Entertainment

Maine Man to Explore Final Resting Places of Poets in South

Published

11 years ago

June 1, 2015

In this Thursday, May 28, 2015 photo, an Edgar Allan Poe bobble-head rests on the dashboard of a utility van dubbed “Dedgar the Poemobile,” driven by its owner, Dead Poets Society of America founder Walter Skold, left, in Freeport, Maine. Skold will take the van on a 16-state, 10-week tour to document the final resting places of 90 poets in the Deep South. (AP Photo/David Sharp)

David Sharp, ASSOCIATED PRESS

FREEPORT, Maine (AP) — A former teacher who travels the country to document the final resting places of poets is looking forward to calling attention to African-American poets on a tour of the South and elsewhere.

Black poets have been writing about injustice and hardship since the days of slavery, and the theme rings true today, given the recent unrest surrounding police killings of black men, Walter Skold said.

“African-American poets have been going through the same turmoil. They’ve been right there. They’ve chronicled the great sorrows and successes that African-Americans have had,” he said.

Skold, who is the founder of the Dead Poets Society of America, intends to reach a milestone of the 500th grave during the 16-state, 10-week pilgrimage, which kicks off Saturday in Baltimore at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe before moving into the South. For the trip, he’s visiting 90 graves, including those of 47 state poets laureate across the region.

Fifteen African-American poets include Albery Whitman, who was born a slave, spoke out against the treatment of the Seminoles in Florida and was dubbed the “poet laureate of the Negro race.” He’s buried in Atlanta.

Others include Arna Bontemps, a Louisiana-born poet who was part of the Harlem Renaissance and is buried in Nashville, Tennessee; Robert Charles Benjamin, who’s buried in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was shot in 1900 while trying to get blacks to register to vote; and Melvin Tolson, Liberia’s poet laureate, buried in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

One of the more offbeat poets is Sun Ra, who’s better known as a musical composer and performer who espoused a “cosmic philosophy” and claimed to be from Saturn. He’s buried in his home state in Birmingham, Alabama.

Jericho Brown, who leads poetry workshops at Emory University in Atlanta, said there’s a diversity of viewpoints and experiences among black poets that defies any single narrative. But there are cultural influences, like Missouri-born Langston Hughes’ use of the rhythms of jazz and blues in his poetry, he said.

“Being black affords you the opportunity to see things that others might not be able to see, to give you experiences that others may not have,” Brown said.

Skold, 54, of Freeport, is a poet himself. He travels in a souped-up box van dubbed “Dedgar the Poemobile,” with a whimsical portrait of Poe on the side, solar panels on the roof and a single bed inside. When he’s done with this trip, he plans to finish a documentary, “Finding Frost: Poets and The Graves.”

He sometimes sleeps in graveyards to get the best light for photographs and video that he uses to document the graves. But he says he has never communed with the ghosts or spirits of bards.

“I feel a connection to the poets, but it’s a historical one,” he said. “The whole nature of my project has become celebratory. It’s not something that I see as morbid at all.”

His adventures were nearly cut short in 2010, when he suffered a heart attack in New Jersey after visiting Walt Whitman’s grave.

After a hospital stay in Princeton, he traveled to the nearby grave of Henry van Dyke, author of the poem that begins, “Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,” to play his harmonica and offer a prayer of thanks that he’s not yet a dead poet.

___

Follow David Sharp on Twitter at https://twitter.com/David_Sharp_AP

The story has been corrected to restore dropped word in a quote from Jericho Brown to say: “Being black affords you the opportunity to see things that others might not be able to see, to give you experiences that others may not have.”
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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OP-ED: AB 1349 Puts Corporate Power Over Community

Since Ticketmaster and Live Nation merged in 2010, ticket prices have jumped more than 150 percent. Activities that once fit a family’s budget now take significant disposable income that most working families simply don’t have. The problem is compounded by a system that has tilted access toward the wealthy and white-collar workers. If you have a fancy credit card, you get “presale access,” and if you work in an office instead of a warehouse, you might be able to wait in an online queue to buy a ticket. Access now means privilege.

Published

3 days ago

January 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Bishop Joseph Simmons, Senior Pastor, Greater St. Paul Baptist Church, Oakland

By Bishop Joseph Simmons, Senior Pastor, Greater St. Paul Baptist Church, Oakland

As a pastor, I believe in the power that a sense of community can have on improving people’s lives. Live events are one of the few places where people from different backgrounds and ages can share the same space and experience – where construction workers sit next to lawyers at a concert, and teenagers enjoy a basketball game with their grandparents. Yet, over the past decade, I’ve witnessed these experiences – the concerts, games, and cultural events where we gather – become increasingly unaffordable, and it is a shame.

These moments of connection matter as they form part of the fabric that holds communities together. But that fabric is fraying because of Ticketmaster/Live Nation’s unchecked control over access to live events. Unfortunately, AB 1349 would only further entrench their corporate power over our spaces.

Power over live events is concentrated in a single corporate entity, and this regime operates without transparency or accountability – much like a dictator. Ticketmaster controls 80 percent of first-sale tickets and nearly a third of resale tickets, but they still want more. More power, more control for Ticketmaster means higher prices and less access for consumers. It’s the agenda they are pushing nationally, with the help of former Trump political operatives, who are quietly trying to undo the antitrust lawsuit launched against Ticketmaster/Live Nation under President Biden’s DOJ.

That’s why I’m deeply concerned about AB 1349 in its current form. Rather than reining in Ticketmaster’s power, the bill risks strengthening it, aligning with Trump. AB 1349 gives Ticketmaster the ability to control a consumer’s ticket forever by granting Ticketmaster’s regime new powers in state law to prevent consumers from reselling or giving away their tickets. It also creates new pathways for Ticketmaster to discriminate and retaliate against consumers who choose to shop around for the best service and fees on resale platforms that aren’t yet controlled by Ticketmaster. These provisions are anti-consumer and anti-democratic.

California has an opportunity to stand with consumers, to demand transparency, and to restore genuine competition in this industry. But that requires legislation developed with input from the community and faith leaders, not proposals backed by the very company causing the harm.

Will our laws reflect fairness, inclusion, and accountability? Or will we let corporate interests tighten their grip on spaces that should belong to everyone? I, for one, support the former and encourage the California Legislature to reject AB 1349 outright or amend it to remove any provisions that expand Ticketmaster’s control. I also urge community members to contact their representatives and advocate for accessible, inclusive live events for all Californians. Let’s work together to ensure these gathering spaces remain open and welcoming to everyone, regardless of income or background.