When Divas Howl at the Moon: The Diva Squad Poetry Collective

By Xlibris US

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 2, 2008
• ISBN: 9781465333650

Book preview

Contents

Yes, Sunrise in Love in the Season of Magical Beings: An Introduction  

The Age of Women: The Diva Squad Poetry Collective Comes of Age: A Missive from the Caribbean 

Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo 

Por Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo 

Chezia Thompson Cager strand 

Linda María Rodríguez Guglielmoni 

Ylonka Nacidit Perdomo English translations 

solitude 

love, floating and naked 

the night is a bridal bed of hidden sun yellow 

a night faint with sorrow: blue in the ecstasy of the moment 

strange exercise in dreams 

fictions 

sunrise in love in the season of magical beings 

memories 

time 

souls 

afternoons 

soledad 

amor. amor flotante. amor desnudo. 

la noche es un tálamo de amarillo secreto 

la noche está entristecida. triste de tristeza pálida 

extraño ejercito de sueños 

ficciones 

una vista del amanecer en una temporada de duendes 

memorias 

el tiempo 

almas 

tardes 

Chezia Thompson Cager Spanish translations 

Assonance on Your Shoes Blues: Memories 

Brothers at War 

Fathers & Daughters 

The Letter of the Law: A Cowgirl’s Remembrances 

Allegory Blues in the Swamp 

SAVANT 

Roll Me Through the Rushes, Like Moses 

Return to Gorée: or the Bride 

Hammer Song 

Rain Song 

La Dance: for Tereza Batista-Home from the Wars 

Beaded Necklace for a Spanish Saint 

Visitation 

Glossary Notes: 

Asonancia sobre tus zapatos de Jazz 

Hermanos en guerra 

Padres e hijas 

Blues alegóricos en el pantano 

Sabio 

Revuélcame entre los juncos como Moisés 

Regreso a Gorée: o la Novia 

Canción del martillo 

Canción de lluvia 

La danza: para Tereza Batista—en su hogar después de las guerras 

Un collar de cuentas para un santo español 

Visitación 

Linda María Rodríguez Guglielmoni’s English translations 

Speaking in TONGUES 

Oscillation A: Cowgirl 

Oscillation B: Paper Boats 

Advocate P. Americana 

Extra Virgin Spanish Olive Oil 

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico: A Short History 

Cartographies 

Third Stop: The Medina, Fez 

Sands 

Center Stage: Mosquito Bay

Song to Bioluminescence 

Dancing Drums: Song to the Mayagüez Bomba* 

Great Spaces 

OFF AXIS ANGLES: Scene One 

OFF AXIS ANGLES: Scene Two 

Hablar en LENGUAS 

Defensor P. Americana 

Aceite de oliva español virgen extra 

Mayagüez, Puerto Rico: Una breve historia 

Cartografías 

3ra Parada: La Medina, Fes 

Arenas 

Tablado central:

Bahía Mosquito

Canto a la bioluminiscencia 

Dancing Drums: Canto a la Bomba Mayagüeza 

Recipe for Becoming a Great White Writer 

Receta de helado de café para un amante: El placer del amor: ¿tibio o frío? 

A Country Girl’s Recipe for Becoming

a New Negro (in the 21st Century) 

Acknowledgements 

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Yes, Sunrise in Love in the Season of Magical Beings: An Introduction  

In times of crisis, we must all decide again and again whom we love.

—Frank O’Hara

I’m listening to Maria Callas as I sit down to write this introduction. It was either Maria or Aretha. Mention the word diva and one immediately has an image (or no image of a woman). Some people are great, many simply aspire to be. We live in a time of personalities—singers, actors and sports figures. Does Oprah have diva status? What about Venus or Serena? It’s more than a name—it’s a style. Today the word seems to be more and more a metaphor for female empowerment. I know a number of women who have that presence which seems to linger near the divine. One of them is Chezia Thompson Cager, a poet who I immediately associate with Baltimore. Might she be related to Billie Holiday? Chezia, the name resonates like a river and one ponders the existence of water maidens, singers whose voices or words have the ability to possess the soul. The poetry (and work) of Chezia Thompson Cager always carrys the smell of oils and the rhythms that conjure as well as educate and entertain.

The poetry included in When Divas Howl at the Moon will make you want to love in two languages. Thompson’s anthology begins with the work of Ylonka Nacidit-Perdomo. One will read her work and consider it to be seashells—discovered and placed against the ear.

I live. The rain touches the rocks

all is so immense . . .

Now and then one might be critical of the literary editor who includes their own work in a book they are editing. That’s not the case with When Divas Howl at the Moon. Chezia Thompson’s City Woman: A Ragtime Walk On River Water Near the Ocean, In Baltimore-USA follows Perdomo and sets the tone for the rest of the collection. Autobiographical with a touch of hot sauce sassiness, Thompson’s poem further highlights images of water.

A City Woman I count TIME as I go.

River Maiden, I now count sea shells by the sea shore singing to sea horses—pregnant and male.

By bringing together a choir of female voices who reside in this hemisphere, Thompson’s anthology pushes aside the concepts of borders and boundaries. It is language and poetry that brings us together in the 21st century, as much as economic globalization and political upheavals.

We live in a time when there is no longer a literary—other. When Divas Howl at the Moon embraces and celebrates sisterhood and community.

I’m suspicious however of the word squad, as in, The Diva Squad Poetry Collective. The word seems too restrictive to the genius and talent represented in this book. There is power here which resonates beyond the images of a Queen Latifah on a movie screen. Queen Latifah leads squads. Chezia Thompson presents two divas: Ylonka Nacidit—Perdomo and Linda Rodriguez Guglielmoni. Their poems and translations are here, as well as their creative recipes. Guglielmoni’s Recipe for Becoming a Great White Writer is as wonderful and different as Gertrude Stein’s homecookin. Beat the drum and this book of poems will gather the ancestors and gods. Word rituals in search of believers. However the heart of When Divas Howl at the Moon revolves around the work and energy of Chezia Thompson-Cager. The Diva Squad might feature three members but so did the Supremes. This book begs the reader to once again—Stop in the name of love. Stop in the name of Ogun, Shango and Yemoja.

So let us speak of visitation and remembrance. Let us think of a time when women of color undressed and revealed the beauty of their words:

I am a child born into the sin of the world

Remembering the ancient awakening

Of righteousness, a fallen angel, GOD’s eyes

Carrying the sword of real history—the story of our lives

Chezia Thompson Cager, Ylonka Nacidit Perdomo and Linda Rodriquez Guglielmoni are three women who have kept their heads above water. Now comes the tides of magic. The power of poetry resides in word-beads. These Divas know how to dress as well as strut. Behold the necklace of creativity which dazzles when they speak.

E. Ethelbert Miller

Director

African American Resource Center

Howard University

Washington, D.C.

January 26, 2008

The Age of Women: The Diva Squad Poetry Collective Comes of Age: A Missive from the Caribbean 

At the turn of the 21st Century the Diva Squad of contemporary poets stepped out and up. At first they laughed and celebrated the promise of a new dawn for African American poetesses in When Divas Laugh, published by Black Classic Press in 2001. Three years later, an integrated Diva Squad used the joyous infection expressed in kinetic exultation to summon achieving women and women artists in When Divas Dance published by Maisonneuve Press in 2004. Now as the first decade of the second millennium winds down, CCLEH in Canada and CDLEH in Santo Domingo have wisely brought together 3 unusual women poets on different continents to celebrate their inter-continental howling to communicate with each other and Diva Squad howls in When Divas Howl at the Moon, 2008.

These poets/poems celebrate the onward march of women since the last century, (of Senator Hillary Clinton competing for the Democratic presidential nomination and maybe presidency). The eight participants of the Diva Squad explore many aspects of contemporary society in the 3 works. They represent gender achievement as they are in the top percentiles of academia and the arts; they represent diversity across national and ethnic lines, which includes linguistic and ethnic differences. In this age, they represent the finer aspects