The Sweet, Daring Risk That Poetry Always Brings
Last June, I received a call from my publisher that the University of Maryland had chosen my fourth book, Head Off & Split, as the 2015 - 2016 First Year Book. I was shocked and amazed. The first year book is selected every year to provide first-year students, faculty and staff a shared intellectual experience. I have been teaching a long, long while and have been part of the annual common reading experience as a teacher at the University of Kentucky and last year at the University of South Carolina but never as the writer herself. My understanding about such a book is that the book chosen is usually a book of fiction or memoir that colleges and universities commit to reading together. A poetry book? What a gorgeous blessing to be in conversation at the University of Maryland with those who understand the sweet, daring risk that poetry always brings. Who chooses poetry and hands out thousands of copies to their students? Who chooses poetry to help begin the march and roll call into a young person's emotional and intellectual life? The University of Maryland has done just that. The great and necessary Mary Helen Washington, a professor at the University of Maryland, has graciously agreed to share in a public conversation with me while I am there this week. Dr. Washington is responsible for editing two books that absolutely shaped my understanding of who I was as a younger writer. I still keep them on my most sacred shelf: Black-eyed Susans: Classic Stories By and About Black Women Writers (1975) and Midnight Birds: Stories by Contemporary Black Women Writers (1980). I feel incredibly honored. It takes gumption and audacity to choose poetry for your common reader and it takes the ancient shell of a turtle to hold all of what I'm feeling about this opportunity to share what I do with the First Year Readers in College Park. The motto at the University of Maryland's is Fear the Turtle! Imagine that. Who chooses the poetic turtle as guide and sage? Also, I wanted you to know: the radical libretto poem, The Battle Of and For The Black Face Boy, just popped online at the Oxford American Magazine. It was only found in the print edition before but now all 14 pages are available. You can find it here. One of the events in Maryland this week is a reception and unveiling of a special edition art book ( only 30 copies) of that same radical libretto poem, designed and printed by the iconic David C. Driskell Gallery at UMD. While I am on campus at UMD this week there will be much to talk about. A few things crossing my mind: Why 16 year old Black girls are dumped out of their classroom chairs, on to classroom floors, then picked up and thrown against concrete walls by 300 pound weight lifting security guards for using their cell phones? Why a young 21 year old white man, who murders 9 Black people in a church in Charleston, is taken to Burger King for a Happy Meal before being booked for capital murder. There's much to discuss. If you can join us please do. If you can pass the word -- please pass the word. I hope to see you in Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Benjamin Banneker country!!! The schedule of events at UMD is posted on their website here.
—Nikky