Write-A-Thon Detroit

This past weekend I had the privilege of coleading a session for Write-A-Thon Detroit. The Write-A-Thon was a daylong event designed to offer time and space to workshop, build community, and tackle writing projects. This event was held at Neighborhood HomeBase, a new community and office space in northwest Detroit’s Fitzgerald neighborhood. Pledges raised funds to support the Tuxedo Project Literary Center.

Event organizer Rose Gorman and I offered a session where writers and organizers shared thoughts about what events they frequent, the series that have ended and are missed, and what gaps need to be filled for the literary community to thrive.

When asked what literary happenings are missing, a lively discussion produced ideas such as readings with more physical activity, more collaborative efforts between literary organizations, and events curated with input from residents located by the venues. When asked about what stops writers from making it to events, the top barriers were time, transportation, and finances. These conversations, in addition to the opportunity to share our favorite events, offered insight on how the local writing community is responding to the literary events in Detroit.

Dialogue such as this is a huge key to planning events not only in Detroit, but in every city. I was excited to receive such strong feedback from writers of a variety of backgrounds and hope that this conversation expands and continues.

A Write-A-Thon Detroit collage made by local writer Carol Ellsberry.
 
Justin Rogers is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Detroit. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @Detroitpworg.

Notes to A Tribe Called Quest

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“It’s a book about a rap group, but, more particularly, a book that is examining how fandom seeps into our lives.” In this PBS NewHour video, Hanif Abdurraqib speaks with Amna Nawaz about his memoir, Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest (University of Texas Press, 2019), and the ways in which music intertwines with identity and the poignant moments in our lives.

All of Us, In Prison

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“Some prisons taste like / salt, copper, sludge / when you bite and crunch down / to the marrow...” In this video, Cortney Lamar Charleston reads Jevon Jackson’s poem “All of Us, In Prison” at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery for a 2019 Brooklyn Book Festival event. Jackson’s poem won PEN America’s First Prize in Poetry in the 2019 Prison Writing Contest.

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Pass It On

Hey mi gente! This week, I am highlighting a unique literary event in Houston, Plus Fest: The Everything Plus Poetry Festival, and its mini-fest events known as Pass It On.

Three years ago, poet Emanuelee Outspoken Bean created Plus Fest, a one-day event to celebrate and highlight raw, innovative spoken word poetry. In addition to poetry slams, the interactive literary experience includes poetic photo booths, art installations, and speed-writing buskers. The number of artists on hand is massive and the bridges built between poetry and other art mediums is impressive.

Pass It On is a secondary, smaller event series created, and often hosted, by Bean that serves to give people a taste of what they will get at the larger festival. It’s a smart undertaking and gives more poets opportunities to perform and share their work.

I was able to attend a Pass It On event in October that featured local poet Xach Blunt and music from DJ Elevated, another local, who set the mood. Xach was on hand with his latest chapbook, Misfits & Bangers, and four guest poets shared work. There was also a culinary twist, as a local up-and-coming chef sold gumbo throughout the event. It was a thrilling night with a great vibe, all about building community and enjoying beautiful poetry.

Emanuelee Outspoken Bean, founder of Plus Fest: The Everything Plus Poetry Festival in Houston.
 
Lupe Mendez is the literary outreach coordinator for Poets & Writers in Houston. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter, @houstonpworg.

Dublin Murders

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Dublin Murders is a BBC television adaptation of the first two novels in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad mystery series, In the Woods (Viking, 2007) and The Likeness (Viking, 2008), which follows two detectives investigating homicides in contemporary Dublin. Adapted by Sarah Phelps, the eight-episode crime show stars Moe Dunford, Sarah Greene, Killian Scott, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.

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In the Tall Grass

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In the Tall Grass is a film adaptation of a novella of the same name written by Stephen King and his son Joe Hill, first published in Esquire magazine in 2012. The horror film, which follows a brother and sister as they venture into a field of grass in Kansas and find themselves trapped, is directed by Vincenzo Natali and stars Laysla De Oliveira, Harrison Gilbertson, Avery Whitted, and Patrick Wilson.

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Cocktails With Benjamin Percy

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“I love To the Lighthouse, but they never get to the lighthouse.” In this episode of Cocktails With Bright Antenna, Benjamin Percy talks about the differences between literary fiction and genre fiction, how some writers are gardeners and some are architects, and reveals the origins of his phobias. Percy’s latest book, Suicide Woods (Graywolf Press, 2019), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

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More Statues Need High Heels

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“Bodies weren’t meant to last / but the reverb dance eternal.” Accompanied by the music of Rhythm Science Sound, poet Idris Goodwin reads “More Statues Need High Heels,” an ode to Prince, from his new collection, Can I Kick It? (Haymarket Books, 2019). The book is part of Haymarket Books’ BreakBeat Poets series, a publishing project curated by Kevin Coval and Nate Marshall that is committed to writing that “brings the aesthetic of hip-hop practice to the page.”

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Alex Dimitrov

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“What is under the earth followed them home. / The branch broke. It broke by itself. It did break, James.” In this 2014 video, Alex Dimitrov reads his poem “Together and by Ourselves” at the Radar Reading Series in San Francisco. Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky’s Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac, an astrological guide that expands upon their popular Twitter feed, is out this week from Flatiron Books.

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