|
Books
by Afaa Michael Weaver
Water Song
(1985) / Multitudes (2000) /
Sandy Point (2000) /
The Ten Lights of God (2000) /
some days it's a slow walk to evening
These Hands I Know /
The Plum Flower Dance /
Multitudes /
Timber and Prayer /
Stations in a Dream /
The Ten Lights of God
* *
* * *
Afaa Michael Weaver
was born on Baltimore’s eastside and graduated high
school during the turbulent Spring of 1968. Marking the
fortieth anniversary of that personal milestone, as well
as a chaotic chapter in the city’s history, Weaver
returns to Baltimore to read at CityLit Festival from
The Plum Flower Dance at 2:00.
Weaver wrote and
published poetry on the side while working factory jobs
at Procter & Gamble and Bethlehem Steel. He founded 7th
Son Press and published the journal Blind Alleys,
which featured Andrei Codrescu, Frank Marshall Davis,
and Lucille Clifton among others. As a freelancer, he
has written for the Baltimore Sun, the Boston
Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago
Tribune, and the Baltimore Afro-American. He began his
teaching career as an adjunct in 1987, teaching at New
York University, the City University of New York, Seton
Hall Law School, and Essex County College. In 1990, he
began at Rutgers Camden and received tenure with
distinction there as an early candidate. In 1998, Weaver
joined the English Department at Simmons College, where
he founded the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center.
City Lit Project.
* * *
* *
Important links:
afaamweaver /
My Father's Geography /
Concord Poetry
* * *
* *
A poet forged in
heartbreak—He has just published
The Plum Flower Dance, a collection of his work
from 1985 to 2005. He is featured on the cover of this
month's Poets & Writers magazine. Boston
University recently asked him to donate his papers to
the university's Howard Gotlieb Archival Research
Center. (Weaver said yes.) Heady stuff - absolutely none
of which Weaver, now 56, takes for granted. He spent too
many years working in the warehouses and steel mills of
Baltimore, scribbling lines of poetry during coffee
breaks. "In the warehouse, it was thousands of boxes
circling around—every day the same thing," he recalls.
"You felt like you were being pounded into anonymity.
Holding on to the poetry was a way of keeping myself
alive."
It still is, though Weaver does not look like
the stereotypical poet on this recent weekday in his
Simmons College office. He wears a trim blue blazer, a
blue shirt, and a mild tie. No campus casual for Weaver:
He dresses this way every day, as if heeding Flaubert's
advice to "Be regular and orderly in your life like a
bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in
your work." . . .
Weaver's precocity
was such that he skipped eighth grade and enrolled early
at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, known for its
rigorous curriculum and such alumni as H.L. Mencken and
Dashiell Hammett. When he asked his mother for
permission to try out for the football team at Poly, her
refusal was couched in terms that spelled out the high
hopes she had for him: "You might hurt your head, and
that's the most valuable thing you have."
He knew that. Young
Michael Weaver's mind was so hungry for knowledge that,
whatever the subject, his interest in it "exceeded the
hours in the day," says Weaver, adding: "I still feel
that way now." When he was asked to do a research
project, he chose for his subject the complex
architectural designs of Frank Lloyd Wright. But the
careful architecture of Weaver's own life was soon to
develop cracks and fissures.
He enrolled at the
University of Maryland in 1968. College Park was as far
from Baltimore as he was willing to venture, and even
that turned out to be too far. "I had never been totally
in a white environment," he says. "My insecurities just
overwhelmed me, and after two years I came home." In
1970, his girlfriend got pregnant, so they married. He
was 19. Eager to prove himself in some way in the wider
world, he joined the Army Reserves. . . .Boston.com
* * *
* *
Chinese name "Wei
Yafeng," derived from "Wei" for flourishing or
blossoming, and "Yafeng," the title of a section of
poems from the Book of Songs, the oldest
anthology of Chinese poetry.
Since Water Song,
Weaver has published eight more collections of poetry,
including Multitudes, Sandy Point, and The Ten Lights
of God, all of which appeared in 2000. His full
length play Rosa was produced in 1993 at Venture
Theater in Philadelphia under a small-Equity contract.
His short fiction appears in Gloria Naylor’s Children of
the Night and in Maria Gillan’s Identity Lessons.
Weaver has been a
Pew fellow in poetry and taught in National Taiwan
University and Taipei National University of the Arts in
Taiwan as a Fulbright Scholar. At Simmons College in
Boston, Massachusetts, he is the Alumnae Professor of
English and director of the Zora Neale Hurston Literary
Center. In addition, he is Chairman of the Simmons
International Chinese Poetry Conference.
Poets
* * *
* *
List of published books
Water Song. Callaloo Press/University of
Virginia, 1985
some days it's a slow walk to evening. Paradigm
Press, 1989.
My Father's Geography. University of Pittsburgh
Press, 1992.
Gathering Voices: An Anthology of Baltimore Poets,
1986
Stations in a Dream. Dolphin Moon Press, 1993.
Timber and Prayer, University of Pittsburgh,
1995.
Talisman. Tia Chucha Press/Northwestern
University, 1998.
These Hands I Know: African-American Writers on Family,
2002
The Ten Lights of God. Bucknell University
Press, 2000.
Sandy Point. The Press of Appletree Alley, 2000.
Multitudes. Sarabande Books, 2000.
Professional Theater Productions:
Rosa. Venture Theater, Philadelphia, 1993. Small
Equity production.
Elvira and the Lost Prince. ETA Theater,
Chicago, 1993. PDI Award.
Source:
Afaamweaver
* * *
* *
Afaa Michael Weaver Speaks
Poetry
In 1974 I published my first poem in a student
publication at the University of Maryland, College Park,
and in 1975, I gave my first poetry reading, again at
the University of Maryland. In the late 1970’s I began
to publish more regularly in small journals. The
manuscript of my first book,
Water Song,
was a finalist in the 1983 Walt Whitman Award
competition, and in 1985 it was published in the
Callaloo series at the University of Virginia. Since
that first book, I have published nine others, and an
eleventh collection, a translation into Arabic is now in
press
Journalism
In
1980 I launched my career as a free lancer for the
Baltimore Sunpapers by writing op-eds. As the
years went by I also wrote feature stories, book
reviews, and travel stories. I also wrote for the
Baltimore City Paper, the Baltimore
Afro-American, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the
Boston Globe, and the Chicago Tribune.
Editing
In
1980 I founded 7th Son Press and the literary journal
Blind Alleys. The journal was active for five
years, and 7th Son was a partner in the publication of
an anthology of Baltimore poets entitled Gathering
Voices along with Tropos press and Dolphin-Moon
press. In 1996, I took over Obsidian III at
North Carolina State University and headed that journal
until December, 2001, when I resigned in order to pursue
my Fulbright in Taiwan.
Playwriting
As
a student in the graduate writing program at Brown, my
focus was in playwriting and theater. I had two
playwriting instructors, the late George Houston Bass
and Paula Vogel. Vogel was my thesis advisor, and Bass
was my mentor. My graduate thesis was a full length
play, Rosa, which became my first professional
production in 1993 at Philadelphia’s Venture Theater in
a small Equity production. Later that same year I won
the PDI Award from ETA Creative Arts Foundation in
Chicago for another play, Elvira and the Lost Prince.
I have written approximately twenty plays. Most
recently, I have accepted an invitation to join a joint
theater project between the University of Louisville and
theater organizations in China, the objective of which
is to write a play inspired by the history of Chinese
and African Americans in Mississippi in the nineteenth
century.
Short Fiction
My
short fiction is included in Gloria Naylor’s anthology
Children of the Night and Maria Gillan’s
anthology Identity Lessons.
Teaching
My
college-level teaching career began when I graduated
from Brown. At the time of my graduation I was already
an adjunct Assistant Professor at Essex County College
in Newark, New Jersey, and I worked as an adjunct there
and in New York at NYU and CUNY campuses until I
received a tenure track appointment in the English
department at Rutgers Camden, where I received tenure
with distinction in 1995 as an early candidate.
In
the spring of 1997 I served as poet in residence at the
Stadler Center for poetry at Bucknell University, and
that fall I accepted a position as visiting professor in
the English department at Simmons College. In the
spring semester of 1998 I accepted an endowed chair at
Simmons as Alumnae Professor of English, which is my
current position.
The Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center
As
part of my appointment at Simmons I was asked to build a
literary center within the college. In its ten year
history, the Zora Neale Hurston Center was essentially a
programming unit that hosted readings by poets and
writers over the years, beginning with Alicia Ostriker
and including poets such as Cynthia Hogue, Natasha
Trethaway, Marilyn Chin, and many more. In 2004 the
center hosted a gathering of Chinese poets, scholars,
and translators, and in 2008, there was a second
gathering. A chronology of my work in China and Taiwan
follows this narrative.
* * *
* *
A Chronological History
My Creative and Scholarly Work in China and Taiwan
Afaa Michael Weaver
蔚雅風
2002
The Fulbright Experience in Taiwan
I
spent the spring semester of 2002 teaching in Taiwan as
a Fulbright scholar at National Taiwan University (NTU)
in Taipei, and Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA)
in Kuandu. It was during this time that I received my
Chinese name from Dr. Chinghsi Perng, who was chair of
the theater department at NTU.
At
the end of the semester I made my first trip to Beijing,
China, as a tourist for a one week vacation.
2002
The Beginning of My Formal Studies of Mandarin
When I returned to my teaching duties at Simmons in the
fall semester following my time in Taiwan, I began
studying Mandarin formally at Simmons by using the
faculty audit. I completed the two year program, first
with Zhigang Liu, and then with Alister Inglis, both of
whom teach at Simmons as full time faculty. My
textbooks were from Beijing and were written in the new,
simplified style. I began my studies on all three
levels, speaking, reading, and writing.
2003
World Congress of Poets in Taipei
My
participation in this gathering of poets in Taiwan was
my introduction to the community of Chinese poets there,
and it was from this point that I began to formulate
ideas for convening a conference of Chinese poets and
specialists in the field in Boston.
2004
The Simmons International Chinese Poetry Conference
When I convened this conference in October, 2004, I
discovered it was the first such gathering of
specialists in the field with working poets from China,
Taiwan, and Hong Kong ever held outside of China or
Taiwan. Major poets, including Wang Xiaoni, a matriarch
in the contemporary scene, Yu Jian, one of the most well
known poets in China today, Zang Di, a Beijing
University professor and leading poet attended.
Moreover, two of the grand old men of Chinese poetry,
Zheng Chouyu and Yu Kwangchung, attended. My
co-director was Dr. Michelle Yeh, and we were joined by
Gorin Malmqvist, the Swedish Academy specialist in
contemporary Chinese literature and Dr. Christopher
Lupke of Washington State University, among many others.
2004- 2005
The Taipei Language Institute (TLI)
After the conference described above, I moved to Taiwan
for the remainder of my sabbatical year for the purpose
of studying Mandarin intensely. I enrolled in the
Taipei Language Institute, one of the larger private
schools in the country that also has branches in China,
and I completed the first part of the intermediate level
of the curriculum. I continued on all three levels
while switching to the traditional style of writing. I
completed a comprehensive test with a score of A- for
speaking and reading, and B+ for writing. These records
are available at the Gotlieb Center at Boston
University.
2005
Beijing University Lecture
During a tour of Mainland China in April, I gave a
lecture on the dual process of studying Chinese and
writing poems in Chinese, which is to say language
acquisition and creativity. While in Beijing the
Chinese Writers’ Association awarded me its gold
friendship medal.
2005
Teaching Taijiquan in Taiwan
After returning to Taiwan in April, I moved into the He
Nan Buddhist monastery and temple in Hualien, Taiwan, to
teach Taijiquan to the nuns and monks and to write.
2007
Teaching at Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan
In
the summer of 2007, I moved to Taiwan for two months to
teach a graduate seminar in African American literature
at Fu Jen Catholic University and to return to the
Taipei Language Institute to continue my language
studies in the next section of the intermediate level,
on all three levels, speaking, reading, and writing.
2008
The Simmons International Chinese Poetry Festival
On
October 3rd to 5th of that year I convened another
international gathering of Chinese poets from abroad and
specialists in the field, but this time I also invited
American poets, many of them from the Boston area. The
idea of a festival was to emphasize more of a
celebratory atmosphere and organization, as the theme
was of a festival as a long workshop on translation with
readings in Chinese and English. Photographs were taken
by a professional, Mr. Don West.
2009
Lecturing and Studying in Taiwan and China
In
May, 2009, I moved to Taipei, Taiwan, to spend two
months lecturing in Taiwan and China and studying in
Taiwan. I gave the keynote address at the annual
literary conference at Asia University and then traveled
to Beijing to give lectures on contemporary American
poetry at Beijing Normal University, Foreign Studies
University, and Capital Normal University. In Shenyang
City I gave an interview for an internet news source.
Back in Taiwan I spent five weeks of daily language
study at TLI.
2009
www.transpoet.com
In
late spring 2009, I began the construction of a website
devoted to the translation of poems primarily back and
forth between Chinese and English but extending to any
interested poets from other languages. The site is
being constructed by Wu Design. The site will be
launched in December 2009/January 2010.
NOTE:
I
have written and published original poems in Chinese,
most notably in an anthology edited by Sandra Meek
entitled Deep Travel. My translations have
appeared in Drunken Boat.
* * *
* *
Poetic Form: The
Bop—A recent invention, the Bop was created by
Afaa Michael Weaver during a summer retreat of the
African American poetry organization,
Cave Canem. Not unlike the Shakespearean sonnet in
trajectory, the Bop is a form of poetic argument
consisting of three stanzas, each stanza followed by a
repeated line, or refrain, and each undertaking a
different purpose in the overall argument of the poem.
The first stanza (six lines long)
states the problem, and the second stanza (eight lines
long) explores or expands upon the problem. If there is
a resolution to the problem, the third stanza (six lines
long) finds it. If a substantive resolution cannot be
made, then this final stanza documents the attempt and
failure to succeed.
Although it is a young form, the Bop already exists in
variations. In addition to the three-stanza Bop, some
have added a six-line fourth stanza, still ending on the
refrain.
Poets* * *
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|
Bop Haunting
By Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
In the evening she comes, her same
unsatisfied self,
with the hard, smug look of salvation. Mama,
stop bothering me. When we argue, she says
what you’re saying is not scriptural.
You need to get back in your Bible.
In one dream, I slap her. I’m tired of her
mouth.
I hate to see the evening
Sun go down
Yesterday, I dreamed a vampire
held my wrist, dared me to wake
to her, corporeal, stolid. Mama,
was that you? I refused to touch
her body in the casket.
At the gravesite I refused everything
but dry-eyed silence,
her picture in my hand.
I hate to see the evening
Sun go down
This is what I get for conjuring—
Mama, after me all night,
fussing about the holy ghost
when what I need is sleep.
But last night I lay dreamless.
I didn’t sleep sound.
I hate to see the evening
Sun go down
Source:
JSTheater |
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|
Bop Form requirements:
1.
select a refrain from a line of Black
music
2.
3 stanzas (6 lines, 8 lines, 6 lines)
3.
1 stanza— statement of a problem
*Refrain
2nd stanza—expand upon
problem/explain
*Refrain
3rd. stanza—resolve problem
or share why it can't be resolved
*end with refrain
Note from poet Mary
Weems |
* * *
* *
About the Bop
In 1997, during a
summer retreat of the African American poetry
organization, Cave Canem, Afaa created this poetic form,
the Bop, as an exercise for his workshop students, among
whom were the late Vincent Woodard, Honoree Fanonne
Jeffers, and Terrance Hayes. Inspired by Langston
Hughes’ blues poems and the triadic structure of the
Pindaric
ode, Weaver established the original form of the Bop
is a poetic argument consisting of three stanzas, each
stanza followed by a repeated line, or refrain, and each
undertaking a different purpose in the overall argument
of the poem. In Afaa’s original form, the first stanza
(six lines long) states the problem, the second stanza
(eight lines long) explores or expands upon the problem,
and he third stanza (six lines long) attempts a
resolution. If a substantive resolution cannot be made,
then this final stanza documents the attempt and failure
to succeed. The refrain forms the final stanza.
As Afaa stated in
revealing the form to his workshop students that the
refrain was to be a line from a song, hence the direct
reference to the traditions of African American musical
expression. The use of such lines has to be observant
of copyright restrictions where applicable. Afaa’s poem
“Rambling” (The Plum Flower Dance) is a precise example
of the Bop’s original form. The Bop was created with
the hope that it would facilitate the full range of
subject matter from the personal to the political and
that it would, as a poetic form, be an open system,
hence the lack of requirement for a specific meter and
the offering of the form to poets of all races and
ethnicities. Honoree Fanonne Jeffers was the first of
Afaa’s students to publish a Bop. Evie Shockley and a
few other poets have added to the form, so the Bop
already exists in variations. In addition to the
three-stanza Bop, some have added a six-line fourth
stanza, still ending on the refrain. Others have created
the double Bop, making the poem twice as long.
* * *
* *
Some other poets who utilize the
form include:
Lyrae Van
Clief-Stefanon in “Bop: Haunting” and “Spring Bop: New
York, 1999” in Black Swan and in “Bop: The North
Star” in ]Open Interval[,
“Bop: To Know You Is to Love You”
in Honoree Fanonne Jeffers’ The Gospel of Barbecue,
Evie Shockley’s “double bop for
ntozake shange” and “the last temptation: a 21st century
bop odyssey” in a half-red sea,
“Green: A Bop” in Tug by G.E.
Patterson,
Tara Betts with “Bowery” and
“Escape of Choice” in Arc & Hue,
John Murillo’s Bop poem in Up
Jump the Boogie,
Tonya Hegamin, Amanda Johnston,
Teri Ellen Cross, Alan King, Randall Horton and others.
Source:
http://kalamu.posterous.com/pub-poetry-anthologybop-strut-and-dance
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* *
Afaa Michael Weaver
at Pratt Library—Saturday, April
19, 2008, 2:00p.m.—Deputy Mayor Salima
Siler Marriott, Pratt Library Executive Director Dr.
Carla Hayden, and CityLit Project Executive Director
Gregg Wilhelm join the poet at 10:30 to declare April 19
“Afaa Michael Weaver Day.”
Programs take place throughout the library. A complete
schedule of times and locations is available at
City Lit Project.
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* * * * *
 |
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* * * * *
|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
posted 16 April 2008
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