Furious Flower Poetry Documentary @ BusBoys & Poets 11/12/2005, 4-7 pm
If you love African American poetry you will not want to miss this screening of all 3 parts of this documentary at Busboys and Poets located at the corner of 14th & V streets, NW, Wash. D.C. 20009.
The following is from California Newreel
"The time cracks into furious flower
Lifts its face all unashamed
And sways in wicked grace..."
"This is the urgency: Live!
and have your blooming in the noise of the whirlwind."
- Gwendolyn Brooks, The Second Sermon on the Warpland
This 3-part program provides the definitive teaching tool for exploring the world of today's Black poetry. Providing a more focused, ambitious approach than its 1998 predecessor, Furious Flower II presents outstanding critical scholarship on Black contemporary poetry's origins and trends, its conflicts and consonances. Throughout, notable authors share insights and offer inspiration to fledgling poets about the creative process, and about daily life as a published writer.
Interspersed with these critical conversations are impassioned readings of the most representative poems of each poet. Viewers can watch as one of America's most exciting cultural movements evolves before their eyes and ears. Program I - Roots and First Fruits (60 min) discusses the major influences shaping the creative origins, poetic voice and stylistic approach of these poets. Significant influences include regional language, historic context, geographic location, personal passions and political commitment.
*Houston A. Baker, Jr.
*Nikky Finney
*Askia Touré
*Rita Dove
*Major Jackson
*Lucille Clifton
Program II - Cross-pollination in the Diaspora (60 min) reflects upon the reciprocal influence between Black American poets and writers from the rest of the African literary Diaspora.
*Velma Pollard
*Kwame Dawes
*Brenda Marie Osbey
*Haki Madhubuti
*Elizabeth Alexander
*Yusef Komunyakaa
Program III - Blooming in the Whirlwind (60 min) locates Black poets within their historic moment and contextualizes them within relevant political movements - Civil Rights, Black Nationalism, post-colonialism and multiculturalism.
*Amiri Baraka
*Marilyn Nelson
*Sharan Strange
*Kevin Young
*Cornelius Eady
*Tony Medina
*Sonia Sanchez