Events
"Call" for "Kwansabas for Richard Wright (Centennial)"
Summer 2007: Southern Illinois University Edwardsville "Call" for "Kwansabas for Richard Wright (Centennial)"
TO: All Media, Poets, Writers, Writers Workshops, Readers, Cultural Centers, Libraries, Schools, English Departments
FROM: EBR Writers Club/SIUE English Department & "Drumvoices Revue"
Contact: 618 650-3991; eredmon@siue.edu;
FAX: 618 650-3509
East Saint Louis/Edwardsville, Illinois--For its Spring 2008 issue, "Drumvoices Revue," a journal of "Literary, Cultural & Vision Arts" co-published by the Eugene B. Redmond Writers Club and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is issuing a "call" for "Kwansabas for Richard Wright" (1908-1960) in honor of the Wright Centennial (1908-2008). Selected kwansabas (7-line poems) will be published in the Spring 2008 issue of "Drumvoices." Final date for submission of the kwansabas is Nov. 1, 2007.
The kwansaba, a 49-word poetic form invented during the Writers Club's 1995 workshop season (in East St. Louis), consists of seven lines of seven words each, with no word containing more than seven letters. (Think 7-7-7!) Exceptions to the seven-letter rule are proper nouns and some foreign terms. Previous issues of "Drumvoices" have featured kwansabas for Miles Davis (2003), Katherine Dunham (2004), Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez (2005), Jayne Cortez (2006), and Maya Angelou and Quincy Troupe (2007). Following is an example of a kwansaba from "Drumvoices" #15 (2007):
Kwansaba for Quincy Troupe
Reginald Lockett
Lion roaming the vast Serengeti of verse
On the Great Plains he stalks words
Dogs the scents of verbs and nouns
King of musical lines tracks poetry's song
In the forest there stands his prize,
A sleek gazelle of a poem desired
He makes a quick study and pounces
Kwansaba submissions should be sent by Nov. 1, 2007, to "Drumvoices Revue," English Department Box 1431, SIUE, Edwardsville, IL 62026-1431. Submissions may be sent in hard copies and/or on Microsoft Word disk. For more information, call 618 650-3991, email eredmon@siue.edu or fax 618 650-3509. Interested persons may also write EBRWC @ P.O. Box 6165, East St. Louis, IL 62202.
Founded in 1986 and named after East St. Louis Poet Laureate Eugene B.Redmond, Writers Club trustees include Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Avery Brooks, Walter Mosley, Barbara Ann Teer, Troupe, Jerry W. Ward, Jr., and Lena Weathers. Trustees also serve on the editorial board of "Drumvoices Revue." Deceased Trustees include Margaret Walker Alexander (1915-1998), Gwendolyn Brooks (1917- 2000), and Raymond R. Patterson (1929-2001).
The Club is currently celebrating its 21st year of twice-monthly meetings (first/third Tuesday), 6:00-8:00 p.m., in the Library (Building B) of the East St. Louis Higher Education Campus, 601 J. R. Thompson Drive. Meetings are held September through May. All writers, beginners to professionals, are welcome.
More examples of the kwansaba . . .
(Drafts of kwansabas inspired by Richard Wright's "Black Boy." Wright wanted his life "to count for something.")
Patricia Merritt
Longing begins as a pest that drips
into the mammoth bucket without end. Impish
drops become a steady flow that over-
takes a dry-rotted wooden floor before
creepin' up my feet and lappin' around
naked ankles. I rush to get away,
hurling greens, lard and starch at it.
Desire appears to have fangs as it
reaches the bottom of my pant zipper.
Is it trying to baptize me? I
wade to another part of the room.
My feeble mother lays silent in bed,
while Granny's stern eyes follow me. Aunt
Addie snarls: "Boy, stop all that moving."
My heart screams out: "I just don't
want my life to count for nothing!"
Uncle Tom brushes past, his disdain cutting
like razors. Waters circle my waist. I
thrash toward door and run. But wanting
is hard on my heels. Hunger just
won't cease . . . in my stomach or mind.
Copyright June 22, 2007