this inherited language: the shaping of a curious form
it is the end of 2021. i am looking to educate myself and find a community of wandering poets, so i sign up for a free online workshop, a โmoocโ the pre-recorded instructor-hologram informs me. while going through the course videos, the author and textile artist gwendolyn brooks comes up. iโm listening to โwe real coolโ- her rhythm and tempo, the sharp way she hits every "WE" with conviction. i listen to 3 different readings and watch several videos on youtube while searching โgwendolyn brooks modernismโ because it has occured in the background flurry of new information that gwendolyn brooks is an icon in modernist american literature. in a moment of sweet awareness i decide that for every american modernist poet or author i research, i will find an african counterpart. i have a latent thirst for representation of the things that i feel have shaped me into this curious form. a new friend asked me recently, โdo you know the work of the people without whom your own would not exist?โ
