Bop, Strut, and Dance

Anthology Update #3

2011-06-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

Afaa and Tara have sent out the acceptance letters for BOP, STRUT, & DANCE. It was difficult to eliminate some poems, but the editors appreciated the diverse range within the hundreds of submissions received.

In the meantime, the foreword, editors' notes, and gathering final details from some of the contributors is underway. The editors are still seeking a publisher, and we have some promising possibilities.

In other good news, Afaa Weaver has published an essay on how to write the Bop poem in Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry (Dos Gatos Press, 2011).

Anthology Update #2

2011-04-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Afaa and Tara are finishing up their semesters at Simmons College and Rutgers University respectively. They have both been doing readings, appearing at conferences, and doing new work of their own, so reading the submissions has taken a bit longer than they expected. The good news is that they expect to send out acceptance letters soon!

In the meantime, feel free to check out Demetrice Worley's "An African American Woman's Offering: A Bop" in her new book Tongues In My Mouth (Main Street Rag, 2011).

Anthology Update #1

2010-12-16T00:46:00.000-08:00

The editors are reading the submissions during the Winter Break. We'll post a more specific date for when the acceptance letters will be sent via email. We received submissions from all over the country that represent a diverse cross-section of writers in terms of content, perspective, and aesthetics.

In the meantime, you may want to check out Pemba's Song by Marilyn Nelson and Tonya C. Hegamin. This YA novel might be an ideal holiday gift, but some of the poems that the main character Pemba pens in her notebook are Bop poems!

Thank you for your patience and sharing your poems with us.

Sincerely,
Afaa and Tara

ONE WEEK UNTIL THE DEADLINE!!!

2010-09-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

This is just a reminder that there's one week left to submit poems to Bop, Strut, and Dance. Email submissions to webebop@gmail.com.

We wanted to share another example of a Bop poem as well: Venise Battle's "Bop Poem" in Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade edited by Toi Derricotte, Cornelius Eady, and Camille T. Dungy.

ONE MONTH UNTIL THE DEADLINE!

2010-08-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

If you haven't finished and revised your Bop Poems, start now! Afaa and Tara have been getting submissions from all over the U.S. from a diverse group of writers. They hope that you will join the growing mass of Bop poems that they will consider for Bop, Strut, and Dance.

In the meantime, check out this insightful essay by Meta DuEwa Jones in RATTLE. Jones examines poetic forms employed by African American poets, including the Bop poem and several other poetic forms.

Bop Sighting: Teri Ellen Cross

2010-05-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

Another Bop sighting with Teri Ellen Cross on the TORCH Poetry edited by Amanda Johnston. Here's a poem from the archives of TORCH entitled "Scar Tissue: A Bop".

Teri Ellen Cross holds a BS in Journalism from Ohio University and a MFA in Poetry from American University. She was a Ford Foundation fellow in 1997, a Cave Canem fellow, and attended the Soul Mountain Writer’s Retreat. Her poems have been published in many anthologies including Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Poetic Voices Without Borders 2, and Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem's First Decade. She can be heard online in the 2008 Library of Congress series “The Poet and the Poem,” hosted by Grace Cavalieri. She is the Poetry and Lectures Coordinator at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC and resides in Silver Spring, MD with her husband, poet Hayes Davis and their daughter Zoë.

Bop Sighting: Bop Poems in MiPoesias

2010-05-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

In the 2007 online edition of MiPoesias edited by Evie Shockley, there were two Bop poems published. The two poems are "A Bop: Blues Alternative" by G.E. Patterson, author of To and From (Ahsahta Press, 2008) and "Bop: Bop" by Brandon D. Johnson, author of Love's Skin (The Word Works, 2006).

To look at past and the current issue of MiPOesias, click here.

Bop Sighting: Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

2010-04-28T10:32:00.000-07:00

An example of the Bop for those of you who'd like to hear and see one. Here's one that Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read at the 2009 National Book Awards finalists reading.

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon reads at the 2009 Natinal Book Awards Finalist Event from National Book Foundation on Vimeo.

"Bop: The North Star" is the third poem that she reads in this video and the first poem in her collection ]Open Interval[. You can also see the text for "Bop: The North Star" at the National Book Foundation website. Look for more "Bop Sightings" on this blog soon.

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

2010-04-22T22:29:00.000-07:00

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