From Watts to Dakar

2010 Shirley Kennedy Lecture

Recollections & Poetry by  Jayne Cortez

From Watts to Dakar: A view of African American Culture in Los Angeles & Beyond

Jayne Cortez was born in Arizona, grew up in California and was one of the founders of the Black Arts movement in Los Angeles during the early 1960s. In 1964, she founded the Watts Repertory Company, and in 1972, she formed her own publishing company, Bola Press. She currently lives in New York City and Dakar, Senegal. She is the author of ten books of poems and performer of her poetry with music on nine recordings. Her voice is celebrated for its political, surrealistic, dynamic innovations in lyricism, and visceral sound. Her books of poetry include Somewhere in Advance of Nowhere (Serpent's Tail, 1997), Coagulations: New and Selected Poems (1982), Poetic Magnetic (1991), Firespitter (1982), Mouth on Paper (1977), Scarifications (1973), and Pissstained Stairs and the Monkey Man's Wares (1969). Her work has been translated into twenty-eight languages. Cortez has also released a number of recordings, many with her band The Firespitters, including Taking the Blues Back Home (1997), Cheerful & Optimistic (1994), Everywhere Drums (1991), and Maintain Control (1986).
Her poems have been translated into many languages and widely published in anthologies, journals, and magazines including: Post Modern American Poetry, Daughters of Africa, Poems for the Millennium, The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Surrealist Women, Sulfur, Black Scholar, Presence Africaine and Mother Jones.

Her most recent books are "The Beautiful Book" Bola Press 2007, "Jazz Fan Looks Back" published by Hanging Loose Press, and "Somewhere In Advance of Nowhere" published by Serpent's Tail Ltd. Her latest CD recordings with the Firespitter Band are "Taking the Blues Back Home," produced by Harmolodic and by Verve Records, "Borders of Disorderly Time" and " Find Your Own Voice released by Bola Press.
Cortez has presented her work and ideas at universities, museums, and festivals in Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, the Caribbean and the United States including: the Museum of Modern Art New York, UNESCO. Paris, the Berlin Jazz Festival, Germany, 11 Perfil da Literatura, Sao Paulo, Brazil,. Fourth World Congress on Women, Beijing, China, the Arts Alive International Festival, Johannesburg, South Africa, Banlieues Bleues Festival, France, Tampere Happening, Finland and New York University.
 She is the recipient of several awards including: Arts International, the National Endowment for the Arts, the International African Festival Award, The Langston Hughes Award, and the American Book Award.  Cortez is director of the film "Yari Yari: Black Women Writers and the Future." She is on screen in the films  "Women In Jazz" and "Poetry In Motion.”She organized two historic international conferences held at New York University: "Slave Routes the Long Memory" and "Yari Yari Pamberi: Black Women Writer Dissecting Globalization."  Cortez is also  president of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa and participated in  the Round Table: Dialogue Among Civilizations at the United Nations