connection to your "higher power," and how that relationship has affected your other relationships and vice-versa?
(13:13) [Afaa] Gina, I was teaching poetry in the public schools in Newark for the NJ Arts Council when I wrote the Chagall poems, which were published in 1993. I was trying to push my lyric voice as far as possible using his paintings and Judaica as mediums...My higher power is especially important to me as an incest survivor.
(13:14) [Mya] After you've written a poem and let it sit, how do you get back inside that world to revise it?
(13:15) [Afaa] Some chanting, Mya...a little candle burning, a few rounds of Tai Chi...any gate that is open...
(13:16) [Mya] cool, but what are you talking about?
(13:17) [Afaa] lol...ok..I read it and reread it until I can pull up the emotional circumstance...sometimes there are triggers that pull me there when I am not even looking to go. That's when I go and pull the poem out again...
(13:18) [Afaa] Some poems haunt me...
(13:18) [Erin] A sense of musicality and obvious knowledge of the technical aspects of music exists in several poems. How has music been an influence for writing poetry (in general)? What genres of music have been most influential and why?
(13:21) [Afaa] I was raised on R&B, Erin. I took in jazz in the seventies with the help of friends, but it was at Brown that I tried music theory and piano as an audit with Nancy Rosenberg. She taught me to respect music. The blues is part of my sensibility. I realized that in working with George H. Bass at Brown. Bass was the executor of Langston Hughes' estate and an important mentor and friend.
(13:21) [Afaa] Bass showed me the blues inside me...
(13:22) [William ] What other genres of music besides R&B have influenced your work?
(13:23) [Afaa] Classical...country & western. In the factory I learned to love truckers' songs...such as the one about the Phantom Driver who is there if you need him in an emergency. The Ghost Driver.....
(13:24) [Afaa] a late friend was a composer..Glenford Cummings....
(13:24) [John] Afaa, I noticed a change in style in your poetry in the final section of Multitudes. These poems contained certain street-jargon absent from the rest of your poetry that I enjoyed. Do you prefer to write in a more overt, honest style, (like in MoJo Mamba) or is this a trend that you will continue in your later work?
(13:25) [Afaa] John, I go in and out of more vernacular expressions....I think that will continue...in Talisman I found the real tenor of my vernacular....it was in my writing about my mother....
(13:26) [Robert ] Sup agin holmes, yo rap da bomb yo...I prefer Kool Keith
(13:26) [Takeya] What advice would you give to a young african-american that is trying to become a writer?
(13:28) [Afaa] Takeya, establish a real awareness of yourself as an African American thru knowing the tradition of black poets and writers. Use that as a pledge of faith in humanity so you will believe life when you see the whole world goes thru what we go thru. That is the affirmation of humanity. Difference is what we create to avoid the truth of this....
(13:29) [Afaa] Read all you can read.....
(13:30) [Laticia] Where/when did you come up with the notion that you wanted to write poetry? Did other men laugh at you, because some men believe poetry is for women?
(13:30) [Afaa] You mean did they call me a sissy?
(13:31) [Laticia] yeah, or did they call you a girly man?
(13:32) [Afaa] I do get that at times..Michael Jackson was right. Being sensitive is not easy. I began writing in response to my intuitive drive. Writing has led me to straggering truths about myself, and in that way it has saved me. If they call me a girly man, I just put a lil TaiChi on em....
(13:33) [Doug] I have noticed that you were an intense laborer for years. I was wondering what made you start writing?
(13:34) [Doug] In other words I was wondering when you had the power, the power to succesfully put out published works
(13:35) [Afaa] Doug, I went into the factory writing as I started during my 2 years at the U of Maryland where I started when I was sixteen. Labor work was tough. Factories are prisons. I know that now, perhaps more so because of issues of being an incest survivor. In 1978 or so I started publishing...
(13:35) [alicia ] Is the "Lamentations" series connected? That is, is it all a part of the same story line? I enjoyed all of the imagery, but was a little confused about how it all went together.
(13:37) [Afaa] There are more of them...but we chose those as they were strongest individually. It is a whole series of lyric moments inmy relations with my dad, my son, and my brother...
(13:38) [Robert ] By the way, I'm a white boy but I don't like "Friends".
(13:38) [Takeya] Who are some of the black poets that you are inspired by?
(13:40) [Afaa] Robert, I don't know "Friends"...:-) Takeya, here's a short list: Paul L. Dunbar, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, Gwendolyn Brooks, Michael Harper, Jay Wright, Melvin Tolson....
(13:40) [Gina] Afaa, do you think that poetry is something that may have saved your life, referring to your past experience? Do you feel that it helped you turn that negativity into something positive?
(13:43) [Afaa] Absolutely, Gina. In concentrating on love, I have been able to avoid what happens to a lot of men from my kind of background who are victimized as children. They often end up in prison for serious criminal behavior, if they aren't killed in the streets reacting to that inner rage. Love did not save my marriages, but it has helped and still helps lead me to serenity. Taichi also helps me.
(13:44) [Jeff] Afaa, this has been wonderful! I only wish we had more time. See you in Palm Springs!
(13:44) [John] Thanks Afaa!
(13:44) [Nickole Brown] Hey guys, it's about time to perhaps wrap things up. Also, I have only had four of you register (Laticia, Mya, Gina, and Amanda). If anyone else wants a copy of this chat, make sure to register in the discussion area before 2:30 today....
(13:44) [Gina] take care
(13:44) [Afaa] I have really enjoyed this. Thanks Everyone! May God Bless you....
(13:44) [Takeya] Thanks, Afaa!!
(13:44) [Nico] Thankyou
(13:44) [Kelly Gilcrease] Thanks for your time. I appreciate all the advice given to us today :o)>
(13:44) [Amanda] Thanks for your time.
(13:44) [Robert ] Thanks. My friends like Tai Chi.
(13:44) [William ] Thanks for chating with us
(13:45) [Nickole Brown] Thank you all very much. . . and Afaa, this has been facinating to read. . .
(13:45) [Afaa] My pleasure...byebye...:-)
(13:45) [Afaa] Nicole, can u send me a copy?
(13:46) [Nickole Brown] Sure, Afaa. I'll definitely make sure to get you one too.
(13:47) [Afaa] Thanks Nickole...see you in Cali...
(13:48) [Jeff] Thanks, Nickole!
(13:49) [Nickole Brown] You're welcome! See you all later!