Shownotes
Glenis Redmond discovered the Power of Poetry to Heal, 28 years ago, when she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
In 1995 she founded the first Greenville Poetry Slam and took the first all-women's team to Nationals. She is the founder of Peace Voices, a poetry program dedicated to poetry outreach and engagement in the community through the Peace Center for the Performing Arts in Greenville, SC. She has written numerous poetry books and won many awards.
In 2019 Glenis was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. She has gone through a very difficult year of chemotherapy and a Stem Cell transplant. She is now rebuilding her immune system and doing much better.
In our conversation, Glenis talks about how poetry has been a healing force in her life, both through illness and racism. She shares how she has viewed illness as a gift that has allowed her to refocus and also shift into a deeper way of living.
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Transcripts
Foreign.
Speaker B:Boomer listeners, my name is Wendy Green and can you believe it?
Speaker B:This is the tenth episode of hey Boomers.
Speaker B:How cool is that?
Speaker B:My guest today is Glennis Redmond.
Speaker B:Glennis is such an inspiration.
Speaker B:I'm sure most of you know her or know of her.
Speaker B:Incredibly inspiring.
Speaker B:We're going to be talking about poetry as healing and healing in so many different aspects of your life.
Speaker B:And you will learn how poetry has helped Glynis cope with many different in her life over the last 28 odd years.
Speaker B:If you like what you're hearing, please go ahead and click the like or the heart.
Speaker B:Leave us a comment.
Speaker B:Share it with your friends that may not be here.
Speaker B:That's being a good friend, you know, because that way your friends get to experience this as well and you are getting to share all of this work, this good talk out there with them.
Speaker B:At hey Boomer, we are building meaningful conversations and building a community of people who care for each other, who share with each other, who continue conversations even after we're done broadcasting.
Speaker B:So if there are comments that you want to make after the broadcast is over or you want to leave a message for myself or for Glenys, please go ahead and do that.
Speaker B:I will be sure to get back to you.
Speaker B:Share anything that you have to say with Glenys, and we look forward to continuing these conversations and building this community.
Speaker B:You may have noticed that I put a new link on the hey Boomer page.
Speaker B:It's called Buy Me a Cup of Coffee.
Speaker B:It's a wonderful new creative tool or a tool that helps encourage creativity or support creativity.
Speaker B:These are broadcasts are going to continue to be free forever, hopefully.
Speaker B:But Buy Me a Cup of Coffee is a way that if you like what's happening and you feel like you want to support, support what I'm doing in some way, you can just click on that and buy me a cup of coffee.
Speaker B:So let me bring Glennis on and.
Speaker B:Hi.
Speaker B:Hello.
Speaker A:Hi, Wendy.
Speaker A:Happy 10th episode.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker B:Very exciting.
Speaker A:Very exciting.
Speaker B:So let me tell you how I met Glennis.
Speaker B:My mother and I went to a Peace Voices presentation at the Peace Center.
Speaker B:That was the first time that we saw you present poetry.
Speaker B:And we were both completely blown away and inspired.
Speaker B:And I know that I very kind of tentatively walked up to you because I was so nervous, like yours is big performer, you know.
Speaker B:So I tentatively walked up to you and said, oh, I just loved what you did, or something to that effect.
Speaker B:And then I continued to try and come to as many of those performances as I could.
Speaker B:And then one day I Got brave or crazy and.
Speaker B:And came with a friend to one of your workshops.
Speaker B:I had never written poetry in my life.
Speaker B:And I mean, I journal, you know, but I'm not a poet.
Speaker B:And so I was sitting in that class that first day and, you know, hearing you read some things and teaching us and hearing some of the other people in the class who were really poets.
Speaker B:And then the assignment was go off and write something and then come back and you can share it.
Speaker B:And I remember walking up to you saying, do I have to?
Speaker A:Do I have to share it?
Speaker B:But if you remember, by the last day when we invited.
Speaker B:I actually got up there and recited a poem.
Speaker A:You did.
Speaker A:And you know, that's what I want to as a teaching artist and a poet, let people know poetry is for everyone.
Speaker A:And so I'm a gentle pen pusher.
Speaker A:So I remember that moment.
Speaker A:And I'm so glad that you were able to step forward in that way because poetry is a powerful tool for all of us.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:And I totally learned that in your class.
Speaker B:And it, and I think like you say, it's not just writing it, it's not just speaking speaking it.
Speaker B:It's also the sharing of it that creates a lot of that power around it.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:I believe in all the lives of poetry.
Speaker A:When you read it, when you write it, and when you speak it to life and you get to connect with your community in a way, when you share it, there's something about your words in the air that connects the heart to one another.
Speaker A:So that third phase of poetry is powerful and palpable.
Speaker A:Even though most people are really scared, even the ones you look around say, oh, they write so well, but they're really scared to share.
Speaker A:But then you realize that by sharing, sharing is a muscle.
Speaker A:And so the more you share, the stronger you get at sharing.
Speaker A:It's not the opposite.
Speaker A:You know, I'm not going to do this because it's.
Speaker A:But once you do it and you keep doing, and that's what just in my teens, they realize that their voice just gets stronger and they are able to extend more out into the community because they keep exercising that muscle.
Speaker A:And so I love sharing as a muscle.
Speaker B:Yeah, and I think that's true.
Speaker B:I mean, even with this show, you know, every time before, I'm always like a little bit nervous and I want it to go so well and.
Speaker B:But, you know, the more you do it, the more comfortable.
Speaker B:I'm glad that you mentioned your teens and I haven't even done your intro yet, but we're in it.
Speaker B:I'M glad that you mentioned your teens, because some of them I saw perform at your.
Speaker B:At the Peace center.
Speaker B:And, you know, you just are in awe.
Speaker B:I mean, how can someone at 15 know as much and feel as deeply as some of those kids were able to know and feel?
Speaker A:Well, here's the thing.
Speaker A:I was a, you know, we were teenager once, and I remember one of the things I hated was to be discounted or talked down to.
Speaker A:So when I am mentoring young people, my, my.
Speaker A:My role is to meet them where they are and to truly see them and help them, empower them.
Speaker A:They come to me already strong and righteous, but once they start writing poetry, they get even stronger.
Speaker A:So I can't take credit for all that they are because they're walking already in that direction.
Speaker A:I just get to guide them.
Speaker A:And so as a facilitator, it's really powerful to watch that generation.
Speaker A:But I try to lead in the way I want it to be led.
Speaker A:I did not have that growing up in Piedmont, but I had my journal, and I had a teacher who had his right in our journal.
Speaker A:And my journal became my guide that I linked arms with.
Speaker A:So when I'm teaching, I want.
Speaker A:I teach people the way I would have wanted to have been taught.
Speaker A:And led makes sense.
Speaker B:I want to talk more about that, but let me just do a brief introduction and then let you talk about where you are on this journey right now.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:So as Glynis mentioned, she is from Pierre Piedmont, South Carolina, or the Piedmont area of South Carolina.
Speaker B:She has twin daughters and one grandson who is just precious to her.
Speaker B:She is a poet and a teaching artist, as she mentioned, and has been a poet in residence both at the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and the Peace center for the Performing Arts here in Greenville.
Speaker B:She has also traveled so much nationally and internationally that she became known as the Road Warrior Poet.
Speaker B:Some of that has slowed down right now with all that you've been going through.
Speaker B:So I know we're going to be talking about poetry as healing.
Speaker B:Can you give us a little background on where we're coming from with that?
Speaker A:Well, first, I want to say with the Road Warrior stuff, there was a year that I was in Muscat, Oman, so I went from the Middle east to Maui to Malden, you know, so that was the nature of my life.
Speaker A:I mean, my.
Speaker A:My life as a Road Warrior poet.
Speaker A:It's been 28 years on the road.
Speaker A:So I write as a poet, but my teaching artist is the extension where I give the work away as a poet Performing the poetry and workshops.
Speaker A:And I have done that with the Kennedy center, and I've done it with the National Student poets being their mentor poets.
Speaker A:That's where they have five students nationally from the whole United States, and they would have the readings at the White House.
Speaker A:That's when the Obamas were in.
Speaker A:And so it was really powerful to be in the Blue Room and be in Michelle Obama's presence.
Speaker A:And, you know, so that's one of the highlights of my touring.
Speaker A:So, yes, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 28 years ago, and that shifted me from counselor to poet, because it's within that window, when I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, that I discovered and rediscovered my love for poetry.
Speaker A:So I see illness as a gift.
Speaker A:And I know that is frustrating for some to hear that.
Speaker A:And so this is my second bout with illness.
Speaker A:It's my.
Speaker A:Almost my anniversary of when I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
Speaker A:To the.
Speaker A:To the week it'll be the 22nd will be when I found out that I had multiple myeloma last year.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:But poetry as, you know, as healing mechanism for me, it's not even.
Speaker A:I think it's surface to say it's a distraction because it's more a way for me to ground and to find myself in the struggle.
Speaker A:Because I think what I have realized is that everybody has struggles.
Speaker A:How do you keep moving through the struggle?
Speaker A:How do you keep moving through the pain?
Speaker A:And one of the ways.
Speaker A:And I'm so grateful that I have a.
Speaker A:That turned into a passion, that turned into a profession, which is poetry.
Speaker A:And I don't think I would be here talking to you today if poetry wasn't grounding me.
Speaker A:And Lucille Clifton was the poet I heard 28 years ago when I was trying to figure out, how am I going to live with this pain?
Speaker A:Because it was debilitating.
Speaker A:I was on disability.
Speaker A:Then I had to leave.
Speaker A:And she has a poem.
Speaker A:I won't recite the whole poem, but at the end, the end line is, won't you come celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.
Speaker A:When I heard that, I felt like, oh, she's talking to me.
Speaker A:Every day.
Speaker A:Something has tried to kill me with all.
Speaker A:Because fibromyalgia is a host of things.
Speaker A:It's not just muscle pain.
Speaker A:It's carpal tunnel.
Speaker A:It's tmj.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's ibs.
Speaker A:It's all of these things.
Speaker A:Brain fog and exhaustion.
Speaker A:But when I realign My.
Speaker A:I reframe my illness.
Speaker A:And I reframe it.
Speaker A:To me, it was a spiritual crisis as well.
Speaker A:And I got poetry in my life.
Speaker A:I let everything else fall.
Speaker A:And, you know, there's no cure for fibromyalgia.
Speaker A:There's no cure for multiple myeloma.
Speaker A:So what do you do when you have incurable diseases?
Speaker A:What do you do with your life?
Speaker A:Do you lay on the couch and languish?
Speaker A:Or do you find your love?
Speaker A:Do you find your passion?
Speaker A:And poetry has been a healer, a guide to walk through this difficult terrain.
Speaker A:And so that's what I mean by the healing part of it.
Speaker A:It's helped me to survive and thrive.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And you are not a languishing type of a person.
Speaker A:I would love to languish.
Speaker A:I would love to languish.
Speaker A:Whoa, whoa.
Speaker A:Is me.
Speaker A:But this type A Virgo, whatever, that I've been dealt with Alpha.
Speaker A:I'm an alpha type A. I'm triple.
Speaker A:Triple something.
Speaker A:You know, I'm all those things.
Speaker A:And so, no, I'm always, you know, my mother.
Speaker A:And I don't mean to talk bad about my mother, because I love her, she's dear.
Speaker A:And helped me through this year so much.
Speaker A:But my mother, on Saturday, if we were sitting around, my mother said, and she would say, you don't have anything to do.
Speaker A:I'll find you something to do.
Speaker A:And so I think that mentality is that I have been finding myself something to do all my life, and the list is endless, and it's packed full of joy, even with the horrible stuff that I have to face.
Speaker B:So over this past year, have you.
Speaker B:I know, right before you were diagnosed, you were working on or close to the end of a book.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Have you been able to write poetry or work towards finishing up that book while you were going through all the chemo and the stem cell books?
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:Tell me about that.
Speaker A:Well, I'm working on Listening Skin.
Speaker A:That's the one you're talking about.
Speaker A:It's a book of poetry that talks about being born poor and black and then also having illness and having mental illness in the family, mainly my father and how that passed down.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:But how do you.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker B:What.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What's the resilient.
Speaker A:Why did.
Speaker A:Why does one person take, you know, a diagnosis as a death sentence and then another person is resilient?
Speaker A:And I believe it's due to who we have in our lives, you know, and mainly my mother and my grandmother, these people who have given me strength in the ancestors that are right here behind My back.
Speaker A:I love this painting.
Speaker A:It's a Maasai woman, you know, and it belonged to Maya Angelou at one point.
Speaker A:And I was happy to have it, but.
Speaker A:So Listening Skin is one.
Speaker A:And then I'm working on a poetry handbook that talks about my.
Speaker A:The exercises that I've created for the last 28 years.
Speaker A:And the third book that I'm working on is a harder book, which is called what Comes from Love.
Speaker A:And it's about having cancer.
Speaker A:So those are.
Speaker A:So I'm at the tail end of the Listening Skin.
Speaker A:I'm doing the formatting and editing right now.
Speaker A:So hopefully in the next couple of months, I will have that completely done.
Speaker A:Done.
Speaker B:And then you'll languish.
Speaker A:No, I'll probably hula hoop or jump rope or, you know, whatever I find.
Speaker A:You know, I organize my pantry.
Speaker A:COVID 19.
Speaker A:So I'm.
Speaker A:I just give myself projects on my.
Speaker A:My goal is to surprise myself every day.
Speaker A:Something that I can do that I didn't think I could do.
Speaker A:So that's what keeps me motivated.
Speaker B:So is there something from the Listening Skin that you'd like to share with us?
Speaker B:And I'm putting you on the spot here because I know we didn't talk about specific things.
Speaker A:If you don't mind, I would love to start with something that's a little tough to hear.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Because I think it's important to share the process.
Speaker A:So if you're going to share the process, you can't just share the sunny side.
Speaker A:You have to share the valley.
Speaker A:So this one is a poem that no one's heard before, and it's in the voice of fibromyalgia.
Speaker A:And so in the early days, of course, they didn't believe fibromyalgia existed.
Speaker A:It was only in your head.
Speaker A:And also they would say, you know, many to describe it to people.
Speaker A:We would say it's like the flu.
Speaker A:And so this poem is called Fibromyalgia's Curse.
Speaker A:And fibromyalgia is basically talking to me.
Speaker A:Or fibromyalgia is having her say.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Here we go.
Speaker A:And there's an epigraph.
Speaker A:Fibromyalgia is cursed.
Speaker A:And it says, no, do not mistake me for influenza.
Speaker A:I am much, much more.
Speaker A:Twist tissue and sinew into knotted vine.
Speaker A:Hitch jaw to back of neck string.
Speaker A:What is high strung to the highest rung.
Speaker A:Let the pop and crack commence until what you hear is a broken branch of a song.
Speaker A:Keep turning until the crack becomes a burning groan of music bristle gripping bone.
Speaker A:The hardest trick is to keep the meat both tender and raw until every meeting point triggers, then swells.
Speaker A:Fibrotic knots bloat like toad skin, balloons and pulsate with pain.
Speaker A:Let there be no moment of rest.
Speaker A:Keep turning the shank until every fiber shrinks and shrivels clean.
Speaker A:Push and pulls against grain.
Speaker A:See the strain cross the line into the out rungs of hell stretch the soul which I cannot still, but I will quake the body until it begs for peace.
Speaker A:This I will never give, nor let a soul fully sleep.
Speaker A:Remember, I am the cross with many crosses to bear every day.
Speaker A:My intent is to break your back and all that lies betwixt and between.
Speaker A:Spill the spell into your open maw.
Speaker A:Let pus and blood swirl into breath and lungs.
Speaker A:Let this purse be.
Speaker A:Let every inhale and exhale be pneumatic.
Speaker A:Stirred by my troubling hand.
Speaker A:I will hang like shadows on and over you.
Speaker A:Let this curse be a sentence you cannot see your way clear, linked to me in an endless fog of walking death.
Speaker B:Wow.
Speaker B:That's the first time you've shared that with anyone.
Speaker A:Yeah, and it's at the real.
Speaker A:It's the very beginning of the.
Speaker A:The Book of Listening skin.
Speaker A:So it's opening up with this.
Speaker A:This is how horrible fibromyalgia is.
Speaker A:So the only way I could.
Speaker A:It was very cathartic to write it because it was giving fibromyalgia a voice, and it was saying the things that I felt like it's done to me.
Speaker A:And so it was really an exercise of how, you know, really dealing with the process of the pain and the havoc.
Speaker B:And I think for everybody on this call right now, this.
Speaker B:I don't think people realized fibromyalgia was, you know, like you said, initially, it's muscle pain.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:But it's so much more.
Speaker A:So, yeah, it's insomnia.
Speaker A:It's, uh.
Speaker A:It's brain fog.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:The pain is.
Speaker A:You know, when it flares, it doesn't always flare.
Speaker A:And I've been in a flare for about two weeks, so it.
Speaker A:And most people don't see me or you don't hear from me.
Speaker A:And I think most people are like this.
Speaker A:Kind of go underground, you know, when you're on those.
Speaker A:And when I was traveling, I would have the flares, but thankfully, I rarely flared on the road.
Speaker A:I flared when I got off the road, and I would be down for three to five days sometimes, you know, and there I was languishing because I had no other choice but to lay on the couch and try to.
Speaker A:And then I would come back, you know, so.
Speaker A:But that's the reality.
Speaker A:That's how, you know, that window is how I really feel.
Speaker A:And it's something that is lifelong.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:With you, you know, it's not.
Speaker A:It's progressive and it's degenerative.
Speaker A:So as I get older, it gets worse.
Speaker B:And now you had multiple myeloma to pile on top of that.
Speaker B:Yes, yes, I know.
Speaker B:You know, but you are a warrior.
Speaker B:You are.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I don't.
Speaker A:You know, and, you know, some people have much more.
Speaker A:I mean, I.
Speaker A:You know, I can't say.
Speaker A:Why me?
Speaker A:Because it's, you know, it is what it is.
Speaker A:You know, we.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:You know, to me, you.
Speaker A:Like my mother says, if it ain't one thing, it's two.
Speaker A:And, you know, I got in.
Speaker A:In minus two multiplied, so.
Speaker A:But, you know, it's how you try to handle what.
Speaker A:What life is.
Speaker A:Dealing.
Speaker A:Dealing you.
Speaker A:And how do you stay in the game?
Speaker B:So how are you doing that now, Glennis?
Speaker A:How do I stay in the game now?
Speaker A:I.
Speaker A:You know, I sleep when I can, and I drink plenty of water.
Speaker A:I take my meds.
Speaker A:I'm on a maintenance dose of a chemo like drug called Rev Med.
Speaker A:And that's tough because the neuropathy.
Speaker A:I just started this week, so that's why all this is all happening.
Speaker A:So it's like the fibromyalgia sits here and the multiple myeloma sits right here, and they just interact with each other, you know, and it's.
Speaker A:It's tough, but I write at my worst.
Speaker A:I write, you know, when I'm feeling my worst.
Speaker A:That's where a poem like that will come from when I just can't.
Speaker A:There's nowhere else to go.
Speaker A:Then I pick up my pen, you know, I pick up my journal, and I write and I write through the pain.
Speaker A:And I spend time with my grandson.
Speaker A:We bird watch.
Speaker A:I'm a big birder.
Speaker A:And especially with the Amy Cooper incident, with all the racial.
Speaker A:So on top of COVID 19 and cancer, then there's racial unrest at the same time.
Speaker A:So life is handling.
Speaker A:Handing all of us a big, you know, swirl of negativity, you know, so it's.
Speaker A:You know, how do you.
Speaker A:How do you deal with that?
Speaker A:And one of the ways that.
Speaker A:With the Amy Cooper and the Christian Cooper thing, that's the woman who was confronting that.
Speaker A:Your guy who was gorgeous.
Speaker A:I don't know if you heard him speak.
Speaker A:Speak.
Speaker A:He's.
Speaker B:Yeah, I know.
Speaker A:And intelligent and on the Audubon Society.
Speaker A:What was this woman thinking?
Speaker A:You know, you see this fine, wonderful, human, gorgeous inside and out.
Speaker A:And you, your, your, your, your instinct is to, you know, threaten.
Speaker A:And so that has been part of the, the stress as well.
Speaker A:And George Floyd.
Speaker A:And then there's just a recent killing in Georgia, just on the, I think the 12th or 13th.
Speaker A:I just don't watch any of the videos because I'm a highly sensitive person.
Speaker A:So it's trying to, trying to put that in perspective.
Speaker A:But some things you can't put in perspective.
Speaker A:So that's why I think the unrest in the, you know, and the, the riots, you know, or protests.
Speaker A:I wouldn't call them riots.
Speaker A:You know, it's more protest.
Speaker B:Protest, yeah.
Speaker B:So we talked about.
Speaker B:Did you want to share a poem about that?
Speaker B:Because I know you said it takes a lot out of you, so we can go in another direction if you'd like.
Speaker A:No, I'm sure I, I, I have a couple of poems that, that.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker A:Will start with the lighter poem and then kind of go into a deeper one, if that's okay.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:I wrote this poem for my, my big brother Will.
Speaker A:And growing up he was called Willie, but he goes by Will now.
Speaker A:And it's called Learning how to Run.
Speaker A:So it kind of touches on this.
Speaker A:And then I'll, I'll go deeper in some of my thinking of what's going on in the world.
Speaker A:Learning how to run.
Speaker A:Before teaching me to run, you taught me how to listen.
Speaker A:Remember when I didn't want to buy track shoes for tryouts, I just wanted to run in my old Chuck Taylor's.
Speaker A:I asked you, what if I ain't any good?
Speaker A:And you said, trust me?
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker A:We went to Sam White's, bought Pearl White Pumas.
Speaker A:You taught me how to tighten my cleats, how to walk in like I own the place.
Speaker A:Even when we didn't have what Mama said, a bucket to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
Speaker A:You taught me how to be humble, how to pitch my weight forward, how to anticipate the gun, get on your mark, get set and go.
Speaker A:How to come out of the blocks low and early.
Speaker A:How to stay in my own lane, how, how to fall, but how to get back up.
Speaker A:How to ignore the haters, but definitely talk trash if needed.
Speaker A:So when some white runners on Southside's track team called me a nigger, you had already taught me this pocket ready reply.
Speaker A:I'm not a Nick, I'm not a nigger.
Speaker A:I'm a Negro.
Speaker A:When I become a nigger, I'll let you know.
Speaker A:You Taught me how to stay focused on the finish line.
Speaker A:How to be propelled by the wind, how to kick at the end, how to respect what God gave me.
Speaker A:Fast twitch muscles with the need for speed.
Speaker A:And how to race against the clock.
Speaker A:How to win, how to lose and not think my life was over because tomorrow there's another race.
Speaker A:How to know that track is a sport, but also a philosophy.
Speaker A:How to run and not get weary.
Speaker A:How to put one foot before the other and how to lean into life head first.
Speaker A:So that poem right there just is in a nutshell of how black children are raised differently because we're moving into a white world where hate is coming, you know, towards us.
Speaker A:And my brother had given me these self defense and coping skills.
Speaker A:And it's tragic, it's sad, but that, you know, that line makes a lot of people laugh.
Speaker A:But at the same time, it's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker B:It's a reality.
Speaker A:It's a reality.
Speaker B:It's a reality.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So the next poem I'm gonna share is a poem my mother is kind of like words of my mother.
Speaker A:And she would always say, get a paper bag and a receipt.
Speaker A:So you'll hear it.
Speaker A:It's a guzzle.
Speaker A:It's a form poem.
Speaker A:So you'll hear that there is a rhyme that's in the poem that a word that you repeat over and again on the second stanza.
Speaker A:So the title of the poem is called Proof of Purchase.
Speaker A:This is another way we were raised differently.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Do not fail to get a receipt or put your purchases in a sack or I'll beat your butt.
Speaker A:Don't make me tell you again.
Speaker A:Don't give white folks an excuse to accuse you or to attack.
Speaker A:Mama says, I've seen us hung for less than that again and again.
Speaker A:If you go out there and get killed, I'll bring you back.
Speaker A:Raise you from the dead and I'll kill you all over again.
Speaker A:Mama ain't doing nothing but showing us tough love, true fact drill stay alive in our ears again and again, hear echo again.
Speaker A:Mama didn't raise no fools.
Speaker A:Teaches us to watch our backs and fist up to fight racist barbs and acts thrown in our faces.
Speaker A:When I was married, he came home with no bag or receipt.
Speaker A:I cracked, he's white.
Speaker A:I forgot the same rules don't apply.
Speaker A:I flash back again.
Speaker A:We live in two Americas.
Speaker A:We have double conscious visions as blacks.
Speaker A:A world where we have to justify our existence.
Speaker A:Again, repeat again.
Speaker A:Our country was built on black and brown blacks.
Speaker A:Still they tried to sell us slogans, make America great again.
Speaker A:Living while black.
Speaker A:We are suspect and tracked.
Speaker A:Glennis.
Speaker A:History plays hate on repeat again.
Speaker A:We got amnesia.
Speaker A:Begin again.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm just curious, though, I mean, that a lot of this is painful words, and we're talking about healing.
Speaker B:So how does writing those painful words help to heal?
Speaker A:Well, it's because, you know, this is the counselor, me.
Speaker A:You don't sweep it under the rug.
Speaker A:You face the shadows, you face the ghosts, you face what you fear the most.
Speaker A:And so that's cathartic.
Speaker A:And it comes up and out.
Speaker A:It's, you know, Langston Hughes has that poem, dream Deferred, and he talks about, you know, what happens to a dream deferred.
Speaker A:And, you know, he has all these similes and metaphors to talk about it, but at the end he's like, does it explode?
Speaker A:And I feel like if you do not face what is con, you're confront, you know, what's haunting you or what is coming at you, then you're going to explode or implode, you know, and I forget who says it, but the line is, we mythologize, so we won't pathologize.
Speaker A:And so this is a clear part.
Speaker A:I'm very clear about my healing with writing these types of poems.
Speaker A:They're not easy to write, but they have to come up and they have to come out because that's what's happening to America.
Speaker A:America is swept so much under the rug.
Speaker A:And I believe times such as this comes from not dealing with, you know, the sinful past of slavery and which turned into sharecropping, which turned into now our penal system.
Speaker A:All of that.
Speaker A:That's a modern day slavery.
Speaker A:And so this racial, this institutionalized hate has.
Speaker A:There's a price to pay, and everybody's gonna pay for it.
Speaker A:So I think it's really important to face that.
Speaker A:And that's what I'm doing in the work.
Speaker B:Yeah, you are.
Speaker B:And, you know, I'm thinking as you're talking, I mean, you know, one of the skills that we all can build is listening skills, but you first have to be able to listen to yourself.
Speaker A:True.
Speaker B:I think that's what you're saying.
Speaker A:But if you come from a history that tells you only listen to the positive, or, you know, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything.
Speaker A:That's not that.
Speaker A:I think that's not healthy.
Speaker A:You have to listen to yourself when you've been hurt or you can, you know, you've.
Speaker A:You have to take that personal inventory and go.
Speaker A:But if.
Speaker A:But if you, if you're so bent on ignoring it, it's going to come out sideways.
Speaker A:And so America, you know, is.
Speaker A:I think it's auspicious that we're talking during the week of Juneteenth, which is a celebration that many.
Speaker A:We all celebrate.
Speaker A:A lot of blacks celebrate because of, you know, the Emancipation Proclamation did not get around.
Speaker B:Texas.
Speaker A:Two years later in Texas, you know, for people.
Speaker A:And that's really what Juneteenth is.
Speaker A:And I feel like Juneteenth is a really powerful.
Speaker A:I think everybody should be celebrating Juneteenth.
Speaker A:It's not just for black people.
Speaker A:We should be celebrating freedom and us as a nation rising to be better than who we are.
Speaker A:And that's what I think love is.
Speaker A:Love is not Hallmark.
Speaker A:Love is holding someone to task just so you know, you can do better.
Speaker A:Just like South Carolina.
Speaker A:I talk a lot of junk about South Carolina, and I will take South Carolina to task because it's my state.
Speaker A:It's where I was born.
Speaker A:Even though I'm a military kid, I was the only one of five children born here.
Speaker A:And so I love it enough to take it to task.
Speaker A:And that's when that poem where it says, tough love, that's what my mother gave us, that is the highest form of love.
Speaker A:And I think the pro, you know, the.
Speaker A:The protesters, they're holding America to its highest rung.
Speaker A:It's saying, we can do better.
Speaker A:We are better than this, you know, and bring it rising, everybody up to that level and those who don't want to, then you're going to be on the wrong side of history.
Speaker A:Because I remember those photos from the 60s.
Speaker B:Oh, me too, Glennis.
Speaker A:And it's just horrendous to see people enraged and yelling and, you know, yelling the slurs at children, you know, and the bombings and all of the horrible things that have done the.
Speaker A:The, you know, the water hoses and.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:The dogs, not to mention the lynchings and just all of that.
Speaker A:And so people.
Speaker A:Memory is long.
Speaker A:People remember.
Speaker A:And even though I was just a child then, I was a.
Speaker A:You know, I told you before that I was born the day before King gave his I have a Dream speech.
Speaker A:So I feel like my poet man, Daisy.
Speaker A:I'm a King's dream, baby.
Speaker A:And so I there.
Speaker A:I have no other choice but to look at the truth and speak truth to power and even speak truth to myself when it's not even easy to hear.
Speaker A:You know, one of the things I've always said is a poet didn't come to make anybody feel Comfortable.
Speaker A:Not even themselves.
Speaker B:Well, and I know that whenever I am the most prolific in my journaling, it's because I'm dealing with something.
Speaker B:I'm trying to figure something out and seeing comments on.
Speaker B:See the comments?
Speaker A:No, I can't see them.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So, I mean, some of the comments are, you know, I mean, they're, they're loving what you're saying.
Speaker B:Yes, right.
Speaker B:In encouraging conversation.
Speaker B:And that's one of the things that I'm hoping to do with hey, Boomer.
Speaker B:Is to build this community where we can continue these conversations and keep going, you know, understand that we're, you know, you're black, I'm white, but we can still love.
Speaker A:We can still love and we can.
Speaker B:Care for each other.
Speaker A:It can be the tough stuff.
Speaker A:We say the things that we need to say.
Speaker A:Because think about it like a relationship, you know, when your relationship is faltering, you get.
Speaker A:There are things you have to have the hard conversations, and you have it because you want the relationship to continue.
Speaker A:If you didn't care, you would go away and not say a thing.
Speaker A:So that's the kind of love I'm talking about.
Speaker A:Yeah, I think Ann said that it was tough to hear.
Speaker A:And yeah, it's.
Speaker A:It's tough to hear.
Speaker A:And it is tough to live, too.
Speaker B:And so you see, Tammy, speaking truth to ourselves is the hardest thing to do.
Speaker B:And sometimes it is.
Speaker A:It really is.
Speaker A:It really is.
Speaker A:But it's also the most loving thing that we can do for ourselves, you know?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And so, yeah, I don't, I don't want to.
Speaker A:You know, my goal is not to focus on the negative.
Speaker A:I mean, that's not it, but it's really the counselor in me.
Speaker A:It's like, well, don't.
Speaker A:You can't.
Speaker A:You can not ignore, you know, do not ignore the horrible bits.
Speaker B:Well, because sometimes there's just so much trash going on in our heads that if we don't write it down, if we don't get it out somehow it's.
Speaker B:It just gets even more and more murky and cloudy and we.
Speaker A:True.
Speaker A:And I, I was.
Speaker A:I'm a. I did the artist's ways.
Speaker B:Oh, I did too.
Speaker A:And so that's what the morning pages did for me.
Speaker A:And that's what I would reckon recommend for anybody wanting to get through these hard feelings.
Speaker A:And for a year, because morning pages, you get up and write every day, non stop every day, 30 minutes.
Speaker A:And I had a lot of trash in there and a lot of trash that I've been programmed as a child, you know, things that were told to me that were horrible about myself, and I had to face all of that.
Speaker A:You know, I had to figure out.
Speaker A:I had to get all that garbage out, you know, and start pouring just, you know, healing water in.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:That's the point, dude.
Speaker B:So just to shift.
Speaker B:Just a minute, Glennis, because you are a teacher as well as a poet.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And now that you've kind of gone through this year and haven't been able to do much teaching, although you are teaching all of us today, do you see a path for you where you can continue to teach and inspire, particularly the.
Speaker B:The young high school students that you've been working with?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, it's really odd.
Speaker A:It's never stopped.
Speaker A:I mean, because these relationships that I have built with these students, even though I'm not connected to the certain institutions, institutions that I were.
Speaker A:I was in the past, those students are still reaching out to me.
Speaker A:Matter of fact, 16 days after my stem cell transplant, I met with my students at a Starbucks.
Speaker B:Did you?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:And with masks.
Speaker A:Well, it wasn't Covid then.
Speaker A:It was.
Speaker A:Oh, okay.
Speaker A:No Covid.
Speaker A:You know, 19.
Speaker A:We weren't in that world yet.
Speaker A:We were going.
Speaker A:We were heading into that world, but we did not know the word COVID 19.
Speaker A:At that point.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:But no, we in.
Speaker A:The mom came and she's like, I follow you on Facebook.
Speaker A:And I said, I don't think Linda's gonna be able to join you.
Speaker A:She's blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:And I like, you know, I just rose and I was there.
Speaker A:And so.
Speaker A:And then also the virtual world, like we're doing now, I've done several keynotes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And readings, and so workshops continue.
Speaker A:I have, you know, those things lined up to.
Speaker A:To.
Speaker A:To do this stuff virtually now.
Speaker A:Right now, I can't not.
Speaker A:I cannot do anything live.
Speaker A:My immune system is just.
Speaker A:It's too much of a risk.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And so I just shared your website so that anybody that wants to go onto Glennis's website or your Facebook page, you can.
Speaker B:They can see when you're doing another talk, another virtual appearance, because.
Speaker B:Continue to be inspired by Glennis.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And at the bottom, there's a.
Speaker A:Of my website, you can sign up for my newsletter.
Speaker A:And so that is where people get things first.
Speaker A:So if you want to go to my website, sign up for the newsletter, and then I'll tell you when I'm going to be doing things.
Speaker A:My next thing that I will be doing is a Juneteenth reading on Thursday at 7 o'.
Speaker A:Clock.
Speaker A:On Facebook with the Carolina Poets.
Speaker A:So that will be upcoming and I'll be sharing some poems about, you know, blackness and why we need to celebrate Juneteenth.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Well, this has been amazing.
Speaker B:Was there.
Speaker B:Is there any other poem that you really wanted to do for us today?
Speaker A:Yeah, I don't know how much.
Speaker B:Go.
Speaker B:Go.
Speaker B:People are loving this.
Speaker A:Well, I have.
Speaker A:I have.
Speaker A:I have a couple.
Speaker A:I want to do two if we have time and.
Speaker B:Sure.
Speaker B:Because.
Speaker B:Go ahead.
Speaker A:So they're around health and healing.
Speaker A:And this is what I want to say to people.
Speaker A:I'm not the only one suffering with illness.
Speaker A:We all have.
Speaker A:Whether it's mental or physical, be gentle with yourself.
Speaker A:Create a supportive and loving circle.
Speaker A:This year has taught me that my community has come back and loved me in so many ways.
Speaker A:So I'm going to read a poem that's the.
Speaker A:Both of these are.
Speaker A:One is about health, physical health, and then one is about being hsp.
Speaker A:And I don't know if people are familiar with the acronym, but it's Highly Sensitive Person.
Speaker A:And I forget her last name, but her first name, but Aaron is the person who came up with that.
Speaker A:And you can find her book Highly Sensitive Person.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:So I'm going to read the one about health first.
Speaker A:And it's dedicated to one of my visual artists.
Speaker A:She Rose Frida Kahlo.
Speaker A:And so I love her for many reasons.
Speaker A:And you'll hear why I love her for so many reasons.
Speaker A:It's called Frida Kahlo.
Speaker A:As life coach, draw yourself in always will Paint brush or pen as weapons Follow my lead Remember art at all costs don't throw the monkeys off your back Bid them to sit on your arm and shoulders Turn pain into inspiration.
Speaker A:See how I adapted a polio limp into gangsta lean When a pole pierced my pelvis in a bus accident I took a bedridden sentence as license to practice craft Installed mirrors on the ceiling look up, Paint at all cost Stand out.
Speaker A:See how I let my eyebrows meet Beauty does not have to be pruned Go against the shallow grain Cloak yourself in your lineage for reference, see my Tijuana dresses and my rebozo shawls See I adorn my lobes and chest with jewels Telling the story of Mexico See my braided updo crowned with flowers Appearances are meant to be deceiving make them see what you want them to see Cover flaws, Accentuate the positives Turn the knife inward Slice beyond skin, deep beyond flesh and bone do not flinch from the inner landscape I walk there with grandmother death daily Follow the vain Territory see my heart extracted.
Speaker A:Damn Diego, that toad eyed glutton.
Speaker A:Nevertheless, mi amour, whatever you do, do not offer your heart on a silver platter unless it's an even exchange.
Speaker A:His artist eye could only see me in parts.
Speaker A:Pear shaped ass, elongated nape of neck, and the hue of my skin the color of adobe.
Speaker A:He shouts, viva la revolution for the people.
Speaker A:But he could not see the person right in front of him with my sister.
Speaker A:You predictable philander.
Speaker A:Er, curse him, my love for him.
Speaker A:Cursed me.
Speaker A:Cast out, hurt, Took shears to my hair, shorn my head in mourning, blurred every line.
Speaker A:Dressed in men's suits, smoked cigars, loved women, drank tequila straight, spread legs wide when sitting to know what it felt like to take up space as a man.
Speaker A:Did not give a damn about who or what I broke, not even myself.
Speaker A:Direct gaze only see straight through to the other side.
Speaker A:Poet, everywhere you go, there I will be my eyes following you like the moon, especially in Maui.
Speaker A:You can't escape or evade my eyes.
Speaker A:From the grave I instruct.
Speaker A:Do the work, make your brand.
Speaker A:Remember courage, be brave, wild woman, dare to be you.
Speaker A:Change when necessary.
Speaker A:Ever at the crossroads, don't flinch, reinvent one leg gone.
Speaker A:I flung the limb, Adapt the adage, why do I need feet when I got wings?
Speaker A:Whenever facing the impossible, do as I do.
Speaker A:Unfurl, flee, flare, fly.
Speaker B:That was great.
Speaker B:That's great.
Speaker A:Frida is still one of those ones that speaks to me.
Speaker A:And literally, I would go to every classroom, there'd be a Frida Kahlo poster.
Speaker A:And she's just staring at me, you know.
Speaker A:Or I would go out to, you know, I was in Utah and they took me to a restaurant.
Speaker A:It was a Frida Kahlo restaurant, you know, it was just like everywhere I turned, Frida, Frida.
Speaker A:I'm like, I'm writing the poem, Frida.
Speaker A:And that's how.
Speaker A:This work is mystical too, you know, it's practical, but it's also mystical.
Speaker A:It's like the ethers speak to you.
Speaker A:And so one poem, I think the final poem that I would love to do is the poem that I want to dedicate to people who are.
Speaker A:Thank you, Jenny.
Speaker A:She said, wow.
Speaker A:And I got a HSP too.
Speaker A:That's my sister, you know, when I call her my cousin, Mom, I said, hey, this is what HSP is.
Speaker A:And, you know, she started crying and she said, it's not all my fault.
Speaker A:I was just so happy to know, you know, people who don't know that, you know, as a child, I did not know I was highly sensitive you know, I just had no clue.
Speaker A:So if you don't mind, I want to share this one and I want to dedicate it to all somebody said, please tell us about the painting behind you.
Speaker A:I'll read the poem.
Speaker B:I didn't even see that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So this one is also at the beginning of the book and it's called make no apologies for Yourself.
Speaker A:Dear.
Speaker A:You make no apologies for yourself because you are covered in a listening skin.
Speaker A:Because every ache you feel is not your own.
Speaker A:Because of the lynching tree.
Speaker A:Because of how many rivers they cross.
Speaker A:Because of your mother's loss and your father's rage.
Speaker A:Because when you enter bookstores, books fall off shelves into your open palms.
Speaker A:Because you ask questions of the universe.
Speaker A:The world opens before you like a page of text.
Speaker A:Because of those clouds and that murder of crows.
Speaker A:Because poets are your wounded idols.
Speaker A:Because the truth, even if it hurts, it is to be cherished.
Speaker A:And just because you people die does not mean they don't walk with you daily.
Speaker A:Because the river has a mouth that speaks their names.
Speaker A:Because the river flows with stories.
Speaker A:Because you sit on the shore and listen.
Speaker A:Because alone is more comforting than together.
Speaker A:Because your pen is oceanic.
Speaker A:Because you are I y I eye big eyed and eyes wide.
Speaker A:Because you suffer from what you see in here.
Speaker A:Because you have sinus arrhythmia.
Speaker A:Because you know your heart is linked to your breath and your breath is short.
Speaker A:Because asthma is one of the monkeys on your back.
Speaker A:Because your heart is a vehicle you choose to ride this go round.
Speaker A:Because it can go forward and backwards at the same time.
Speaker A:Because bookstores have always been oracles.
Speaker A:Because poetry is your greatest archaeological tool.
Speaker A:Because you dig and you die.
Speaker A:Because you plummet even if you cannot swim.
Speaker A:Because you trust the ride of journal and journey.
Speaker A:Even if you do not always float.
Speaker A:Because your heart beats to your breath.
Speaker A:Because of this music, you dance raw and wild.
Speaker B:I love that.
Speaker B:Now, what was that poem called again?
Speaker A:It's called make no Apologies for Yourself.
Speaker A:But you can find it online.
Speaker A:It's the.
Speaker A:The original title was Dear you.
Speaker A:It was published in the New York Times in their disability Folio last year, so.
Speaker B:And that's going to be in this new book, the Listening Skin.
Speaker A:It will be in the verse.
Speaker A:It will be in the first half of Listening Skin.
Speaker A:I'm really.
Speaker A:You know, that was just me.
Speaker A:Excuse me, I'm putting in charger.
Speaker A:I have not always identified as somebody as disabled.
Speaker A:And I had people, my brothers and sisters from the disabled community got me straight.
Speaker A:You know, they.
Speaker A:They're like, you're gonna have to own this.
Speaker A:And you know, because I feel able bodied, but at the same time, it's right.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker A:Oh, I think Mary wanted me to talk before we leave about this painting.
Speaker A:So, Mary, thank you for asking.
Speaker A:This is a painting called the Maasai Woman.
Speaker A:And the poet is called, is Bria Brand.
Speaker A:And the painter is Bria Brand.
Speaker A:And I can't find any work.
Speaker A:I think she's a Louisiana poet, a painter.
Speaker A:And I got this painting at the Maya Angelou estate sale.
Speaker A:I would, you know, she is my literary mother.
Speaker A:And it's so, you know, I was in mourning, but I couldn't go to her funeral.
Speaker A:I was working during the funeral and then, you know, a year later they had the estate sale and I was off work.
Speaker A:I was living in Charlotte at the time.
Speaker A:And I woke up and I was trying to decide whether I was going to go to the estate sale.
Speaker A:My.
Speaker A:Both of my daughters are like, are you kidding me?
Speaker A:Whoa, you have to go.
Speaker A:So I dressed in this dress, this African dress that my sister had given me that has the cage birds flying out of the cages.
Speaker A:And I put a wrap on my head and I walked up, you know, I drove and walked up and people just kind of like turn, like, who is she?
Speaker A:Who is she?
Speaker A:You know, like I was somebody.
Speaker A:And so I went in and I purchased, I'll show you what I purchased.
Speaker A:I purchased.
Speaker A:These little African statues and some books.
Speaker A:And so I drove away telling my mother, oh, I did it.
Speaker A:I went, I was on the phone, I said, but the one thing I regret is I didn't get a painting too expensive.
Speaker A:And, you know, my mother said, do you have a credit card?
Speaker A:And I said, yes.
Speaker A:She said, turn around and go get that paint.
Speaker A:So I, you know, when your mom tell you to do something, you do it well, you know.
Speaker A:And so I turned around, I went back to the house, I walked in and I already had my hands out like this to the painting.
Speaker A:Another woman was grabbing it too, because I knew, like I said, if it's still there.
Speaker A:And she said, are you buying that?
Speaker A:And I said, yes, I am.
Speaker A:So this is, this is Masai woman.
Speaker A:I love this painting and I'm so glad.
Speaker A:I mean, it wasn't crazy expensive because I don't have that kind of money, but it was enough that made me think, you know, but now I just.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a master.
Speaker B:It's a treasure.
Speaker A:It is.
Speaker A:It's a story.
Speaker A:It's stories upon stories upon stories.
Speaker B:Yeah, cool.
Speaker B:Well, thank you so much.
Speaker B:Glennis, for sharing so much with us today.
Speaker B:And if y'.
Speaker B:All, I mean, you can see lots of comments, lots of hearts.
Speaker B:Please, if you guys know people that couldn't be with us live today, please share this with them so that they can also be inspired by your words today.
Speaker B:Quick, me, let me tell people there's a totally different track who's going to be here next week.
Speaker B:It's a friend of mine.
Speaker B:Her name is Marilyn Ball, and she is.
Speaker B:Do you know Marilyn?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:Well, she's the host of an iHeartRadio show and podcast called Speaking of Travel.
Speaker B:So maybe with the road warrior poet, she.
Speaker B:You could have some stories there for her, too.
Speaker B:But she started this podcast about seven years ago.
Speaker B:She's interviewed authors, travelers, adventurers, explorer, explorers, and she's going to have some great stories to talk to us about building community and how travel really fits together with expanding your idea of community.
Speaker B:So that should be an interesting conversation as well.
Speaker B:So we all have stories to share, and let's build community one story at a time.
Speaker A:That's what it's about, building community, not tearing it down.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker A:We can find our commonalities and link arms.
Speaker A:We can do this.
Speaker B:We can do this.
Speaker A:We can be better.
Speaker A:Someone's asking what Mary's asking, what is the author's name?
Speaker A:It's Bria Brand.
Speaker A:B R I A.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:Thank you for watching that.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:And, Christina, I'm glad you got to hear some of this.
Speaker B:This is Glenn.
Speaker B:This is the person I was telling you about.
Speaker B:All right, well, my name is Wendy Green, and this is Glennis Redmond.
Speaker B:And this has been.
Speaker B:Hey, Boomer.
Speaker A:Hey, Boomer.
Speaker A:Hey, Boomer.
Speaker A:We got to represent.
Speaker B:That's right.
