This posting is for all the poets out there (if you have a friend that’s a poet then let them read this). My true goal is to work with as many of you as possible. I started this site and published the books for two reasons. The first reason is personal exposure and that is a long and arduous road which I will continue on as time permits and I will continue to evolve and improve. The second is somewhat as a resume for my fellow poets. It is impossible to judge the ability, dedication or the love another has for their craft without seeing it and for those who are poets who have read my poems I hope that I have earned your respect. As my true goal is to bring poetry to as big an audience as I can reach I also had to publish a couple volumes to show that I do in fact have the ability to bring those words forward in a commercial format. What I cannot guarantee at this point is large sales and millions of fans but I can promise an environment where your Art is respected, and appreciated while trying to find that audience that feels the same way.
With that being said I would like to invite anyone who sees the creation of Art from a similar perspective to take a step with me moving forward. If you have a personal project that you would like to push but you need more information or guidance then by all means. As a sort of starting point or a more open approach I want to start with two titles that I would like to collaborate on – “Love Stories – Happy Endings” and “The History of Black People – Volumes 1-3” – and the details for them will follow below. I will not be ale to feature all poets who show interest and relevance to the topics but I will have future projects that I wouldn’t mind having you on board for. I begin with these titles as they are titles we can all speak on and they will be put together in an open style/format collection that will try to showcase what poetry is right now while tackling the issues presented.
Hopefully I’ve caught your interest and if this is something that you would like to get involved with then the next step is contact:
1. The “Keep in Touch” tab on the side —> is probably the fastest way to do that (Already in touch? Then drop me a line and we will go from there)
2. or you can try: poetry (at) 100daystory.com (” (at) ” replace with “@”). If you are sending an email please include the subject(Collaboration) and a sample with an explanation of how the piece falls into one of the volumes below.
3. or you can use the contact form at the bottom of the post
I do not know the participation level of this effort as it is my first time trying but I will continue to push it in hopes that it will catch on – there’s always that greater chance that it won’t. It will take time to come together but within that time I hope to speak with as many people as possible not only about these projects but their work and other projects that I have planned that have stricter more themed guidelines. The following, however, are what I would like to start with:
“Love Stories – Happy Endings”
This volume I would like to consist of the struggles that arise in relationships but not only the struggles. I would like the poetry to show a path to resolution and to explain that resolution from as many perspectives as possible. Love is usually defined and portrayed as something with a happy ending but what I would like to tackle are the struggles on the road to happiness and use that premise to define Love and Happy Endings.
“The History of Black People vol. 1-3”
This is simply a history lesson spanning three eras that I find unique in the development of what we call nowadays, “black people”. This is an attempt at showing an evolution of thought, lifestyle and conduct without interpretation of whether where we have ended up be a positive or a negative. It is a study through poetry as poetry’s unique ability is its way of capturing emotional states, deliver information and not be obvious. The idea then is to capture the emotional attitude of the three eras. What I would like to cover are some of the points listed below. They are point form and with more detailed conversation will add body to the thoughts:
Volume 1
Ancient History –> Slavery
Kings and Queens
Rise and fall of civilizations
Empires
Tribes
Volume 2
Slavery –> Start of Civil Rights Movement
Reason for slavery
Who instigated slavery? (mass colonial slavery)
Who bought/who sold
Slave ships
Rebellions
Caribbean
USA [the South etc]
South America
Worldwide
Emancipation?
Volume 3 [This is where geography will becomes important…This part is strictly North American and the Caribbean. Almost a conclusion to the influence of the first two volumes on this third volume’s current state without stating it as such]
Start of Civil Rights Movement –> 1990
Civil Rights Leaders [Marcus, Hewey, Malcolm, Martin, Women of the civil rights movement]
Civil Rights Movement [origins/conclusions – ramifications]
Music [soul, jazz, blues, reggae, hip – hop, rock and roll etc…]
Caribbean, USA, Canada
[contact_form]