Wordplay celebrates Wordfest with Patricia Smith

Asheville Wordfest gets under way this week, so Sunday I featured a reading from last year's festival by the dynamic Patricia Smith. A few hours before her reading she came by the station and shared some reflections on her poetry and her poetics with the Wordplay crew, including Glenis Redmond and Sebastian Matthews, so that interview is featured as well. She's a real griot, a tale-teller who wears many masks, so check it out.

Patricia herself told me what music to blend into the mix. Well, not exactly, but in the interview she read actually recited from memory poems for Dizzy Gillespie and John Lee Hooker, so I used Dizzy's "Night in Tunisia" in a re-mastered version from 2002's Afro, and John Lee Hooker's "Don't Turn Me Away from Your Door", from the 1963 album of the same name - an old favorite, one I used to own, back in the days of vinyl. I opened the show with Malian guitarist Habib Koité and Bamada performing "Africa", from the 2007 CD Afriki.

Last week's show with Jonathan Williams is still on the server, as well; sorry about the bad link in the first program note. You'll find it right here.

The original program note for the Williams show is below, here.

Enjoy!

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Photo by Peter Dressel, from Blue Flower Arts.

Update: There's a fine clip of Habib Koité and Bamada over at YouTube.
Later: And here's a still better one.