Taught yesterday at University of Hawaii at Susan Schultz’s class and Terese Svoboda’s. Here’s Susan’s comments: It was a great class. The student who chanted along w/ me on “(These Are) The Breaks,” Teddy Wallace, turns out to be son of my pal George Wallace of Long Island. Maybe you want to know why I brought up my being left out of Teacher’s & Writer’s Book of Poetic Forms 2nd edition. It’s a good story, actually. The first edition came out just at the late 70s moment when I was proclaiming “Rap is Poetry” and people were responding, “Are you outta yr mind?!” So Ron Padgett took a big leap and put my “Rap Poem” in, “Rock’n’Roll Mythology,” and gave the nod to Rap as a Poetic Form. By the time the 2nd edition rolled around, it was clear that Rap IS Poetry and that it deserves to be represented by someone in the African American oral tradition that gave birth to the form. Like K-Swift, whose poem took the place of mine. Ron even called me. Those are the Breaks! I said. But in reality, political consciousness, poetical consciousness, the Ecology of Consciousness, is ever-evolving. let’s hope. More poems! More Poetry Forms!

Taught yesterday at University of Hawaii at Susan Schultz’s class and Terese Svoboda’s. Here’s Susan’s comments: It was a great class. The student who chanted along w/ me on “(These Are) The Breaks,” Teddy Wallace, turns out to be son of my pal George Wallace of Long Island. Maybe you want to know why I brought up my being left out of Teacher’s & Writer’s Book of Poetic Forms 2nd edition. It’s a good story, actually. The first edition came out just at the late 70s moment when I was proclaiming “Rap is Poetry” and people were responding, “Are you outta yr mind?!” So Ron Padgett took a big leap and put my “Rap Poem” in, “Rock’n’Roll Mythology,” and gave the nod to Rap as a Poetic Form. By the time the 2nd edition rolled around, it was clear that Rap IS Poetry and that it deserves to be represented by someone in the African American oral tradition that gave birth to the form. Like K-Swift, whose poem took the place of mine. Ron even called me. Those are the Breaks! I said. But in reality, political consciousness, poetical consciousness, the Ecology of Consciousness, is ever-evolving. let’s hope. More poems! More Poetry Forms!

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