October 29 — tour IMA’s Gallery with Poet Kevin Young
Comic books, film noir and the visual art of Jean-Michel Basquiat are a few of the springboards for Kevin Young’s poetry. The author of collections Black Maria, Jelly Roll (a finalist for the National Book Award) and most recently, For the Confederate Dead, Young digs deep into history by way of the arts. Walk with Young through the IMA galleries and share impressions of selected works of art.
When: Wednesday, October 29, 2:00 pm
Where: Meet in Efroymson Pavilion, Indianapolis Museum of Art 4000 N. Michigan Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46208
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
Here’s a bit about Kevin Young:
Born in 1970, Kevin Young is widely regarded as one of the leading poets of his generation, one who finds meaning and inspiration in African American music, particularly the blues, and in the bittersweet history of Black America. Lucille Clifton says of Young, “[His] gift of storytelling and understanding of the music inherent in the oral tradition of language re-creates for us an inner history which is compelling and authentic and American.” His newest book is For the Confederate Dead, published in January 2007. His earlier collection, Black Maria: Poems Produced and Directed by Kevin Young is a “film noir in verse,” a playful homage to the language and imagery of Hollywood detective films. The title, Black Maria, is vintage street slang for “police van” and “hearse,” as well as the name of Thomas Edison’s first film studio. The poems follow the adventures of two characters, the private eye A. K. A. Jones, and the femme fatale Delilah Redbone, through “a maze of aliases and ambushes, sex and suspicions, fast talk and hard luck…”
Young was a 1993 National Poetry Series winner for Most Way Home, a volume of meditations on racism, slavery, poverty, and the meaning of “home” in the collective memory of African Americans. Most Way Home also received the John C. Zacharis First Book Award of Ploughshares magazine. Other collections include To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor (2001), a poetic tribute to painter and graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and a finalist for the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets; and Jelly Roll: A Blues (2003), a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award.
Young’s poetry and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times Book Review, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, and Callaloo. His awards include a Stegner Fellowship in Poetry at Stanford University, a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. He is currently a Professor of Poetry at Emory University.
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Young reads his poetry at University of Indianapolis the evening of October 29.
Know before you go:
Young’s incorporation of musical influences is remarkable. Last year The New York Times asked him to put together a playlist of music, his readers might have expected a lot of blues and jazz … and instead got thrown into the Seattle Indy Scene. Here is the first half of his playlist:
- Wolf Like Me, TV on the Radio. We start with a bang, or at least a howl, as TV on the Radio wrangle their way through a kind of twisted fairy tale of fever and werewolves and black rock, oh my. “Show you what all the howlin’s for” seems less a threat than a seduction, a sign, I hope, of things to come from this band that bravely goes where Fishbone tried to go before. An instant classic.
- Gigantic, The Pixies. This established classic, from “Surfer Rosa” (1988), gives that great thumping Pixies sound, wrapped around what’s really a sweet love song. Besides, “Hey Paul Paul Paul Paul Let’s have a ball” always reminds me of my infant son (whose first name is Paul, after my late father) and is a better rhyme than you can find in most kids’ books. Or kiddie songs, for that matter.
- World Leader Pretend, R.E.M. A great song off R.E.M.’s worst album, “Green,” which at the time (1988) I didn’t buy - but I heard this song recently and it’s not only good, but sounds ahead of its time both musically and topically. It feels like it’s about right now, a hard thing to do even now, not to mention almost 20 years ago.
- I Wanna Be Your Dog, Uncle Tupelo. This cut comes from their recent “83/93: An Anthology” - a nice introduction to an important band. This countrified version of the Iggy and The Stooges classic may not only satisfy that post-punk alt-country lover in your life, but shows how close country and punk can be. That is, if Johnny Cash hadn’t already.
- I Will Follow You Into the Dark, Death Cab for Cutie. One of the most direct and poetic of songs - the title tells it all - which is both melancholy and lovely in its vow to go beyond even “death do us part.” Like The Beatles’ “Yesterday,” in a simple yet profound way, the band manages a song and sentiment that sounds hauntingly familiar - like it was a less a thing written than dreamed up whole.
Whole Wide World, 18th Dye. I had another song all picked out for this spot, but I substituted this last minute - a song from a German group often called a “noise” band, but which to my ears crafts a kind of punk-pop a la the Buzzcocks. Besides, I met the bassist last weekend in Berlin - she runs a great, small store selling Danish and other modern furniture and lamps, and her band somehow came up. Give a listen to this cut from 1992 - the band’s back together, and working on new music.[no version easily available]- 100%, Sonic Youth. In this blazing opener from “Dirty” - hard to believe it was a single - the band creates an angry, muddy elegy for a fallen friend. “Stick a knife in my head / thinking about your eyes” describes grief in a way that rings true and strange and, sadly, familiar.
- Kissing Families (live), Silversun Pickups. Like their current single, “Lazy Eye,” this reminds me of summer and of the early 1990s, two good things. Somehow sweet and stark, this is from the Seattle band’s first album, “Pikul,” though I recommend getting the iTunes “Live Session EP” which gives a nice introduction to the band’s sound with a few tracks off their last two albums. “Everything that is connected is beautiful” - a nice sentiment, especially after the previous song.
- Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam, Nirvana. It was either this or Wilco’s “Jesus, etc.” for song-with-Jesus-in-the-title here, but Nirvana’s version of the Vaselines’ “old Christian song” wins out for its mystery and moodiness. In Cobain’s hands and voice, it sounds like an old gospel-blues song, a spiritual sung by someone fighting for his soul. Plus, it’s purty.
- True Love Waits, Radiohead. We end our live mini-set, and Side One, with this song off Radiohead’s “I Might be Wrong: Live Recordings” from a few years back. Reportedly a cult favorite from concerts (and never recorded before), the track’s a nice contrast to the electronic wonders of the rest of the live record and “Kid A” before it. Thom Yorke competes with the guy from Silversun Pickups for whose voice is higher.
And for your listening pleasure …
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