Yeah I know it has been some time..what can I say…life be “lifin”. The Black Ekphrastic world continue on with so much good stuff out there.

Lately, I have been spending time with 2 poems inspired by Romare Bearden’s 1971 collage, The Block. There is a great PBS DVD (much of which you can view on YouTube) in which Bearden talks about the concepts and music at work in the piece, here is a clip of it.

Before evening getting to the poems I suggest checking out the clip.

The 2 poems in question are Vicent Toro’s The Block and Major Jackson’s  The Block for the Met in NYC. Toro and Jackson take different approaches  Bearden’s  Block, which I will get into once my schedule cools out a little bit.

In the meantime, enjoy the poems and go out and pick the doc / film Bearden Plays Bearden and dig in.