—Arshia Simkin, The Underline
Fred Joiner is a Carrboro poet and curator, whose debut poetry collection, “Mirror in Our Music” (Birds, LLC) is coming out this year. For Joiner—an already accomplished and seasoned poet, whose work has been published in anthologies and journals, who is the recipient of numerous awards, fellowships, residencies, and who has received honors such as being an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow and poet laureate of the Town of Carrboro—it feels strange to call this his “debut” collection, although it technically is. During our conversation, Joiner grappled with this dissonance: “I’m forty-eight. I’ve been writing for a long time,” Joiner said. He is equal parts nervous and excited about the forthcoming collection: “It’s kind of scary because the voice you hear in your head is the critical voice,” Joiner said. But because the collection will feature so many of his varied artistic interests and themes—including the visual arts, his connection to the African continent, and exploring Blackness—he is excited to share it with the world.
When I spoke to him via Zoom, he was in the process of mailing out letters to various artists from Mali, Cameroon, and from UNC’s Ackland Collection, asking if he could feature their photographs in his book. He emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary arts—and especially the visual arts—on his work: “I wanted this to be about everything I do more than just writing poems…I don’t think that a book with just poems in it—no matter how good or bad they were—would say enough about my practice and what I do, and so that’s why the art is in there, that’s why there’s going to be some sketches and crazy stuff, like mind maps from my journals in it—all of that kind of stuff,” Joiner said.
Joiner’s poetic influences are multifarious: in addition to music and the visual arts, his time living in Africa, Ireland, and Washington D.C. have all permeated his work. He recalls a moment when he was living in Mali and walking down the street from his apartment to his wife’s office and he snapped a photograph of an African woman who was carrying an object on her head. Later, when Joiner saw historical images of Black people carrying objects during the Civil Rights movement, he drew connections to, and was inspired to write a piece about, that casual travel photograph.
Joiner’s early interest in poetry was fostered by his parents, who “always had books in the house,” Joiner said. Additionally, his father introduced him to hip hop and rap—“My dad, when I was a kid, bought me Sugar Hill Gang’s ‘Rapper’s Delight’ on vinyl and he bought me a song called ‘The Message’ [by] Grand Master Flash and The Furious Five…I might have been six or seven years old…and just thinking about language and what you can do with language.”
Joiner is also inspired by living in North Carolina, which he noted boasts a variety of landscapes and writing communities that an artist can immerse oneself in. For someone who was used to driving from Washington D.C. to Philadelphia for a reading—the proximity to so many artistic communities within a short distance has been a boon. Joiner, who is an IT professional by day, and who has two young children—an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old—said he writes “wherever he can” and writes long-hand in a journal during snatched moments throughout the day.
Ultimately, Joiner hopes that his collection makes people think—and in new and different ways: “Craft is important, but to me, connection is [more] important…” Joiner said. He wants people to ask themselves what the poem made them feel and to become inspired to engage with the world differently as a result.
Learn more about Fred Joiner and his forthcoming poetry collection “Mirror in Our Music” at www.fredjoiner.com and on the following websites: www.blackekphrastic.com; www.anacostiaexposed.com; and www.boomforrealbamako.com; and on Instagram @fjoiner and @fred.joiner.poet