Marcus Amaker
Author archive
Free Verse: a poetry festival for Charleston
September 28, 2017
My dream of putting together a poetry festival is now a reality. When I became poet laureate of Charleston, my main vision + goal was to spread poetry in Charleston and make it a more stable scene. Poetry has been alive in the Holy City for a long time. When I moved here in 2003, […]
Tori Amos, thank you
September 16, 2017
My relationship with Tori Amos has gone through its ups and downs. Like many people in the Tori universe, I first came to her music in the 90s. Under the Pink was my first album, and I quickly went to Little Earthquakes then Boys for Pele then From the Choirgirl Hotel then To Venus and […]
Stagnation (a letter 2 America)
America has built too many monuments to war. Man-made maladies mounted on Mother Earth. I’ve seen scars on the skin of our country’s landscape – blood-stained band aids covering exposed bones; a pain that has not healed. We hold hatred high on pedestals in the name of history. Birds are perched on the shoulders of […]
A fun album …
July 27, 2017
The last one took a lot out of me. So I made analogue // 6: a 17-minute collection of songs inspired by the 80s. Dig it: analogue // 6 (2017) by tape loop The video:
My most difficult album.
July 22, 2017
I spent a few months working on an album that proved to be my most difficult project to date. TELEMAQUE. grew from a desire to give a musical voice to the depression that arises from America’s history. You see, sometimes poetry is incapable of expressing pain accurately. Words can only go so far. In my […]
womanhood
(for tim and elise hussey, on the birth of their first child) in the blurry confusion of your first breath, you will open your eyes and instantly focus on love. arms will wrap you in wonder, your mother will bask in the miracle of womanhood, your father will paint colorful creations on blank canvases and […]
BLACK MAGIC, BLACK MUSE (a poem 4 Prince)
alone, on your last night alive with your voice unamplified, did you speak in perfect pitch like you sang, one week prior – 57 and flawless. fans, hanging on every word, melodies triggering memories, a Prince with a piano and microphone … alone, on your last night alive did you have the same confidence you […]
Interview on SC Public Radio
June 2, 2017
I had the honor of being on SC Public Radio this morning to promote my Piccolo Spoleto show. Listen to the interview here.
Announcing Charleston’s first poetry festival
May 10, 2017
So happy to announce Free Verse, our city’s first poetry festival. It’s always been a dream to put on a festival in Charleston. It will happen in October. Check out my letter, below, and also go to the website and (please) donate! Love.
calloused hands
(inspired by Dave the Potter) what history will we carve with our hands? will it be an unfiltered truth as written word, tattooed on the body of pottery when reading and writing were revolutionary? will our hands hold each other in crisis again and again when our bodies are fragile and bone-dry, coiling the repetition […]
Life as a laureate: visiting schools
April 27, 2017
I’ve visited a lot of schools before I became poet laureate of Charleston. But now, the visits are becoming more frequent and more rewarding. I’ve done poetry workshops and/or read poems at The Cooper School, Meeting Street Academy, Claflin University (Orangeburg, SC), Sanders-Clyde, Academic Magnet, Wando High School, and Ft. Johnson Middle School. Soon, there […]
