Local man brings poetry, hope to Anacostia

By Cristina Fernandez Pereda

It’s Wednesday night and Fred Joiner is getting ready to bring one of his passions to Good Hope Road. It’s Anacostia, in southeast Washington, D.C., that he dreams of filling with poetry.

“I believe art can raise quality of life of any people,” Joiner said.

Reverence, 8th Ave., N.E.
By Katy Richey

It’s aglow in this place.
So much that the air sizzles
and the sound rises
from somewhere below the floor,
floats upward and lingers
below the canopy ceiling.
A woman with orange hair
now blocks my view.
Two songs ago her feet
were planted firmly on the ground.
Now they kick and scream,
reaching out to a little boy
with yellow buttons and a lean man
with hands clasped behind his back.
Sometimes
it’s hard to breathe here.
But only a mild suffocation
like when someone you adore
stands too close,
or when you wake with no memory
of the dreams you’ve had.
Just a slight uncertainty,
that sways along with
the voices and the tambourine.

He is host and curator of the “Intersections” poetry reading sessions in D.C., organized with the American Poetry Museum.

Joiner brings poets from the Metro area to Anacostia on the first and third Wednesday night of each month. The readings celebrated during the ’90s at 8 Rock Café, also in this neighborhood, inspired Joiner to start “Intersections.” He met John West-Bey, director of the American Poetry Museum and expressed his interest in developing poetry reading sessions through the Honfleur Gallery.

Joiner admits they could have moved to neighborhoods in northwest D.C. and attracted more attention: “We could even go just to the other side of the river, near Capitol Hill, but we had the deliberate intention in working in Anacostia. It needs the art.”

Art as hope for Anacostia

Anacostia is the poorest neighborhood in the nation’s capital and its first historical suburb. According to the Brookings Institution, in 2000, one-fourth of D.C.’s poor — most of them black — lived in “extreme poverty” neighborhoods, east of the Anacostia River. Two-fifths of the people in these neighborhoods lived below the federal poverty line.

“It’s a complicated place. There’s poverty, people deal with violence every day … but there’s so much sense of community that there’s also hope,” poet Katy Richey said. “I think it’s a growing community and it’s finally getting attention after being forgotten for a long time.”

Richey is one of the poets participating in “Intersections.” She describes the sessions as an opportunity to bring poetry to a place “where art and culture don’t always get.”

Like Richey, Joiner had been in the D.C. area long enough to think Anacostia was in need of cultural investments in the neighborhood.

“It was about bringing art home, not just poetry,” Joiner said.

Latanya Simpson, program coordinator for the American Poetry Museum, agrees that Anacostia is in need of culture.

“We feel that there is a lot in the northeast area but not so much here, and there are great D.C. poets,” she said.

At Honfleur Gallery, poetry and photography join for an audience of poets, artists and neighbors becoming familiar with the gallery events.

“People have issues with the time but they also admit having issues with the area, they don’t want to come here at night,” Simpson said.

The D.C. poetry scene

Joiner hopes events like “Intersections” bring more attention to Anacostia with a poetry community he describes as vibrant: “There needs to be more attention paid to it. It has become so popular now that hopefully we have a larger support of the coming events.”

Richey, who teaches English as a second language in Montgomery County, Md., discovered the D.C. poetry scene approximately three years ago and started participating in different reading sessions.

“There’s just so much. It’s really big,” she said. “There’s such diversity that you can have performance, dramatic, musical and literary poetry all at the same time, especially at the readings.”

Among the best-known names in the local poetry scene are E. Ethelbert Miller, the most active in the poetry community; Kenneth Carroll, executive director of DC Writers Corps; Sarah Browning, from DC Poets Against the War, and Kim Roberts, editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly.

A night of poetry

As curator, Joiner is in charge of choosing the topic for the night and gathering the poets. After the authors read their work, they engage in discussions about their writing, art and whatever that night of poetry inspires. Then he brings the audience an opportunity they rarely have at other local readings: during the last part of “Intersections,” the microphone is open to whoever in the audience wants to participate.

The discussion part of the session allows the artists to engage with the audience about their work, their creative process and their influences. But the open mic has another purpose.

“It allows us to discover new talent and feature other readers too,” Joiner said.

It is during this part of the session that the audience can join the poets, express their thoughts about the authors’ work and maybe even share their own creations.

Joiner will never forget one session when a woman in the audience, who had never read her poetry before in front of an audience, left her shyness behind and shared her work.

“It was very meaningful to me because I felt we had created a safe space for her to share her poetry,” he said.

Investing in the community

“Intersections” and the American Poetry Museum work with youth too. Different programs work with schools in the area in accordance with the museum’s intention of “investing in the community” of Anacostia.

Currently the Museum of American Poetry is working, along with other institutions, with Sunrise Academy and the Washington Middle School for Girls.

“We are heading up now to youth programs so we can teach through poetry and engage new readers through the messages of poetry,” Simpson said.

“We need to develop art from here. The neighborhood has been neglected at a city level for so long that I hope we are starting a trend of bringing community artists from D.C. too,” Joiner said. “Hopefully, ‘Intersections,’ and events like it, places like the gallery will make other art organizations look at Anacostia as a home and site for artists.”

Published by The American Observer.

Peace of mind

Ya he mencionado alguna vez aquí lo deprisa que camina la gente. Lo deprisa que ocurre todo. Lo que piensa la gente en el futuro. El éxito de los calendarios. De pensarlo todo antes de hacerlo. Vivir tres meses por delante. En ansia. Porque muchas veces se respira eso, ansia.

Y puede que en medio de todas esas prisas la gente se olvide de sí misma. O sientan que no tienen tiempo que dedicarse a sí mismos.

Y puede que en medio de ese olvido, se olviden de estar bien. De cuántas razones encontraron para sonreír esa semana.

Cuando llegué, una de las cosas que más me impactaron de Washington es que casi nadie sonríe ni habla en el metro. Todos miran para abajo y parece que arrastran un nubarrón de preocupaciones sobre los hombros.

Esto se puede ver en las caras de la gente y en sus prisas para llegar a todas partes. Pero otro reflejo de ello es que casi todas las revistas incluyen secciones de autoayuda. Sólo hace falta recorrer unas cuantas portadas con la mirada para descubrir los diez secretos para ser feliz, trucos para no perder el tiempo -optimizarlo, como  hemos decidido traducirlo al español- o el camino para reducir el estres. Está de moda hacer yoga, y no es raro ver a gente con una esterilla acompañando al bolso o la mochila del trabajo. Está de moda la comida orgánica.

Pero no está de moda robarle media hora al reloj para cocinar, sentarse a leer o, simplemente, no hacer nada.  

Photo by CFPereda
The end of the world, Galicia. Spain.
Sometimes I just look at pictures. It feels like going away.

I’ve mentioned before that here people walk too fast. Everything happens too fast. How people thinks of the future. The success of calendars and thinking of everything before doing anything. Living three months ahead of time. Anxiety. Because most of the time, that’s what’s in the air. Anxiety.

And maybe among all that rushing people forget about themselves. Or maybe they feel they don’t have time to spend with themselves.

And maybe in the middle of all that, they forget how to be ok. How many things made them smile that week.

When I got here, one of the things that shocked me most about Washington, was that almost nobody smiles or talks in the metro. Everyone looks down and seems to be carrying around this burden on their shoulders.

You can see this on people’s faces and their rush to get everywhere. But you can also see it by taking a look all the magazines including sections to help yourself. You just need to check a few covers to discover ten secrets to be happy, the last tricks to not waste your time or the path to beat stress. It’s fancy to do yoga and it’s not that weird to see people carrying their matt with their backpack or their purse to work. It’s fancy to get organic food.

But it’s not fancy yet to steal 30 minutes to the day and cook, sit down and read or just do nothing.  

La nube se tragó al sol

Las nubes se estaban tragando el sol. Me pregunté si esta ciudad me tragará a mí otra vez.  

Ayer, a las 4 de la tarde no había nadie en la calle. Una hora después, todo el mundo salió del trabajo corriendo hacia el metro, el autobús, a casa. Las aceras llenas de gente caminando tan deprisa como podían. Tan deprisa que sentí que les estaba ralentizando. Camino demasiado despacio para esta ciudad.

Y de repente, otra vez las calles vacías: es el momento de “happy hour”, tomar algo y de vuelta a casa. Hay un momento para cada cosa. Pero no para mí. No allí de donde vengo.

Photo by CFPereda
Las nubes se tragaron al sol una tarde más.
The clouds swallowed the sun once again.

Mi tarde “española” consistió en un paseo, algunas compras en una tienda española :) y una película. Pero no había un horario para ninguna de estas cosas. Podía ocurrir o no.

El ritmo de la gente me hizo recordar como corría los últimos meses para llegar a todas partes cuando ni siquiera llegaba tarde. No necesitaba apresurarme, pero todo el mundo caminaba deprisa, así que yo también.

Caminaba deprisa, leía deprisa, trabajaba deprisa, comía deprisa. Hacía todo tan deprisa como podía. Pero esa no soy yo. Las cosas no son así en Madrid.

No quiero hacerlo otra vez. Quiero mantener el ritmo de casa. El ritmo de aquí se tragó el mío.

Nota: Es inevitable comparar aquí y allí, como se hacen las cosas en un sitio y en otro. Intento no generalizar: hay gente que va muy deprisa en Madrid también, pero siento que aquí todo el mundo corre un poco más, como si no quisieran que nadie les “robe” el tiempo.

The cloud swallowed the sun 

The clouds were swallowing the sun. I wondered if this city will swallow me again.

Yesterday, at 4 p.m. there wasn’t anyone outside. One hour later, everyone got out of work and rushed to get to the metro, the bus, home. The sidewalks were packed with people walking as fast as they could. So fast I felt I was slowing them down. My pace is too slow for this city.

And then no one else outside again: it’s time for “happy hour,” a few drinks, then back home again. There’s an hour for everything. But not for me. Not where I’m from. 

My Spanish afternoon in D.C. meant a walk, some shopping at a Spanish store and a movie. No determined schedule for anything. Just going.  It could happen or not.

But the packed sidewalks made me think again of how I rushed to get to places the last few months when I wasn’t even late. I didn’t need to walk so fast, but everyone walks like that, so I did too.

I walked fast, I read fast, I worked fast, I ate fast. I did everything as fast as I could. But that’s not me. Things are not like that in Madrid.

I don’t want to do it again. I want to keep the pace from home. The pace here swallowed mine.

Note: It’s impossible not to compare here and there, how everything is done in each place. I try not to generalize. There are people rushing in Madrid too, but I feel here everyone goes a little faster, as if they didn’t want someone to “take away” their time.

De vuelta

Washington me dio la bienvenida con calor en un día de invierno. Primavera a mediados de Enero para que no eche de menos el sol en España.

Aunque no duró demasiado. Los días grises que tanto me asustaban han regresado.

Dicen que no sabes lo que de verdad tienes hasta que lo pierdes. Los días grises no son lo mismo. El cielo está pálido, ni blanco, ni gris. Sabes que el sol está ahí en alguna parte, pero el cielo no te da pistas para encontrarlo. Parece que el día no acaba de empezar. Y de repente, se hace de noche y te preguntas por dónde se escaparon las horas.

Photo by CFPereda
Sunset from the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C.

Estoy de vuelta en Washington. De vuelta por las grandes avenidas, las enormes aceras y caminando entre todas las caras que nunca se parecen a aquellas que vi en Madrid hace sólo unos días. Es increíble como las caras de la gente te pueden recordar dónde estás y de dónde vienes. No es sólo la luz del día y cómo brille el sol, las calles o los idiomas que hable la gente en la calle. Mira sus caras. No se parecen a mí, pero son tan diferentes unas de otras que no me siento extranjera. Sólo soy una más.

Encuentro cierta calma viendo todas las caras diferentes. Nadie me mira cuando entro en el autobús o en el metro. Eso es algo que no me gusta de España y que disfruto aquí. No hay nada a lo que quedarse mirando, nadie tan diferente como para clavarle la mirada, porque todo el mundo es diferente.

Back 

Washington said hi with a surprisingly warm weather for a winter day. Spring in the middle of January so I don’t miss the sun in Spain.

It didn’t last long, thought. The gray winter days I was fearing are back.

They say that you don’t know what you have until you lose it. Gray days are just not the same. The sky is pale, not white, not gray. You know the sun is somewhere up there, but the white sky won’t give you a clue. It feels like the day never starts. And suddenly it’s night again and you wonder where the hours went.

I’m back here. Back at the huge avenues, the wide sidewalks, and seeing all the faces that never look the same to those I saw in Madrid just a few days ago. It’s amazing how people’s faces can remind you of where you are, and where you are from. It’s not just how the day light or how the sun shines, the streets or the languages people speak. Look at their faces. They don’t look like I do, but they are so different from each other that I don’t feel I’m an outsider. I’m just one more out there.

There’s some comfort seeing all these different faces. People here don’t stare at you when you enter the bus or the train. That’s something I don’t like in Spain and that I enjoy here. There’s nothing to stare at, no different one to stare at, because everyone is different.

End The War Now Sept. 15

Marching

I had heard and read a lot about the desire to bring the troops home before I came to the United States. There is something that is not being told outside the U.S. and it’s that one of the reasons why some Democrats and part of the society want the troops back is because they no longer believe in this war, but also because they feel the soldiers haven’t been well protected. That the war wasn’t well planned.
The difference in Europe is that we get the impression that the war wasn’t well planned for the Iraqis. Well, the U.S. also wants that everything is ok with their troops.

Photo by Dyane Jean François Fils

Covering the march last Saturday was an experience. I learnt how difficult it is to be at the right place all the time. How lucky you have to be sometimes to be at the right place, at the right time.
Personally, I was surprised how many people from different ages went to the protest. And how many of them are participating in a very strong social movement to bring the troops home. They are going to protest in D.C. for two weeks. Some people say that it’s like the social movement against the war in Vietnam, in fact, some of the veterans who were there and the people who participated in those protests are here now.

Going to Capitol Hill

Whenever I am watching the news with my family and suddenly the correspondent in Washington appears on the screen, they all stop talking. They know I want to listen. It doesn’t matter if the reporter is talking about a session in Congress or the last prosecution that took place on the streets of any town in the country.

The Capitol

I’ve stared at the image of the reporter with the Capitol in the background so many times that I couldn’t believe I was there.
The first time I went to Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower I ran from the metro stop until I saw it. The same when I visited the Fontana di Trevi in Rome. But I got off the train at Capitol South and everyone was so dressed up, so formal, it didn’t seem like the kind of place where you can start running with a smile on your face just to see the Dome.

I still think of myself walking inside the building, counting the flags by each door, trying to figure out what State they belong to, and I cannot believe it was me. I’ve thought about it so many times, I still can’t say it is true.

The Dome of the Capitol Building

When I left, I had to take a walk around the buildings. I wanted to see that I was in the Capitol, that the Dome was actually behind the Cannon Building. I would’ve taken a picture to have all the details, but I didn’t.

If I had taken it, my memory of this day would be that photograph and what I wanted to keep is my blocked mind, the desire to run until I saw the Dome, my heart beating faster than the first day of classes. I wasn’t nervous because of the interview, of the assignment itself, I was nervous because part of the dream was coming true.
And it was just my first week here.

GAO Report

By Cristina Fernández Pereda 

The House of Representatives Committee on Armed Services met Wednesday to receive Government Accountability Office Comptroller David M. Walker’s testimony on the report released the day before about the political and military progress in Iraq.

The report by the GAO says only three of 18 benchmarks, set by the Iraqi government, had been fulfilled by August 30. It was released a day earlier, one week before the Congress receives the reports from General Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker.

Photo by CristinaFP.
David Walker reported Wednesday
the achievements of Iraqi government.

GAO Comptroller David M. Walker said the report is “the only independent assessment the Congress will receive.” He gave details about the three benchmarks that have been fulfilled by the Iraqi government: to establish support of the Baghdad Security Plan, to set the joint security stations in neighborhoods across the capital and to ensure that the rights of minority political parties in the Iraqi legislature are protected.

The GAO report says that there has been mixed progress on reducing sectarian violence in Iraq and eliminating militia control of local security. “The violence is at about the same level as in February,” Walker said.

Disagreen with the assessment, Rep. Jim Saxton, R-N.J., said that casualties in Iraq have decreased, with attacks going down from 1,350 per month by October 2006, to 250 per month today. “I want you to tell me if the GAO report still sustains that the benchmark for reducing sectarian violence has not been met,” Saxton said.

Walker assessed that the data referring to the decline of sectarian violence in certain areas of the country have been gathered with a methodology that the GAO is not comfortable with. “I’m not saying it is right or wrong, I’m saying that we are not comfortable with the methodology,” he said.

The GAO comptroller didn’t explain the methodology his agency or the military forces use to gather data on sectarian violence. He agreed the military have a better perception because they are “on the ground,” but insisted that he is now wondering if discussing what part of the violence in Iraq is sectarian is actually relevant to the political progress in Iraq.

The objectives of the benchmarks set by the Iraqi government are to evaluate the political and military progress the administration is making and how it affects the Iraqi people’s daily life.

Walker has no doubt that some progress has been made in areas of Iraq like Al-Anbar. But he pointed out that this town has 15 percent of the population of Baghdad, with a Sunny majority, and that there were no signs of Al-Qaida activity. He recommended thinking “why this progress was made, whether it is sustainable and can be applied to other areas.”

“It is important to remember that these 18 measures of progress in Iraq did not originate with Congress. In almost all cases, it was Prime Minister Maliki and his government who designated them as important steps to take,” said Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo.

Saxton said he finds “interesting” that the Congress did not set deadlines for any of the benchmarks. “If the existing, congressionally mandated yardsticks cannot reflect the positive gains, we must really start to question the value of these benchmarks,” he said.

Walker mentioned the real objective of the benchmarks requires paying attention about facts like safety in the streets or access to water and electricity on a regular basis, replying Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., as he brought up his concern about how realistic and fair the benchmarks are.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., said the report was “devastating about the readiness””of the Iraqi government and asked Walker “how do we move forward now.”

“We have to do what Congress asks us to do. This is time to reassess our goals and objectives, as well as the functions and roles the Iraqi can do. I will be happy to work with the congress on this,” Walker said.