Djurdjevi´c felt equally at home, citing the generosity of his hosts during his stay. He was also impressed with the venue. “The alley on Sampsonia Way in fact functioned as theatre space,” he said. “It has good acoustics, and an attentive, grateful audience. It is one of those rare and precious spaces that with a minimum of intervention could sustain artistically very complex and technically demanding events.” Kandasamy agreed: “I loved the homes, the art on the homes, the warmth of the alley, and how every single aspect came together to create magic,” she said. “A poet has to bleed before people. That I could do on Sampsonia Way. I have read in lots of spaces, but nothing matches the sheer delight of throwing your words at hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages and colors and walks of life.” WATCH VIDEO OF KANDASAMY AT THE JAZZ POETRY CONCERT
The favorable experience is one reason IWP continues to partnership with COA/P. To date, nine IWP writers have performed in Jazz Poetry, including writers from Mongolia, Iraq, and Cuba. “It goes back to Henry’s vision about how to use arts to build a neighborhood and how to make a neighborhood a good place for arts,” said Ferrer. “This is all happening in an intimate way.” A South African discovers snow In addition to partnering with IWP for Jazz Poetry COA/P offers some of the IWP writers a three-month residencies following their stay in Iowa City. South African novelist Maxine Case came to the United States in 2009 to get away from her grueling schedule as a senior writer for the development organization Cape Town Partnership. “I had a fulltime job that was quite demanding,” said the winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for Best First Book in Africa. “I would often wake up at 5 a.m. to write fiction.” She came to the IWP in 2009 hoping to find solitary time to write. “However, in Iowa City, about 30 of us lived on the same floor of a hotel,” Case said. “My writing was often interrupted by a call to play poker, go out to play pool, or to go out for a meal. Still, Iowa freed the fiction writer in me and once more gave me a voice.” Maxine Case Photo: Courtesy of Author
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