NPM Spring Cleaning Day 5, Englishman/African in New York

 

For National Poetry Month, I'm posting about poetic tabs I have open on my desktop so that I can then close the windows. The question is whether I will open, during the month of April, more windows than I close!

 

My brother sent me this song last month. I'm a big Sting fan and loved his song "Englishman in New York," and I was happy to learn that he gave his blessing to Bénin-born musician Shirazee to make his own version. Below, you'll find Shirazee's original video, the duet with both Sting and Shirazee performing, Sting's original video and a link to an interview with Shirazee about the project.

 

Interview with Shirazee on the PRI show The World.

One of the reasons I love Sting is his clever lyrics, and I enjoyed the way Shirazee built on them. I think my favorite line in Shirazee's version is "When I see my brothers and sisters on the train, we say a lot with just our eyes." Behind those words, just like behind the eyes of the African immigrants - and the immigrants from everywhere else - surviving and thriving every day in New York, and in cities around the world, there are so many stories. 

This is the ninth year of the Progressive Poem! See the schedule below to find where to go for today's line and to see who's participating this year.

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method at https://timgels.com
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

 

 

 

And here's a roundup of some of the amazing, creative projects going on during NPM this year.