http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/06/discerning-the-hub/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:40:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/06/discerning-the-hub/#comment-480 Tara Betts Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:52:59 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=241#comment-480 I like this idea of hubs, especially since I've had the chance to be a part of the Cave Canem "hub," so to speak. Personally, I think there are multiple "hubs" and there are many spokes on those hubs, but it's all in how we maintain the energy in the spokes that we occupy and how we gather and regroup at the "hubs." I hope that comparison is not too vague, but it feels that way to me. I like this idea of hubs, especially since I’ve had the chance to be a part of the Cave Canem “hub,” so to speak. Personally, I think there are multiple “hubs” and there are many spokes on those hubs, but it’s all in how we maintain the energy in the spokes that we occupy and how we gather and regroup at the “hubs.” I hope that comparison is not too vague, but it feels that way to me.
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/06/discerning-the-hub/#comment-479 Kwame Thu, 14 Jun 2007 06:07:02 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=241#comment-479 Francisco Aragon, I like the idea of hubs. And yet we do want to know that the hubs are in the hub, like national antholgies and that kind of thing. You see the dilemma? The truth is that for all practical purposes, there are multiple hubs, still we carry other burdens. Thanks for your comment. Aracelis Girmay is an amazing poet and her book is a gem. Myopia is deadly and a sad thing in the "establishment". How easily people assume it does not exist if they are ignorant, and often the ignorance is willful... KD Francisco Aragon,
I like the idea of hubs. And yet we do want to know that the hubs are in the hub, like national antholgies and that kind of thing. You see the dilemma? The truth is that for all practical purposes, there are multiple hubs, still we carry other burdens. Thanks for your comment. Aracelis Girmay is an amazing poet and her book is a gem. Myopia is deadly and a sad thing in the “establishment”. How easily people assume it does not exist if they are ignorant, and often the ignorance is willful…
KD
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]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2007/06/discerning-the-hub/#comment-478 Francisco Aragón Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:28:00 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=241#comment-478 Hi Kwame: My inclination---based on my experience as a publisher and editor who has had the pleasure and privilege of reading and enjoying so much rich and aesthetically diverse poety in what, for lack of a better term, I'll call the various Latino poetry communities---my inclination is to categorically affirm that the mainstream poetry establishement is not the the hub. Oh it's a hub, but it's not the hub. When you have a mainstream journal (the one this Foundation publishes, for example), not reviewing a single volume of poetry by a Latino or Latina poet in the last four years, you know it (the magazine, not this website, which is more conscientious) is not anywhere near to being the hub. In any case, I like the idea of hubs in the plural. What I suspect and lament is happening, though, (and this is where a site like this one can do some good)is that there are vibrant hubs humming in various communities, and those poets and audiences taking part in those hubs express little to no curiosity about other hubs. Someone I trust tells me Chicago can be like that. Is New York like that? I suspect it is. For example, Emily, in a response to someone who responded to her "Species Indicator" post asked who or what organizations in the Latino poetry community are doing interesting things. I was going to respond that in the South Bronx there is a very cool reading series that takes place in a performance space at the back of the Bruckner Bar and Grill. It's a series called ACENTOS and it's curated by this very energetic poet named Rich Villar. Just last night, they hosted a book release party for a Curbstone title called TEETH, and the wonderful thing about this gathering is that in attendence were Cave Canem people, and Martin Espada, who introduced the author of TEETH, Aracelis Girmay. I had the immense pleasure of reading in that series in May, and meeting Aracelis, and John Murrilo, who is a Cave Canem fellow, and I'm certain that if I had been in attendence last night, it would have felt like a "hub" experience to me. Rich Villar will certainly be posting about it on his blog. You mentioned your week at Cave Canem. Hearing you describe your week reminded me of my week at Sandra Cisneros' Macondo workshop last August in San Antonio. And I think you're on to something when you use that term, "community." Latino poetry, at the moment, doesn't have its Cave Canem per se. Macondo is the closet thing to it, but its not only poetry. In fact, Cornelius and I have talked about this. He shared his belief that Latino poetry (and I have to say, based on the evidence, that I agree with him) is where African American poetry---as far as visibility in the mainstream---is where African American poetry was about 15, 20 years ago. Just today, Roberto Tejada (a wonderful poet out in San Diego who has a new book, Mirrors for Gold) forwarded me the press release for a new book coming out next month called something like The New American Poetry of the 21st Century. It's a curious book in that it includeds 13 poets, along with poetics statements and selections of poems. Kenneth is in it, as is Kevin Young and Tracie Smith, and an Asian American poet, whose name I'm not remembering. DA Powell, whose work I love, is in it and others. But surprise (actually, no suprise): not a single Latino or Latina poet. So what's the underlying mesage there, according to the two editors, about American poetry in the 21st Century. If I sound like someone a bit, shall we say, "too focused," it's because I've spent the last three years editing a volume of 25 Latino/a poets and having to exclude at least dozen others. And so it disappoints me that the the two editors of this volume couldn't come up with one single poet. Or rather, didn't bother to ask the right questions, or do their homework. It's too bad because the book, in my view, and with a title like that, is flawed because of it. Anyway, a big NO to this idea of the hub. Hubs, yes. Hub, no Hi Kwame:
My inclination—based on my experience as a publisher and editor who has had the pleasure and privilege of reading and enjoying so much rich and aesthetically diverse poety in what, for lack of a better term, I’ll call the various Latino poetry communities—my inclination is to categorically affirm that the mainstream poetry establishement is not the the hub. Oh it’s a hub, but it’s not the hub.
When you have a mainstream journal (the one this Foundation publishes, for example), not reviewing a single volume of poetry by a Latino or Latina poet in the last four years, you know it (the magazine, not this website, which is more conscientious) is not anywhere near to being the hub.
In any case, I like the idea of hubs in the plural. What I suspect and lament is happening, though, (and this is where a site like this one can do some good)is that there are vibrant hubs humming in various communities, and those poets and audiences taking part in those hubs express little to no curiosity about other hubs. Someone I trust tells me Chicago can be like that. Is New York like that? I suspect it is. For example, Emily, in a response to someone who responded to her “Species Indicator” post asked who or what organizations in the Latino poetry community are doing interesting things. I was going to respond that in the South Bronx there is a very cool reading series that takes place in a performance space at the back of the Bruckner Bar and Grill. It’s a series called ACENTOS and it’s curated by this very energetic poet named Rich Villar. Just last night, they hosted a book release party for a Curbstone title called TEETH, and the wonderful thing about this gathering is that in attendence were Cave Canem people, and Martin Espada, who introduced the author of TEETH, Aracelis Girmay. I had the immense pleasure of reading in that series in May, and meeting Aracelis, and John Murrilo, who is a Cave Canem fellow, and I’m certain that if I had been in attendence last night, it would have felt like a “hub” experience to me. Rich Villar will certainly be posting about it on his blog.
You mentioned your week at Cave Canem. Hearing you describe your week reminded me of my week at Sandra Cisneros’ Macondo workshop last August in San Antonio. And I think you’re on to something when you use that term, “community.” Latino poetry, at the moment, doesn’t have its Cave Canem per se. Macondo is the closet thing to it, but its not only poetry. In fact, Cornelius and I have talked about this. He shared his belief that Latino poetry (and I have to say, based on the evidence, that I agree with him) is where African American poetry—as far as visibility in the mainstream—is where African American poetry was about 15, 20 years ago.
Just today, Roberto Tejada (a wonderful poet out in San Diego who has a new book, Mirrors for Gold) forwarded me the press release for a new book coming out next month called something like The New American Poetry of the 21st Century. It’s a curious book in that it includeds 13 poets, along with poetics statements and selections of poems. Kenneth is in it, as is Kevin Young and Tracie Smith, and an Asian American poet, whose name I’m not remembering. DA Powell, whose work I love, is in it and others. But surprise (actually, no suprise): not a single Latino or Latina poet. So what’s the underlying mesage there, according to the two editors, about American poetry in the 21st Century. If I sound like someone a bit, shall we say, “too focused,” it’s because I’ve spent the last three years editing a volume of 25 Latino/a poets and having to exclude at least dozen others. And so it disappoints me that the the two editors of this volume couldn’t come up with one single poet. Or rather, didn’t bother to ask the right questions, or do their homework. It’s too bad because the book, in my view, and with a title like that, is flawed because of it.
Anyway, a big NO to this idea of the hub. Hubs, yes. Hub, no
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