City Beautiful (Ishmael Reed Publishing Company)
Poems 1998 - 2006
by
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About the Book
Tennessee Reed compiled her writing from 1998 to 2006 in City Beautiful, her fourth published poetry collection. Among her experiences living a poet’s life since the age of five were 1994 poetry workshops and readings in Berlin and Bonn, Germany, where she was youngest person ever presented by the United States Information Agency’s Arts America Program. This two-part volume features a series of poems inspired by animals, “Animals & Others,” originally part of her 2005 Master of Fine Art’s thesis project at Mills College.
at the WordTemple Poetry Series
Santa Rosa, California
February 9, 2007
When asked, I've told people that I began writing poetry as a young girl; that I would sew my poems into small books with colored yarn and then stash them under my bed. When I left home as an adult at age 17, I threw the poems away. So right away, I'm jealous of Tennessee Reed. She kept her poems.
Tennessee Reed has written five books of poetry since she first began writing at five-years old including Circus in the Sky,written when she was 11-years old, Electric Chocolate, written between the ages of 11 and 13, Airborne, written from ages 13 to 19, and two books that are combined in the book she has here tonight, , City Beautiful and Animals & Others. These poems were written from her junior year in college into 2006.
Composers Meredith Monk and Carman Moore set Tennessee Reed's poetry to music for "Face the Music," a live performance work by The Children's Troupe of Roberts + Blank that premiered in Oakland's East Bay Dance Festival. Ms. Reed has given poetry readings from the Netherlands to Japan, from Germany to Hawaii, and throughout the United States. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley and Mills College.
Tennessee Reed's poems often appear to be just straight-out narrative reporting. This is what I saw. This is what I heard. But when you put those experiences together, a new unsaid experience is created; this is where the magic happens. The gold leafed dome of a city hall + homeless human beings equals what?Two news anchors dubbed "Barbie" and "Ken" give warnings about "American black bears." On the surface, it all seems innocent enough. But read the quote by the park ranger and you'll know this poem has a lot more to say than something about hungry, delinquent bears in Yosemite and, indeed, about the media machine itself.
By the time you finish reading City Beautiful, you come away feeling close, somehow, to Tennessee Reed, she has shared so much about herself and how she sees, hears and investigates this world. There is no hesitation. The opening poem of City Beautiful, "Choosing Sides," lets us in immediately, and there we stay.
Please welcome Tennessee Reed.-- Katherine Hastings
About the Author
Tennessee Reed began writing at the age of five, and has compiled five books of poetry. They include the previously published collections, Circus in the Sky (I. Reed Books, 1988), Electric Chocolate (Raven’s Bones Press, 1990), and Airborne (Raven’s Bones Press, 1996). Her fourth and fifth poetry books, written from 1998 to 2006, are combined in this publication and are titled City Beautiful and Animals & Others. Her poetry has also appeared in the San Francisco Examiner, the California State Library Foundation Bulletin, Poetry USA #25 & #26, The Raven Chronicles, Quilt and Konch magazines, and in the anthology From Totems to Hip Hop edited by Ishmael Reed (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2003). Composers Meredith Monk and Carman Moore set her poetry to music for “Face the Music,” a live performance work by The Children’s Troupe of Roberts + Blank that premiered in 1992 in Oakland’s East Bay Dance Festival. Ms. Monk and her vocal ensemble continue to perform “Three Heavens and Hells,” her twenty-minute a cappella work for four female voices, and recorded it on “Volcano Songs” (ECM New Series CD, 1997). Tennessee Reed has given poetry readings on the East and West Coasts of the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan. In 1994, she became the youngest person presented by the United States Information Agency’s Arts America Program, reading her poetry in Bonn and Berlin, Germany. Tennessee Reed is currently a resident of Oakland, California, and is Secretary of Oakland PEN. She is a graduate of U.C., Berkeley, where she received her B.A. in American Studies in 2001, and Mills College, where she received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing in 2005.