A Finer Form

Abstract

In 1996, the George Moses Horton Society for the Study of African American Poetry was founded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with the purpose ofpromoting the creation and scholarly evaluation of African American poetry. After conferences in Chapel Hill in 1998, 2000, and 2002, the Society met jointly with the second Furious Flower Poetry Conference held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in September of 2004. The featured activity for the Horton Society was a luncheon at which Pulitzer Prizewinning poet Yusef Komunyakaa and internationally famed composer T. J. Anderson discussed their collaboration on an opera entitled Slip Knot. Their comments on their unusual adventures into creativity make clear the myriad possibilities for collaboration across traditional creative boundaries. Komunyakaa appreciates the rhythms of Anderson's compositions, and Anderson embraces the musicality of Komun? yakaa's poetry. The two artists discuss the importance ofvaluing each other's work, oftrusting the collaborative process, and of the need to allow the result of their creativity to rest in the hands and minds of the other. Where to nudge and where to bid the vassal soar, as George Moses Horton would say, is a line that they adhere to almost without discussion, for both Komunyakaa and Anderson have tried and true histories of sustained creation. In an engaging exchange in which they informed and entertained the audience of luncheon guests, Komunyakaa and Anderson provided a glimpse into the expansive possibilities of language and music?and the sound that is integral to both ofthem. By sharing insights into how creativity works, whether it is scanning lines of poetry or limning words that sing, these artists illustrate that the boundaries between disciplines are always permeable, that the desire to collaborate can always leap over obstacles, and that art can be limited only by imaginations toofragile to push boundaries. By pushing their imaginations, by embracing the differences that have led them to an intertwining oneness, Yusef Komunyakaa and T. J. Anderson have stepped into a sea ofdiversity and yielded a product of afinerform than either could have produced individually. The path they offer is one that many creative persons might find worthy of emulation. ?Trudier Harris