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| MAY'S POET OF THE MONTH |
| SHANE ALLISON |
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| Shane Allison's poems, stories and reviews have appeared in James River Poetry Review, remark, Mind Caviar, Velvet Mafia, Suspect Thoughts, Frigg, Dicey Brown, Shampoo, Thunder Sandwich, The Glut, Plum Ruby Review, Main Street Rag, Chiron Review, Coal City Review, Babel and others he can't remember right off hand. He has poems forthcoming in Blaze Vox, Gargoyle and Dream Virus, and his third story will be pubished in Best Black Gay Erotica in the fall. Sloppy, wet kisses and big ole bear hugs go out to the editors of these publications, those I forgot to mention, Mrs. Kanu, my tenth grade English teacher who introduced me to this 'thang' called poetry, and Brian Fugett. |
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| ***POEMS*** |
| **INTERVIEW** |
| 1) How has being a black, homosexual male in today’s society impacted you as a poet? Have you ever encountered any form of discrimination from editors or publishers? |
| 2) You have been a fan-favorite on Zygote in my Coffee ever since your poem “DUDES” first appeared in issue #4. More often than not, your poetry is charged with a raw, edgy, homoeroticism. Yet there’s something about it that compels people of all races & sexual orientation to read it. Why do you think that is? |
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| 3) You use repetition quite effectively in a lot of your poetry. Not many poets can pull that off. I understand there’s an interesting story behind your use of repetition. Care to share that with us? |
| 5) What are your thoughts on the current state of poetry in the mainstream vs. the underground? Would you say the Internet & the proliferation of online zines has resurrected public interest in poetry? Why or why not? |
| 4) What are your thoughts on the sudden crop of homosexual themed shows & sitcoms such as “WILL & GRACE”, “QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY” & “QUEER AS FOLK”? Do you see pop-culture’s growing acceptance of homosexuality as a help or hindrance for gay rights? |
| 7) Can you describe for us what the writing process is like for you? What does it take to invoke your muse? Any quirky rituals we should know about? |
| 6) Who or what initially turned you on to the art of poetry & the written word? |
| I deal more with the impact of simply being queer than being black. My race doesn't seem to play much of a role in my work. I haven't found out what that role is yet. I wrote this poem called, "I'm a Black Homosexual." I keep re-writing it. I've written it in free verse form, a pantoum, and in a list form, but each time, it doesn't feel complete. It's not where I want it to be. I haven't found the words for it yet, so it still sits around. I haven't encountered any blatant descrimination from editors, but they do it in a way that is hidden. Some, I'm sure, get squemish when they come across my work, which is a given. There are too many publications out there that are publishing boring, safe shit. No one is pushing the fucking envelope. (But I'm getting off subject here.) I did get an e-mail from a couple who read my work online and didn't like it. When I told them where to go and what they should do with themselves, they told me I was "a waste of skin." Other things were said, but I've sense blocked it out. I won't lie, shit like that gets under my skin. That's the sensitivity in me as an artist. I felt bad afterwards for being so irrate with them. I think they were some old married couple. |
| I think people like my work because it's raw, edgy and honest, and I think that's a breath of fresh air for many. I think there is a stereotype in poetry where people believe that poetry comes in a package of abstraction and is often so serious in nature This isnot the case at all. I think in the past, before spoken word poetry came along, people were scared to approach poetry for those reasons, but with the surge of online magazines and performance poetry, poetry has gained a wider audience. I'm all about bringing comedy back to poetry. There's nothing that's as exhilirating as reading my work at a reading and listening to the roar of laughter from my audience. Laughter is the best emotion, and healthy for the soul. I think as artists, we shouldn't take ourselves so seriously or be afraid that we won't be taken seriously if we decide to go a different route. |
| I love what I can do with repetition. There is a lot of it that exists in the 'list' form, which is where all this was derived from. It has a lot to do with Ginsberg, Waldman and Denise Duhamel, really. They are the masters of the list poem. It's a fun form and I like to manipulate it. I've been doing a lot of that lately. "Boys are Crazy" is a good example of that manipulation. |
| It's interesting because in the beginning, I liked the idea of Will and Grace. I was into the whole concept, but I got tired of the characters that are often whiny. It's just more Cher, Barbra Streisand loving swishy stereotypical, gay white boy bullshit. The same goes for Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Queer as Folk. There are entire subcultures within the gay community that are not being represented truthfully. It's either the effiminate type for comedy relief, or the promiscuous men on Queer as Folk. I'm sure there are those who think we whine too much and should be grateful that gays are being represented, but the question is...are we being represented truthfully? There are entire communities that are either being represented falsely or fucking not at all. Where are the black gay men in gay-oriented films and TV shows? What about gay Asians, How about black lesbians? It's all such a blue eyed boys club. I'm very aware that these shows do not represent me. I definitely think it hurts more than help. Non-homosexuals and even those who are anti-gay are looking at shows like this and come away thinking that all gay people are either sissy-ish like Jack or promiscuous like Brian on Queer as Folk, or fashion addicts like the Queer Eye guys. It's not an appealing message to put out there. I think as gay men and women who feel the same way that I do, need to stand up and say...no. We need to say this shit is all wrong. We have come a along way yes, but at the fucking cost of being portrayed untruthfully? We need to get up and say...This is bullshit. These shows are just a small piece of the fucking pie. There's a whole pie left that has yet to be eaten. There are cultures and communities that are not being tapped into. TV shows and ads are catering to the gay white male or gay white lesbian, and the hell with the rest of us. I would like to think it's all a phase, that things will improve. It will go from what it is now, to being more realistic and responsible. |
| Online zines have been great to me. Moreso than some of the mainstream magazines that won't touch my work with a ten foot flag pole for obvious reasons. Online zines vs. mainstream magazines are simply more accesible for readers, writers and admirers of the literary word. People like the comfort of being at home or in the office reading poetry from online zines. In my experience, editors from online zines are more accepting of your work and more open about what you have to say. You guys are always open about new ideas in poetry. Yes, there is nothing like being published in a hardcopy zine and being proud of that accomplishment. It may be more rewarding than getting published online, but there are a great deal hard copy mags that lose shit loads of money, man. These things aren't exactly flying off the shelves. A normal literary magazine is about eight bucks and up. Who the fuck is going to pay that for a magazine, not to mention a literary magazine? The only people that buy them are writers. This doesn't include the work being done underground because the books and zines are often more accesible, and a hell of a lot more interesting than these boring, dry literary magazines I have come across in book stores. You have these editors who have such a conservative, narrow idea of poetry and so that's what their going to publish. Poetry that doesn't fucking say anything or evoke something. There's some great stuff coming out of the small press world. What I like about the small, underground press vs. the mainstream people, is that I have more room to spread my wings. But back to the mainstream mags. These guys end up losing more money than what they expect to make. which is why you have to be in this for the love of the fucking written word and not to make a buck. If that's the case, you're in it for the wrong reasons. |
| I started writing poetry when I was 16. Mrs. Kanu, my tenth grade English teacher, gave us an assignement to write a poem. I had never written poetry before that and besides, I was more into writing essays. I really wasn't into poetry at the time. I ended up writing a poem about the moon. I brought it to class, she asked if anyone wanted to share their work, and I volunteered. Needless to say, she liked it. People in my class didn't think I wrote it, but plagarized it, which was not the case. I was flattered that they thought I didn't write it because they proved to me that I was good at it, and had something. After that, I wrote more and more poems keeping them all in wide-ruled, 70 page notebooks. At the same time, I started reading Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker. Hughes was a huge inspiration for me when I started writing poetry. I bought his selected works and worshipped it. I love how he can say so much in such a short time. He was a poet for the people. I was into Alice Walker's work she wrote during the sixties. I don't know what the fuck she's writing now. I'm not so much into Walker and Angelou anymore. But I find myself always returning to Hughes. Later I was reading work from a lot of gay poetry anthologies. That's where I discovered Allen Ginsberg. "Kaddish" is one of my favorites, along with a poem he wrote called, 'Please Master." When I went to New York, I got into Anne Waldman and a lot of the spoken word, Nuyorican poetry. A poet by the name of Jeffrey McDaniel out of California is awesome. I'm reading the poems from a New York poet by the name of Ted Berrigan. He makes you feel like you could write about anything. Form poetry and queer poetry are my biggest influences. I like a little Plath, too. |
| Poetry to me will always be my first and only love. I go through phases with poetry it seems. Today it might be form, tomorrow I might go on some experimental escapade. I'm writing a few stories right now. I'm writing summer fiction stories. I'm always thinking about writing. I'm always thinking about poetry and the next idea. My senses are so acute. I soak it all up. That is what we do as artists. We drain the energy from our surroundings. I never worry about perfecting a poem in the beginning. I'm more concerned with getting the idea down first and worry about the other shit later. The writing always continues to mutate into something else from it's original idea anyway. Those mutations is what makes it so fascinating and magical. When my muse comes, he hits me in the head with a sledge hammer. I'll have to stop whatever I'm doing, grab some paper, a napkin, use my hand, and write the poem or some ideas for something I'll use later. I write all my work out in long hand. I enjoy the process of taking it from paper and moving it to computer and watching it change into something different from its original version. I've been known to write poems on computer, but only when I don't have my little pocket journal handy. Some poems do call for being written on a computer, and others call for being written in a journal. It's not just with poems, either. Throughout college and grad school, I wrote all my papers out in long hand. There's just something about staring at a white, bright computer screen that I find irritable. My creativity get's completely fucking blocked. I can't do nothin'. I understand computers work better for some and not for others, but for me, I gotta have a notebook of some sort. |
| As for new projects: I'm very excited about my second chapbook, "Black Fag" coming out this year. I also may have another one in the works. I have work coming out in a few anthologies, as well as some more online zines and lit. magazines. I just got a story accepted for Best Black Gay Erotica, which will be out in the fall. I may put together a chapbook of poems dealing with my family. That's an idea that's been dancing around in my head for some time now. I have a ton of things I want to do. I will continue to write poems and stories pretty much. I will start fishing around for a publisher for my first book later in the year. I have a lot going on now. |
| 8) What’s next for Shane Allison? Any new projects in the works? |