Thursday, September 10, 2015

The serendipity of poetry releases by Tara Betts & Treasure Redmond

Tara Betts

I'm pleased to have recently pre-ordered chap books by Tara Betts and Treasure Redmond. They're both publishing books of kwansabas -- Betts's 7 X 7 and Redmond's chop, a collection of kwansabas for fannie lou hamer.


I first began actively blogging about poetry 4 or so years ago. One of the first poetic projects that caught my attention was a series of poems that Treasure was writing on Facebook about Fannie Lou Hamer. On one occasion, I was struck by the comments she was receiving by a fellow poet. I wrote:
 Tara Betts, who's written and published several kwansabas as well over the years, has been an especially active follower of Treasure's project. She has been the most frequent commenter on the poems, offering supportive feedback and questions. Some of Betts's clarifying questions lead Treasure to respond, which ends up benefiting the broader readership.
That was back in early 2011. And now here we are in 2015, and their books are appearing at nearly the same moment. Talk about serendipity.

Related:
Treasure Shields Redmond
Tara Betts

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