Buffalo-raised poet reads alongside student work inspired by her poems

A native Buffalonian, Lucille Clifton is one of the most beloved and respected figures in American poetry today. During her distinguished career, she has received many fellowships and awards for her poetry collections and children’s books, including the 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize and the National Book Award for Poetry in 2000. On Sunday April 5, at Kleinhans Music Hall, 7-9:30pm, she will read from her poetry at the Buffalo/Williamsville Poetry, Music, Dance & Art Celebration. The event is free and open to the public.

AV: On April 5 at Kleinhans Music Hall, six students’ compositions based on your poetry will be played. Please comment on the relationship between poetry and music, and in particular the relationship between your work and music.

Lucille Clifton: I think the American language is a very musical language. I am influenced by music of all kinds, but musicians may not understand that I hear music, too, when I hear a poem. The oral language in this country is very musical ndeed.

AV: Your poems have also been choreographed by student dancers and illustrated by student artists. You have inspired elementary, middle, and high school students from over 40 urban and suburban schools. What has been your experience with younger students and how does the response to your work by students in this community connect with your experience?

Clifton: My experience has made me what I am, the kind of artist I am. I am a product of the Buffalo Public Schools, and Buffalo community. I have never felt recognized as part of the Buffalo community but everything that I touch touches that influence, recognized or not. Everything is connect. Absolutely everything. That is romantic but I think it is true.

AV: You were born in Depew and raised in Buffalo, attending Fosdick-Masten School, now known as City Honors. Our urban-suburban program, which began 10 years ago, is doubly lucky to have you as guest poet. While you have frequently returned to Buffalo, what does returning to Buffalo for this kind of program mean to you?

Clifton: I moved to Buffalo when I was five. Returning to Buffalo validates me as a Buffalonian. I was one of the few African Americans born in Depew, a primarily Polish community at that time. Many of my influences as a young child were Polish, from that community.

AV: This celebration is largely composed through the efforts of children: How has your development as a poet grown out of the roots of your childhood?

Clifton: I am not so sure of the roots of my childhood. I am influenced more because I am the mother of children.

AV: How does art help to shape culture, and how do you see your poetry in particular doing this?

Clifton: Art can sometimes show that there is something beyond “this,” whatever “this” is. I am always a curious person—interested in learning and discovery. When I see a painting, I want to know about that man, that painter, that scene. Art illuminates what is possible. Formal education is not necessarily validating.

AV: Please share with us your educational philosophy and hopes and their relation to your work as poet.

Clifton: One answer: What do they have to do with each other? Another answer: I believe in learning.

AV: In Invisible Green, poet professor Donald Revell argues that “A poet, whatever else he or she may be, is not a creative writer…The world creates itself, and poetry is pleased to show its new creation to our words…there’s no need for imagination…The poem is entirely of its real place and moment. Nothing is missing which imagination might supply…Our art is simply one form of attention…” How do you respond to Revell’s argument?

Clifton: I don’t know right off the top of my head. It might work for Revell but it won’t work for me. I trust my own feeling. And I know that there is more than one way of knwoing—most women know this. Some men may know this too.