“font-family: Verdana; line-height: 13px;”>It may surprise some that “font-family: Verdana; line-height: 13px;”>, the great composer, saxophonist and bandleader from “font-family: Verdana; line-height: 13px;”>, has a new book of poems and images. But it’s nothing new for “font-family: Verdana; line-height: 13px;”>. He published a previous book of poems and drawings, “font-family: Verdana; line-height: 13px;”>Life Dance
some 25 years ago, and he came of age as an artist in St.
Louis
“font-family: Verdana; line-height: 13px;”>working in multiple media.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“It all starts with my experience in St. Louis with the Black Artists Group,” Lake said. “We were a group that included visual artists, dancers, actors, musicians, poets. One week, I’d accompany a poet. The next I might be writing music for a big band. The next I’d write music for a play.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>In fact, as a student at Sumner High School in the late 1950s, Lake started working as a visual artist before he got deeper into music. And he continued with poetry after he left St. Louis for New York in 1974. Lake performed duets with poet Ntozake Shange (before Colored Girls …) and began to write his own poems.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>His new book, If I knew This, features 42 poems and reproductions of four paintings and one photograph. Lake published it himself on his Talkin Stick imprint.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“A lot of the poems have to do with my life experiences as a musician,” Lake said. “Some are political. Some are more light-hearted. Some are about my family.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>One family poem deals with his cousin Ralph who “talked more shit than the radio.” In one musical poem, he marvels at “all these frequent flyer miles earned by the alto sax.” In a more light-hearted number, he plays with the ubiquity of digital media, even sending the reader to a non-existent website “to see the remainder of this poem.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>In more political poetry, he tackles the politics of language, taking up the much-discussed N-word.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“We tried to eliminate this word quite awhile ago. We did an exorcism of the word ‘nigger’ back in 1967-8,” Lake said. “The poem goes through the changes of trying to get rid of the word all the way up to the ‘90s when my kids were in high schools here, and all these white kids and black kids were dancing together and singing this word.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“Here” for Lake is Montclair, New Jersey, a diverse and affluent suburb 12 miles west of New York City where he and his wife raised two sons and his wife, Marion Lake, owns a clothing shop, Dem Too Hands.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>In another political poem, Troupe writes about the historic 2008 election of Barack Obama as U.S. President.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“I saw saw how he was looked upon by the white audience and that changed lot of opinions of black people – that this could actually happen,” Lake said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>That election is old news in 2012, as Obama faces reelection from a divided and demoralized electorate, with Republicans playing familiar race cards on the primary trail. But for Lake, the feeling remains fresh.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>“It’s still just as powerful to me,” Lake said. “What he has accomplished in the last four years is amazing, though we hear more about what he hasn’t accomplished. He still has my full support.”
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Lake is now fully rooted in Montclair, after 22 years of residence, but he knows where home is. “St. Louis will always be my home,” he said.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>He did admit that he now roots for the New York Jets and New York Giants, though Lake was assured, given where the St. Louis Rams have been, no one back home will fault him for that.
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>Lake
“font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>will be coming home on March 16 for a show at the Nu-Art Series’ Metropolitan Gallery. Watch The St. Louis American for more news about that show.
“font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>To order his new book “font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>If I knew This “font-size: 9.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: Verdana;”>, send $15 check or money order to Oliver Lake, P.O. Box 197 Montclair, NJ 07042 or order online at www.oliverlake.net.
