Name: El Bodeguero by stephanieroberts
Duration: 5 min 15 s
Description: Classic Latin music played by the Cuban band Rumi, wh0 I met in Havana.

Writer, visual artist, and editor, Manahil Bandukwala hosts a conversation with acclaimed poet and lawyer Leslie Roach on her debut collection, Finish this Sentence.  The poems examine personal experience in living with racism and healing from its distorting effects on the Self. 
 
As this book weaves through the anger and anxiety provoked by racism, it points to the ultimate realization: one is neither the conditioning nor the negative thoughts that racism provokes. Rather, one is powerful and able to arrest those thoughts.

Books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
 
The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.

Finish this Sentence with Leslie Roach

stephanie roberts reads her poem Catawampus from the first edition of The Arsonist Magazine - available to purchase here: http://burninghousepress.bigcartel.com/product/the-arsonist-magazine-edition-01

Catawampus by stephanie roberts

stephanie roberts reads her poem "Pistol Whip",  featured in The Inflectionist Review issue 6! Read more Inflectionist poetry and submit at inflectionism.com.

stephanie roberts reads her poem "Pistol Whip"

WV Wesleyan MFA Winter 2019 Residency
"Nonsense is the gateway back to pleasure." --SS

Guest poet Steve Scafidi discusses "how to survive, how to persist" as a writer. Scafidi joined us as part of the Visiting Writers Series supported with funding from the WV Humanities Council.

Steve Scafidi: "Use & Uselessness: The Lyric Spectrum"

Two tracks from each of the four albums of "Holy Soul Jelly Roll" by Allen Ginsberg.
Downloads available here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/allen-ginsberg/id564419391?uo=4


A Supermarket In California [MOLOCH!]

Classic Latin music played by the Cuban band Rumi, wh0 I met in Havana.

El Bodeguero

SIX DAYS IT TOOK TO RAISE IRON & CONCRETE FROM THE FIRST MIND
ON THE SEVENTH DAY TIME REFUSED BEING ALONG WITH THE RAIN
RUNNING THROUGH THE VALLEY ALL HIGH & NAKED
I LEARNED TO PAINT AFTER THE FIRST CRACK IN THE SISTINE CHAPEL
NOT LONG BEFORE FLIGHT WAS MY FIRST ASPIRATION BUT GOD HADN’T SAID THE WORD YET
PLEASE PASS THE SUPPER HOUR I AM GOING BACK HOME TO LORD OVER PRESENT OR PAST CHAOS THEORIES OF THE BASIS OF NAVELS
POET FINDS LINT IN HIS POCKET SMOKES A CLOVE SLEEPS THROUGH HIS TONGUE STENCIL’D INTO PREVIOUSLY UNBORN PARALLEL UNIVERSES
IF YOU SEE ME WITH MY HANDS BEHIND MY BACK ON REDWOOD ST. AGAIN ASK THE GHOSTS IN THE PIGEON COUP FROM 1969 ON IF THEY ARE COPS
THERE WILL BE NO TRANSITIONS OR ERAS
THERE WILL BE NO RECLUSIVE TENDENCIES IN THE COUNTRY OF SWINE
SAVE YR QUARTER FROM HOARDERS OF ART RUN AMUCK UP THEMSELVES
WITH DREAMS OF CONVENIENT FINANCIAL GAIN
WHEN YOU SEE THE NIGHT OWL’S SWORDED BEAK THAT’S JUST MOTHER NATURE SIZING YOU UP
CHANGE YR SECRETS BEHIND YR OWN CELL WALLS
DO NOT THINK OF MONEY
IF YOU EVER ASKED FOR ELSEWHERE YOU’VE COME FROM & IT ALWAYS TURNS BACK FROM YR ENEMIES
IF YOU NEVER LEARNED WHAT IT IS & WHAT IT ISN’T I CAN’T BE THE ONE TO TELL YOU
PLEASE TELL ALL THOSE SINKING SHIPS OF GEOLOGY, OCEANOGRAPHY & WHIP ITS
ONLY IF LOOSE LIPS LOSE THEIR GRIP ON REALITY BEFORE YOU DO
EVERYDAY I AM BORN BEHIND THE TIMES
EVERYDAY I CATCH UP BY CRUSHING THE OPPOSITION WITH BRUTE STRENGTH & FIERCE DETERMINATION
NEVER TAKE A POET’S WORD FOR IT UNLESS YOU GIVE UP SOMETHING OF YOURS FIRST
NEVER TAKE MONEY FROM SOMEBODY ASKING YOU QUESTIONS

Daniel Cyran reads THE END OF ART

Typhoon - White Lighter
Out 8/20/2013 on Roll Call Records

www.WeAreTyphoon.com


El Bodeguero

stephanieroberts

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