Honey Crawford Reading at Skylight Books
Congratulations to the CalArts MFA grads Honey Crawford, David P. Earle, Maxi Kim, Leila Nichols, Nadine Rambeau. This crew read at an event called “NextWords: Graduating students of the CalArts MFA Writing Program read new work” hosted by Skylight Books. My special recognition goes out to Honey Crawford, the blessed sister of Dr. Margo Natalie Crawford. What can be said? That thang just be running all through the Crawford family. Talent! Talent! Talent!
Honey Crawford read this poem with an image of a doll and huge quantities of “brown plastic”—this brown plastic move stuck with me like how a riff from a Jazz musician stays with another Jazz musician. So with all the saccharine moments of expressions of appreciation aside, you can’t get much more respect than this. People like Truman Capote wanted something more but this sentiment appears to me as the savage greed of an abandoned child—and many argue that it was this childish relationship to the concept of fame that killed him.
So Honey’s “brown plastic” move reminds me of a great line from Meloneé Rene Houston Blue—one of the finest poets I have ever met personally (and is the one who stepped on my foot in the animated classic “0.5 the Sisters”)—her strophe was “end-of-the-world plastic.” What’s is very powerful to me is that plastic not only represents “fake” but it is also a symbol of petroleum products. Most American plastics come from American oil power. You can do a lot with that as a young poet coming of age with these murders in Iraq.
Honey Crawford also read about being a substitute teacher at Gompers Middle School. She played the roles representing some of her students as the work demanded and therefore had to go into a mode she called “potty mouth.” She juxtaposed the treatment of these students with those of the upper classes. She deftly noted how she was not allowed to teach certain “advanced” subjects—especially math subjects to her “at risk” students. This was very touching because I was certain that I was the only Black man standing in the room that is saved alive and fed well because of my ghetto, “at risk” understanding of mathematics.
I did not come away from the Gompers piece with a suggestion that these children have a future—or that these “at risk” youth would be recognizable when they grow up. Perhaps my eyes failed to see this over the exposé—after all, I did show up late after looking for a Silver Lake parking place for over 20 minutes. When we make moves like the moves in the Gompers piece, we need to remember the Schadenfreude effect on the predominantly Euro-style audience that we poets “of color” are not supposed to notice for fear of being branded a hateful savage mired in unsophisticated tribal ignorance with a wandering uterus (most of us call this wandering hysteri**a).
By no means is there an expectation that Honey Crawford—or any other person—should change their behavior because of my opinions. True J’ah prove my innocence. When you want to accuse me (based on the same judgment that commands the wisdom that rules your life) that rasx() has a “god complex” then remember the legend of Jehovah (J’ah) and an interpretation thereof that suggests that man was created with a free will. And so when J’ah be (in the ‘least’) my father, then it is likely that the son will also enjoy the fruits exceedingly when Man, made male and female, makes decisions based on free will—not because Monsanto put a gene in your food to make you obey—but that you actually choose to commune with my thoughts based on your personal power and personal dominion. It is very, very hard to convince the descendants of slaves and slave drivers that my heart is sincere. Excuse my “potty mouth” but fuck y’all in that case. True J’ah prove my innocence. We soon find out what I and I supposed to be…
In any ‘case,’ Honey Crawford shows that her throne is active and powerful. We shall see the extent of her dominion—the vision of every eye within her. This is what it means (to me) to be a writer. Be words our walking stick. Words support like bone. See now encouragement and kindle the kundalini fire. This yoke is easy for Honey Crawford. She is already a warm person with a sharp eye.