Materials Recorded and Gathered for "Wild Poppies"
A poetry jam in space — created across and despite razor wire, prison bars and censored phone lines. It is a gathering of poets to celebrate the work of sister poet Marilyn Buck, who has spent more than 20 years in US prisons for her anti-imperialist politics and actions.In the eyes of the government, Marilyn is an enemy of the state, despised for her role in freeing Black Liberation leader Assata Shakur, hated for her willingness to risk her life and freedom for a world imaginable only to a revolutionary—or a poet.
Yet for the poets who rushed to lend their voices and their words to this collection, Marilyn is someone very different – a woman who lives for transformation. Through her political activism and writing, she creates the possibility of a world of social justice and peace. Through her approach to prison, she transforms the repression and censorship of imprisonment and, in the process, has become a poet.The poet contributors read Marilyn's poems and their own. They include Amiri Baraka, carolyn baxter/Nottiehead Bosco, Dennis Brutus, Aya De Leon, Fanny Howe, Uchechi Kalu, Elana Levy, Genny Lim, devorah major, Sara Menefee, Kiilu Nyasha, Maria Poblet, Presente!, Carlos Quiles, Samsara, Sonia Sanchez, Staajabu, Jean Stewart, Piri Thomas, Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael, Nellie Wong, Merle Woo, and Mitsuye Yamada. See the poet profiles and the poems.
Framing the poetry is music contributed by India Cooke, Eugenio Maldonado “El Viejo Mago," Fred Ho & the Brooklyn Saxophone Quartet,Copper Wimmin, Idris Ackamoor, and the musicians and activists of Shame the Devil.
Documents
Devorah Major Reads Prison Chant
Vini Bhansali Reads A 15 year-old Palestinian Woman in Prison
Marilyn Buck Reads Reading Poetry
Marilyn Buck reads Wild Poppies
Amiri Baraka introduces Wild Poppies
Devorah Major Reads Political Poem
Uchechi Kalu Reads They Came for Me
Genny Lim Reads Rescue the Word
Dennis Brutus Reads One-Hour Yard Poem
Akwasi Evans Reads Space
