Happy Pride & New Publications—Plus a Summer Abroad
Happy Pride & New Publications—Plus a Summer Abroad
Civitella Ranieri
It's the first day of Pride and Black Music and Emancipation Month (aka Juneteenth in America), and I'm entering Month 2 of 3 I'll spend in Europe as I complete my next two books and advance two others.
Throughout May, I was writing fiercely among some of the most brilliant, fearless artists I've met in my two decades "out of the closet," as it were, as an artist myself. I present my research with two of them, Corinne de San Jose and Thomas Urquhart, on Monday, June 3.
Here are a few candids of a recent sunset at Civitella Ranieri, orchids blooming in my apartment, and walks along the Adriatic around Venezia and the Umbertide mountainside:
Publication News
More excerpts from my second collection have been published over the past couple of months at The Academy of American Poets' Poets. org (the title poem) and The Nation. Look for more to come this fall, with the book—and a textbook on contemporary Black poetry aesthetics—hopefully in press by year's end. (For more on the composition of "Missionary," read this blog post.)
Conference Presentation/Music on My Mind
After presenting research & poetry on Ernest Hemingway's "The Porter" at the HE Society's conference in Bilbao, Spain, I look forward to the release of No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, Meshell Ndegeocello's latest album, on Aug. 2, what would have been his 100th birthday. By then, I'll have made my sojourn back to his final resting place, St. Paul-de-Vence.
A preview of what's to come from Meshell & 'nem? Hope so.
Here are the first two singles:
Playlists & New Albums for This Season of Celebrating Our Freer, Deeper Love
"We Been Kuntree": https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/we-been-kuntree/pl.u-b33gNc0d0Dk0
" 'Between You and Me': Liberation Now, Liberation Forever": https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/between-me-and-you-liberation-now-liberation-forever/pl.u-6mJ4LF4E4xW4
"Summer Jams: Born Free Edition": https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/summer-jams-born-free-edition/pl.u-lzYAT909bW9
Please Don't Cry, Rapsody
En Route, Durand Bernarr
Blue Electric Light, Lenny Kravitz
HEAVY, SiR
Shadow, Lizz Wright
New, Recent, and Forthcoming Books I'm Excited to Read/Teach
Poetry
Alt-Nature, Saretta Morgan (excerpt)
Poems: 1968-2020, Nikki Giovanni
Black Bell, Alison C. Rollins (sample)
The Stuff of Hollywood, Niki Herd (excerpt from the book-length poem)
d-sorientation, Charleen McClure (sample)
Load in Nine Times, Frank X. Walker
Lullaby for the Grieving, Ashley M. Jones (the title poem)
Fiction
Creative Nonfiction/Scholarship
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, Alexis Pauline Gumbs
South to America, Imani Perry
Friend Joins a Blockbuster Franchise for Charity
Finally, I share the debut of Angeliq, aka Atlanta Fire Department Public Information Officer Anaré V. Holmes, a cherished friend of 19 years, who stepped into the persona on RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars for a good cause: ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging).
Want to Give to a Another Good Cause?
Support @thefreedomdoctor Roman Bolaji Johnson's pursuit of an MFA at Brown University. Over the past decade, I've watched him achieve great things as a scientist, and I've seen his growth as a poet. Investing in his transition to Providence is money well-spent.
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