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| Afaa Michael Weaver |
Interview with Somerville poet Afaa Michael Weaver: A poet with a strong sense of responsibility.
By Doug Holder
Afaa Michael Weaver does not just write
pretty poetry. He pens poetry that addresses things like the recent
tragedies in Baltimore, South Carolina, Ferguson and elsewhere, where
African Americans were killed—victims of hate crimes, and
questionable actions of the police. His poetry does not consist of
rants, and hopefully his art is a potent catalyst for people to think
about injustice and change.
Weaver is a recent winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Prize, and a Professor of English at Simmons College. I had the pleasure to talk to him on my Somerville Community Access TV show " Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer."
Doug Holder: You have written in
response to the hate crimes, etc... against African Americans across
the country. Recently The Somerville Times published a poem of yours
that dealt with the killing in Baltimore. Does the artist have a
responsibility in a time of social crisis?
Afaa Michael Weaver: I think he or she
does. It is a complicated situation—as we saw in Ferguson,
Baltimore, N.Y., etc...It is not always easy to write a poem in
response to these things. But I felt compelled to write one in
response to the situation in Charleston, where a young white man went
into an African American church, and killed folks in a prayer
meeting. We have to face facts about how influential we can be with
our work-- how influential our poems can be. We have to ask: “ How
can we move people?”I am always of the pinon that when I write a
poem, I try to write the best poem that I can. I try not to write a
poem that is political and that is a very difficult thing to do. It
could turn into a rant. With the poems I wrote in response to the
crisis, I tried to move people emotionally.
DH: You published a chapbook of poetry
“ A Hard Summation” (Central Square Press) that covers African
American history from the Middle Passage to the present day. How did
this project come about?
AFW: About 3 years ago I was asked by
friends in Wisconsin to write poems about African Americans. At the
time I was finishing up a draft of a memoir—so I decided to work on
a pocket-sized collection of poems about this subject. My friends in
Wisconsin are conservative Catholic, Republicans. We are part of an
international group of poets for peace. They are people that want to
bring together different spiritual and ethnic communities for the
common good. My friends didn't know much about African American
history, so I wrote a series of 13 poems with the intent of educating
and inspiring my friends. I wanted them to think about race and
racism. I knew they would uncover things that they never heard of. I
was afraid of how they would respond to the book—especially with
regard to slavery.
Not many people know very much about
slavery. Certain basic facts are not well known. There were two
periods to slavery. There was the Atlantic Slave Trade that went
right up until the 19th century when it was outlawed. When
the cotton industry boomed—the demand for labor was huge—so slave
owners, etc...got involved in breeding. The African American
population went from 800,000 to 4 million before and after the Civil
War. Slave pens were common on the city streets. Slaves were
considered to be animals. And part of the problem today is that
people are tied to this perception—and it is ingrained in the
language.
DH: How do you mean it is ingrained in
the language?
AFW: I mean value designations that are
placed on certain words—black visual coding. For instance--
Hollywood, for years, has not wanted to portray Africa Americans in
romantic relationships because it was believed they didn't have a
romantic life. Even African-American are guilty of decimating
themselves with Gangster Rap and Rap music lyrics. These can be
very destructive forces to African American—with its glorification,
violence and drugs.
DH: You are working on a play titled “
Grit” right now. I know the playwright August Wilson was an
influence on you—and he wrote a series of plays about Pittsburgh.
You are a native son of Baltimore—is this play going to be part of
a a series too?
AFW: I am not looking to write a
series. But I am looking to write a lot of plays about Baltimore. I
am also studying acting—to add to my skills as a playwright.
DH: What exactly is the play about?
AFW: I can only talk about the play,
generally. It involves generational shifts in demographics in the
city.
DH: You studied with the playwright
Paula Vogel at Brown University, right?
AFW: After my first two professional
play productions I basically concentrated on poetry. But I continued
to write poems when I went to Brown. Paula Vogel encouraged me
around playwrighting. Grit is in its second draft—it needs a
third. I am going to the Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis to have
it looked at by accomplished playwrights who act as advisers.
DH: What is the new generation of
American poets emphasis on?
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