I haven’t been blogging as much as I would have liked in 2011, and I’m hoping to change that. I just did one of my last readings for the year in Columbia, MD, where I shared the stage with Terrance Hayes as part of HoCoPoLitSo’s (Howard County Poetry & Literary Society’s) inaugural reading for the Lucille Clifton series. We were honored to share the night with one of Ms. Clifton’s daughters too. We talked about how we approach the page, what advice do we offer to young writers, how jazz and hip hop as artistic forms impact poetry. Here’s a photo from that dialogue.
I’m working on interview questions, essays, and poems, and working my way through another semester, but I plan to offer some online workshops and manuscript consultations soon. If you are interested, let me know.
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Ms. Betts,
My name is Zuri Chavers, I am the president of HCC’s Poetry/Hip Hop Club, Club Ambition and have been refining my craft as a Poet/MC since five years old. I was able to attend your Master Poetry Class and was thoroughly inspired by your message but regretfully was unable to converse with you after the event. I wanted to know if it would be possible to maybe get some of your feedback on the work we’ve been creating thus far and maybe get some pointers on how to become successful within the industry.
I’ve included my email in your comment box, I would be honored to receive any kind of response from you, even if you do not have time in your schedule to give any advice.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Sincerely,
Z. Chavers