Furious Flower Poetry Center
Young poets bloom through the inspiration of African-American poetry
By Leila Saadeh, contributing writer
Posted on November 30, 2006

A woman’s love for African-American poetry has expanded into a passionate, prominent poetry center at JMU. Inspired by the famous poet Gwendolyn Brooks, the Furious Flower Poetry Center flourishes on JMU’s campus and provides opportunities for the local community to delve into the world of poetry.

The program’s director, Dr. Joanne Gabbin, former director of the JMU Honors Program who has been at JMU for 21 years, established the center in 1999. After a 2004 poetry conference honoring Brooks, President Linwood Rose, along with Gabbin, helped create the center at the university in 2004.

The center draws its unique name from Brooks’ poem, “Second Sermon on the Warpland.”

“The time cracks into furious flower/Lifts its face all unashamed/And sways in wicked grace,” Brooks writes in her poem. Her underlying message against inequality and discrimination was the motivation behind Gabbin’s center.

The Furious Flower Poetry Center has sponsored many other activities and events. The JMU Poetry Club was founded by the center in 2005. Students and members in the community meet to study inspiring poetry and hold workshops to improve their writing. Another part of the Furious Flower is SLAM, which is a poetry competition where the poets, also known as “slammers,” have three rounds to spit their piece and are judged.

Senior Joy Petway is a slammer with the center.

“A lot of teams from different areas participate in SLAM,” Petway said. “You get rated zero to 10, meaning 10 is perfect.”

Furious Flower also hosts readings at Taylor Down Under, as well as video and book projects. My Soul is Anchored is a CD produced by the center. It is a passionate and formidable collection of poems portraying victims of Hurricane Katrina expressing their strife through poetry. Many well-known speakers have been invited to perform at JMU by the center. The most recent poet was Jayne Cortez and the Firespitters.

According to Gabbin, poets and speakers that come to JMU are chosen though a selection process.

She picks poets that she is familiar with and will provide an interesting perspective on activism and multiculturalism and global policies, Gabbin said.

The center was granted the opportunity to collaborate with the National Poetry Foundation to create the curriculum with the Target Corporation for Black History Month that is to be sent out to schools around the country.