{"id":14284,"date":"2018-11-20T20:33:19","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T01:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=14284"},"modified":"2022-10-14T07:28:44","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T05:28:44","slug":"halls-poetry-about-more-than-black-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=14284","title":{"rendered":"Hall’s poetry about more than ‘black history’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

EDUCATION FOR PEACE . <\/p>\n

An article by Jeff Schwaner in The News Leader<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have poetry in us.\u201d This is the first thing Neal Hall wants to be clear about. The renowned African American poet and medical doctor reads from his work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, in the Carter Center for Worship and Music at Bridgewater College.<\/p>\n

While Hall is identified as an African-American poet, the demand for him to accept reading engagements is not limited to Black History Month. Hall has performed poetry readings throughout the United States and internationally in Canada, France, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Morocco, Nepal and India. He participated in Bridgewater College\u2019s 2015 International Poetry Festival last January.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPhoto: SUBMITTED \/ Steve Ladner<\/center><\/p>\n

The Bridgewater reading is sandwiched between trips to India and Italy, both chock full of readings and public addresses.<\/p>\n

In an email interview, Hall responded to questions of how being an African-American contributed to his evolution as a poet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat comes with the label of African-American or Black is this institutionalized, generational legacy of a trail of tears we are forced to walk. This trail and our tears make us uniquely sensitive to the suffering and exploitation of all men and women. It qualifies us and challenges us to stand up to be the true standard bearers and guardians of freedom for all,\u201d Hall writes. \u201cMy poetry is influenced by and speaks not just to the surface pain of injustice and inhumanity, but digs deep into that pain, into the genteel socio-political-economic- religious constructs used to blur the common lines of cause that is our shared story. This shared story, the poetry reminds us, should unite us in our common struggle to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if being identified as an African-American poet could be an obstacle to his expression, Hall responded, \u201cIf it is an identifier and\/or identity, I did not create it to identify me nor to limit me. As such, one has to ask the larger question: Who created it for me and for what reasons?\u201d<\/p>\n

Across the work of four books, Hall\u2019s poetic voice is insistent on his readers realizing their own will to be free, but also identifies the oppressor in its various institutional and cultural forms. \u201cWhen you see that you are not free \/ you must say and do, to be free,\u201d he writes in one of the poems from his first book. In the poems \u201cWhite Man Asks Me\u201d (\u201cA white man asked me to \/ be less than a man so that he could \/ find a face-saving way out\u201d) and \u201cDr. Nigga\u201d (\u201c…save my life \/ without \u00a0changing my life \/ when my white life codes blue\u201d) Hall directly confronts and reveals the\u00a0structure of racism.<\/p>\n

For some of his readers this is\u00a0difficult but necessary: “knowing that you are the cause and then the painful act of changing your behavior which has afforded and enriched you (relatively speaking)\u00a0generating socio-economic advantages over your brothers and sisters.”<\/p>\n

(continued in right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Question for this article:<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

\n

How can poetry promote a culture of peace?<\/a><\/p>\n

Are we making progress against racism?<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

(continued from left column)<\/p>\n

Poetry is one way to face such\u00a0formidable challenges. \u201cWe are the only obstacle getting in the way of our deeper expressions. I find my deepest expression in breathing air in and out deeply in the full realization of my connection, brotherhood and common humanity with all that exists. This connection, this brotherhood, our common humanity is seamless. It is the greed of man exploiting our fabricated man-made differences that has created seams in us, to divide us from our oneness. There is nothing complex nor complicated about man\u2019s gluttony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and an M.D. from Michigan State University. He received his surgical subspecialty training in ophthalmology at Harvard University\u2019s Medical School and was in private practice for more than 20 years in Flourtown, Pa.<\/p>\n

Hall is the author of four books of poetry, Nigger For Life, Winter\u2019s A\u2019 Coming Still, Appalling Silence and Where Do I Sit, that deal with oppression and exploitation in American society.<\/p>\n

The poet\u2019s charismatic reading style has captured international audiences that go far beyond what any label as an African-American poet might mean. I asked him about the connection. \u201cI have learned from my travels that the oppressors, oppression and their methods are the same all over the world and thus those who suffer from them are connected,\u201d Hall wrote. \u201cThe oppressed all understand that their oppression is based in large part on gluttony\/greed. The need for a source of continuous cheap labor and to rob people of their substance, their lands and resources often under the guise of religion, democracy, freedom, education, tradition, culture and self-serving charity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Few poets read in public as often as Hall. And Hall recognized this activity as a watershed moment in his development as a poet. \u201cThere in real time with the poetry of your heart and mind flowing from your mouth, you see yourself touching, moving audiences\u2019 hearts and minds to feel and live the poetry you\u2019ve lived and are re-living in the readings before them. There in real time, I learned to live in my poetry as much as my poetry lives in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

I asked him how that speaks to the mysterious relationship between writer and poem and reader.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is no mystery. What people get from your poetry is not only what you give them, but also the life experiences they bring to your poetry. And the life experience they bring to your poem can illuminate the words and impact far more \u2014 or less \u2014 in them than in you or your intent.<\/p>\n

So when readers respond in a very surprising manner to a poem, does it make him feel differently about the poem?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo. The poem is my poem and my experience. I can only feel what I bring to it and it to me. On the other hand, I do feel honored and grateful that others bring their different life experiences into play when reading about and connecting with my life experiences through my poetry. We are, as I have said, seamless! Poetry can bear witness to erase the seams man creates in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall writes in one of his poems, \u201cWe are socialized and emotionalized to see \/\u00a0our plight in black and white.\u201d<\/p>\n

No such adhering to stereotype in Hall\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

The program is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDUCATION FOR PEACE . An article by Jeff Schwaner in The News Leader \u201cWe all have poetry in us.\u201d This is the first thing Neal Hall wants to be clear about. The renowned African American poet and medical doctor reads from his work at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 18, in the Carter Center for Worship … Continue reading Hall’s poetry about more than ‘black history’<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,76,91],"tags":[11,5],"class_list":["post-14284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-for-peace","category-global","category-north-america","tag-global","tag-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}