National Poetry Month: The Etheridge Knight Festival, "Evening with the Legends"

Last night was a whirlwind of poetry. Four poets of strong conviction, radical, and powerful, gave a reading at the Etheridge Knight Festival of the Arts at the Indiana Landmarks Center, Indianapolis. It was called "Evening with the Legends", honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, and featured readings by Amiri Baraka, Mari Evans, Haki Madhubuti, and Sonia Sanchez.
They filled up my ears, my head...with three and a half hours of intense poetry. The night ended late, and I went to bed with my head full of their words and images, with no time to process it. I woke in the middle of the night to disturbed dreams full of wreckage, and broken lines of poetry. Some unfamiliar rhythm beating through my brain.
Swimming and swirling in the dark belly of night--ribs cracked, eyes bruised. My chest burst from the energy of the run.
Their words and images fell on my dreams as a shadow: rage, deception, death, loss, grief, judgement...vampires, politicians, murderers...
And sometimes beauty. This morning, the love poem Mari Evans read last night, "Celebration", seemed to shine even brighter from the midst of all those dark words.

The evening ran long, and sometimes even the poets seemed tired  and strained, sitting on the stage, for hours. The acoustics were not great and at times I strained to hear their words. So much punch packed into one night.
Amiri Baraka was massive. Highlights were his reading of "Somebody Blew Up America" and his Low-kus.
Mari Evans was passionate. She shared several poems that highlighted her work with prisons.
Haki Madhubuti was bright and heady. He shared some poems from  Liberation Narratives, including one of the same title which was standout. He promoted writing good poetry by reading good poetry.
Sonia Sanchez was dizzying, and rythmic and ended the night with a litany of names, of writers, philosophers, friends, people who inspired her, called "A Poem of Praise".

The night opened with the reading of an Etheridge Knight poem, "The Idea of Ancestry", which had me captivated.

There were many calls to action--each of the poets emphasized the importance of activism, art, and encouraging our youth.