Intermedia Arts header with imagemapped links //Intermedia Arts is a catalyst that builds understanding among people through art.//

Andrea Jenkins


ANDREA JENKINS is a published poet and freelance writer. She has written for the Minneapolis Spokesman and Recorder, One Nation News, Insight News, LivingOUT Magazine and The Minneapolis Observer. Jenkins has also been the recipient of several awards and fellowships including the Loft Mentor Series Fellowship, The Napa Valley Writers Conference scholarship and five Cave Canem workshops in the Twin Cities. She has performed for several years at many venues throughout the Twin Cities as well as in New York City, Chicago and Northern California. Jenkins has self-published three sucessful editions of a chapbook of poems called Tributaries, Poems Celebrating Black History. She is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Hamline University.

 

Searching For Osiris

As if I talked to the sun itself
Like      in the worst mood ever
Like   a storm of epic proportions

Even while tipping through minefields
As if I looked Thoth dead in the eyes
Like searching         forever and ever
Like training peace to be still

Even after dark when the demons arrive
As if this wasn’t enough
Like yesterday when I was lost in the fog
Like the Tigris and Euphrates where it all started 

Even at the height of the party
As if perseverance grew on trees
Like the best fucking ever
Like the color blue at dawn

Even at the beginning of the end
As if you could really find it
Like it was ever really there
Like beauty itself.

—Andrea Jenkins

 

Visions of the City

People walking to work and school
Riding bikes to great shops

 People raising contradictions
And social inequities 

New parks – openspaces
Improved lives/clean air

Unique diverse identities
Safe and secure neighborhoods

Active participants/trusting police
Accountability- now that’s a great idea

All pulling together- clean 
The environment/connect the world

Start a new cluster
speaking new languages- thriving

Global markets/ mature canopies
biological diversity- hundreds and hundreds

Of greenroofs- a well defined artistic network
and I’ll have a chocolate fountain in my world

It’s exciting and inviting- now that’s a new concept
connections/connections/connections

Can you read this? Thank a teacher
choose your needs wisely even in the winter

No pockets of poverty/ there are no homeless 
 not just this day- not just here

But as a matter of course- excellent relationships 
a hub of extraordinary  experiences

Honor the neediest among us
change your priorities

Focus on your dreams/release your fears
live your work/work your life
Sustainability is the key- can you read this?
thank a teacher- a vision for the future.

—Andrea Jenkins