Adam Falkner is a multiple-time member and coach of national poetry slam teams representing the youth community of Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan and the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café in New York City, where he was a 2008/2009 Writer-in-Residence.  Adam’s work has appeared in anthologies and journals such as Unsquared (826 Publications, 2006), The Barberhshop Chronicles (Penmanship Books, 2008), decomP Magazine, Gigantic Sequins, The Other Journal, Lamplighter Review and others, and has been featured on HBO, BET and Michigan Public Radio.  National Associate for the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP) and recipient of a Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award in higher education for his pioneering work at the University of Michigan in the area of Whiteness studies, Adam has performed and facilitated writing workshops at colleges, universities, high schools, juvenile detention centers and performance venues across the country.  He currently teachers 11th and 12th grade English/Creative Writing in Bushwick, Brooklyn.  



Praise

It is four o’clock Sunday morning,
Saturday still wet on your skin. 
Chemicals the color of coral floor electric 

run red lights through the plumbing in your chest.
38th Avenue is an empty theatre,
your laughter momentums like beer foam 

up and over the lip of a dirty glass.  You lean
at the fluorescent mouth of a bodega
(the only open storefront in Queens), wallow 

in the light mist peppered from a produce hose
hanging above a pyramid of oranges and wonder,
for just a moment, if the God that put you here

tonight is finished with their morning shift and
free to hit a happy hour so you can thank them
for reminding you there is more to this city 

than iron and clock hands, bumping into things
that call your name and hustle, women
that call your name and skyline.  

You trust your legs as if they actually belong to you
tonight when you ask your body to lean
towards Brooklyn and carry you like a lover 

through the dark.

for J.S. and E.M.

© Adam Falkner