By Sharon Hori Daily Bruin Senior Staff
If anyone doubts that poets are busy people, then they obviously
have not seen Derrick I.M. Gilbert’s schedule for the past couple
weeks.
Gilbert, better known to his friends as "D-Knowledge," traveled
by plane and by train from Los Angeles to New Haven, where with the
release of "HennaMan," his first volume of poetry, he has read his
work on the radio and has spoken to newspaper reporters galore. The
discussions will continue with Gilbert’s return to UCLA, where he
will speak at noon at the McClure Stage of Westwood Plaza.
Gilbert, a UC Berkeley graduate who received his Ph.D. in
sociology at UCLA almost two years ago, submerges poetic word into
the pools of two centuries of African American ancestry and
withdraws them glistening in newfound perception. His colorful look
at the oddities of life – politics, sex and race – sheds light on
the dark realities often overlooked in everyday life, and also
captures a chapter of his life.
"I would say that that chapter was essentially filled with many
awakenings, but also a chapter for me meant that there had to be
some sort of beginning and some sort of closure. I would let the
book do that describing," Gilbert said in a phone interview from
Yale University.
Real life experiences spark inspiration for his works, the Long
Beach native said, as he recalled the time he walked out of his
hotel and came face-to-face with a drug dealer who pushed a bag of
weed in his face. As a walking receptacle for poetic images,
Gilbert said his senses can depict the poems as they happen.
For example, Gilbert’s poem, "Why I Would Never Buy a Jeep
Cherokee," embodies his disgust for America’s endorsement in
honoring Native Americans by naming sports teams after them. His
prose, "Devil’s Advocate," depicting his encounter with an African
American stereotype in an empty movie theater, uses a Dr. Seuss
rhyme scheme to emphasize the experience’s silliness.
The poems, which he wrote in a six-year period beginning in
1993, move into a transition from when Gilbert said he was
deliberately writing to appeal to his audience to the point where
he learned to write for himself.
"You come into a point of taking the craft of writing seriously,
practicing it, working with people, sharing it and going to
workshops," he said. "It’s at the point that I think I have a use
of language that’s somewhat identifiably mine. It’s almost like the
birth, the nurturing and the adult awakening of the poet."
Not every poet jumps into a busy, successful career spewing
polished, publishable pieces. As Gilbert recalled his first poem –
which he had written for his high school crush, Lisa, about her
favorite color, yellow – he shuddered with an embarrassed
laugh.
But all poets must start from somewhere. And continuing his
education at Berkeley sparked his inspiration to learn. Gilbert’s
active mind led him to question professors. Always caught with a
book in hand, he read outside material ranging from the history of
Africans to issues of oppression with Native Americans, Chicano
history and women’s studies.
"I never found a period that I was that passionate," Gilbert
said, adding that during this "nationalism phase" he wore red,
black and green clothing and medallions and listened to Public
Enemy and X-Clan. "I always find myself studying the lives of
people who had been struggling."
The perfect combination of Gilbert’s success in class and his
inquisitive search for higher understanding earned him the
nickname, D-Knowledge — "You do the knowledge, you’re
D-Knowledge," his friends would say.
With the promise of meeting beautiful women, a friend convinced
Gilbert to attend his first poetry reading at UCLA. Since that
evening, Gilbert has viewed poetry with a different light.
"I was blown away," Gilbert said. "I found myself speaking in
poetic terms. It wasn’t a choice. It was definitely divine
intervention or poetic intervention because I got into that scene
and into a movement. There’s a whole other life that is born when
you become part of a community of writers."
Within the next year-and-a-half, Gilbert received offers to act
in films and tour with major music groups. He had a role in John
Singleton’s movie, "Higher Learning," and later made an album with
the legendary Quincy Jones. He read his poetry as the opening act
for singer Me’Shell Ndege’Ocello. He also toured with music group
Earth, Wind and Fire.
As editor for "Catch the Fire!!!: A Cross-Generational Anthology
of Contemporary African-American Poetry," Gilbert said he learned
the value of hard work in exchange for a thankless result.
The anthology includes a mixture of traditional poets, as well
as works by Chuck D., M.C. Lyte and Shaquille O’Neal. The best
part, Gilbert said, was interviewing poetic legends and talking
about generational issues.
"It was a very rewarding book but it’s a thankless job," said
Gilbert, recalling how he typed each word into the computer
himself. "I can’t imagine how these folks put these anthologies
together back in the ’60s before they had e-mails and fax machines
because I was barely making it."
Gilbert’s playful works provoke thought through the power of
logic. When performed, his poetry turns to music and his rhythmic
syllables pound meaning from the page.
The poem, "HennaMan," after which the book is named, describes a
man whose racial identity changes with a tattoo, wrapped around his
body, that morphs on a daily basis.
"I know every way that people have said black is beautiful. And
with race in general I think that we’ve really bombarded ourselves
with cliches," Gilbert said.
"So I’ve created this character (HennaMan), who imagine if
somebody was not of a racial identity but actually made out of a
tattoo – not just any tattoo, but a tattoo that could change on a
daily basis so you could go from one classification to the next in
a day or two," Gilbert continued. "HennaMan tries to play off the
insanity of what we’ve done with race."
Gilbert insisted that listening to the performance of the poem
brings new meaning in comparison to reading the words on the page.
He plans to perform his animated reading during his discussion
today at UCLA.
As a poet, Gilbert said the best way to kick off a writing
career is to step up to the opportunities that spontaneously
appear.
"A lot of these times these opportunities come by, you blink and
they’re gone. I try to jump on everything and make every
interaction extremely meaningful. You got to look at living life
like writing a poem. That’s the only advice that I give poets: Take
it seriously. Because everybody, regardless of if they’re poets or
not, has their own voice. And that’s what the language gives
us."
POETRY: Derrick Gilbert will discuss and sign "HennaMan" at noon
today at the McClure Stage of Westwood Plaza.