In the collection, Hayes acknowledges the poet Wanda Coleman (1946-2013) with “tremendous gratitude” for the term American Sonnet, and quotes an interview in which she interestingly describes how she would set the form as a writing assignment. “When asked for a definition she called poems jazz sonnets ‘with certain properties progression, improvisation, mimicry, etc,” he adds (Coleman’s American Sonnet 35 can be heard here) and concludes: “I decided to have fun to blow my soul.”
The “volta” is a key component in his own renovation of sonnet form, and this week’s poem takes the technique to soul-blowing extremes. It’s is a constant unfurling of voltas – “turns” or double-takes – conjured by raising the power of syntax over punctuation. If any reader is, like me, tempted to look for a credo, the poem keeps warning us to hold on.
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We roll out a new fixture during the last hour of The Nightside with Andy O’.
It’s called “Long Play” and it gives Nightside host Andy O’ the opportunity to explore the longest tracks of the KUVO library.
In honor of Herbie Hancock’s 80th birthday on April 12, (1940), Andy O’ will feature two of Herbie Hancock’s lengthier compositions.
At 11 pm we start with “The Egg” a 14-minute epic from the 1964 album “Empyrean Isles” with Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter and Tony Williams joining Herbie.
Next from her album “High Priestess of Word” the late Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, Wanda Coleman with her 12-minute saga “Blues in the Night” accompanied by Pianist Marv Evans.
(Lauren West / For The Times)
This story is part of our issue on Remembrance, a time-traveling journey through the L.A. experience past, present and future.
I remember the tears. Not the anguished look on Tre’s face as he yelled for Ricky to run. Not the gunshots, the way they sounded like thunder and slaughter. Not the pool of blood. Or the fear of the moment, and how suffocating that fear felt for the two of them, knowing it was already over. Not the way Tre sweetly cradled Ricky’s limp, lifeless body in the alleyway. What I remember most vividly are the tears and what seeing Tre cry did to me, the despair and defenselessness crinkled into his face, how it stirred something deep inside and suggested, even in that moment of grief, the possibility of the self.
1 session Online on Zoom
A limited number of scholarships will be offered for this Master Class. To apply, please email megan@apublicspace.org with the subject “Master Class Scholarship Application” 1) a short statement outlining your interest in this class, and how a scholarship would benefit you as a writer or a reader; and 2) a short bio. Scholarships will be awarded on a rolling basis.
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