In celebration of Cleveland Book Week, local writers read to commuters with conviction and passion. They read their own poems and stories, as well as selections from Anisfield-Wolf Book Award winners’ work (the annual awards took place Sept. 7).
Many walked on, ignoring the spoken words. Other stopped and listened. Some cried.
New Departure Films, in collaboration with LAND Studio, Twelve Literary and Performative Arts Incubator, caught the moments on camera. What transpired is a 4-minute video full of Cleveland art, architecture, light rail and choice sentences.
“Greetings, Earthlings. My name is Slow And Stumbling. I come from planet Trouble. I am here to love you uncomfortable,” we hear in the video. It’s a piece of Jericho Brown’s Heart Condition.
Later, from a Marilyn Chin poem, “We are staring at the void, at the edge of Americaness, the Begonia is too beautiful. We must love and be loved.”
Watch the whole thing right here:
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2017.
If I had been unfortunate enough to encounter these disturbances, and been forced to be part of a mostly-unwilling and captive audience, I would move to another car. If that were not possible, I’d get off the train and wait for the next one.
Don’t care for that shit, don’t want to hear it, and see no reason to have to put up with it. Leave me alone with my own thoughts when I’m on the Rapid, okay? Why do the transit po-leeces even allow this nonsense to happen, fer chrissakes?
Chuckles the Clown