INTERVIEWS

[At Fringe, we define “longer poetry” as work over 40 lines, but the definition is less important than having the category itself: We created it because we were getting very few poems of any length. Are there other prose-poems sequences that you like? What does the longer form allow that the lyric does not?

Oh I can’t think of any prose-poem sequences, but I can think of prose poem books that feel sequential, like the first two sections of Khadijah Queen’s The Black Peculiar. I suppose Evie Shockley’s last moment in the new black is a prose poem sequence, although I can’t be too sure of that. Prose poems, I originally thought, were ideal for fragmentation, fracturing, chaos, tension, dynamic energy. If, inside of that pretty little tightly controlled box, all manners of, to stick with the topic, crocodiles are snapping at butterflies which are terrorizing flies which are bumping into cows which are swatting at egrets, you know, that’s energy, that’s tension, and when that energy is interrupted by a pithy speech about sex and the slave trade, well, that’s the world, it’s fractured, it’s boxed in, and yet, it breathes, it stretches its arms, it never looses its tongue, and yeah, that’s it, yes, the prose poem never lets the speaker loose (or feel shamed of) her tongue.] Sundress Publications | Blog.

[When did being a writer begin to inform your sense of identity?

I’m still trying to understand what we mean when we say “writer.” If we mean that our spirit mind heart body psyche are those of a writer, then I’ve been a writer since before I became a real reader, so sometime around two or three years old. I live inside of stories & impressions that I build daily, that I add to, revise, revive. These stories, these impressions, have always been a way that I’ve identified myself as a human in the world. The medium in which those stories those impressions are shared has shifted over the years. Once, I wanted to share those impressions those stories through modern dance. Once, I wanted to share through photography. Once, still, I wanted to share through the law. Other times, I’ve wanted to share through violin, guitar, upright bass. Recently, through drum, through trumpet. ] The PEN.org

[The poems address the many ways people of color experience police interactions and questions what role artists have in speaking out about rising tension in their communities. Host Frank Stasio talks with the collection’s editor and contributing poet, Tony Medina, along with North Carolina poets Jaki Shelton Green and Metta Sáma. Poets will be reading from the book at Burning Coal Theatre Company in Raleigh on Tuesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. More event information is available here. ] North Caroliana Public Radio