Remembering Sekou Sundiata
Listening to this NPR tribute, I keep remembering seeing him read at the Blue Roach poetry reading at Duke University years ago. Before reading one of his poems (I think it was "Shout Out", which he reads at the beginning of the tribute), he talked about how funny our generation was. My generation, that is, or maybe the people just younger than me. You all can't just 'leave', you all have to 'peace out'. You all can't just wear headwraps, you have to wrap ten pounds of laundry on your head. (Erykah Badu's first album had just dropped.) Reading this you might think it is some old fogey remark you've heard before, but this was said in a spirit of wonder, solidarity, and love. Right now the poets are remembering him and telling stories and everything keeps coming back to his spirit, so if you were touched by him, you'll know how much I'm trying to say when I say he said what he said in a spirit of wonder, solidarity, and love.
posted by Mendi Obadike at 4:33 AM
2 Comments:
Sekou was indeed at home in the pulse of : the love in the room, of his people, of humankind.
His ability to revel in the poetry of the rhythms of the jagged path we walk toward tomorrow, falling and stumbling, bopping and laughing, stumbling until we cried, shaking at the touch of love, was unparalleled.
As a (somewhat) young poet, following him around to obscure performances, and reading during some of the same events, I found myself aware of being alive (of actually having skin, hair, tissue, heart, lung) - conscious of the way (I'm sure) my eyes glowed with the wonder of encountering such a being - and with no self-consciousness attached.
Can you hear the shimmer of the copper bowl?
He will be ... felt, always.
Thanks for your words here. M
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