LONG
BIO
No child looks forward
to the chaos of leaving friends and moving to an
unfamiliar place, but it might have been the best
thing that ever happened to Mitchell L. H. Douglas.
A native of
Louisville, Kentucky’s West End, Douglas completed
what he affectionately calls a “Bermuda Triangle”
tour of the Midwest, living in Iowa City, Iowa, and
Columbus, Ohio, before returning to the Bluegrass
State in the mid ’80s. As early as the second grade,
he exhibited passionate opinions about music, a
trait that would eventually nurture his ear as a
poet. The 7-year-old, who in 1977 arrived in Iowa
with a 45 of Parliament’s “Flashlight” for show and
tell, was soon mixing his penchant for funk with the
political leanings of the Clash and Iowa City’s
blossoming punk scene. The music, largely about
alienation, was a soundtrack for Douglas’ existence
as a member of a very small and isolated
African-American community. Feasting on a steady
diet of power chords, slam dancing, and lyrics that
questioned racism and poverty, Douglas was moved to
pen verses of his own. “It might sound
melodramatic,” he admits, “but music was equally
life altering and life saving for me.”
Given his history, it
is no surprise that Douglas’ first book is dedicated
to the life of one of his musical heroes, Donny
Hathaway. A project that began during Douglas’ time
as an MFA student in Creative Writing at Indiana
University, Cooling Board: A Long-Playing Poem
not only tells Hathaway’s story, it tells it in his
voice, taking the writer and reader on a course
through the possibilities of persona. Hathaway is
the lead vocalist, but the voices of those that knew
him best are also present, including long-time
collaborator and Howard University classmate Roberta
Flack. It is a coup for persona poetry: a narrative
that unfolds as a concert of duets and solos. “In
addition to Donny, this book started as an homage to
Jimi Hendrix, Joe Strummer…musicians that had a
profound effect on me who were no longer with us,”
Douglas said. “The deeper I got into the project, I
realized Donny was the musician I knew the least
about. The mystery fascinated me.”
Starting the
manuscript at 33, Hathaway’s age at the time of his
death, Douglas delved into “readings” of Hathaway’s
albums in attempt to describe the artist’s
personality accurately. Those intense listening
sessions, the equivalent of explicating poetry, led
to several trips to St. Louis to meet the people
Hathaway grew up with and walk the streets he walked
in his earliest stages of development as a musician.
More poems came, the manuscript grew, and Douglas
was honored for his efforts. Before its publication
by Red Hen Press, Cooling Board was a
runner-up for the 2007 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry
Prize, a semifinalist for the 2007 Blue Lynx Prize,
and a semifinalist for the 2006 Crab Orchard Series
in Poetry First Book Award.
Douglas’ poetry has
appeared in Callaloo, The Ringing Ear:
Black Poets Lean South (University of Georgia
Press), Crab Orchard Review, and
Zoland Poetry Volume II (Zoland Books) among
others. He is a founding member of the Affrilachian
Poets, a Cave Canem fellow, and Poetry Editor for
PLUCK!: the Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture.
An Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis,
he resides in the city’s North Side.
