Marcus Amaker
Author archive
Burke HS poetry club
November 9, 2017
Burke High School teacher Kaitlyn Mindel reached out to me because she leads a spoken word poetry club at the school. They meet weekly and have been planning to do a slam at the school. I recently visited and was BLOWN AWAY by their talent and skill. Evidence: I’m going to work my hardest to […]
(thank you)
November 3, 2017
Welp. Free Verse is over. I’m proud that this festival accomplished what I wanted it to: amplify voices that needed to be heard while spreading poetry across the city. I couldn’t have done it without your support. Much love to SC Humanities, the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Charleston Visitors Bureau. And the sponsors: the Cooper School, Pure Theatre, MOJA Arts Festival, the SchoolHouse, Enough […]
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 […]
