So there we were (yesterday ) sitting in the historical Thurgood Marshall Center (located at 1816 12th Street, NW). I thought I heard Langston Hughes walking around outside the room. The Marshall Center is one of the sites for the Split This Rock Poetry Festival. A 2 pm discussion was called "Reclamation, Celebration, Renewal and Resistance: Black Poets Writing on the Natural World." The focus was on Camille T. Dungy's important anthology - Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry published by The University of Georgia Press. This book is dedicated to Reginald Shepherd.
In her introduction Dungy explains the reason for her book:
"For year, poets and critics have called for a broader inclusiveness in conversations about ecocriticism and ecopoetics, one that acknowledges other voices and a wider range of cultural and ethnic concerns. African Americans, specifically, are fundamental to the natural fabric of this nation but have been noticeably absent from tables of contents. To bring more voices into the conversation about human interactions with the natural world, we must change the parameters of the conversation."
Festival participants gathered to listen to poems and remarks from a few of Dungy's contributors. Reading from the pages of Black Nature were Gregory Pardlo, Remica L. Bingham, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Mark McMorris and myself. I was really impressed by Lady Bingham's interpretation of some of the poems included in the book. Remica was one of my students when I was a core faculty member with the Bennington Writing Seminars. I think the program does an excellent job helping writers to develop not only their own work but to read, interpret and appreciate poetry. Bingham is one of those poets who hopefully will publish a collection of essays in a few years.
Spending an afternoon listening to African American writers talking about their relationship to nature was not a post-racial moment - it was more an example of what is happening in African American poetry these days. Thanks to organizations like Cave Canem, someone like Noah would have a difficult time selecting just 2 - for the ark. There are many talented Black poets blooming these days that Mother Nature must be jealous.
What I like about these new poets is that they are making sure some of their elders are not overlooked.
Discussion in the Marshall building turned to the work of Ed Roberson. Is this guy still in Pittsburgh? His poems are included in Dungy's anthology. Roberson is the author of Voices Cast Out to Talk Us In and Atmosphere Conditions.
In Black Nature we find his poem "blue horses" and his talent is wearing a suit:
the cold has put blue horses where lambs were.
and quiet cows that fattened in the night
upon the grass are driven in and stones
wild veined with ice have taken over in
the fields: the moon is chewing on the snow.
and something watching from a stand of pines
has tied off screams into a hanging knot
the road has spent the night of winter clean
of passengers: the thread out of the hills
has helped the naked trees remain in love
on their bare bodies...
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