Day One - Split This Rock Poetry Festival

The first afternoon and evening of Split This Rock Poetry Festival were fantastic. The opening reception at Busboys & Poets was packed and lively. It was like a family reunion with many people greeting each other who had not seen each for a long time. Robert and I brought Naomi Shihab Nye, who is a fantastic poet and a delightful person. We settled in and ate, got our materials, and met several friends we had not seen in a while. We met an old friend of Naomi's-- Mendy Knott and her friend Path. Mendy is a poet and Path is a painter. They live in Fayetteville, Arkansas. And Philip, Naomi asked to be remembered to you.

Sarah Browning, Melissa Tuckey, and Reggie Cabico, festival organizers, read a proclamation from the Washington, D.C. City Council declaring today Split This Rock Poetry Festival Day. Then, Sonia Sanchez read a few powerful poems and we were off. Her message to young people was strong: get involved, be about things that matter.

The evening reading took place at Bell Multicultural High School. This was among the most powerful and moving readings I have ever attended. Martin Espada (photo below) opened the evening with several powerful poems. He read "San Sebastian," and "Alabanza," which remembers the food service workers from a restaurant atop the World Trade Center. He finished his reading with his amazing poem "Imagine the Angels of Bread." This poem, of the political imagination, tells us that for any change to come, it has to be imagined first. That is, Martin said, "where the poets come in." Next to read was E. Ethelbert Miller. Ethelbert, pictured below, is a brilliantly economical poet and a true poet's poet. He is truly, as he was introduced, the "dean" of Washington poets. He read a series of poems about war, one of which is "Fruit," published in "Cut Loose The Body." He finished with two poems by June Jordan. Naomi Shihab Nye was third to read. She recalled a trip she took on a small plane out of San Antonio, where she was the only person on the plane with two arms and two legs. She recalled that "every act of violence is a betrayal of language." She read a beautiful poem about her experience with a Palestinian woman at an airport. Recalling great hope at the end that "all is not lost." Naomi read her beautiful "How We Talk About It," a poem from "Cut Loose the Body." She also remembered the poet William Stafford who wrote that "Every war has two losers." She read a poem which was a series of letters President Bush did not write. It was hilarious and tragic. Naomi brought the big crowd to its feet. Her photograph is below. Finally, we heard from performance poet Alix Olsen. Alix performed poems exhorting us to act, to be radicals. She also performed a poem of letters to her diary, describing a new girlfriend, America, with whom she has to eventually break up. It was brilliant.

The Festival began with hope and passion and fire. On to Day Two!