Memoirous

chicago daily 34 massacre 1929. Jun Fujita, photographer. St. Valentine's Day White men stoning an African-American man during the 1919 race riots. Chicago History Museum ICHi-022430; Jun Fujita, photographer haunting image taken by Chicago photojournalist, Jun Fujita, at the scene of the SS Eastland disaster. In my last post (link) I laid out the bare basic of some poetic forms that can be adapted to writing flash—or at the least observing nature and writing small about it. But as one can see from Eve Ewing’s poetry collection 1919 , yes her remarks emanated from setting a scene or landscape but also were responding to the 1919 Chicago Race Riot. And, also commenting on contemporary culture. I was first introduced or given visual cues about the Chicago Race Riot while visiting the Poetry Foundation . I forget what event I was there for, but there is a small exhibit space that they use to great impact. I’ve seen a few exhibits there that I’ve posted about. Th...

“Haibun for July 30” . . . . after days of blood, candles in the window again birds shake off the rain A couple of things: 1)Many of her poems are reactions to research on the 1919 Chicago Race Riot—specifically to The Negro in Chicago: A Study on Race Relations and a Race Riot , a 1922 report, an old book sitting on library shelves that broke Eve Ewing open when she read it. “ . . . It was so direct and made such a bold claim on totality.” Here is the excerpt she is reacting to from that study: Rain on Wednesday and Thursday drove idle people of both races into their homes. The temperature fell, and with it the white heat of the riot. (7) Eve Ewing did not approach this collection with a set methodology. She searched for the most (to her) authentic response/form. She chose to write a haibun. From an interview I found online: “There’s a haibun in the book (“Haibun for July 30”). People are more familiar with haiku, but what the haibun does is allow you...

In 1995 a heat wave hit Chicago. Almost 800 people died. Their bodies, too many for the morgue, were kept in refrigerated trucks in the coroner’s parking lot. From July 12 to July 16 daytime highs were above 100 degrees while at night it didn’t cool off. Back then AC was not the norm. You opened the window and turned on the fan. In my building the fuse box overheated and fuses blew out until we were down to the last one. We were asked to turn off refrigerators, TVs, stereos, whatever was drawing power. I remember it was the very week I started recording Marie James, a bag lady, to get her story. We sat in a room with a window open to the alley and the fetid dumpster. She rolled in with her cart full of old milk jugs and wiping her neck with a dirty rag. But somehow I was able to overcome the sensory distractions and turn on my recorder. Her story transported me. A year later Orphan Girl was published. I have just now gotten around to reading 1919 by Eve Ewing. Dr. Eve E...