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LREI's Candace Williams Launches her New Poetry Book at the Ace Hotel

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LREI middle school teacher, Candace Williams launched her new poetry book, Spells for Black Wizards, at New York City's Ace Hotel on February 5th. Candace captivated the audience with an electrifying reading. The entire print run sold out by the end of the event. Following the launch, she shared her background in poetry.

Q: Tell us a bit about your interest in poetry. Has it always been a passion?
A: I've always been an avid reader but I was not exposed to writers who were not white men until after graduate school. I can count the number of poems I read in school on one hand. When I moved to New York, I attended a few readings of black women poets like Morgan Parker and Angel Nafis. I didn’t start writing right away but the readings planted seeds. In late 2015, I wrote the first poem of my adult life and took a Brooklyn Poets class with Wendy Xu. I loved the experience so much that in 2016, I took eight workshops and received workshop scholarships from Brooklyn Poets and Cave Canem. In the summer of 2016, I took the poems I had written in the workshops and created the manuscript for Spells for Black Wizards. It was selected for publication by The Atlas Review’s TAR Chapbook Series. The Ace Hotel event was the launch party for the chapbook.

Since I’ve started writing poetry, my work has appeared in Hyperallergic, the PEN Poetry Series, Lambda Literary Review, the Brooklyn Poets Anthology (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2017), Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color (Nightboat Books, 2018), and Bettering American Poetry 2016 (Bettering Books, 2017), among other places. I’ve earned multiple Pushcart Prize nominations and I’ve been performing, presenting lectures, and devising performances at many venues including the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New Museum, LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, Museum of Arts and Design, Dixon Place, Eyebeam, and the Obie Award-winning Bushwick Starr Theater.

Q: How does writing poetry compare to performing poetry?
A: The power of written poetry is that when I read Morgan Parker or Gwendolyn Brooks, I'm capturing their voice in my mind. I'm constructing an experience for myself based on the writing they’ve left behind. Writing itself is also a performance. Actually, I see poems as artifacts of a thought process that has already happened.

Some poets are comfortable taking to the stage and others are more comfortable taking it to the page. I find that I enjoy both the page and the stage. I try to make my readings engaging for the audience. For example, if I'm given 30 minutes to read, I'll gauge the mood of the room when I arrive. I’ll start a conversation with the audience and create a one-time audiobook. It's my job to speak the truth as plainly as I possibly can. Some people won't agree with what I say but I hope they’ll listen and engage with my material. I've had audiences of 10s and 100s. I love the energies of both small and large audiences.

Q: How does writing poetry impact your teaching?
A: I fell in love with the Columbia University Teachers College Writing Workshop model during my graduate studies at Stanford University. When I teach writing, I ask myself “How do I create a writing workshop that makes students feel comfortable to experiment with new strategies and share their writing process with others?” I've been able to see my own writing improve with this model. I try to bring these structures to my classroom. Here at LREI, in the sixth grade, Amanda and I are trying to create a classroom culture where students see themselves as writers. Teachers and students act as writing coaches. Everyone is at a different stage of the writing process but our shared goal is to experiment with strategies and processes that improve our writing. Students have a fair amount of independence and choice but are guided and coached at critical moments.

This year, students have written everything from research papers and letter-essays to dramatic biographical monologues and debate speeches. We bring visual art, nonfiction, theater, poetry, fiction, and many other types of art and writing to our classroom on a weekly basis. Since the humanities classroom integrates social studies, reading, and writing, we’re always asking our students “How has art contributed to human culture and society?” and “What can we learn from the past and present by reading and looking at art?”. In the sixth grade, we break up into student-selected guilds for our study of the Middle Ages.  In my Order of Bards guild, we’re reading a diverse range of poets from the Middle Ages including Rumi, Hafiz, Rabia Balkhi, Hildegard of Bingen, and Petrarch. We’re comparing these Medieval poets to modern poets who are working in the same artistic lineage, including Naomi Shihab Nye, Kazim Ali, and Safia Elhillo.

Q: For LREI students interested in creating art, what would you recommend?
A: I started writing just over two years ago. This isn't something I’ve done since I was a kid. The interesting thing about life is that you can try new things. As a student, you're trying to discover your interests and concerns. Students shouldn't be afraid to try things that are new or difficult. Over the next few years, I’d like to write fiction and screenplays. I’d also like to think more about the visual side of my work. All of this requires taking a risk. On December 21, 2015, I performed poetry to an audience for the first time. It was risky. When people try something new, they are often disappointed with themselves because it takes awhile for their level of skill to rise to the level of their taste. I hope my students will try new things this year, next year, in five years, and in 20 years.
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