WRKF Public Radio 80.3 FM / Monday July, 13 @ 9:00 am

Professor ARTURO will be interviewed on
Monday, July 13, 9:00 AM
The Jim Engster Show
WRKF Public Radio 80.3 FM
(an affiliate of National Public Radio)
Baton Rouge, LA
Join the Conversation @: 225-297-5633

THE 2009 ASANTE AWARDS FESTIVAL TODAY

Video-streamed on http://www.NOLA.Tv to reach a worldwide Internet audience.

What: Asante Awards and Festival
When: Wednesday July 1, 2009
Time: 6:30 - 10:30pm
Where: The Internationally renown Mahialia Jackson Theatre of Perfoming Arts


Wednesday, July 1, 2009. On this day of Thanksgiving and Salutation to our culture, the Asante Awards and Festival will showcase local poets, musicians, and artists in various disciplines.

PROFESSOR ARTURO'S NEW ORLEANS ITINERARY

PERFORMANCES/BOOK SIGNINGS, ETC.
(all venues in New Orleans unless otherwise noted)


WED., July 1 Asante Award Honoree
Mahalia Jackson Performing Arts Center
Armstrong Park
Outdoor Experience 5:00–7 PM
Awards Ceremony 7:00-10 PM

THU., July 2 Garden District Book Shop
2727 Prytania St.
5:30–7 PM

FRI., July 3 Faubourg Marigny Art & Books 6–8 PM
600 Frenchmen St. (Near Snug Harbor)

SAT., July 4 Louisiana Music Factory 3-5 PM
210 Decatur St.
My Name Is New Orleans
(Welcome Home Prof. Arthur "Arturo" Pfister)
Special Guest: E. B. Skipper (the original "Shotgun Joe")

SUN., July 5 Maple Leaf Bar 3:00 PM
8316 Oak St.

ASHE Cultural Center 6- 9 PM
1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.
My Name Is New Orleans
(Welcome Home Prof. Arthur "Arturo" Pfister)
Special Guest: E. B. Skipper (the original "Shotgun Joe")

TUE., July 7 The Open Ears Music Series 9:30 PM
(upstairs above the Blue Nile)
532 Frenchmen St.

WED., July 8 Jefferson Parish Library 7- 9 PM
4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie

FRI., July 10 Olde Towne Arts Center 8:00 PM (Open Mic 7:30)
300 Robert St., Slidell

SAT., July 11 Fairgrinds Coffeehouse 5:00-7:30 PM
3133 Ponce de Leon

Sun., July 12 East Baton Rouge Main Library 3:00 PM

MON., July 13 Unitarian Church of Baton Rouge 7:30 PM
8470 Goodwood Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA

Professor ARTURO on Neutral Ground - BlogTalk Radio

My Name is New Orleans: 40 Years of Poetry and Other Jazz

Check out the interview last nite on "Neutral Ground" (1.5 hours of poetry and fiction by yrs unruly)...P.S.-- the book will be out in June...Don't just clap...GIT WUN...or MORE!!!...I don't need the claps!!!


Interview w/ Profesor ARTURO (The Neutral Ground) May 27, 2009

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

Poem For Our Mothers

Poem for Our Mothers
(to the students of Xavier University Preparatory School)

This poem is for our mothers
This poem is for New Orleans mothers
This poem is for New Orleans women
-true believers and achievers (keepers of the faith)
who nurtured, cradled, counseled and comforted…

This poem is for the satin dolls, the yardbird suite tastes of honey,
walkin’ (all by themselves) on Green Dolphin Street…
or working in steamy, hot kitchens and air-conditioned boardrooms
-on planes and trains, in banks and tanks
-at computer terminals and behind the bar
(ain’t nuthin’ wrong with that – she just raisin’ her chirrens)

This poem is for the students of Xavier Prep
(future educators, legislators, liberators and leaders)
This poem is for Ruby Bridges, Oretha Castle Haley and Leah Chase

This poem is for the church women and the street wimmin
(Sometimes they both)
-Oops! My ba-a-a-a-a-ad…

This poem is for yo’momma
(Yeah, I’m talkin’ ‘bout yo’ momma – and yo’ gran’ma, too)
-yo’ momma who told you ‘bout sitting properly (like a young lady)
-yo’ momma who told you ‘bout how hard she work
to send you to a quality school (no thugs allowed)
-yo’ momma who told you how hard it was
when she laid down there and had you
-mommas who git you up off yo’ offensive end
so you can be on time for school
-mommas who say “I done brought yo’ behind here – and I’ll take you away!”
-mommas who say “I’ma put so mucha you on the flo’ –
they gon’ think it’s the Blood Bank up in here!”
(them kinda mommas)

This poem is for the mothers who see their children slaughtered
in the city’s mean streets
-women who cry “My baby! My baby!”
(when it’s too-oo-oo late ba-a-aby…)

-women who say “They needs to stop all this killin’ –
I thought we had done got way mo’ betta den nat!”

-women who deny themselves
so their children can get a good education

-women who make beds to send their chirrens to school
-women who “talk-too-much-and-worry-you-to-death”
-women who sing “ba-a-aby, ba-a-a-by, ba-a-a-by…)”
-women who choose their men on what they got
what they wear
what they drive and
what they say
insteada what they are…

women who run for office
women who run the office
women who run from the office…
women who fry chicken for a livin’
(ain’t nuthin wrong with that)
-women who have you wear your clothes properly
(as befits a young lady)
-women who know ‘bout “who shot the La-La”…

-women who tell jokes
women who tell jokes
women who tell jokes like: “Why did the cow get a new house?
-because it had to moo-oo-oove…”

or jokes like: “Name three parts of speech –
-‘My mouf, my lips, and my teefs’”

or jokes like: “What kinda rice is brown on the outside and white
on the inside?
-- ‘Condoleezza Rice’”
(You wro-o-o-ong for that)

Women who represent
women who represent
women who truly represent…
women like Mary McCleod Bethune and Sojourner Truth
-women like the African mothers who cast their children overboard
rather than have them raised in bondage
-women who were sold at the market
-women who shopped at the market
-women who shopped at Schwegmann’s and D.H. Holmes
-women who shopped at McKenzie’s and Maison Blanche
-women who shopped at K-B and Krauss (but couldn’t try hats on)
-women who shopped at the corner sto’ (mostly on creddick)
-women who shop wherever they wan’ shop
and work wherever they wan’ work (after “integration”)
-women named “Elsie” (HOW NOW, BROWN COW?)
-women who sing “That bo-o-o-o-o-oy went home to Jee-zuss!”
(even though he was in that dope thang)
-women who get into that graveyard love (insteada college)
-women with sweet potato plants in their kitchen windows
-women who call you everything but “a child o’ Gawd”…

-women who say things
women who say things
women who say things like: “Don’t be callin’ that man no ‘Dawg’
That man name ain’t ‘Dawg’
That man name’ Mr. Dawg’”
(Woof-woof)

or things like: “Hungry?!? – Ain’t no maids in here!
You best git you summa that KARO Syrup
and a piece o’ bread –
and make like it’s a hamburger!”

or things like: “That boy feet done growed so fast –
he tired all the time.”

or things like: “Boy so dumb, if he was in a hurricane he’d say
‘Why is it so windy?’”

or things like: “Boy so slow, he cain’t even read his own name
in BIG GIANT BOXCAR LETTERS!”

or things like: “Boy so dumb, he couldn’t find a drink on Bourbon Street…”

Insteada “Arab” they say “A-rabb”
Insteada “spanking” they say “whippin”
Insteada “You’re a bit inebriated” they say “You tippin’”
Insteada “You’re acting quite odd” they say “You trippin’”
Insteada “You’re making quite a mistake” they say “You slippin’”

This poem is for the people
This poem is for the seamstresses and the waitresses
This poem is for the teachers and the preachers
for the maids and college presidents
for the wintertime women with the summertime blues…

This is a hurricane poem…
This poem is for Flora, Cora, Hilda, Isabelle and Betsy
This poem is for Marilyn and Carolyn, Yolanda and Saronda
for Zelda and Emelda, for Nina and Tina
for the lovers of life and sages of their ages
for women named “Aunt Sweet”
for Big Momma, Gran’ma, Maw-Maw and Ma Dear
for Short Fat Fanny, Wacky Jackie and BIG GREASY NEICY
for their love hugs and Daniel Green slippers
( the original weapon of mass destruction)
for Doreen’s Sweet Shop and Bertha’s Bon Ton
for Big Shirley’s and Willie Mae’s Scotch House
for Fannie Mae, Annie Mae, Ida Mae, Connie Mae, Cora Mae, Dora Mae,
Ora Mae, Ida Mae, Jessie Mae,
Bessie Mae (Bessie Mae Mucho-o-o-o…)
Bay-Bay, May-May, Nee-Nay, Noo-Nay, Shantay and Ray-Ray
for Beaulah and Eulah, Nelly and Kelley
for Linda, Lydia, Leona and Lorraine
for Peola and Enola
for Brenda and Zenda (I’m just a prisoner…)
for the cedar robes and the chiffarobes
for Caldonia, Caldonia (What-makes-yo’-big-haid-so-hard?)

This poem is for Gizelle, Chanel, Creshell, Shantelle, Rochelle, Maybelle,
Annabelle and Florabelle (DING-DONG)

This poem is for Imani, Hope and Charity (where most o’ y’all was born-ded)
for Khadijah and Jemima (much more than a picayune cartoon)
for Hannah, Anna, and Old Suzannah
(Don’t you cry for me –
‘cause I’m comin’ from the Ninth Ward
with a six-pack on my knee)

for Betty, Bessy and Two-Ton Tessie
for Sharine and Jeanine (Last Time, Las Time I Saw Jeanine…)

for our mothers, friends, aunts, sisters, and others
-their pleasures and treasures
-their madness and badness
-their blessings and bereavement
-their challenge and achievement
-their silences and song
-their faith, everstrong
-their love like no others

This poem is for our mothers…


© Professor ARTURO (Arthur Pfister)
Feb. 11, 2004 All Rights Reserved

Book to be published - Spring 2009

MY NAME IS NEW ORLEANS

40 Years of Poems & Other Jazz


After surviving the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, Professor ARTURO, a New Orleans spoken word artist, will have his book, My Name Is New Orleans, a 300-plus page collection of poetry, songs, psalms, paeans, toasts and hieroglyphs (1968 – 2008) published in late Spring 2009 by Margaret Media, Inc. http://www.margaretmedia.com

Professor ARTURO has spent decades chronicling the New Orleans traditions, heritage and lifestyle through poetry. A host of publications including FAHARI, The American Poetry Review, Ebony Magazine, The New Orleans Tribune and The Minnesota Review have printed Professor ARTURO's poetry, but his highly rhythmic work is meant to be heard, as well as read. "It's half-spoken, half-sung," he says. "That style brings out the nature of song in poetry."

Schedule your organization's venue for a performance/book signing:
arthurpfister@yahoo.com

Professor ARTURO, a poet and fiction writer from New Orleans, is a Spoken Word artist, educator, performer, editor and speechwriter who received a Master of Arts degree in Writing from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. degree in English/Journalism from the State University of New York-College at New Paltz. As one of the original Broadside poets of the 1960s, Professor ARTURO has collaborated on a medley of projects with a melange of artists including painters, musicians, photographers, dancers, singers, fire eaters, waiters, cab drivers, and other members of the Great Miscellaneous.   

He has performed his poetry, fiction, toasts and “jazz poems” on a solo basis or with musical accompaniment at Ebony Square, Vincent’s City Club, the Contemporary Arts Center, the Louisiana Folklife Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Urban League’s Annual Golden Gala, Ashe Cultural Arts Center, Tulane University’s Amistad Research Center’s Achievement Award Banquet, True Brew Coffeehouse, the Maple Leaf Bar and an array of public/parochial schools, colleges, and churches nationwide. He has also served as Featured Performance Poet at Sweet Lorraine’s jazz club and co-founded the performance series “ARTURO and Joe’s Old Skool Jazz & Poetry Open Mic Night” at the legendary Edgelake Bar (featured in Elvis Presley’s “King Creole”).   

His work has appeared in such diverse publications as FAHARI, the American Poetry Review, the Shooting Star Review, the Minnesota Review, the Gallery Mirror, EBONY, From a Bend in the River, Mesechabe, Word Up, the Chicory Review, the New Laurel Review, the New Orleans Tribune, We Speak As Liberators, Black Spirits, A Broadside Treasury, and Swapping Stories: Folktales From Louisiana.   He has taught at educational institutions ranging from Northeastern University (Visiting Poet for the Africana Studies Center) to Texas Southern University (Writer In Residence). He has served as Academic Instructor for the New Orleans Urban League’s Computer Operations Training Center and as Poet In Residence at the Neighborhood Gallery.   

Inquiries about the author’s availability for workshops, readings, collaborative projects, seminars, residencies, and publications should be directed to: arthurpfister@yahoo.com