A collection of poems by Ralph La Charity, memorializing the poetess Aralee Strange. Also included is his Cinemanuensing, (a writ of habeus corpus poetique) 1998 facsimile edition.
La Charity describes meeting Aralee Strange: Prior to moving to Cincinnati, Aralee Strange, a native of Birmingham Alabama, lived and worked in Atlanta GA, Cambridge MA, and New York NY. Beginning in 1987, in collaboration with fellow Cincinnati poet Jim Palmarini, Strange began and conducted several open poetry reading series and read regularly at a host of regional venues.
I first encountered her participating in the late '80s at the April Aegis Poetry Festival, Bill Polak's annual multi-day, multi-venue all-open poetry festival in Kent, Ohio. She was a poet/playwright whose body of work included Etta Stone: A Film for Radio (1990), which she wrote, produced and edited @ WGUC, Cincinnati (aired nationally on NPR stations, included in WGBH's Arts&Ideas series); dr. pain on main (1991), a play based on her series of poems by the same name, commissioned and produced by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; The Chronicles of Plague (1992), commissioned and produced by Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati; An Evening at the Sad Cafe (1995), a series of directed scenes from her screenplay, This Train, performed at Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati & Carnegie Arts Center (1997). This Train (production begun late '90s, ended filming 2001), the feature film she wrote, directed & edited, was still in post-production at the time of her death.
Aralee moved from Ohio to Athens, GA in March 2007, where she initiated the much celebrated Word of Mouth feature/open poetry series at the Globe on the first Wednesday of each month, which series continues to this day.
La Charity describes a memorial gathering of Aralee Strange's fans thusly:
"As satisfying a night as could be wished for... Aralee's lovers came in from Athens, Chicago, New York, from upriver Adams & Scioto Counties, as well as every hidden nook & cranny this old river citadel of hilly & troubled CinCinity the infinitely Intimate still could boast of, if only it knew itself this well. She was its lightning lass. Still is, if last night's parade of witnesses was any measure. Some wept on mic, quite as some did down South at a similar celebration earlier this past summer in Athens, Georgia.
Ah but, as more than one celebrant noted over the course of the event, she was an evolutionary marvel who never stopped growing past every difficulty her seventy years of creative ferment afforded - she felt her way, and she left none behind, no matter how far she ventured. The world as she found it was harrowing & sorrowful in full measure, but she knew how to share her way thru the morass with duendist élan leavened with empathy, outreach, intelligence & joy... she was quite the Lady, pinpoint & hair-raising, and she was in the room last night. As one of the open mic celebrants noted, in an improv spun forth more than three hours into the Tribute, at almost 11PM, Aralee modified the surround wherever she went - our Lady was an uncanny adverb : "Arrowly," evermore."
-Ralph La Charity
With compañero poets Ken Kawaji and Bill Polak, La Charity created the two hour weekly jazz/poetry broadcast, the Skaldric Cauldron, on WAIF/FM radio Cincinnati in the mid-'90s. Working as poet/percussionist with Cincinnati jazzmen Ricardo Williams and Jack Walker, he created the village jazz cohort, SàSemblé, a poetry and music crew that appeared at various venues in Ohio and Pennsylvania from 1996 thru 2001, including at different times poets and musicians James Quilligan, Scott Hisey, Anne Marie La Charity, Brian Richards, Bill Polak, and Steve Lansky. His poetics samizdat, W'ORCs/ALOUD ALLOWED, began publishing from Amsterdam, Holland in 1986, and continued its run through West Germany, San Antonio, and Cincinnati, having published to date over 90 issues. At http://www.semantikon.com/dialect.htm, selected compendia of his work are available, archived for the years 2005 and 2008 by sitemaster Lance Oditt. At www.athenswordofmouth.com, individual pieces of his were posted by Aralee Strange, from the years 2010 thru 2013. He currently appears delivering his poetry aloud as an open participant at open poetry readings throughout the State of Ohio.
