In honor of National Poetry Month, we’ve asked some of Arizona’s most exciting poets to share their thoughts and insights about poetry.
Today we speak with Erik O’Neal of BlackPoet Ventures.
The collective known as BlackPoet Ventures formed in 2005 in an effort, they have said, “to make performance poetry more interesting.” Since its founding, the collective has endeavored to promote, support and enhance the oral tradition artistry of poetry and spoken word movements of the African Diaspora.
This past January, BlackPoet Ventures was selected to participate in Arizona Art Tank, a special initiative of the Arizona Commission on the Arts. They were given 6 minutes to pitch an arts-based venture to a live audience and a panel of experts. Their pitch described a venture that would merge creative expression with entrepreneurial spirit, inspiring inner-city, urban youth to speak out for their communities by training them in the fundamentals of journalism, photojournalism, documentary and broadcasting media. Against stiff competition, BlackPoet Ventures were awarded $6,000 in seed-funding that evening. Â
Erik O’Neal, one of the collective’s founding members, was generous enough to answer a few questions about BlackPoet Ventures, their mission and the how they’re changing the world, one poem at a time.Â
BlackPoet Ventures employs poetry as an engine of social change. Can you give us a sense of how that works? How are you using poetry to spark change?
The poet is born out of restlessness and angst. He or she is willing to take the lead to speak for the speechless and to be the voice of the voiceless. Their words can no longer remain confined, and their poetry becomes the catalyst for change. The point of poetry is to say something, but it is also about doing something. Grand changes within society must first occur with spokespersons. Poets are no different than legislators or lobbyists.
BlackPoet Ventures works to spark change by ensuring that our productions and projects include community engagement and educational components. Through the Hashtag Change The World project, youth will use various avenues of creative expression to spark change in themselves and their peers. The art of poetry and spoken word will help them to become better thinkers, leaders, speakers, motivators and changemakers.
The project BlackPoet Ventures pitched at Arizona Art Tank has a significant journalistic component. Can you comment on the relationship between poetry and journalism? Do you feel the poet has a responsibility to also be a reporter?
Olivia O’Leary wrote:Â “Journalism and poetry at their best try to state the truth. Journalism and poetry at their worst do the opposite.” And poet Phyllis McGinley stated: “Poetry is commentary on the world by people who see the world more clearly and are moved by it.”
The journalistic aspect of the Hashtag Change The World project is a significant component because BPV is made up journalists. The poet has the responsibility to create a veracious picture of the world around them, to help others to see that world through their eyes and to be moved by that picture in a way that may have never occurred. Both can stir up controversy, ignite people to think and feel, and ultimately to act. Whereas a reporter should be objective for the most part, he or she can make a difference in the way our world and the people in it are presented.
We recognize that when young people can adequately communicate their world they can effectively change their world.
BlackPoet Ventures has coined the term “poeticduction” to describe some of their work. How do you define that term?
A “poeticduction” is the marriage between poetry and theater, a creation that fuses the rigid discipline of theater with the lucidness of poetry.
How has poetry changed your own life?
Poetry has become my voice, my truth. And by being so it has freed me from paralyzing fears that kept me motionless as a youth and has unlocked my fears as an adult. Now through poetry I have become the voice for the voiceless, the inspiration for so many others, the epitome of social change. Poetry has given me the courage to take on the powers that be to affect change by being the storyteller, the griot of the community.
What’s next for BlackPoet Ventures?
During June we will present a production in celebration of Juneteenth and Father’s Day. During the fall, we will collaborate on a Jazz Series at Carver Museum and Cultural Center as well as present our stage adaptation of Ed Pavlic’s “Winners Have Yet To Be Announced: A Song For Donny Hathaway” at University of Georgia, where the author is a professor of English.
The general public can engage with BlackPoet Ventures by visiting our website (BlackPoetVentures.com) or Facebook page (BlackPoetVentures) for a calendar of events. We often request volunteer help with our upcoming events.
BlackPoet Ventures (BPV) represents a mix of creative entrepreneurs, performers, activists, writers and journalists as well as motivational speakers. Their talents have been featured on various Valley stages, including, Herberger Theater Center; ASU Kerr Cultural Center; Tempe Center For The Arts; the VIAD’s Playhouse on the Park; and Carver Museum and Cultural Center. In April 2007, BPV was invited to perform the invocation for the 26th Annual Governor’s Arts Awards. In February 2009, BPV worked with Arizona Theatre Company’s community outreach efforts for its presentation of A Raisin In The Sun.
BPV has developed a respected reputation in Arizona’s African-American community and arts community, making numerous appearances at annual community and cultural events, including: Valley of the Sun Juneteenth; Arizona Black Expo; MLK Youth Celebration; ASU Welcome Black Poetry Explosion; Miss Black Arizona Scholarship Pageant; and Stop The Violence Peace Fest.
Furthering its mission, BPV has developed the BlackPoet Archive, The International Black Poets Society and the Angaza Awards. Other ventures of BPV include: film works; youth theatre; publishing; and artist services.
Banner Image: Leah Marche (center) and Erik O’Neal (right of center), Co-founders of Black Poet Ventures. OD Harris Photography
