Leaving Cle

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. African & African American Studies. LEAVING CLE is made from the detritus of reverse migration. Its poems move from Cleveland to New York City to Tuscaloosa's "schoolhouse door" and back again. They travel and party with a musical Cleveland from Art Tatum's 1920's to Albert Ayler and from Ohio Funk to Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. They collage a shifting sense of home and negotiate the gift horse of flashbulb memory. Remembering is a character. Houses speak.

Cleveland native Janice A. Lowe is a composer and poet. She is the author of the chapbook SWAM. Her poems have appeared in Callaloo, American Poetry Review, The Hat, In the Tradition, The Poetry Project Online, and are featured on a digital album with Drew Gardner's Poetics Orchestra. She composed the musicals Lil Budda (text by Stephanie L. Jones), Sit-In at the Five & Dime (words by Marjorie Duffield), and Somewhere in Texas (book and lyrics-Charles E. Drew, Jr.). She has composed for the plays 12th and Clairmont by Jenni Lamb, The Super Starlet Shero Show by The Jones Twins, and Door of No Return by Nehassaiu deGannes. She is a co-founder of the Dark Room Collective and has performed with the experimental bands w/o a net, HAGL and Digital Diaspora. She teaches youth songwriting and creative writing workshops in New York City.