AGLA hosts Douglas Kearney, Local Poet
Walking into the cavernous multi-purpose room at Aveson Global Leadership Academy (AGLA), the room that usually houses 2 salad bars and a dozen or so cafe tables surrounded by kids on Chromebooks, a man is walking through an audience of 80-plus teens who have, some of them, let their jaws drop and eyes grow wide. He is rapping, shouting, even growling. This is poetry at it’s best. This is Douglas Kearney.
Douglas Kearney is an award winning poet, a professor at Cal Arts, and perhaps most importantly: an Altadena native. He is as local as the definition of local allows.
"I composed this poem," he tells the teens, "On the corner of El Molino and Altadena." The poem he recites--if that word can even be abstracted from his staccato, gripping, performance--is "Orange Alert", about the fires in the mountains behind our homes in the fall of 2009. He has them. All of them.
The photographer is there to take pictures, but her camera does not focus on this man. She is sucked into his poetry, swirled around the still air of the multi-purpose room, startled out of it when he abruptly ends. This man is genius - a local genius. He is here to teach kids and there is nowhere but up for them to go now.
Embedded in other words of wisdom is advice such as "Read everything!" And with poetry, especially in the beginning: "Be genuine. The rewards of poetry don't come if it's not an actual interpretation of yourself...You have to be present in the work. Try to be your whole self when you sit down to write."
A boy in the front who looks like he's groomed for the 1950's shoots his hand up, asking if Poe is an influence, specifically, “The Raven.” Kearney doesn’t skip a beat, he recalls Poe that was personally more influential; a poem that is lesser known; catchy and cutesy-at-first, entitled "Bells." He finds it online, projects it for the teens, and performs it in a way that no Poe savant could even stutter. This is Public Enemy Poe, Poe 2014...Altadena Poe?
Kearney internalizes the poetry, establishes the rhythm, and introduces the crowd to the power of language. The absolute, engulfing, strength of the written word, when spoken. Kearney is a master. AGLA students seemed to recognize that and honor that. Fully attentive, they dig deeper: "What is your most meaningful work?" "Do you plan your piece before you start?" "What one emotion would you say is in each of your poems?"
Confusion, Kearney admits, is the strength in his poetry. He uses both anger and fear. Because rage can be vulnerable. And being vulnerable can induce rage. He turns to his recent work, “Patter,” as example. Fatherhood. The process itself is scary. The scarring of miscarriages, the extremes of renewal and birth and timed delivery. Then the Kabam of fatherhood! You're new role! Your oh-my-god-Trayvon Martin. My son could be Trayvon. Suddenly it's all about some Skittles: it could end like that! Fear. And rage. In his delivery of his poems, the room vibrates with those emotions. He offers a hand to the teens and then drags them through the uncomfortable. No plan. But completely premeditated. Grab on. It is worth the ride!
Thank you, AGLA, Jessie Gloyd specifically, for bringing this incredible voice home.
Douglas Kearney was raised in Altadena and graduated from John Muir High in 1994.
