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Posts Tagged ‘poetry reading’

Public Poetry Recitation in 111 Languages

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on September 19, 2018| 5 Comments »

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Photo: CTV News
In 2009, people in New York took turns reading a poem by the late Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy in 111 languages — and broke a Guinness record. For organizer Ashrita Furman, this was just one of many world records to his credit.

As I walk around New York City, I like reading the electronic kiosks that provide information about the city. Other people walk with their heads bent to their phones. I like the kiosks. Among ads and pieces of practical information that the city wants people to know, are brief factoids about the city’s history.

One tidbit that caught my eye on a recent trip highlighted the day that a poem was read in 111 languages outside city hall. My interest in languages and poetry led me to investigate this feat for the blog. But I soon discovered that for the event’s organizer, neither poetry nor language was a motivator. He’s into breaking records.

Clare Trapasso reported on the 2009 event for the New York Daily News.

“Reciting poetry in Zulu may not seem like much of a talent, but it landed Ashrita Furman in the record books — yet again. Furman, 54, of Jamaica, Queens, became the first person to hold 100 Guinness Book of World Records simultaneously Tuesday after assembling a group that recited a poem in 111 languages at City Hall Park. The bunch took turns reading ‘Precious,’ by the late Indian spiritual leader Sri Chinmoy. … More than 100 participants — followers of Chinmoy from around the globe — recited the poem in languages ranging from Dzongkha to Picard.

“Furman, a health-food store manager, has earned about 230 Guinness records since 1979, when he did 27,000 jumping jacks in five hours. Earlier [in 2009], Furman broke the record for eating the most M&Ms with chopsticks in a minute. He ate 38. Over the last 30 years, the man who has broken a record on every continent — including the fastest mile on a pogo stick in Antarctica and the fastest mile on a kangaroo ball on the Great Wall of China — has seen many of his own feats toppled. …

” ‘As a kid I was always fascinated by the Guinness Book of World Records. But I was very unathletic and I never thought I could,’ Furman said. It was only when he discovered meditation as a teenager that he said he started to believe in his own abilities – however quirky they might be.

” ‘I believe we all have an inner strength that we very rarely use,’ Furman said.”

More at the Daily News, here.

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Poetry at Infamous NY Prison

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2016| 4 Comments »

The 17th century Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace wrote in “To Althea from Prison,”

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone, that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.

I am not going to make the case that inmates at New York’s Rikers Island prison have “minds innocent and quiet,” but I will contend that poetry can help to free the soul.

Kirk Semple at the NY Times has a story about a poetry reading in the prison.

“The inmates at Rikers Island were slumped in plastic chairs, their expressions suggesting boredom and doubt. They had been pried from their favorite television shows to attend — of all things — a poetry reading. Some nice people from the public library, they were told.

“Then came the poet: unshaven, in his early 20s, dark hooded sweatshirt, dark T-shirt, dark ball cap slung backward on his head. Some men leaned forward, elbows on their knees. Expressions shifted to curiosity: This was not what they were expecting.

“ ‘I’m going to kick a couple of poems,’ the poet, Miles Hodges, said in a drawl of the street, before unleashing a blizzard of words titled ‘Harlem.’ His intonation percussive and incantatory, he spoke of race and of children playing amid ‘roached blunts and roached joints’ that were ‘scattered around the purple-, pink- and black-chalked R.I.P. signs as if whispering from the concrete jungle, “I’m resting in peace and high.” ’

“Mr. Hodges, 25, is a spoken-word performer and a somewhat unusual ambassador of the New York Public Library, where he was hired this year to help create programs to attract members of the millennial generation.

“For the past couple of months, he has been developing a spoken-word program at Rikers, where the library has for years offered a variety of services, including a book-lending system.

“ ‘I really wanted to include this other section of New York City that often doesn’t get discussed as part of the city,’ Mr. Hodges said in an interview. ‘You’ll hear me say a lot: They can lock your body up, but they can’t cage your mind.’ “

Asakiyume volunteers in a prison where she helps women with writing. Bet they would get a kick out of a poetry reading like that.

More at the NY Times, here.

Photo: Richard Perry/The New York Times
Miles Hodges, in cap, performing at Rikers Island.  

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