Listen to Tana read from Latest Volcano as part of the Jerome Stern Distinguished Writer's Series at Florida State University.
Fall 2017 Visiting Authors at Valencia College
Audio Recording of Latest Volcano
Before the Reading: Oysters at Birds in Tallahassee
Nate Marshall, Keith Kopka, Erin Belieu, Yolanda Franklin, Timothy Daniel Welch, and Tana Jean Welch. Photo by Laura Louise Minor. October 25, 2016.
Currently Reading: Nate Marshall's Wild Hundreds
I'm honored to be reading with Nate Marshall in Tallahassee tomorrow night! Check out his excellent book: Wild Hundreds, which includes the poem below.
out south
in Chicago kids are beaten. they crack
open; they're pavement. they don't fight, they die.
bodies bruised blue with wood. cameras catch
us killing, capture danger to broadcast
on Broadways. we Roseland stars made players
for the press. apes caged from first grade until.
shake us. we make terrible tambourines.
packed into class, kids passed like kidney stones.
each street day is unanswered prayer for peace,
news gushes from Mom's mouth like schoolboy blood.
Ragtown crime don't stop, only waves—hello.
crime waves break no surface on news—goodbye.
every kid that's killed is one less free lunch,
a fiscal coup. welcome to where we from.