~ Filmmaker: Allison Alexander Westbrook IV ~
Assault to Abjury by Raymond McDaniel
Raymond McDaniel reads a poem from his collection Saltwater Empire, which recently came under attack for its use of Katrina survivors’ words as “found poetry.” He defended himself here. It’s interesting that despite the huge volume of commentary both essays attracted, on the Poetry Foundation site and elsewhere, this video from his collection (albeit for a different poem than the lengthy one under attack) had been viewed just six times in the 19 months since it was posted on YouTube. It’s almost as if all the people criticizing McDaniel have never made even a cursory effort to familiarize themselves with his work.
Zucchini by Major Jackson
Animator Allison Alexander Westbrook IV says in the notes at YouTube,
This is a commissioned animation I did for the poet Major Jackson. It was created by using a combination of Adobe photoshop and after effects. It first debuted at the exhibition titled “More Than Bilingual: Major Jackson & William Cordova.” at the Fleming Museum located on the campus of the University of Vermont on January 27th, 2009.
