Word access was at an all time high at Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator event. Hosted at the main branch of the Cleveland Public Library during the 150th Street Festival, there was plenty to report out about. Literary Cleveland is a non-profit committed to helping writers and readers explore other voices and discover their own. A love for prose was the connecter of this crowd, while many of the attendees were Literary Cleveland members, a good amount were curious onlookers, in which I was happy to be apart of. (I definitely missed a few of the nerd writer jokes, but it’s all good)
The keynote speaker for this years program was Hanif Abdurraqib, Columbus author, poet, and more. In a solo act starting off with curated readings from various published works and a few sneak peeks into future, followed by an interview with Daniel Gray-Kontar, Abdurraqib made me a fan. Unfamiliar with his work before this experience, his poise and lyrical channels were a whole vibe. I appreciated that the conversation was led by Gray-Kontar so it was natural, and seamless. There were heads nodding in agreement to the pictures painted and eloquet explanations of experiences alluded to in Abdurraqib’s words. Hanging on more, his art seemed delightfully relatable. His humbleness was regular with undertones of genius. One of Abdurraqib’s notable projects, Go Ahead in the Rain, in which he biographed A Tribe Called Quest, was written as a fan letter loop of inquiry that needed no response. He thought they would never actually read it, which made the writing more free and whimsical. Since then Abdurraqib has been busy, he shared a bit about his personal life, experience with relationship fails, and relocating back to Ohio. Engaging it all in stride, life is his work and he continues to find his own niche in the margins. Taking part in experiences and thinking deeply about them will always keep content coming, the shifting architecture of writer space allows for this in a multitude of ways, from celebration to rage.
I would imagine the quest to find value in moments played a role in the forthcoming piece, possibly coming in 2020, They Don’t Dance No Mo’. Set to unpack the history of performance of black people in the United States, readers can expect his take on Aretha Franklin’s funeral to a challenged perspective on both sides of black face. I’m excited. In a world where Abdurraqib commented that it is hard for rappers to produce introspective albums, his word play unofficially hits differently outside of the top 50 and remains uncompromised. While still a strong hip hop fan, and promoting Black Thought in his top 5, his space manifests itself through his art. An art in which he was given permission to explore freely from the jump. Gaining insights from Zora Neale Hurston, Bebe Moore Campbell and Alice Walker, the foundation from his mother set a tone visibly carried through all of this contributions to the world.
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