Title: Whose Words These Are (5): Jericho Brown

" I'm Christopher -- with the young poet Jericho. Who wants to think himself his love -- TS Eliot and Langston Hughes. We're hearing the variety of the lineage is of poetry in our midst in a time. An open source and the Watson institute at Brown University. An American conversation global attitude and -- This is another in the series who lose the words these are on the way to the Massachusetts -- festival October. Nine starting with the naive question -- torture comes from the birds going. -- brown was born in Shreveport Louisiana Brooklyn New Orleans. Library day care introduced into Shelley's love poetry the black church introduced into called in response testimonies. And athletic performance. The great girl singers of pop like Diana Ross and Janis Joplin showed in the power of voice. And of the color -- all of which he demonstrated for us to grow your tortured -- and Harvard Square."

" Jericho -- must have been a poll more potent protection started with a told you that's where you wanted to live your life. Yeah I think the first -- That really made an impact on me was. Chris decently. And it's Carlos philosophy. And it's it's still one of my favorite post today let's have -- actually."

" philosophy. The fountains mingle with the river. And the rivers. With the ocean. And the winds of have been Meeks for cancer. With a sweet emotion. -- thing in the world is single and called things dialogue DeVine. And one -- being mean goal. 19. With. Time. See the mountains -- high heaven. And the waves class one another. -- sister flower would be forgiven if he had his today need to it's rather and the sunlight class the earth. And human beings kiss this he. Will it is all of this sweet word or. If you. Kids. Not to me."

" From from them that's that's only -- phone and in. Where were you what he's doing when you read or heard that. -- allow. When I read the poem I was in the library. Was probably. Ten years old those who is lucky when I was growing up because my mother head trouble. Getting child care. So what she'd do is drop -- at a library which was around the corner from where weekly news conference in Austin. I was in Shreveport Louisiana where where I was born. -- I was I love to tell people I was raised issue before and I grew up in New Orleans. But. He was around the corner from the grocery store and remember this because she would often go to the grocery store in the my sister. And meeting here and but I -- by the time I was eleven years old I had created. Most of John of -- novels. Because which it all had accidentally come upon a novel and I saw the word terrorist. And --"

" like a gigantic. -- got to really get on the scene says. I don't know how much of it understood it. I remember being really excited when the movie too which is -- we came about because I was like that created it back up. But this this -- Widows without come across phones. In that library. I would get I've read these poems by people like show me. And -- just enchanted by the rhythm in the but also in particular by this very obvious you know this for the players at work here. -- somebody try to get attention and he doesn't want just like attention like hello how are you doing. He wants -- kiss. And I really was take him -- at the very data -- speaking to someone and by using all of nature to show. Just how much I need these kids -- loses. I thought there was snippets of it that there was really special. I think that that would prove useful to all of us who need Q right now. So kids and breast the magic words when did you start your -- I don't remember. Not writing them. Grew up in of their religious families who was always. Import."

" That we participate in. In church any any hints that call for me to be in front of an audience and say. My middle Easter speech and often those speeches would be written by. The keys themselves. And I was always enchanted by the pastor of my church -- which which -- Where civil rights leader the man a man by the name of Harry Blake was a pastor. I was always has taken by his sermons and I'm probably one of the few children who never went to sleep during -- indicate during a Sunday sermon because I just thought it was amazing. And I would I'll always be excited just to see what role he had on. People on African American churches particularly in the south. Are -- theatrical. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance. Involved who's going to church and so I never thought about not writing it it kind of it was what I did very naturally and it pleased about can't Ecstasy that I could you know go in a corner -- spent a lot of time. Poring over a piece of paper. And you know there's an age where you actually want to do what your parents want you to do. So I. I've always done it I don't think I've realized. That I was a -- that I was completely. Interest in poetry until had a fellowship they took me to Emory University. In Atlanta winners in undergraduate school which. College at duke university and I went to Emery and a man by the name of Rudolph Byrd who is a scholar. Had -- doing worked here and I remember going to the library in coming upon the poems of the -- by the name of Essex can appeal. And I was war and how to buy these poems I had never hits it -- spoken to in such a way. And I've really wanted to do. What he had done to me. Two other people felt like somebody had like taken a built and hit me across the equity. And open to hear other people in the bank with a built and make him like to simply -- cell. I think that was probably. The moment that I really decided. And I had to -- a long way before. Manifested. That excitement into. We're a real life this is going to be my everyday practice because. You don't really tell your parents of them to be oppose it Lisa when I was growing up it would I was in school do you have a fragment of your church or -- ahead."

" I don't know if I could remember anything from church exactly with what I do remember -- had -- that I remember. That there were selling days where the use would be required to do what was called devotion that opened church. And devotion always had what they -- old 100 and you would have to learn what they call line out the old 100. And what that means that you would say part of you but seeing part of this line are part of this him in in the church would follow in kind of cholera response way. The rest of the line in so. I was always called on to to seeing this Hume which which started on -- to keep -- ahead. Of an innocent of those say there. The church -- say."

" I in the elite you know seeing that entire thing you know remember being really excited about it like of these people say whatever they -- is that."

" I think I remember that very distinct wind you obviously they're a lot of scriptures of verses from the Bible that I still remembered that are still with me even even in the poems that I right. Today those kinds of cadences. That I remember hearing in. And also home. And this this is why -- so --"

" For me to give -- poetry reading now. You know from. A place where you do when you were doing a good job. What people liked what you were doing David H yeah they've exclaim. -- liking clue what you're doing while you're doing anything else that you had to know exactly unit to know exactly had a you know let their company -- and keep going get. Of whereas now we you -- the room is stocks and you don't know I don't know -- of failing and he says. Carriages -- I appreciate it I've -- it."

" So when I graduated from school I was totally. -- had this English majors that I had gotten because I knew I loved literature. And had lied to my tears the entire time I was getting this major. Because they would not allow me to be an English major and -- I promised it was because I was going to law school. -- school was the last being on my list of things to do -- hope so. What's that once I get out of schoolers really mixed up because I didn't know how to go about following this inclination ahead."

" For writing -- T creative writing classes. But not with the intensity that people have been down and even."

" Thinking about entering in FA program never know what made that suggestion to me at that time nineteen at least. And so I started."

" Working in public relations and communications in hmm I got a job right out of school. I'm always very thankful to Marc Morial for this because there's no reason why I mean I was 22 years old. He hired me to do this really enormous job -- and -- Mario mayor Marc Morial here he hired me to do. This really you know arm enormous job for New Orleans where I was writing a weekly column for Louisiana weekly. I'm putting on pre season it's writing press releases and writing his speeches -- for everything that he had to say he was kind of an amazing. Person to work with -- He was scared me to death that he had a photographic memory sector showed something five minutes before he had to be honest agent he headed they had done so on. He's he's he's a genius in that way. And the more I did -- job the better -- guided it but the more I realized. That it wasn't necessarily. Assists were caught talking about church wasn't necessarily my calling me there was something in me. That wanted to write poems wanted to do that being. They had been done to me by sixteen appeal and in -- they show the and Claude McKay and Gwendolyn Brooks and so many of the other poets that -- those so much. I'm -- your own words in your own voice I was sure. I can do there have homes and that's. This song you like this and see. Many of the post from my first book please. -- oppose a deal with. We think of his old school music. I like reading these -- people I was asked me how he knows all looks that this is a poem in the voice of."

" Janis Joplin. Check five. Summertime. As performed. Budget Chaplin."

" That's got his on me. But I -- sparrow. Humble like -- will. No I chainsaw. Anything that might -- each man acuity logged in poet author. A place I would return to if the mayor offered me every ounce of oil Mack daddy K ends at the refinery. My voice I mean. Any sweet. Nothing nice about it. It will flat. Even with Jesus watching. I don't believe in Jesus. The backs the boys climbed to treat just -- the row could Simmons at me. The good and perfect gifts from above he would like -- Leave bruises. So eight. -- But I don't think. Likes me. The girls in the locker room slept dirty hey it's across my face. They called me -- but never the day. Buying that doll. -- I'd say. My voice hacks that you had been a tear in my throat. I try so hard to sound jagged. I get hat and say one's paying many times like Willie baker who worked across the street. I saw some key is with him with a built while he repeated. Please. School out summertime. And the living last. Mama say it I should be thankful. That the town's worst two codes than they to me. That I didn't grow out of my acne. God must love Willie baker. That live there and steal. Please. That sounds. Like music. C. I wouldn't know -- sparrow. From a Mac convert. The band plays. I just built out. Police. This two -- half the blues. I should be thankful. I get high. And -- Michael on more so nobody notices. From such an ugly girl. I'm such an ugly girl. I try to seem like a main. Boys call. -- I turn my face to god. I pray. I wish I could pour oil on everything green in -- office."

" out -- This six Foley's."

" The title comes from one of my favorite poems it's a song about any -- pretend. Come back down memory lane and people don't know who many -- in his anymore she's she may she may be. Mariah -- biggest influence right -- one of those voices they can do that that screeching thing that you either love or make their Mariah Carey makes when it turned the radio down right. And obviously the the the most popular song. By the media reports it is loving you that the."

" Love love love love. Then I love I love the land and land and land."

" Do you do need to do and then there's that had note that of that and it bears -- we're. But this -- zone. This is and everything. Checks -- down. Memory lane."

" Dangerous -- parked carefully. Slanting over sized automobiles into the ditches that line 77. It's Friday night in Shreveport. Chicks have been cashed. Deals folded and stashed. Into wallets. And bra straps. Card tables. Folding to news. And every gold tooth in town crowd grandmothers camelback shotgun house. Because gambling is illegal. In Shreveport. And she cuts only two dollars and for every -- That slides. Into queen. We don't know. Many restrictions did. Years now. Beer read it with one breast to her name. School uniform in a corner. We learn to listen to music. Over how Linux. Through smoke. Soprano comes across a photograph in giggles but -- crying to save me. We think we like that kind of sat in steeped in tropics. Though. A block up the entire decade shoots. For words to put it in the dictionary. Kind of kid."

" Drive --"

" Laughs. And games. The bullet meant for men named Monday removes his baby sister is chin. Ask for horns in Shreveport. And sirens on the way. We can't hear either. -- calling for us to change to take."

" No more -- saw looks keep us awake. These years before surgeons slice her in vain. And we drive away. Our car stereos. Playing with them. And blues."

" What is advancing. Engrossing and in particular is that oh you read it does not just -- Vegas is the deal for me is that deep lose their beautiful right. It strategy kinkle alleges that you just wanna play it and disgusted that awful people -- You know. They loved it it as a certain kind of you know there's a certain kind of vulnerability. And confidence. To go hand in hand. With being. Diet or."

" back -- you you know every poll and has his -- her obsession and that's definitely. The obsession that runs through this book. And I tried to use that obsession to say things about. What I think of its history and culture around in this -- for instance thinking about the ways in which many communities were destroyed. By. -- crack. And thinking about the music that was playing in the background when it destruction happened. Or -- thinking during agendas at the job was time thinking about what race was about in this nation. Or what it was like to be. And an outsider or an outcast. In a community and to see all of these things going around you going on around you particularly. In the south. So it's not just. The seniors I think I used what hope to at least. Use the -- as a vehicle for bigger and brighter statements. And all the wild what I really hope to do more than anything I think what's most important to any poll is the same thing that I was saying. About about passionately it's the music in the language and move them and you know not just that you writing about singers but that. The poll itself comes across as solved. To the reader and it seems as is natural you know is it trees to the -- right. But really that's what I really want. From my poems and it would really look for when I'm gonna reading polls you know quick to portable -- if I feel like. It's not doing it means. That is the natural thing that I wanna -- to do because I wanted to speak to something. That I think only a perfect manipulation of language can speak to. So I think that's the thing to answer of course -- a long way to answer these cellular structure around talk -- he's Gibson island all the better to. Forgive the expert grossing a girl thing yeah okay Al outreach to veterans home in this week's issue of these things you like the girl singers track for."

" Reflections. As performed. By Diana rocks. Alluded to reflect the sun."

" I wore what committees. Smiled. Left in my eyes opened. And on the ceiling of my mouth. Balanced a note as long as god allowed."

" But -- tilted backwards. My arms stretched. Out and I kept praying. -- the rate soon rising makes a sound. Let my voice. These -- sound."

" I could hear the sun sneaking. In 1968."

" I learned the word assassin. And watched CDs learned. Got another number one and and somebody. Sit Detroit on five. That was power. -- folks looking Nittany directly. -- going blind. So they wouldn't have to see. What in the world. Was burning. The last."

" It -- probably should have mentioned before reading their Cologne. No reflections went to number two of the top choice in 1968. And I just it's you know this is love songs this. I'd -- issues on who you think about everything that's going all it. In 1968. Right -- like how is it that people are about us on this is that the view that this you may. I'm really taken back it. And and I think poetry is this way to -- that. -- limit students to see of the day that. They'll put season. It's either a it's either. A window. Through which. We see the world. -- Through which we enter the world. Right in that there's something about that window view that shields us. From the world that there's something about that door we have to deal with the world and I think I think it's a good thing I mean I don't say that is. As a criticism at all like I think Vietnam I think there have to be. Songs. You know they deal with these political and social things that are going on -- and I think that about homes to. But also think there that can be polls that are just -- beautiful in about love you always think of myself. More than anything as as the love pull it. -- I don't seem like itself. But after I do feel that way and those of the homes. That almost take him. I love poems. So now you must have been some of them oh yeah and they do it and keep things in this. -- Should this morning's yeah okay yeah this is a love poem. This phone -- let's say the word."

" A game and."

" You are not this tired of the cold. As I am. Of the memory. I'm returning to say. On either side of the mount. An in grown hair beneath. His chin. Simple it -- Cruising scratched. And again I am bundled in constant kidneys colds from last school year. My hand -- by my mother's. We -- this is the house behind us isn't warm enough for my feet. In the dark. We make a few blocks around the -- story neighborhood. That I love. -- nothing I've written. Till she is this. I want to cut it out of me. Because. It turns out it never mattered. Right now -- is asleep on my -- chased. His time has landed in the same place around her. Most of thirty years. Give me in a minute. She's asleep. And I'm typing it all over again. Everywhere. A man he's shifting a bit to make his woman comfortable. In his arms. I should have told you this. Lines ago. We walked back. To the house we ran from. Because."

" My mother loves her husband. And his hands. Even if laid -- against tech. I know you don't want to believe that. Could give a man a minute. We're not done."

" My father loves his life. In the shape of her body. Even if touched in we treat. Their son to keep being. I'm so sick of it enough that awful father scarring. This page. To. Who bruise and scratch. We walked back. Through an open door. Why don't I need to and he kissed my forehand. Before recovering meal on the couch it was my being. Listened. In you can hear him. In the next room. Planning names for the youngest of close. The and making love. Loud enough. For the oldest. To learn."

" That's a more ambitious kind of love that I can't."

" Thank you listen -- peace overtures to appreciate and now the -- question there. So to speak our -- random questions about all sorts of things but. -- yourself within two -- three degrees of separation from. But tradition however you define it you know to a three I don't know about those degrees but I'll say I'll say this always hope. To be. The love child. Of TS Elliott in Langston Hughes. Com. That they abandoned. And head. Has my aunts and Lucille Clifton and -- we -- raise. And and I would like to believe it. When I got old enough with to a college where. There was only one teacher and her name was Jean Valentine how about that this is an idea ahead. So who lives in your neighborhood nowadays and who's the conversation with politically. Who lives in I would would you -- him metaphorically it felt compelled yet. I'm really taken. The poems of the other bunting fellow who's here with meaning Cambridge this year name is Katie Peterson. She wrote a book called this one tree. And you know I really love -- But I like a lot of poets on Donnelly. The poet James Alan hall. His book is called now -- the end of me. The polish on heels blood ties in brown liquor. As a young poet named Roger Reeves who who actually doesn't have a book that he would he recently won the roof of the fellowship from poetry. For the poetry foundation. I'm I'm a fan of poetry so -- and I won't try. Who the ancestors you go to. You don't live up to the assesses after the vote to. This agency questioned. I guess that's that's probably. Where Alex Hughes comes news. Often think. -- what I write about homes in. But I do many of the things I do all day every day. I wonder. If you would be crowned. Of those things are these the kinds of things. That he would recommend that he would. Patron in any -- Because he he was very important his -- the negro artists in the racial down. Really was freeing it from me and so I really do think of him is kind of my great grandfather. Of poetry. I think he left. Wonderful legacy. And that legacy is one. It that I aspire to if we -- And jerk around who do you think of -- your fellow travelers and other arts in other it's argues that -- music you know this is an artist named Daniel minter. A moment -- he's like speculate. I mean if it's okay radio world out there. Daniel mintier in my -- TE. Just go to google.com. And look at the images this I'll say. They keys. Amazing right and if I could do. What he does with called colored skull opened. Com and history and culture in like if I could do it if I could do that and appalled. You know I mean that's that's I hope that my poems. The sound liquidity it is looks like what's the talent you -- that -- most of to have. Singing -- That's easy right now. So you change no doubt about it you know my mother's family. They were singers knew these people. You know if there was a song they had in the church they were the ones leading I have never I've always been a blender -- as they call the people who do you. Put away in the Bagram. It's been somebody who you know will he that he might catch the note we -- he might -- today. So they're prisoners facing is. -- you asked the worst question -- Donny Hathaway. Lately have been listening to judge a lot of Jeffrey Osborne a lot of Freddie Jackson. They feared they -- very their favorite singers of mine of course you know -- Franklin. Who I mentioned earlier Diana Ross. I think I like singers who seemed to have something. A story attached to their singing and I bought it what I mean he is not a bat -- biography. But -- story like -- people listen to who would I read a biography. I'm actually not at all surprised. Com that they have hand it's such fools and be -- And tumultuous even lives because they put it. In their voices. And I was probably. In love with Donny Hathaway way before I knew. Anything about his -- it insanity pleas. His daughter Leila Hathaway's also. A pretty big fan of her. What's the key note of your personality in your poems and the keynote you know I'll say this my favorite color is orange. You couldn't thank you -- should be a TDs."

" While the other media. Eggs in there yet how good they had pictures of the -- good good good enough food. And I think what I try to do is I tried to. Get that color out. In all of my poems. You know no matter how to -- the Colby's is a certain kind of life. That I think that color it's there's a on a certain kind of yielding. Two Jolie. That -- until life that I think that -- as -- and that's what I."

" That's what I really hope for him on polls weren't about impresses you read every day unit morning's mom Felicia -- god I wish I would every day it I've -- almost every day since have been here in Cambridge so Cambridge's it. Abbas in a living in Jamaica Plain it's been a good place. For me to write but I don't write every day. That the you know there that they say they're -- kind of writers those who read every day and those who. You know just right sometimes when they write their writing and I feel like of the latter."

" So I don't write a lot do a lot of Reading of a lot of thinking and probably to a lot of scribbling. Updated people who were telling me I was right notes. But I didn't feel that way I. I -- but I. But it but real riot -- feeling like I'm writing homes. Probably. -- for please always but he did it's it's a bit of a joke but it's it's almost -- I really feel like I wrote. This book and a subtler. You know I feel like SNL went eight -- came to be at the same time any kind of it needed to be it I don't know the head gestation period policy that the and when it was time for it to be born when it's time for the post to be born available more so. That your motto. Always mama. -- have a student Dave how Martin dale I'm gonna miss this is quota but I have it on my FaceBook page. He says something like com. The world is ugly. But it is an idea to make it sixty. He's good poets who he's going into the young and NSA program in San Diego State some really proud of him. -- around thank you thank you so hooked up sufficiently appreciate you having me thank you so."

" Paul McCarthy had this conversation Jericho ground. Brown University entrance handle Olson and then men apparently helped us get ready. Thanks to the broad support -- in the Massachusetts -- festival helping them gather up the players. Thank you for listening especially if you leave a comment or your own polls or your favorite home from somebody else that our website. Radio open source dot war. I'm Christopher --"