jayy dodd and Lourdes Figueroa: October 28, 2021

The Poetry Center presents jayy dodd, whose book The Black Condition ft. Narcissus (Nightboat Books, 2019) — "an irreverently tender profile of Black trans life surviving and thriving during contemporary political turmoil" — was selected to receive the Poetry Center Book Award. She reads from that book and from other poems, and is joined by award judge Lourdes Figueroa, who reads from her own poems. Following their readings, the poets engage in conversation, together with emcee, Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta.

Publisher
American Poetry Archives
Location
The Poetry Center (Remote Access Event)
Date
2021-10-28
Event Run Time
01:18:56
Contributors
Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta
Rights

©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu.

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Lourdes Figueroa (00:20:09)

Lourdes Figueroa reads "Nahuatl Girl" and other poems from her chapbook yolotl (Spooky Actions, 2012). She explains that the title is a word from the Nahuatl language meaning “young girl heart.” She introduces “A Memory of Tío and the City” as a poem dedicated to a late friend.

jayy dodd (00:33:24)

jayy dodd reads “Trick” from Mannish Tongues (Platypus Press, 2017), poems include "Trans Life" from a zine, and then several poems from The Black Condition ft. Narcissus (Nightboat Books, 2019), recipient of the Poetry Center Book Award. She describes how the band Rufus, fronted by Chaka Khan, is the inspiration for the organization of the book.

Conversation (00:20:37)

Lourdes Figueroa and jayy dodd after their readings engage in conversation and respond to questions from the audience, moderated by Tatiana Luboviski-Acosta. When asked about the similarities among the poets’ work, Figueroa describes the poetics of “narrating the body into history.” dodd is asked about the use of various mediums throughout her work, and the development of creative process. She also talks about poetic meter, teaching poetry, and aspects of poetic form.

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