My most recent reading: Holler Series 16

Occasionally, this blog must take the form of a sort of journal (that's a diary for guys), no matter how much I want to stay away from that. I tend to think of poems as word Poleroids, so I remember events just fine without a journal. And yet, here I go.

Yesterday was my feature at Holler Series 16. For those of you not living in or around Lexington, KY, this is a poetry series run by Eric Sutherland, and is very popular in part because of the sheer number of literary luminaries that live in Lexington, as well as the sheer determination of the activist and writing community, which unsurprisingly, have their colors run into one another quite frequently.

It went great. I read entirely out of a chapbook (my third self produced 'volume'), in an attempt to encourage people to buy it, as well as to keep myself from changing my set a hundred times during the reading. It also allowed me to focus on what I thought the audience would dig (something I didn't know to do during the Affrilachian Tour that this blog was started for) and to practice reading them some. That's a no-brainer for reading in front of a crowd, but I write a new poem a day. This year I have close to 200 new poems. So no, I don't get to practice all my poems.

It's a chore to decide what poems to read. I was being exposed to an entirely new crowd of listeners than I am normally around, so I wanted to keep them happy, of course. But I also wanted to show the scope of my poetry. That I write about race, and manhood, and activism, as well as humorous poetry. Which, incidentally, people tend to enjoy the most from my readings, although that may be more because it's easier to hear a laugh than a nod of approval. haha.

But speaking of the chapbooks? My next blog will be a how-to for chapbook making, as well as a censure of Kinkos and their ridiculous unproductive process. Keep an eye out.