Drumvoices Revue

Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville

With features and interviews with Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez and Joy Harjo; new poems by Li-Young Lee; and a wonderful section on new Nigerian poets, the spring-summer-fall issue of Drumvoices Revue is certainly worth the sawbuck it costs. But in addition to a wide range of national voices, there’s an entire section devoted to Sacramento-area poets and writers. Former Sacto poet-laureate Dennis Schmitz, local lights Be Davison Herrera, Kimberly White and Ariono-jovan Labu (a frequent contributor to SN&R’s Poet’s corner) are among the more than 40 area wordsmiths represented. Herrera reminds us in “a rant” that “poetry is not / a lap dog / for selling whatever.” Or as half of Straight Out Scribes, V.S. Chochezi writes, “Can I get some hot sauce / with that?”