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The Literary Café poetry
night does NOT believe in diversity.  It
has no time for checking how many of what type we have there.  It does not worry about whether we are fair
to all walks of society.  It has no
material assets, so cares naught if the self righteous boycotts, the overly
sensitive protests, or the self proclaimed holders of judgment fines it,
garnishes it, or blocks donations.

The Literary Café poetry
night is biased, is exclusive, is pretentious. 
It spits in the eye of fashionable causes.  It rebels against sanctimony. 
It has only one cause celebre. 
The Literary Café poetry night only cares about GOOD POETRY.  For that, we go to the bulwarks.  We fight for independence.  We explore the outer reaches of Akron, the
mists of Toledo, climb the heights of Canton, wade the bogs of Burton.  It is poetry of quality that is
important. 

The poets are not important.
We care little who they are, where they are from, what to they look like,
what’s their orientation, are they from the orient.  Do they like me, do I like them. 
Did they pay a bribe, did I pay them a bribe.  Do I ever pay anybody anything. 
It does not matter!  Only the
poetry matters!

And so this Thursday, yet
another in a long line of second Thurdays, October 9 at 9:30pm, we have GREAT poetry
on demand.  And yes from poets who do
not matter except they make great poetry. 
And maybe that is reason enough for us to laud and respect our two
features, Mwatabu Okantah and Bridget Kriner. 

I first heard Mwatabu Okantah about 6
six years ago when he was the guest poet at the old Cleveland Slam nights at
the Beachland.  I was just getting into
the scene and trying to find out what poetry was about, when this gentle man in
dreadlocks and a smile read poems of heart and struggle in a soft voice.  Between poems, he made just one comment that
was a poem in itself.  One that I have
held as the reason why poetry is important. 
He said, “I don’t vote.  I write
poems.”  Then he went to his next piece
and I was searching for him again ever since, and now he is here to show how
powerful a poems is, even compared to a vote. Mwatabu is an accomplished poet,
musician, educator and has been published and performed widely.  We are fortunate to have him with us.

Mwatabu S. Okantah holds the
BA in English and African Studies from Kent State University (1976) and the MA
in Creative Writing from the City College of New York (1982). Currently, he is
an Assistant Professor and Poet in Residence in the Department of Pan-African
Studies at Kent State University. He also serves as Director of the Center of
Pan-African Culture. Afew of his books are: 
Afreeka Brass (1983), Collage (1984), Legacy: for Martin & Malcolm (1987)
and Cheikh Anta Diop: Poem for the Living—published as a limited trilingual
edition in English, French and Wolof (1997). He lives in Akron, Ohio with his
wife and five of his seven children.

A familiar face in Tremont is Bridget Kriner, who
r.a. Washington introduced to me at Civilization just as she finished her M.A.
from CSU in 2005. I read here thesis that afternoon and it was then I knew I
was in the presence of a great poet. 
She has been published in Poetry Motel and Whiskey Island, which she
served as the poetry editor for a time. 
She can’t quite recall the last publication she was in, but knows that
it was good.  I chased her for reading
at the Lit for years, but Thursdays is working night when she slings beers at a
local bar and restaurant.  During the
day she works as a counselor at a fantastic abortion clinic in Cleveland and
lives in our happy little Tremont neighborhood with her cats, Nora &
Stanley. When she grows up one day, she hopes to finish her book of poems and
that someone will publish it.  She also
needs to read more so we can all get the benefit of her words.

The benefit of maintaining
high standards is that diversity follows. 
We have very diverse personages, with diverse motivations, and diverse
styles.  And yet Mwatabu and Bridget are
the same in their love of poetry and their talent to write it.  True excellence is diversity, not the other
way around.  For the rest of us that
keep struggling and trying to find our excellence, the Literary Café allows us
to show our efforts in the open mic portion of the evening.  So come, this Thursday, October 9 at 9:30pm
to hear the accomplished and to share our toil toward it.  The Literary Café is at 1031 Literary Road
in the excellent (hence diverse) Tremont neighborhood of Cleveland.