By Carla D. Robinson

Tony Medina is a political poet. There was a time in popular culture, not long enough ago, when to call a man such a thing was nearly profane. But thanks to the persistence of artists like Medina, the personal as political is regaining ground.

Last September, many of us lost a great deal, but there’s no question that as a nation we gained something, too. Although we may bemoan being forced to take our collective head out of the sand, Medina is here to make sure we consider the gift of insight that came alongside the pain, to see that we turn that insight into the greatest gift of all, compassion.

Medina, a product of the 1960’s South Bronx, fights against the marginalization of those who use language to hold a mirror to society.

As he explained in an interview, “On one hand, you have the dominance of the MFA program in the academy mass producing poets that are writing stale, stagnant, imitation white poetry. Then you have the circus show atmosphere of the mundane and mediocre coming out of the so-called spoken word and Slam scene.”

Medina believes there needs to be a place for poets, particularly of color, “who have something to say.” To that end, he co-edited (with fellow poet/essayist Louis Reyes Rivera) a new collection called Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam.

In Bum Rush, Medina writes that in the Slam arena, “poetry is not what matters, but performance.” His stance on Slam is controversial, but, for Medina, in the beginning was the Word. Not spoken, but written.

In the ninth grade, Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon lured Medina into the world of fiction. “It was through fiction that I fell in love with literature and said I wanted to be a writer,” he recalled. But when he began writing poetry three years later, he moved away from fiction. “I didn’t feel as secure about my fiction as I did my poetry, but what I didn’t know as a young writer about fiction, I learned in poetry and began applying what I learned in poetry in my fiction.”

Medina spends a good deal of his artistic life working with and creating for children. Three of his ten books are written for them. In the beautifully nostalgic DeShawn Days, his first children’s book, Medina includes an inspiring little epilogue that relates his journey to becoming a writer. He helps children consider the less fortunate in his second children’s book, Christmas Makes Me Think. “I want kids who are shaped to be materialistic and greedy to be a bit more sensitive to the unnecessary suffering their privileges bring to others. I want them to see how they are related to everyone on the planet.” His latest book, Love to Langston, is a series of biographical verses on the famous poet, written to give children “a fuller depiction of Langston’s complex and fascinating life.” Sharing words with children is but another way for Tony Medina to craft a better world. M

May 2002

Author: MOSAEC