From: BestPoet-AT-aol.com
Date: Sun, 1 Dec 1996 21:45:02 -0500
Subject: Re: artists and revolution


>Art that addresses this is my kind of political art, Stirling, and while
it's
topical I don't want it to be linguistic but rather formal, sculptural,
sensual. Do other practitioners on this list have any similar agendas?

I must confess I find language very sensual, the visceral pleasure of certain
words and "word groups" in the mouth, the resonance of skull and chest. The
lovely rolling tongue (say that slowly and deliberately). The vibratile
bobbing of teeth and lips (say that slowly and deliberately). Ooooo. That
feels so good.

Teaching poetry in the South Bronx, second class, young boy in the back
intent on posing as deadbeat/knoweverything/feel nothing/boredwithitall, and
we're reading aloud, following the rhythm of the lines and bearing the
consonants and vowels intently in our mouths, Don L. Lee, Sonia Sonchez,
Gwendolyn Brooks, Nikki Giovanni, Pedro Pietri and others. Next day kid comes
to school wear a blazer! and carrying a writing notebook under his arm. He's
become a poet overnight! Suddenly he's interested in reading, writing. AND,
>from then on, instead of being disruptive, he helped keep the class focused.
And I'm certain he will go on and BE a poet, because he insisted on reading
everything he wrote aloud to the class and the girls loved him for it.

Yeah, you could say he'd only copped a new pose. But perhaps it was a pose
that could serve him better in the long run. Make him more accessible to
reading and writing and entertaining new ideas about the world and his
possibilities. Who knows, he might even enter academia one day. It ain't
exactly a revolution, but it sure is sweet.

Millie Neon


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