The reading was followed by book signings.
"Poetry, to me, is a way to touch not only yourself, but to touch other people." --Amiri Baraka*
Workshop participants L.Lamar Wilson and Lillian-Yvonne Bertram.
"At the end of the very first Cave Canem, I clearly remember looking around that small circle of 24 people and saying, 'Don't even bother trying to explain it. They'll never believe it." -- CC co-founder Cornelius Eady*
Obie Award winner Amiri Baraka commands the stage:
"All you poets in here need to know you got work to do; you've got to try to change people's minds."*
Poet Toi Derricotte:
"I wasn't going to read from my new poems, but I am going to [now] because of the fellows here. I love you guys very much."*
Cornelius Eady reading at Cave Canem 2011.
Poet Natasha Trethewey:
"It's such an honor to be here, with all of you, with Cave Canem, and to learn all the things I've been learning this week."**
Workshop participant Sami Schalk:
"It's wonderful to work with fresh writers; very holistic. The workshops have been very emotional and really brought the group together."***
Actress, filmmaker, and singer Renn Woods [far left]:
"It's a difficult thing to do what these poets are doing; they need to be supported. Art can be a lonely thing. You need your tribe!"***
Cave Canem fellow Sheila Carter-Jones:
"If I could ask Amiri Baraka a question, it would be about how he compares the black literary scene of today with the scene in the 60s."***
Before the reading, Kenyatta Rogers [left] discusses the workshop:
"The Cave Canem workshop forced me to write. Getting to work with those poets was unbelievable."***
The tent on Monterey Street was packed.
Workshop participants, curious neighbors, and poetry lovers from all over Pittsburgh squeezed into the tent for the June 23rd reading."
Photos: *Rachel Eliza Griffiths, **Laura Mustio, ***Madeleine Barnes.
On Thursday June 23, City of Asylum/Pittsburgh partnered with the African-American poetry collective Cave Canem to host a reading with poets Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, Natasha Trethewey, and Amiri Baraka. The event took place under a tent on Monterey Street, on the Northside of Pittsburgh.
2011’s reading was again a resounding success. Fellow Northsiders and poetry lovers occupied the 300 seats under the tent and, as in 2010, some neighbors caught the free reading from their stoops. “I say I hate superlatives, but tonight I had the best poetry experience I’ve ever had. No question,” wrote Pittsburgh schoolteacher and poet Daniel M Shapiro, about the event. Read Shapiro’s reaction here.
Above we present scenes from the event with quotes from the audience, Cave Canem workshop participants, and the night’s featured poets.
This annual free reading was inaugurated in 2010, and the partnership between the two organizations also includes an annual series of writers’ workshops hold in the five COA/P houses on Sampsonia Way. This year the workshops allowed 54 African-American poets from across the United States to share a sample of their writing with poets Terrance Hayes, Toi Derricotte, and Cornelius Eady, among others.
