Wanda Coleman Super Bowl of Poetry bookmark. (Held at the Auburn  SPLAB.)

Wanda Coleman, born in Los Angeles, was an award-winning poet, author, and former scriptwriter. She wrote more than 20 books across forms, from her first poetry chapbook Art in the Court of the Blue Fag, published by Black Sparrow Press in 1977, to Heavy Daughter Blues, also published by Black Sparrow in 1987. This month, Cascadian Prophets is bringing back this February 2002 interview with the artist. In it, she discusses the African-American literary avant garde, why such a movement is helpful, and how literature in the U.S.A. has suffered because African-American writers are still “too busy, advocating for our status as human beings in this country.” She also touches on how universities in the U.S.A. have a corporate mindset, and much more, before reading American Sonnets from her book Mercurochrome, Black Sparrow Press 2001. She lived until 2013. Her assessment that “…when it comes to social programs, there’s this complacency. There’s this huge apathy. Look what happened after the bombing in Oklahoma City, of the Federal Building. what happened after Columbine. This amnesia that seems to fall like a curtain after very significant events. There’s a criminalization process taking place of women and youth in this country.” continues to be a perceptive and foretelling analysis.

The original interview with Wanda Coleman can be found here.