John Doe of Band X Recalls his Time Studying Under Grace Cavalieri at Antioch
The punk-rocker, like so many others, discovered poetry through Grace Cavalieri. She offers some sound advice for aspiring readers.
John Doe, California punk-rocker of the band X shares a common trait with so many Maryland and D.C. poets: he discovered poetry through Grace Cavalieri. While Grace has introduced countless readers to poetry through her original work, it was in Grace's class at Antioch that Doe discovered the "current" poets whose vernacular was similar to his own. In an article from The Tampa Bay Times, Doe describes her method:
What she did was tell me, "Don't read anything that was written earlier than 1945 so you can be inspired by current poets that were alive and had a similar kind of vernacular, a similar way of talking in life." So when you do this, you don't have the hurdles, perhaps, of Shakespeare or Tennyson.
In his new book Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of L.A. Punk, Doe goes into more detail about his time studying under Grace and her influence on him and his music.
Grace's own poetic history can be found in the selected work Other Voices, Other Lives. OVOL features poetry both new and old, as well as selections from a number of Grace's plays, and even transcripts of her interviews with poets like Rita Dove. More about OVOL here.
Other Voices, Other Lives: A Grace Cavalieri Collection is a selection of poems, plays, and interviews drawn from over forty years of work by one of America’s most beloved and influential women of letters. The author of 23 books of poetry and 26 produced plays, and the founder of the legendary radio interview program, The Poet and the Poem, Grace Cavalieri has won multiple national awards for her writing and her service to literature. She currently resides in Annapolis, Maryland.
Anne Lamott and Jasmin Darznik Share their thoughts on Navigating the Divide
What do bestselling authors Anne Lamott and Jasmin Darznik think of Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s “Navigating the Divide”?
The Contemporary Poets and Musicians on Reuben Jackson’s Mind
On Tuesday we ran an article featuring two glowing blurbs for Reuben Jackson’s latest poetry collection Scattered Clouds. They came from two young stalwarts of the American poetry community: National Book Award winner, Terrance Hayes, and Maryland’s own Abdul Ali, author of Trouble Sleeping. In honor of Reuben’s devoted following from within the young-blooded poetry vanguard, and for the sake of utilizing his deep insider knowledge of jazz and its many contemporary standouts (Reuben was curator of the Ellington Collection at the Smithsonian for twenty years), we asked Reuben to recommend and comment on three contemporary poets and three contemporary jazz musicians he admires.
Terrance Hayes and Abdul Ali Share their Thoughts on “Scattered Clouds”
What do National Book Award winner, Terrance Hayes, and Poet, Abdul Ali, have to say about Reuben Jackson’s new poetry collection, “Scattered Clouds?”