Get Lit Minute

In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we focus on the life and work of scholar, novelist, and poet, Melvin Dixon. Influenced by James Baldwin, Dixon wrote extensively about the complexities of being a gay black man. Speaking on this topic at a speech to the Third National Lesbian and Gay Writers Conference, Dixon said, “As white gays deny multiculturalism among gays, so too do black communities deny multisexualism among their members. Against this double cremation, we must leave the legacy of our writing and our perspectives on gay and straight experiences.”


"Heartbeats"

Work out. Ten laps.

Chin ups. Look good.

Steam room. Dress warm.

Call home. Fresh air.

Eat right. Rest well.

Sweetheart. Safe sex.

Sore throat. Long flu.

Hard nodes. Beware.

Test blood. Count cells.

Reds thin. Whites low.

Dress warm. Eat well.

Short breath. Fatigue.

Night sweats. Dry cough.

Loose stools. Weight loss.

Get mad. Fight back.

Call home. Rest well.

Don’t cry. Take charge.

No sex. Eat right.

Call home. Talk slow.

Chin up. No air.

Arms wide. Nodes hard.

Cough dry. Hold on.

Mouth wide. Drink this.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

No air. Breathe in.

Breathe in. No air.

Black out. White rooms.

Head hot. Feet cold.

No work. Eat right.

CAT scan. Chin up.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

No air. No air.

Thin blood. Sore lungs.

Mouth dry. Mind gone.

Six months? Three weeks?

Can’t eat. No air.

Today? Tonight?

It waits. For me.

Sweet heart. Don’t stop.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we share the life and work of American Poet and Professor, Ross Gay. Included in this episode is a reading of his poem, "Love, I'm Done With You."

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we discuss the life and work of American poet, essayist, and educator Robert Hayden. He served as a Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office. Included in this episode is a reading of his poem "Those Winter Sundays."

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we spotlight UK-based poet, playwright, and performer Inua Ellams. Included in this episode is a reading and review of his poem, "Fuck / Shakespeare."

And another thing / the grace you brought Othello / how you forged that moor / got him talking down his eloquence as if his tongue wasn’t part swan feather / part molasses / how you wrote a church of darkness steepled by Iago / and Ol’ Thello its soul / beacon of honor and light / Bruh / that shit literary fire / race-theory brimstone / middle-passage gold

but /

how you played Caliban / his tongue as Othello’s / and just as wronged / How you imbibed him with / emblemed him of colonized peoples / got me all riled up / imagining my ancestor’s vengeance / a rough blade thrust through Prospero’s proud heart / but you didn’t / Play ends / Cali still enslaved / Bruh / that shit fucked

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we take a look at the work of Sekou Andrews and his poem "When I Grow Up." Andrews is a schoolteacher turned actor, musician, two-time national poetry slam champion, entrepreneur, and award-winning poetic voice, and is also the host of our 10th Annual Classic Slam! You can join Andrews and help judge our Classic Slam Finals by tuning into www.classicslam.org at 7 pm pst on May 1, 2021. 

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, Amiri Baraka (born Everett LeRoi Jones) who was an American writer of poetry, drama, fiction, essays, and music criticism. He was the author of numerous books of poetry and taught at several universities, including the University at Buffalo and Stony Brook University. He received the PEN/Beyond Margins Award in 2008 for Tales of the Out and the Gone. 

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, we spotlight  American poet, novelist, children's writer, and playwright, Countee Cullen, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. Included in this episode is a reading of his poem, "Fruit Of The Flower."

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, we discuss the life and work of Safia Elhillo. Included in this episode is a reading of her poem “Ode to Gossips” - the full poem is available below for reference. 

"Ode to Gossips"

BY SAFIA ELHILLO

i was mothered by lonely women       some

of them wives     some of them             with

plumes of smoke for husbands    all    lonely

smelling of onions & milk         all mothers

some of them to children some to old names

phantom girls acting out a life        only half

a life away      instead        copper kitchenware

bangles pushed up the arm    fingernails rusted

with henna          kneading raw meat with salt

with coriander                     sweating upper lip

in the steam       weak tea          hair unwound

against the nape         my deities      each one

sandal slapping against stone heel      sandal-

wood & oud                    bright chiffon spun

about each head     coffee in the dowry china

butter biscuits on a painted plate      crumbs

suspended in eggshell demitasse       & they

begin                  i heard       people are saying

i saw it with my own eyes       [      ]’s daughter

a scandal                  she was wearing [      ]

& not wearing [   ]            can you imagine

a shame                                             a shame

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, we discuss the life and work of francine j. harris. She was a writer in residence at Washington University in St. Louis and taught creative writing at University of Michigan and Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. She is currently an associate professor of English at the University of Houston. Included in this episode is a reading of her poem “Single Lines Looking Forward. or One Monostich Past 45." 

Full Poem: 

The joke is orange. which has never been funny.

For awhile I didn’t sleep on my bright side.

Many airplanes make it through sky.

The joke is present. dented and devil.

For awhile, yellow spots on the wall.

Obama on water skis, the hair in his armpits, free.

I thought the CIA was operative. 

Across the alley, a woman named Mildred.

Above the clouds in a plane, a waistline of sliced white.

I don’t sound like TED Talk, or smart prose on Facebook.

These clouds are not God. 

I keep thinking about Coltrane; how little he talked. 

This is so little; I give so little.

Sometimes when I say something to white people, they say “I’m sorry?”

During Vietnam, Bob Kaufman stopped talking. 

The CIA was very good at killing Panthers. 

Mildred in a housecoat, calling across the fence, over her yard.

If I were grading this, I’d be muttering curses.

The joke is a color. a color for prison.

Is it me, or is the sentence, as structure, arrogant?

All snow, in here, this writing, departure.

All miles are valuable. all extension. all stretch.

I savor the air with both fingers, and tongue.

Mildred asks about the beats coming from my car.

I forgot to bring the poem comparing you to a garden.

Someone tell me what to say to my senators.

No one smokes here; in the rain, I duck away and smell piss.

I thought the CIA was. the constitution.

I feel like he left us, for water skis, for kitesurfing. 

The sun will not always be so gracious.

From the garden poem, one line stands out.

Frank Ocean’s “Nights” is a study in the monostich.

Pace is not breathing, on and off. off.

Mildred never heard of Jneiro Jarel.

I’m afraid one day I’ll find myself remembering this air.

The last time I saw my mother, she begged for fried chicken. 

My father still sitting there upright, a little high.  

Melissa McCarthy could get it.

Sometimes, I forget how to touch.

In a parking garage, I wait for the toothache.

I watch what I say all the time now.

She said she loved my touch, she used the word love.

In 1984, I’d never been in the sky.

My mother walked a laundry cart a mile a day for groceries.

Betsy DeVos is confirmed. with a broken tie.

Mildred’s five goes way up, and my five reaches.

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In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, we discuss the life and work of poet Yolanda Cornelia "Nikki" Giovanni as well as perform a reading of her poem "I Take Mastercard, Charge Your Love To Me."

View more info on Nikki Giovanni & read the full poem at http://getlitanthology.org/poemdetail/48/. 

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