Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere

by Jayne Cortez

PoetryIn fact
poetry
will not
strike
lightning
through
any
convoy of chickensToday poems are like flags
flying on liquor store roof
poems are like baboons
waiting to be fed by tourists& does it matter
how many metaphors
reach out to you
when the sun
goes down like
a stuffed bird in
tropical forest
of your solitudeIn fact
poetry
will not
sing jazz
through
constricted mouth
of an anteater
no matter how many
symbols survive
to see the moon
dying in saw dust
of your toenail

Genres: Poetry

122 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Jayne Cortez was born in Arizona, grew up in Los Angeles, California, and maintained two residences, one in New York City and one in Dakar, Senegal.

She was the author of ten books of poems and has performed her poetry with music on nine recordings. Her poetry is celebrated for its political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism, and visceral sound.

Cortez has presented her works and ideas at universities, museums, and festivals including: the Museum of Modern Art New York, UNESCO. Paris, the Berlin Jazz Festival, Germany, 11 Perfil da Literatura, Sao Paulo, Brazil,. Fourth World Congress on Women, Beijing, China, the Arts Alive International Festival, Johannesburg, South Africa, Banlieues Bleues Festival, France, Tampere Happening, Finland and New York University.

Her poems have been translated into many languages and widely published in anthologies, journals, and magazines including: Post Modern American Poetry, Daughters of Africa, Poems for the Millennium, The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Surrealist Women, Sulfur, Black Scholar, Presence Africaine and Mother Jones. She is the recipient of several awards: Arts International, New York Foundation on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International African Festival Award, the Langston Hughes Award, and the American Book Award.

Cortez appears in the Canadian film 'Poetry in Motion' and the music video "Nelson Mandela is Coming" produced by Globalvision. Her poem "I Am New York City" was used as the theme for "Honor" an episode of the Fox Television series "Tribeca. " She is also on screen in the film "Women In Jazz." Her most recent books are "Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere" published by Serpent's Tail/ High Risk Books, and soon to be released "Jazz Fan Looks Back" published by Hanging Loose Press. Her work as activist and organizer is typified by her presidency of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa, her coordination of the Yari Yari International Conference of Women Writers of African Descent, NYU, the direction of the film Yari Yari, her organization of the 1999 international symposium "Slave Routes: The Long Memory," and her participation in the Round Table: Dialogue Among Civilizations at the United Nations Millennium Summit 2000.

"The Dictionary of Literary Biography" asserts that Cortez has distinguished herself as "a creative artist uniquely able to reach audiences for whom books of poetry have little appeal." And critic Barbara Christian notes, Cortez "has forged connections in her work that help us see how our histories are related. The result is a poetry as wide in its scope as it is compelling in its craft."

Jayne Cortez died of heart failure in Manhattan, New York, on December 28, 2012. A memorial celebration of her life, organised by her family on February 6, 2013, at the Cooper Union Foundation Building, included tributes by Amiri Baraka, Danny Glover, Robin Kelley, Genna Rae McNeil, Quincy Troupe, Steve Dalachinsky, George Campbell Jr., Eugene Redmond, Rashidah Ishmaili, and Manthia Diawara, as well as musical contributions by Randy Weston, T. K. Blue and The Firespitters. The Spring 2013 issue of The Black Scholar (Vol. 43, No. 1/2) was dedicated to her memory and work