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Medina, a product of the 1960's
South Bronx, fights against the marginalization of those who use
language to hold a mirror to society.
As he explained in an interview,
"On one hand, you have the dominance of the MFA program in the
academy mass producing poets that are writing stale, stagnant,
imitation white poetry…. Then you have the circus show atmosphere of
the mundane and mediocre coming out of the so-called spoken word and
Slam scene."
Medina believes there needs to
be a place for poets, particularly of color, "who have something to
say." To that end, he co-edited (with fellow poet/essayist Louis
Reyes Rivera) a new collection called Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry
Jam.
In Bum Rush, Medina writes that in
the Slam arena, "poetry is not what matters, but
performance." His stance on Slam is controversial, but, for
Medina, in the beginning was the Word. Not spoken, but written.
In the ninth grade, Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon lured
Medina into the world of fiction. "It was through fiction
that I fell in love with literature and said I wanted to be a
writer," he recalled. But when he began writing poetry three
years later, he moved away from fiction. "I didn't feel as
secure about my fiction as I did my poetry, but what I didn't know
as a young writer about fiction, I learned in poetry and began
applying what I learned in poetry in my fiction."
Medina spends a good deal of his
artistic life working with and creating for children. Three of his
ten books are written for them. In the beautifully nostalgic
DeShawn Days, his first children's book, Medina includes an
inspiring little epilogue that relates his journey to becoming a
writer. He helps children consider the less fortunate in his
second children's book, Christmas Makes Me
Think. "I want
kids who are shaped to be materialistic and greedy to be a bit
more sensitive to the unnecessary suffering their privileges bring
to others. I want them to see how they are related to everyone on
the planet." His latest book, Love to
Langston, is a series
of biographical verses on the famous poet, written to give
children "a fuller depiction of Langston's complex and
fascinating life." Sharing words with children is but another
way for Tony Medina to craft a better world.
M
May 2002 |
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