Wednesday, October 18, 2006

You Got Served!!!!!!!!

So I had a conversation last week with a friend who's in the same creative writing program from which I graduated. She's contemplating giving up on the program, at least on the poetry emphasis she's currently working towards, and working on nonfiction instead, the rationale being that nonfiction is a more profitable field. The worst thing, she said, would be writing for other poets, which is what happens when a beginning poet publishes a book of poems and it sits on the shelves, gathering dust. And, she said, she looks at the work of her colleagues and feels that theirs is better than hers, or, at least, they think theirs is better. So, wanting to avoid this whole situation, she is contemplating going another direction.

Too bad I couldn't tell her about this...

Occasionally, poetry does go up for public consumption. A week or so ago, when I read about the dedication of the renovated Fountain Square in my hometown of Cincinnati and the celebration featuring music acts including Los Lobos, I remember thinking, "Uh-oh," when I saw that Nikki Giovanni was one of the performers. She was scheduled to read a poem called "I am Cincinnati," which she wrote for the occasion

Turns out that the poem, duh, was not the touchy-feely ode that some lame-brained chamber of commerce wife thought it would be.

In the text, which was read aloud at the Saturday celebration, Giovanni called fellow Cincinnati native, former U.S. Treasurer and Ohio gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Blackwell a "political whore" and a "son of a bitch." The poem also made reference to the shooting of a black man in Cincinnati's Over the Rhine neighborhood by the city police.

The exact Blackwell quote:

I am not a son of a bitch like Kenny Blackwell…I will not sell my soul for my ambition…I do not use the color of my skin to cover the hatred in my heart…I am not a political whore…jumping from bed to bed to see who will stoke my need

Other reactions, according to The Enquirer:

Officials from Cincinnati City Center Development Corp. (3CDC) said in a statement Monday that Giovanni's remarks, which drew gasps and some applause from the audience, were "completely inappropriate" for the event.

Giovanni isn't happy about the criticism or controversy. But she's not apologizing, either.

"All I have is my voice," she said. "I don't want it silenced. We were on (Fountain Square) where the Klan gathered to speak. I'm not sure as many people called to complain about what the Klan had to say as what I said."

Giovanni said Fountain Square has a long history as a place where controversial and sometimes unpopular issues are voiced.

"There's never an appropriate place," she said. "The square is a place for free speech and public dialogue."

Further:

The reference to Blackwell wasn't the only part of the poem that drew ire.

Keith Fangman, vice president of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police, was unhappy about a line in the poem that referred to police shootings of young black men. He called the reference "inflammatory."

"What a great way to welcome the cop-hating, racist element back to Fountain Square," he said sarcastically.

Fangman said (city chamber of commerce) leadership was to blame for the "PR nightmare" created by Giovanni's remarks. "Any imbecile should have known that Nikki Giovanni is an ill-tempered, foul-mouthed, left-wing, political militant and should never have been invited to speak at this celebration."

So, all you promising poets out there, this is where the rubber meets the road. I'm no fan of Blackwell, a Republican, and the fact that he got served in public by a poet from Virginia Tech tickles me to no end. But the fact that this moment was delivered by the written/spoken word just goes to show that it's not "just for other poets."

Finding that audience, well, that's another story.

Even more fun has been the reaction to the poem in the editorial pages of the hometown paper. Understand this: Cincinnati put the "pro" in provincial. The paper's opinion leaders did not disappoint:

Free speech vs. bad manners

It's always surprising when talented people suffer from self-inflicted wounds. Nikki Giovanni's classless diatribe on Fountain Square Saturday was a bullet to her credibility.

Good poets use words to help us see the nuances of the world in front of us. But there was nothing nuanced about Giovanni's performance. She acted like a bully and delivered a verbal sucker punch when she used the rededication of the square for an assault on gubernatorial candidate Ken Blackwell.

Giovanni is a talented poet, raised in Greater Cincinnati. It was because of that talent that she was invited to participate in what was supposed to be a celebration of the city and an open-armed invitation for people to come downtown.


And this from one of the readers:

Giovanni missed out on manners class
I rarely concur with The Enquirer's editorial positions, and even rarer are the occasions I agree with Bronson. But just as we have snow on Opening Day in Cincinnati, it happens. Both the paper and Peter Bronson nailed it in regards to Giovanni's "poem": utter rudeness. How pathetic that a self-proclaimed activist would squander an opportunity for positive impact, electing instead to politicize and divide. How chic is it to be rude, Ms. Giovanni? Do not flatter yourself - that kind of banal publicity-mongering doesn't even warrant controversy. We do value our manners here in CincinnatiManners do not preclude discourse, do not preclude passion for our issues, past and present. Manners are what let us come together without fear of name-calling, to celebrate even that which is controversial. Giovanni apparently missed that class in "activist" charm school.

Kathryn Brown
Loveland

Again, young poets, I ask you...are you eager to reach and serve this audience? Methinks such things are better screamed out, even in a soft voice, in public spaces where everyone can hear.


Posted by Unclejbird @ 8:29 PM