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What We Talk About When We Talk About Curating “The Unexpected”

on Apr 15, 2015 in This is PUP! | 0 comments

What we now know about spaces is that they carry a resonance beyond perceptibility. What we also now know about public spaces is that we are in an ever changing dialogue with them. Perhaps we’ve learned that we must respect the air between us in those spaces. It seems the body remembers what we’ve tried to logic our way out of remembering: our interconnectedness that transcends time and thought. We try to honor and respect the spaces we inhabit and respect the spaces between us and if we show honor spaces the spaces bend and shrink between us. We become one. What I can tell you is that the Hawaiian people are cognizant of their relationship to space. I suppose that all island people show a particular depth of knowing the sacredness of space – at any point in time, land can shake and fissure, water can swallow you whole, air can snap spines and crack backs of bodies — the...

Poetry in Unexpected People: Stories of Kindness.

on Nov 7, 2014 in This is PUP! | 0 comments

When the world tilts in your favor: Poetry in Unexpected People.

on Nov 7, 2014 in This is PUP! | 0 comments

“We’re going to meet at 2pm in Fowler Square in Fort Greene (on the corner of Fulton and Lafayette). We’ll plan some logistics together, then we’ll do a set there, and then a set at the monument in Fort Greene Park… Just have a poem or three ready to go.” The date and time were set, the locations secured. Throwing the required materials of a 21st century poet in my backpack (notebook, pen, CONDUIT by Khadijah Queen, iPhone), I felt like some kind of spy, arming myself with supplies to complete a mission off the C stop at Lafayette on the first official day of summer. This corner of Brooklyn is seriously one of my favorite pockets of the world. Emerging from the C train only to be enveloped by Habana Outpost, the makers of a revolutionary $3 fish taco and facilitators of a Sunday movie night featuring iconic films to the tune of Foxy Brown (September 28th), Poetic Justice (June...

Kara Walker’s ‘a Subtlety’… a Pop Up Poets’ experience

on Jul 8, 2014 in This is PUP! | 0 comments

Yesterday, I was honored to finally participate in a Pop Up Poets event at the Kara Walker installation at the old Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg. Little known fact about me? I really don’t enjoy performance as much as I should. I’m good at it but usually terrified the entire time. So I’ve avoided taking part in these phenomenal live performance installations that the Pop Up team curates but I couldn’t avoid this opportunity when Syreeta McFadden asked a couple of weeks ago. I was already hyper aware of the work. Walker’s daring in constructing this mammoth piece and the trauma many felt at the dismaying behavior of many of the visitors to the site were compelling to me. It was undeniable too, the idea that this art, an articulate invoking of the ancestors, an interrogation of our relationship between the black body and cash crops integral to the...

#ThatPUPMagic

on May 10, 2014 in This is PUP! | 0 comments

#ThatPUPMagic

BAM’s Gonna Be Poppin’

on May 7, 2014 in This is PUP! | 0 comments

Not so unexpected, we’re super excited to bring #ThatPUPMagic to BAM’s Harvey Theater this Friday night, as part of the Poetry 2014: Birth of Hip Hop Nation event! We’re joining a rock star collection of poets and performers which include Carlos Andres Gomez, Aja Monet, Carvens Lissant, Will Power! This ish is gon be F R E S H. Will we spot you in the crowd?