In memory of Charles Coe, resistance poetry, Reading for Sudan
New England Literary News
Dear colleagues, readers, writers, poets, pals, all, deep into November now, Thanksgiving comes this week. The month has moved fast, and we’re hurdling into the end of the year. My hope is that there’s time, too, in the coming days and weeks, to simply savor being near a person or people you love. To savor the light and how it hits the husks and fuzzed plants as the bones start to show. This comes to you with gratitude, and wishes for deep connection and calm.
In memory of Charles Coe
“Our cries for human touch / are dispatches from separate / battlefields, tied to passenger pigeons / we release into the restless night,” writes poet Charles Coe. He died this past weekend, an abrupt loss felt across the Boston poetry scene and beyond, where he was a benevolent, present force for decades. Born in Indianapolis, Coe moved to Massachusetts in 1975 and has lived in the Boston area since. He spent nearly twenty years working for the Mass Cultural Council; he was a poet, a teacher, a musician, an ardent advocate of the arts. He warmed every space he entered with his deep voice and ready laugh. He taught at a number of universities, workshops, high schools, and conferences. He’s the author of five collections of poetry, as well as a novella; he was the subject of an award-winning documentary, and an artist-in-residence of the City of Boston. In a poem called “The Geology of Grief,” he writes: “We climb from the wreckage, / toss our useless maps aside and explore / the new landscape on feet forevermore / denied the illusion of solid ground.”
Knowing that this week begins a more frenzied stretch, and calendars fill quickly, I want to flag two upcoming events so that you might add them before all your evenings fill in egg nogged revelry.
Radical resistance with Mihret Kebede and Thalia Zedek
On Sunday, December 7, the Mobius Artists Group presents Ethiopian artist and activist poet Mihret Kebede in her first performance in Boston, performing radical resistance poetry with improvised musical accompaniment by Boston music legend Thalia Zedek. This is a singular and thrilling lineup, a potent combination of word and sound. Zedek will open with a short set; Kebede will read and perform from her new book in Amharic with translation into English by anna moschovakis, with Zedek’s improvised accompaniment. The poems in the collection, #evolutionarypoems (Circumference), react to the right now, to the political events unfolding, and how we go about witnessing, resisting, empowering. “Everyday habits . . . in an everyday crisis / we know how to get by . . . but it’s getting late / . . . three cards of hope . . . reveal no prize.” “#EvolutionaryPoems: Mihret Kebede, anna moschovakis, and Thalia Zedek” takes place December 7 at 6 pm at the Civic Pavilion, 5 Congress Street, in Boston. Tickets are free. For more information, and to reserve a seat, click here.
Reading for Sudan
Poet and Lexington, Massachusetts native Sarah Green founded Emergency Poems, a new poetry reading series that focuses on humanitarian fundraising. The series partners with NGOs and a shifting roster of poets, bringing attention and aid to crises both local and international. On Monday, December 8, Green is hosting “Reading for Sudan: A Poetry Benefit for the Emergency Response Rooms,” a virtual reading with a stellar lineup of poets including: Jericho Brown, Sandra Lim, Jill McDonough, Martha Collins, Lameese Badr, David Baker, Jesse Nathan, Safia Elhillo, Ladan Osman, Yalie Saweda Kamara, Katie Peterson, and Natalie Shapero. The Zoom even takes place from 7-9 pm on December 8. Tickets are by donation in an effort to make it accessible to all, and all proceeds will benefit the Mutual Aid Sudan Coalition. For more information, and to get a ticket, click here.
Books of note out this week (or next)
House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk, translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Riverhead).
Galapagos by Fátima Vélez, translated from Spanish by Hannah Kauders (Astra House).
Racial Fictions by Hazel V. Carby (Verso).
Booksellers’ best: Staff picks from New England independent bookstores
Lauren of Possible Futures in New Haven, Connecticut, recommends The Crown Ain’t Worth Much by Hanif Abdurraqib (Button): “Let yourself be rocked and wrecked in equal measure by this memory-searing collection. Not sure what I mean? Pop in and turn to any page. Back in 2016 this volume fell open to the gut-punch of ‘I Mean Maybe None of Us Are from Anywhere Really.’ After catching my breath, I walked straight from shelf to register and read cover to cover, multiple times. A hard and heavy, deep and true, urgent offering.”
Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. It’s a pleasure to do this work, and it is work. If you can afford to pay, please pay. With my warmth and gratitude always.
Thanks for the lovely remembrance of Charles Coe, Nina. I would see him often at events. Kept meaning to say hello. Don't take chance encounters with old acquaintances for granted, folks; that chance might not come again.... Very excited about the "Radical resistance" event. Thanks for the heads up!
Have a good Thanksgiving, Nina!