#AWP2017

This weekend I’m taking two much-needed days of silence after participating in my first AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) conference. I attempted to do AWP once before years ago—Nikky Finney invited me to present on a panel when the Cave Canem anthology The Ringing Ear came out years ago. But flight delays got me to the conference five minutes before my panel ended, so I didn’t even bother to take my seat with the three other poets. If I recall correctly, I went back to the hotel and didn’t check out the rest of the conference—and I did a fair bit of hotel-hiding this time around, too. I always thought of AWP as an event for poets, but it’s a huge gathering of writers in many different genres. Our panel on Thursday morning was really relaxed and engaging (thanks @PittWriters for snapping that photo), and we had a smart audience full of writers and educators. Afterward we connected with some young writers and then walked over to Busboys & Poets to have lunch. I’ve known Rhoda Belleza for a few years now but this was our first time meeting Mathangi Subramanian; talking about becoming feminists and claiming the writer identity revealed just how much we have in common. AWP had me marveling, once again, over the ease with which women connect. I probably shouldn’t gender it that way, but for me, it’s always amazing how I can meet someone and in an instant feel such a close connection; we open up almost immediately and I don’t know if most men get to experience that kind of instant intimacy and trust. After lunch I went back to the convention center and caught the end of my friends’ panel on Black women performance poetry. Someone in the audience stood up during the Q&A and said, “You all are AMAZING?” And she was right—I’m so proud of my friends and grateful that knowing such amazing women means my world gets populated with the exceptional people they attract. I asked Deborah Menkart of Teaching for Change if she knew any schools that might like an author visit, and she connected me with Allyson Criner Brown who placed me in LaSalle-Backus Education Campus on Friday. Their TFC colleague, Maybelline McCoy, picked me up that morning and before we reached the end of the block, we were chatting like old friends. At least that’s how it felt to me! She took me out for lunch afterward we covered so much ground: our families, religion, the ancestors, healing rituals, academia, the books we needed as kids but never had…a few hours later I went back to that same restaurant (I had 3 delicious meals there in 2 days!) and met another friend whom I first met on Facebook. She’s a teacher and writer so we have lots in common, too. But Rachelle’s hopeful and I need to make more space for optimism right now. I’m not an especially open person and maybe that’s why it surprises me when connections happen so quickly. I work to make that happen in the classroom, and it means a lot when students tell me they can relate to something I’ve said or written about in my books. Maybe in-person connections surprise me because I spend so much time inside my head, or online, or hiding from the world in my apartment or some hotel. Tomorrow I get back on the train and head to Baltimore to visit two high schools on Tuesday as the guest of Deb Taylor at Enoch Pratt Free Library. Wednesday I have a Skype visit with grad students in Seattle, on Thursday I have a half-day school visit in Bushwick, and then things slow down as we enter Presidents’ Week. I need to work on my slave ship story but writing hasn’t come easy as of late. Guess I just have to push on through….