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Kool B

  • Kool B's Wordville 1330
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Kool B

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Self-reflection of a Writer

Self-reflection of a Writer: A Mini Conversation With Kool B.

By Wordville Staff Writer Bingo Lee

What make you so prolific B?

B says, "As a prolific writer, I find the challenge of maintaining a constant output of material daunting at times. It is not the accolades of the audience that propels me to work on such a feat. (He smile wide) It is a voice on the inside that is constantly pushing me to write. It stalks me all hours of the day and in the wee hours of the night. It compels me to journal, write poems, make to-do-lists, document the activities of my classes, work on novels, or jot down words that capture my mood or feelings. (Sighing) The urge to contemplate a sentence or a line of connected letters is very powerful in me. Processing thoughts through writing them down opens a channel of clarity that would otherwise be lost to me.( Taking a sip from his drink) A Journal makes my life events more concrete and less dreamlike. A to-do-list makes my daily activities less random. ( Breaking into laughter) They provide me with more history of myself. Writing poems takes the dullness away from the mundane features of what it means to experience a happening. Articulating my observation to students opens my teaching peripherals so that I can train them with more awareness He bites into a burger and chews). (Wipes his lips) Novel writing helps me to get out of my own self-conditioning. It forces me to take on a myriad of perspectives that I would not normally bother to consider. The Voices in my head want out. The paper is the best vehicle to use. My friends are not the kind of people that can be used as sounding boards. Literary art is not their turn on. I hate to say it, but most of them shy away from conversations that could nourish me as a writer. Thus, I feed off empty notebooks.(Laughs again) I fill them with some of the most peculiar and unexpected ramblings. That is part of the prolificness. The continued effort to document the person that is “me”, the environment that I experience life in, and the relationships of the two is nourishment. All require mindful dedication. Writing sharpens me as a life force, and that is where my excitement sparks. As water from the sky, my creativity, is part of a greater cycle that I flow in and out of." (Takes another drinks from his glass) 

 

     

01/14/2020

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For Alvin LeBlanc, a.k.a. Kool B, a veteran of poetry slams going back to 1990, the South is nothing less than “a literary haven,” with Houston in particular “primed” for poetry. “People in the South talk,” says the 54-year-old LeBlanc, who grew up in Lafayette, La., and came to Houston to study sociology at Texas Southern State University. “They see you down the street, and they want to say something. Southern people are also used to listening to orators, preachers. From all of that, poetry has an ear.” 

LeBlanc, an instructor at the Adult Reading Center, brings his poetry to the people as producer of the online show Wordville and a member of the DJ collective Rebel Crew. In performance, LeBlanc recites his poetry in a way that is fluid, yet sounds unrehearsed, as if the words were being pulled out of thin air. In a performance at the Jazz Church of Houston, with his visor wrapped around his long, braided hair, the bespectacled LeBlanc moves gracefully as he speaks, illustrating each line with slow, simple gestures, like a Tai Chi master talking jazz: A village of windblown desperados in pursuit of a gold train loaded down with precious metals, pressed into bullions that grow like sunset, Texas to California dreamin’… It was the sound of black thunder and gallop that made the canyons quake. Let’s make no mistake about it: There’s no honor among thieves and siege is how the west was won. 

Though poetry has always been a tool for political protest, LeBlanc believes the art often reveals more commonalities than differences. “It brings the races together,” says LeBlanc. “Coming from rural Louisiana, where you would get chased home if you didn’t stay on your side of the city, poetry has shown me that people can work together, that people do have the same heartbreaks and the same anger. Poetry is where you can hear the humanness in people.”

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