JESSE N. ALEXANDER

Jesse N. Alexander is a performance poet, Afrofuturist, micro-publisher, electrical engineer, and finalist in the 1999 Allen Ginsberg Poetry contest. He has been featured at the Knitting Factory, Groove Drops, and the Sumei Multidisciplinary Center, and his work has appeared in Sojourners Magazine, The Drumming Between Us: Black Love & Erotic Poetry, and Drumvoices Revue: A Confluence of Literary, Cultural & Vision Arts.

A 17 year veteran of Bell Labs, Jesse holds a Master of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from Howard University. He supports his amateur radio, poetry, science,  and science fiction addictions by developing documentation for the cloud computing industry.

personal statement:       

"I have been writing poetry and prose, and blowing fuses since I was 8 years old...and I write to collect the various and sundry parts of myself and project them into the future. My storytelling Mother taught me how to love a song for the song's sake, and my civil engineer Father taught me to appreciate the structure in all things..."

after all

(For the poet exasperated by discouragement.
& Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

Aren’t You We I just sitting
around a fire looking
up at questions burning

like stars against a why so
vast, so dark it swallows the
breath from our mouths

making You We I sing, chant,
poem, dance down new truths upon
Old, building a great circle

so brilliant that You We I
burn fantastic: bright enough
to kindle a wonder by?