My friend Rio likes to make videos. And sometimes they make me laugh so hard I don’t need to do sit ups that day.
I’ll will be performing hope you can make it!
Lo Que Callamos L@s Jot@s:A New Interactive Live Talk Show
One Night Only
Host:
QueLAco and Yosimar Reyes
Type:
Music/Arts – Performance
Network:
Global
Date:
Friday, September 25, 2009
Time:
8:00pm – 11:00pm
Location:
Galeria De La Raza
Street:
2857 24th St
City/Town:
San Francisco, CA
Co-Sposored By QueLAco:
Join these Locas as we launch our new live talk show filled with desmadre, poesia and a whole lot of drama. You haven’t seen a show like this: Oprah and Laura En America dont got shit on us JOT@S. Make sure u bring your case that night. Featuring
Xuanito Espinoza-Cuellar (Las Vegas, NV)
Emmanuelle “Neza” Leal (Los Angeles, CA)
MamaCoAlt (San Francisco, CA)
Maya Chinchilla (Oakland, CA)
and many more.
With Special Guest DJ AGANA Spinning All Night
Curated by Yosimar Reyes (San Jose, CA)
Been working on this one for a couple of weeks. Still working but wanted to share something new. Let me know if you have any feedback or critiques or feelings or what hits you or doesn’t. Much love.
Cuts Deep
you came to me with your open wound
and I drop everything because this time I can fix it
fix you
and in the process I will be healed
cause I will finally be successful at something
you
you will be that something I think
and I will stand back and admire my work
you
you will be that work of art
and I will be your savior your hero your smart girl
the one who has it all together
the one who knows it all
the wise old soul trapped in this baby’s body.
I will be whole happy and ready to fix the
next problem
turned project turned work of art
but of course that isn’t how it is
how it should be
I get lost in you I don’t fix you you need even more of me I loose me I drop me I am gone and you get lost in me too.
you hate me for wanting to fix you for thinking you need to be fixed for helping you don’t appreciate it you hate that I know so much you put me down because I know things you don’t, you criticize you tell me I don’t know.
you wish I was better more whole that I did things the way you would.
That I don’t fix
I open up the wound
and explore how you got it
you tell me about all your tragedy and I want to heal you cause I know I can if you just let me if I just forget about me if I forget about me I don’t have to deal with me
or my wounds my mistakes my fears my weaknesses
I am the wound
you are the wounded
we are walking wounded
Reading Niedecker for a poetry craft class. This poem makes me smile:
Poet’s Work
by Lorine Niedecker
Grandfather
advised me:
Learn a trade
I learned
to sit at desk
and condense
No layoffs
from this
condensery
Mills College a Place for Writers Works in Progress
Faculty Reader:
Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Visiting Professor in Creative Writing
English MFA Student readers for this first installment:
C.J. Singh
Michael Kelley
Maya Chinchilla
Meg Day
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Time:
5:30pm – 6:30pm
Location:
Bender Room at Mills College
City/Town:
Oakland, CA
I wrote this poem today riffing off of a line or two I had stashed away as an intro for two of my poetry classes and also as part of my goal to write a poem a day for 30 days. I suppose if I pushed myself harder I should have written two different poems but I felt each class was asking me to do the same thing but in different words.
One asked me to introduce myself. The other asked me to “write a poem that conveys your consideration of craft.” One was a ‘poetry for the people’ class where I feel right at home with their discussion of ground rules, how trauma gets handed down, positions of power and authority, art and it’s existence in the beloved community; the other was a ‘craft of poetry’ class that already makes me tense with it’s discussion about constraints, restraint and distinctions between “language poets” and everything else…but I am pushing myself to stay open and in the conversation.
Feeling torn between wanting to try new forms and just wanting to improve on what I already do…wanting to tell stories that matter (at least to me) or leaving poetry all together and just call what I do “Creative Non-Fiction” performance art or write plays. So here she is. Still considering the line breaks, order and everything else.
Warning: there are food references in this poem. 
Maya
like the people
Central American superhero
powered on black beans
tortillas and el pueblo unido
I be a radical loving rebel girl
sensitive but not breakable
I be a two spirit open heart school girl humble diva
I am the breaking point
the verge
the edge
emotional living
on the surface
defender of the universe
lover of activities in bed
I have a warriors insight
Planning and multitasking.
I am big heart love protected by a force field of
preparation and ancestral knowledge
living in a broken tongue
remembering what I love
that first moment that first sound that first time that first kiss
love in the time of aids riots and bilingual hate
heart break back beat floating down the river of several rhythm nations
I am the topic of gossip and misinterpretation
my matrix jumping ways make you nervous
because you lack my context
tough stuff sweet heart big dreamer
corny tamale palabrista
calling on the silence and making it loud.
“Be humble for you are made of earth.
Be noble for you are made of stars.”
Serbian Proverb
I am sad. It’s okay to be sad. don’t have to be happy all the time. just would like to have more control over the things that make me sad if I can. Not just give in. I guess this is one of those moments that I’ll look back at to remind me what happiness is cause it won’t always be like this. I have to believe it won’t be. But for now I will let the emotions be what they are.
