On Friday night we had a full house come out and support Haki Madhubuti’s Third World Press during a fundraiser we held at the 14th & V Busboys & Poets. I had a great time moderating a convo between professors and political analysts Dr. Michael Eric Dyson and Dr. Marc Lamont Hill.  Plus there were readings and reflections from Haki’s daughter Mariama Richards as well as  TWP authors Brian Gilmore and Tony Medina.

This was an important one. We need to be there for the individuals and institutions who’ve been there for us. And TWP has definitely been there.

As their site notes, “Third World Press has been dedicated to publishing culturally progressive and politically insightful works of fiction and non-fiction since 1967. Over its four-decade history, Third World Press has published the works of poet and publisher Dudley Randall, poets Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Mari Evans and Margaret Walker; editor Hoyt W. Fuller; historians, John Henrik Clarke and Chancellor Williams; Chicago writers, Sterling Plumpp, Useni Eugene Perkins and Jacob Carruthers; playwright and producer Woody King Jr.; writers, Kalamu ya Salaam, Pearl Cleage, Ruby Dee, Ruth Garnett, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Derrick Bell, Gloria Naylor and Lorene Cary; artist Murry DePillars; and continues to publish much of the work by the unforgettable Ms. Gwendolyn Brooks.”

Brian Gilmore

Tony Medina

Shani Jamila

Mariama Richards

Michael Eric Dyson & Marc Lamont Hill

Mariama Richards, Shani Jamila, Brian Gilmore, Michael Eric Dyson, Tony Medina, Marc Lamont Hill

*All photographs were taken by the inimitable Jati Lindsay.

Additional thanks are due to Susan L. Taylor for issuing the call; to Marc for both having the vision for the event & his partnership in making it happen; to Busboys and Poets for their generosity; and to Baba Haki and the TWP family for the inspiration and legacy that have been such an integral part of our community for 40+ years.

If you were unable to join us, but would still like to support this amazing institution, please send your donation (suggested $20 or more) to the following address:

Third World Press

P.O. Box 19730

7822 South Dobson Avenue

Chicago, IL 60619.

“Poetry is not a luxury. It is the skeletal architecture of our lives.”
–Audre Lorde

Just over a week ago I walked into the Harlem Stage to check out Blood Dazzler, a play based on a series of poems written about Katrina by one of my favorite poets, Patricia Smith. Smith collaborated with director and choreographer sisters Patricia and Paloma Macgregor to bring these pieces to life via a fusion of dance and oratory. There was also a post show panel of artists and activists who gathered to discuss the impact that this disaster had on the Gulf community and the world at large. I was especially proud to check out two members of the New Orleanian branch of my family as they participated in that discussion, John and Wendi O’Neal.

When I first heard about this NYC based production, I knew I would be making the trip. I am so glad I did. The performance was extraordinary, it moved me in the way that only the best art does. I literally sat down in that theater one woman and stood up transformed.

Then this past weekend was the first national launch of Alice Walker’s latest book of poetry, Hard Times Require Furious Dancing, at Busboys and Poets in DC. Hundreds of people came out to share in this celebration, the restaurant was exclusively dedicated to this event. We had a DJ rocking Fela and Nina Simone, Carolyn Malachi and her band performed, NAACP President Ben Jealous came to speak to us hot on the heels of the One Nation Working Together march and Holly Bass rocked a poetic introduction in concert with a tap dancer. Alice was signing books and dancing with the crowd, her partner Kaleo entertained us all on the trumpet. And together we all danced furiously.

(Pics from the latter event are in their own entry down below.)

Both of these evenings have me thinking deeply  about what I’ve come to identify as my own life path, this fusion of art and activism.  I am a cultural worker because the gritty grassroots work we do in opposition to the prison industrial complex, in support of a feminist lens, in affirmation of human rights… all of it is rooted in an ethic of transformation. We have to be able to believe in a world we haven’t lived in yet. We have to be able to conceive of human interaction uncompromised by racism, sexism, classism and other forms of inequity.

Art helps ground us in that vision. And on the occasions when I get to see it done with the level of mastery that I have in the work of these women, it really reminds me of its power. This is the groundwork that must be laid in encouraging and empowering people to understand and explore their political imagination—a fundamentally undervalued part of creating social change.