[New-Poetry] Haiku and the Middle Passage

[jforjames at aol.com]

http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/06/haiku_poet_to_share_interpreta.html

Haiku poet to share interpretation of slave ship passage
Posted by Clayton Hardiman | The Muskegon Chronicle June 22, 2008 00:22AM
Categories: Breaking News?? Mursalata Muhammad

Poets have striven to tell the story of the Middle Passage before.


And why not? The Middle Passage -- the forced transport across the Atlantic of kidnapped African men, women and children, packed like sardines in the holds of slave ships -- is a tale of such heartbreak, suffering and drama that it practically screams for artistic interpretation.


But, Mursalata Muhammad may be the first to recall the experience in just this way.


For one thing, she chose to write her verse in haiku, the spare, disciplined Japanese form of poetry that packs a world of meaning into every word and syllable. Muhammad also invited visual artists and musicians to create their own interpretations to accompany her work.


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