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Campus Review
February 13, 2012
Page 4
Houston Publishes a Book of Poetry
by Ciji Fox, University Relations
“Very, Very Highly Recommended”
The Huffington Post Likes
Brigitte Byrd’s “Song of a Living Room”
Maya C. Houston, author of a new
book of poetry, “Journey the Soul of a
Poet,” is a junior at Clayton State
University majoring in Theater. She is
also the PR representative for Clayton
Theater, and began writing in the sev-
enth grade.
“I had an assignment to create a poet-
ry booklet using famous poets and
then write two original poems,”
Houston says. “I wrote down the
words to a song instead and my
teacher knew the words were too
mature for me to have experienced.
She explained to me that poetry is sim-
ply an expression of your soul. She
encouraged me to go back and sincere-
ly write something original. I did and
it felt great! It was extremely freeing,
it helped me cope and I have been
writing ever since!”
When coming up
with the concept for
her book of poetry,
Houston,
whose
favorite poets are
Sonia Sanchez and
Sara Jones, decided
that she wanted an
easy and relatable
book.
“I decided to tell
my truths, no mat-
ter how ugly or embarrassing,”
Houston says. “My book is unique in
that a great deal of the poems are
prefaced with a moment of reflection
or a Bible verse that speaks to the les-
son I learned or the pain I felt that
inspired the piece.
The internet newspa-
per The Huffington
Post today posted an
excellent review of
Clayton
State
Associate Professor
of
English
Dr.
Brigitte Byrd’s latest
book of poetry,
“Song of a Living
Room”
(Ahsahta
Press, 2009).
In his monthly poetry review series,
Huffington Post columnist Seth
Abramson says that “Song of a Living
Room,” is “very, very highly recommend-
ed,” and notes that, “Byrd's cerebral prose
poems are couched in an air of hyper-
rationality that belies their visceral ener-
gy” ad proclaims Byrd’s work to be,
“some of the most accomplished prose
poems of the last decade.” For the com-
plete review, go to; http://www.huffing-
tonpost.com/seth-abramson/february-
2012-contemporar_b_1247340.html.
“Because prose poetry is a form that is
natural to me, a form I love, I wrote Song
of a Living Room as a series of prose
poems revolving around these two charac-
ters.” Byrd said at the time of the book’s
publication in the fall of 2009. “There is a
bit of ambiguity at times since there is a
third character whose absence is felt
throughout. This third character is
anchored in reality and must be left out-
side the main characters' imaginary world,
like most consciousness of reality, if their
relationship is to survive, which indeed it
does not. The poems
build upon each other
as the book progresses,
until the end circles
back to the beginning
following a shift,
which signals the two
characters' return to
reality.”
Byrd's third book of poems, “Song of a
Living Room” asks its readers to follow a
ribbon threaded among music, movies,
poetics, and an unlinear sense of time. Its
prose poems recount and deconstruct a
relationship between two central charac-
ters experiencing this journey, says Byrd,
like an authentic vision, like slipping into
a Celtic Knot, like a new perception of
space.
Dr. Brigitte Byrd
Arts Page
Journey the Soul of a
Poet
(Journee
Publications 2010)
Spivey Hall Cited by
DownBeat Magazine
as
One of the World's "212
Great Jazz Rooms"
Although Clayton State University’s
world-famous Spivey Hall is perhaps bet-
ter known as a classical music venue, the
February 2012 issue of DownBeat maga-
zine has named the Hall as one of 212
great jazz rooms in its 2012 International
Jazz Venue Guide. Spivey Hall is the only
university venue in the United States so
honored, and stands among other venues
in Central and Eastern Europe,
Scandinavia, North and South America,
Japan, and South Africa.
The listing in DownBeat reads, “This uni-
versity recital space is pricey, but it boasts
the Atlanta area’s best acoustics. Past per-
formances by marquee stars were well
worth the trek south.
Song of a Living Room
(Ahsahta Press, 2009)
Houston, cont’d., p. 11
Spivey Hall, cont’d., p. 11