resource
Update
event
FAI 2024
NEWS
Partner
Region
Win Frederick performs "The Birdwatcher" | Black Queer Voices in Spoken Word
June 22, 2024
resource
Update
event
FAI 2024
NEWS
Partner
Region
<p class="text-size-medium">In recognition and celebration of both Pride Month and Juneteenth, FAI spotlights the work of three black, queer poets and spoken-word artists: Fanta Ballo (she/her), Melissa Ferrer Civil (she/they), and Win Frederick (she/they).</p>
<p class="text-size-medium">Our last poem this week is "The Birdwatcher" by Win Frederick.</p>
<div class="divider-medium"><div class="divider"></div></div>
<h2 class="heading-style-h4">What is Spoken Word?</h2>
Poetry and spoken word traditions are as ancient as storytelling itself, but modern spoken word comes from the 50’s Beat Generation poets and the 60’s Black Arts Movement (see these great articles from Smithsonian Folkways and FolkWorks for more history), with vocal cadences and rhythmic conventions rooted in African musical tradition. And like the banjo, rock n roll, jazz, rap, and so many of our global musical traditions and cultural staples, we must continue to acknowledge and honor historically erased African roots.
So, what sets the art of spoken word apart from poetry? Spoken word is spoken, of course! The rhythm and energy of each performance transforms the feeling of the writing, the same way phrasing, dynamics, and melody change the feeling of a song.
We’ve asked each writer to perform a work of their choice. Check out each performance, read about their process and experience below, and support and connect!
<div class="divider-medium"><div class="divider"></div></div>
The Bird Watcher
The Birdwatcher
for Yami
I, the owl
swims in the stream
and must wait
for her wings
to dry.
I am volent
yet not volant.
I am wet,
and I am tired.
And because
I have tubes for eyes,
I am turning
my head
all the way back
to see
what it is
that follows.
A man with a camera
who means no harm
will be blamed
for my plight,
I'm sure.
Like an eared grebe,
I landed on the water
and wondered.
How is it
the weight
of loss is greater
than the weight
of gain?
My family and I
ate everything that winter,
allowing our muscles
to atrophy
half their mass
while our fat
doubled.
Then we fasted
for weeks,
regrowing the strength
of our heartspace again.
Consider for a moment–
the cameraman
was not chasing
but just happened
to catch my fall.
Things have been
taken from me
since my mother
was a child.
Now who
will be
the one
to take them back?
The canyon is tall,
the rivulet shallow,
and I am in the sun
drying.
<div class="divider-medium"><div class="divider"></div></div>
Q&A
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">Can you tell us, who are you, where are you from, what do you do?</p>
I'm a poet & singer-songwriter. Of course, I write and do other things, but I mostly make poems and songs. Currently, I live in Las Vegas which is also where I grew up.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">Can you describe your writing process for us?</p>
I think of writing a lot like fishing. I try to make myself available to whatever verbal or somatic information might be swimming in the stream, and when I feel something tugging on my line I try to reel it in as graciously as I can. Sometimes it's a big long fish of a poem, sometimes it's a little haiku fish, sometimes it's an absolute dud that goes right back into the river. There's also a certain level or depth of embodiment that I need to access to write. This usually involves some kind of rocking or swaying movement when it comes to writing & editing poems.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">Who or where do you draw influence and inspiration from?</p>
I've had the joy of being in the creative writing MFA program at Randolph College for the past 6 months. Folks in my program--my cohort, other students, and the faculty have been big inspirations.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">Do you have any new projects or work you’d like to share with us?</p>
I have an EP of songs on Soundcloud & Bandcamp that I put out at last year. I've got another batch of songs for a companion EP that I hope to have out this summer. People can find them by searching for "win frederick maeder" on those places.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">Who should we be listening to or paying attention to right now?</p>
I'm not really keen on telling people who they should listen to, aside from their own bodies. I will often go long stretches of time without listening to much, and I think that silence is good. The singer-songwriter/composer Beverly Glenn Copeland said that he doesn't listen to a lot of music and that was very validating for me. I'll plug Lisa Sanders and her song "Patience" which I became a little obsessed with after hearing her play a set at FAI this year. (Lisa, if you're reading this, will you teach me the chords to that song?) I also recommend the Slowdown podcast for anyone who wants to add a little more poetry into their daily lives.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">The Birdwatcher is dedicated to Yami – who is that?</p>
Yami is a good friend of mine who teaches me a lot about birds! Last year when I was navigating a lot of loss - divorce, unemployment, housing insecurity etc - she unpromptedly told me about this bird that she'd recently learned about. It was called an Eared Grebe. She went on to tell me how it instinctively puts on and sheds weight during its migratory period, and it stuck with me for months as my life seemed to mimic that pattern. The fact that the muscle region that grows when the bird prepares for flight is the locus of the heartspace was just such a fitting metaphor.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">The first stanza swaps rapidly between perspectives. Are you the bird or birdwatcher? What is your connection to this and when did you feel compelled to write this piece?</p>
Both! The eared grebe idea was with me for awhile. The rest of the poem came a few weeks back when I saw a video of an own swimming in a stream. It looked exhausted. Some people in the comments of the video – I saw this on Instagram Threads, I think – suggested that the camera person played some role in the owl's situation, which I thought was interesting because owls are predators, not prey. So I thought, this bird is pretty out of it, but I bet they could hold their own. No need to point fingers at the camera person. People often think that nature is flawless, incapable of making mistakes. And yet humans are also nature and we make mistakes. I was exploring that a little. It actually started as two different poems I was writing on the same day. Then I happened to be standing in front of the bathroom mirror and said the phrase "things have been taken from me since I was a child." For some reason beyond logic, that phrase (which was eventually edited) hit me as the link between the two birds.
<p class="text-style-muted text-size-medium">You're also a songwriter, but the first piece you performed for me at FAI 2024 was also a poem. What is it like navigating these two sides of your creative life? Are you drawn to poetry more than songwriting, and why or why not?</p>
To me, poems and songs are just ways of accessing a dream state while awake. And I love dreams. Toni Morisson said her mother would talk about her dreams as if they were events. I feel the same way. I love hearing about other people's dreams. I love interpreting them. I love how we don't even have to "get" them. What matters is that they get us! I'm not drawn to one more than the other exactly, they just feed me similar nutrients but in different ways. Like somedays I want an apple with my oatmeal and somedays I want a peach. Somedays I'm like the eared grebe, and I want to eat everything. & It's so sweet that you remembered that poem as a first impression! Preparing for that Zoom call I thought, A lot of people are gonna play their songs as a way of pitching them. What if I wrote a poem about my songs instead of playing a short clip? Surely that will stand out more than 45 seconds of my song demo that I recorded on my phone and mixed in Audacity (haha). So I'm glad to know that poem was memorable.
Support and Connect!
You can find Win Frederick and their music through the links below:
