Bop, Strut, Dance: Call For Submissions (CFS)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Afaa Michael Weaver and Assistant Editor Tara Betts invite you to submit your Bop poems to Bop, Strut, and Dance: A Post-Blues Form for New Generations--an anthology that will celebrate the music, complexities, and resolutions evident in the contemporary poetic form known as the Bop, which Afaa Michael Weaver created while teaching as at Cave Canem as first faculty in 1997. The Bop is steeped in the musicality of jazz and blues, and has been taken up by a diverse range of poets and writers-new, emerging, and experienced.

The deadline for submissions is 09/15/2010. This call is not limited to African American poets. We want submissions from anyone who has tried to write a Bop or is thinking of trying to write. We are only accepting electronic submissions. Please include a cover letter with complete contact information: your name, mailing address, and phone number. Your cover letter should note the titles of your poems, a brief bio (75-150 words), and where you heard about Bop, Strut, and Dance. Please send no more than 3-5 poems in 12 pt. Times New Roman font. Submissions can be sent to webebop@gmail.com. Submissions should be sent as a Microsoft Word attachment. If you are a Mac user please convert your submission to Microsoft.

About the Bop

In 1997, during a summer retreat of the African American poetry organization, Cave Canem, Afaa created this poetic form, the Bop, as an exercise for his workshop students, among whom were the late Vincent Woodard, Honoree Fanonne Jeffers, and Terrance Hayes. Inspired by Langston Hughes’ blues poems and the triadic structure of the Pindaric ode, Weaver established the original form of the Bop is a poetic argument consisting of three stanzas, each stanza followed by a repeated line, or refrain, and each undertaking a different purpose in the overall argument of the poem. In Afaa’s original form, the first stanza (six lines long) states the problem, the second stanza (eight lines long) explores or expands upon the problem, and he third stanza (six lines long) attempts a resolution. If a substantive resolution cannot be made, then this final stanza documents the attempt and failure to succeed. The refrain forms the final stanza.

As Afaa stated in revealing the form to his workshop students that the refrain was to be a line from a song, hence the direct reference to the traditions of African American musical expression. The use of such lines has to be observant of copyright restrictions where applicable. Afaa’s poem “Rambling” (The Plum Flower Dance) is a precise example of the Bop’s original form. The Bop was created with the hope that it would facilitate the full range of subject matter from the personal to the political and that it would, as a poetic form, be an open system, hence the lack of requirement for a specific meter and the offering of the form to poets of all races and ethnicities. Honoree Fanonne Jeffers was the first of Afaa’s students to publish a Bop. Evie Shockley and a few other poets have added to the form, so the Bop already exists in variations. In addition to the three-stanza Bop, some have added a six-line fourth stanza, still ending on the refrain. Others have created the double Bop, making the poem twice as long.

Some other poets who utilize the form include:

• Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon's “Bop: Haunting” and “Spring Bop: New York, 1999” in Black Swan and “Bop: The North Star” in ]Open Interval[,
• “Bop: To Know You Is to Love You” in Honoree Fanonne Jeffers’ The Gospel of Barbecue,
• Evie Shockley’s “double bop for ntozake shange” and “the last temptation: a 21st century bop odyssey” in a half-red sea,
• “Green: A Bop” in Tug by G.E. Patterson,
• Tara Betts with “Bowery” and “Escape of Choice” in Arc & Hue,
• John Murillo’s "Soon I'll Be Loving You" in Up Jump the Boogie,
• Tonya Hegamin, Amanda Johnston, Teri Ellen Cross, Alan King, Randall Horton and others.

About The Editors

Afaa Michael Weaver

Afaa was the first faculty member of Cave Canem to be named an Elder. A veteran of fifteen years as a blue collar factory worker, he received his M.A. in Creative Writing (1987) from Brown University. Afaa founded 7th Son Press while working at Procter & Gamble’s Baltimore plant. He co-edited Gathering Voices (1985) and was the editor of These Hands I Know (2000). He served as the Editor of Obsidian III (1997-2000) at NC State University. Afaa has received a Pushcart Prize, a Pew fellowship in poetry, and taught in Taiwan as a Fulbright scholar. His tenth collection of poetry is The Plum Flower Dance. His eleventh collection of poems, Kama i’reeh (Like the Wind), a translation of his work into Arabic, is forthcoming. A student of Chinese language and culture, Afaa holds an endowed chair at Simmons College, where he has convened two international gatherings of Chinese poets and scholars in the field, the first such gatherings ever convened in the United States. Afaa’s website is: www.afaamweaver.com

Tara Betts

Tara Betts is the author of the book Arc and Hue (Aquarius Press, 2009). Tara is a lecturer in creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. She is also a Cave Canem fellow. Her work appears in several anthologies, magazines, and journals. Tara Betts encourages literacy and works with non-profit organizations and arts programs. She has performed and recited her work throughout the United States, London, and Cuba. Her writing has also been adapted for the stage in several productions, including Steppenwolf Theater’s “Words on Fire” and “Fingernails Across a Chalkboard” at Harlem’s National Black Theater. She received her B.A. at Loyola University Chicago and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from New England College. Her website is www.tarabetts.net