Revival: Tim'm West

Tim'm West, author of Red Dirt Revival, expressin' himself.

You tour constantly. How do you manage to keep such a busy schedule?

Art is my lifeblood. It helps sustain the energy I need to do my professional and activist work. Over the years I've had the good fortune of being able to live in various cities and experience both Coasts. To boot, I'm a son of the South. I'd love to travel internationally more, but am so fascinated by the ways African-Americans have adapted to the various subcultures here in North America. I approach my visits as an anthropologist eager to pick up a new language, new styles, old traditions and stories. Now I just need some good management to help me keep up with it all. It's gotten to be a bit overwhelming.

How does love figure into your work?

I accepted in 2005 that I'm a hopeless romantic who has lost a great deal of hope for love. Perhaps my notions of love and loving are just shifting. I recently thought that I couldn't afford to be "possessed" by anyone, because it would prevent me from loving so many others... not in the selfish playboy way, but as one who genuinely wants to express love (especially) to as many black men as I can as a reflection of my self-love. It needn’t be sexual, but I have no room for jealousy in my life. My next relationship will have to reflect that. The page is the place where I get to dream about love-- both nostalgically, and in the ways I have yet to experience. I'm as much of a lover as I am a fighter.... but yeah...love's a bitch that bites only after she barks.

What’s new in your life?

DC is new for me... and being away from Oakland. I've had to develop a different relationship to Deep Dickollective (DDC) and BGLAM (Black Gay Letters and Arts Movement) who have been really crucial in helping me develop my artist-essence. DC is not the arts-mecca that the BayArea is, so it's been all the more inspirational. I host a monthly here in DC called "The Front Porch" that is generating a lot of positive buzz. People in DC can so easily live in a black gay or black lesbian or black bubble that I try to challenge people to come together across sexuality, gender, race lines. People have been really thankful for a SGL-friendly space that features great artists and innovative work.

Tangent: Hopefully the great Steven G. Fullwood himself will accept the invitation to co-feature at "The Front Porch" in March (3rd) 2005. ;-) He's pretty Funny.

(*hmmm, sgf checks his schedule...will contact the tim'm...)

How is DC?

DC is cool. I'm beginning to feel at home here. It's like the best things about Oakland, diffused, blackened a bit with lots of black male eye candy, pretentious beyond belief sometimes, and you have to search for a while to find the arty-farties and pomo thuggs... but I'm feeling at home here. I tend to be inspired by places with vast potentiality more than places that seem to offer it all. I have a lot of people who love me here and who will look out for a brotha. I'm sure my folks in NYC and the Bay Area (former nurture spaces) appreciate that.

How does Tim’m have fun?

I love to get lost in some deep soulful house music. It's one of those spaces, besides sexual intimacy, where I really lose myself. I’m most connected to whatever my notion of God is, when I'm on the dancefloor. There's an unspeakable joy that enters my spirit and I am rejuvenated. I also like to play basketball. I recently discovered a group of SGL men in DC who hoop on Mondays. It's an amazing sense of brotherhood through sportsmanship, and I've really grown to care about those who participate. They come to shows and we do lots of other social activities together. Besides that, I'm a big flirt.

Finish the sentence.

When I came out, I was surprised to find that…
I'm not a bottom.

I would fuck the shit out of….
Esera Tualo and Nona Gaye (together)

Black people need to….
love themselves and each other as fiercely as global white supremacy has secured its foot on our collective negro neck.

I cannot believe how beautiful my life has become since….
I tested positive for HIV in 1999.

I get my energy from being….a good friend with great friends.

Deep Dickollective. Are any plans for a reunion?

We never really "broke up". The initial concept was for us to be a global movement of queer black emcees, Spoken Word artists, Soul vocalists... so in many ways, my moving East has helped to actualize this objective. Now we’ve picked up additional members in the Bay (SoulNubian and Solis), ButtaFlySoul and Baron are holding it down in NYC, and I'm doing my thing in DC. We even have a member (ManMan) teaching in Taiwan right now, and one at Harvard (Lightskindid). The point is to spread HipHophagotry so profoundly that people can no longer ask stupid questions like: Is Hip Hop ready for gays? That kind of stupid shit is so 1990.

How do you feel poetry influences the body, as opposed to fiction or essays?

I appreciate the poetic license you get when writing poetry; which is, to a great degree, about form. I like to think of the poem as a way to condense the story into a structure that carries all of the emotional energy, but in far less space. The choice and placement of words, then, becomes all the more important. I'm a good essayist and am trying my hand at a novel right now, but I'll never stop writing poetry.

Name five writers and why their work is indispensable.

1. James Baldwin: who in the 20th Century has been a more profound influence on our literary landscape?

2. Essex Hemphill: the poet's poet whose ability to look beyond black gay male agendas to speak about sexism impressed me most. He was also fiercely sex-positive even after diagnosed with AIDS.

3. Audre Lorde: because Christians ain't tellin you that she was one of the Lord's disciples... Thank you Jesus. Her book, The Cancer Journals, is a profound testimony about how to live.

4. Helene' Cixous: by far, one of my greatest literary inspirations, a mentor, a friend. I am fortunate enough to know lots of good writers, but this woman's book "Coming to Writing" absolutely changed my life. It helps that she thinks "Red Dirt Revival" is a brave and beautiful testimony.

5. Toni Morrison: her characters live and breath and die with the ugly and pretty truths of what it means to be African in America. She does not apologize for being one who thinks over and again before the placement of one word after another.

Upcoming gigs: check out Red Dirt Biz for more details.

Now, a poem from Tim'm.

love.
by Tim'm West

love
i came looking for it
in rain
some reminder of what home might smell like
but with each step it
stepped out of reach
breaching the contract between
birthright and hope
so I stood by and watched it
fade
with my belief
this dream-keep I have held up
beyond dreaming
is like breath under water
or mirrors hiding myself
so this it
i looked for?
hoping not to find it?
could not stand to see me
watch it
walk away
and so it
ran away and towards whatever
it
was running away from:
me,
some raisin son
unable to see his reflection
in it
harboring the residue of past
unprotected-ness,
was like a baby boy after the first walk
still
mistrusting the grace of gravity
foreshadowing his own de-feet
falling into the fear he so fears
me,
b-boy and emcee
not as apt to boast about being a poet
pondering the curl of letters
into each other,
have learned well
how to walk this way
uncertain of next steps
unless masked
shit-talkin’ and crotch grabbin’
draggin’ bare feet across concrete playgrounds
and muddy waters
running from myself.
a few times…
just before dreaming
or in the stretch of a yawn
i let go just enough to catch

it

watching me
vulnerable and disarmed
and at peace
and I slipped into smiling
again
and let it
fall into me
i started writing about love again
but this chase is a waste of time
trippin over itself.
my heart
failing to beat on beat
murmurs the memory of heartbreaks:
some rose-thorn
posing as a Harlem Knight
cutting these very hands
that have tried to carry
it
and love
will always look like
it
whatever pure intent
a smile in the eyes
can try to relay
i’m on lock
feet unprepared to race
legs unwilling to jump hurdles
still standing still
for a soul bold and strong enough
to carry me
coach my first steps again
teach me how to catch
it
till I surpass myself and forget
i ever was
unwilling to chase the dream again
chase
love.

Next up: Conjurewoman Sharon Bridgforth

Thursday, January 06, 2005 @ 09:32 AM