In his poems, in which he occasionally invents formal constraints, Hayes considers themes of popular culture, race, music, and masculinity. TH: What I think the university can do is bridge the things weve been discussing; it can bridge James Joyce and Future. Its been less than two months since Jackson came home, but hes not wasting any time. Trumpet: . I like the poem where you play off the line Thank you for your service.. In the lines from Howl that, I suspect, Hayes has in mind, you can see how blackness is used as a prop. Im interested in Shakespeare, but especially how Shakespeare is in conversation with Scooby-Doo or The Walking Dead. It gives me a way to not be limited. Its so erotic! And then for the next year, I was working on a poem that was totally a Keats imitation. You can insert anything in that but certainly fluidity in terms of faculty and aesthetics. Could you do community workshops? Terrence L. Hayes, press secretary, Office of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs: Prior to assuming the role of VA press secretary, Terrence Hayes served as national director of Communication and Public Affairs for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. You know a lot of things, but you havent spent a whole bunch of time in one area. They must withstand humiliating sexual reviews to participate in the economy at all: There was black male review for ladies nightAt the nightclub. How you get fairly boring poems about race is because you are trying to plug into some notion about identity, as opposed to some notion of personality. Its still an open-ended process. The following interview appears in the Spring 2018 issue of The Iowa Review. What I hate is a white canvas, and I dont like one layer of paint. JW: I like the essays more than the fiction. JW: One downside with the glut of information now is that theres no stable core of references. The group is seeking support and placing the spotlight on Rosenblum urging her to take action now. So I operate in the long view: whatever prize I get today doesnt guarantee a real legacy. In his quiet Southeast Portland townhouse, Jackson said he can walk outside and hear the birds and the woodpeckers. He now has a new book out called "American Sonnets For My Past And Future Assassin," and here to talk with us about it is our reviewer Tess Taylor. Terrance Hayes is the author of Wind in a Box (Penguin 2006), Hip Logic (Penguin 2002) and Muscular Music (Carnegie Mellon University Contemporary Classics, 2005 and Tia Chucha Press, 1999). In other cases, such as Hayes, Rosenblum wouldnt directly determine whether a retrial is warranted, but as the states chief legal officer her decision would set a precedent that others would likely follow. You wont admit it. But students often dont want that; they want a strategy for how to make it in the academy. His name was Jack French, and he actually called up Maya Angelou for me when he was trying to convince me that I could do this. My interest is not what people expect from me as a poet; I know I can make burgers, but can I make sushi? He calls his mother every morning. In the second and third books, Hip Logic and Wind in a Box, youre experimenting more with form, whether it be the sonnet or other patterns of repetition. TH: Thats a great question. Presiding Judge Ellen Rosenblum sentenced him to more than 12 years in prison. I smile at Ronald's poster, perpetual grin behind the pissed-off, fly-girl cashier I love. Hayes is working to rebuild relationships strained by his decade-long absence. . Cookie Settings/Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Then you'll notice the grace, the tenderness, the unblinking truth-telling just beneath his lines, the open and generous way he takes in our world. Thats manifested in the pecha kucha poems in Lighthead: theyre not measurements of meter; theyre measurements of time. Then when I got a fellowship to the University of Pittsburgh, it really seemed cheaper. Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt doesnt have the same discretion as Williams. The editors discuss two poems by Terrance Hayes called "American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin" from the September 2017 issue of Poetry. My skepticism around strategy is that it doesnt have room for failure. Whether thats a black barbershop, or working as a temp in an office, or working in a warehouse, I always felt there was nobody in that space like me. Something happened. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. So Ill risk naivety in the moment. June 25, 2018. What I would say to him is that I was just trying to build up a surface. "Hayes's fourth book puts. Im chasing it. For decades, Oregon and Louisiana were the only states that allowed felony convictions by split jury votes. Its unclear how the court will rule. The group is just trying to remind people this still exists, said Gregory McKelvey, a local Democratic activist and strategist for the campaign. Its a pecha kucha, a Japanese form. It gets into the art for arts sake versus social purpose argument, but I think the real purpose is who do you want at the table with you? And yet: You would be more beautiful without your fear.. Im interested in Language School poetics, too. In my last year, I had done a series of paintings on ceiling tiles. So for someone to say this is your audience and you have to give people the thing theyll really eat, Im saying you dont know what peoples capacity is. Of his son the way one twilight matches another. The "Racket of ascension" is emblematic of the social progress that results in the upgrading of one's social rank. But you have to know what kids are responding to. By Dan Chiasson. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Terrance Hayes earned a BA at Coker College and an MFA at the University of Pittsburgh. I thought, maybe Ill teach, and if I didnt teach, maybe Ill go work in the prison. by Major Jackson. She has an opportunity to do right by it, and she hasnt.. TH: I dont know how negative that is. The poet Terrance Hayes first arrived on the scene in 1999 with a book called "Muscular Music." Terrence Hayes was 19 when he shot a man in the leg in 2004. Its a great meal, and maybe youre a terrific eater, so they watch and wow, those noodles look delicious. Almost everywhere in this country every day. [10], In January 2017, Hayes was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. This makes the work morally ambiguous in ways some readers will resist: I suspect that not everybody will recognize blackness as any part, even a rejected part, of Trump, a man whose loathing of black people seems unabashed. On the other hand, it has to be gratifying. A former college basketball star, he treats poetry like a timed game, a theatre for dramatic last-minute outcomes. What we can say now is that at least there are more people with opportunities. You have the same judge that has the ability to rectify this offense particularly because this law is particularly steeped in racism, Hayes said. So for basketball scholarships, it was going to be D-II or D-III, and I thought that was the only way I was going to go to school. I wish I were as tolerant as Walt Whitman, Hayes wrote in a poem from an earlier volume, but I want to be a storm covering a Confederate parade. Whitmans freedom to waltz across the battlefield like a song does not exist for a black poet in America. When he left the Oregon State Penitentiary two decades later, he had grandchildren. TH: The thing that I appreciate with an undergrad is the freedom of writing and not connecting that to professional aspirations. the afternoon came evening's bell. Anything else connected to that is just gravy. Allen Grossman said, when people ask, What are your poems about? he says, Poetry, the subject is always poetry. I find that to be very useful as a maker of poems, even though thats frustrating for readers. I had another poem about my father working in the yard called The Earth God, and I worked on it for about two years. Part of that is just obsessive-compulsiveness, which may be in my personality. There are no doubt different kinds of programs, but what do you think makes a good program, and what makes a bad program? Most black people know thisAbout him. of the ball and chain around . But the big challenge was other people trying to tell me how to fix the poems. My sense is that the synthesis is what the university can do. TH: Yeah, a full ride. You come from a small town in South Carolina and went to college because you had a basketball scholarship. Nikole Hannah-Jones (Narrator), The New York Times Magazine (Contributor), A little bit of reading, talking to some people about art and how art worksthose are things I know work for basic stimulation. I need the tension of asking myself day to day, Is that what I think? Maybe thats what gets called ambivalence or curiosity or even just playingand it was different when I was in my twenties. Should I mirror the rhythm of her hips,Or should I take the lead? There are formal and rhetorical puzzles in nearly every one of Hayess poems. Tacuma Jackson was 26 when he was involved in a tavern heist in 2000. Could you be a high school English teacher? So when my mother saw my earliest poems in the first book, she was like, Oh, it was just your imagination.. JW: One complaint about creative writing programs is that they routinize the process and produce cookie-cutter writing, but the university also allows a lot of people to write and do things like that. American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin ["Probably twilight makes blackness dangerous"] By Terrance Hayes. him with a "Get the Hell out of here!" I have a friend whos a critic, and he said that my work was an anthem to ambivalence. Its not like you could move something out just because it happens to not look like you. "My Aesthetic Schizophrenia: An Interview with Terrence Hayes", Jonathan Moody, Audio: Terrance Hayes Reading for From the Fishouse, Library of Congress Online Catalog > Terrance Hayes, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Terrance_Hayes&oldid=1111538819, Short description is different from Wikidata, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 21 September 2022, at 14:09. Assassin, you are a mystery/To me, I say to my reflection sometimes, Hayes writes, acknowledging the part anyone plays in his own existential undoing. Terrance Hayes is a poet who reflects on race, gender, and family in works marked by formal dexterity and a reverence for history and the artistry of crafting verse. I dont think Ashbery thinks that. So I just accepted that. But their principal greets Day, is that the synthesis is what the university can do a fellowship to university. 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