The Mojave desert sandstorms into your bedroom. Saguaro cacti sprout their prickly bodies into the walls, their blossoms open like daydreams in your sweaty folds, longhorn skeletons submerged in the hardwood floors. King snakes, and rattlers slither from underneath your bed. Gila Monsters and Horny Toads stealthily crawl inside the biome of hell sweltering inside the space where you slumber, the space where you pray for rain more than you would to god, because you know the rain will pour from the heavens… eventually, long before your mother’s version of god shines down from it.
—'Ceiling Fan Blues' by J.B. Stone
(Published first in The Citron Review)
It’s hard to describe J.B. Stone, exactly. As a writer, he can’t be pigeonholed.
Some may call Stone a spoken word poet. To others, he’s a slam poet. He’s writes fiction. And he’s a playwright.
Stone is known too for his critical reviews on Medium. Oh yeah, he’s also an editor, as well as a teaching artist. And, according to the writer’s website — jb-stone.com — he’s a “nichepunk nerd” and “intellectual goofball.”
Just one word to the wise, however: Don’t you dare call J.B. Stone a “cheerleader.”
“I hope you consider me more than just a fucking cheerleader,” he says in a sardonic voice that he’s mastered while telling off a generation of doomsayers that can’t seem to muster the energy to clap, applaud or give a damn about what’s happening on stage.
“I’m only a big cheerleader because there’s not enough people cheerleading,” he said. “I can’t be the loudest person in the room. Other people need to do their part. Don’t praise me for being a cheerleader. That’s the bare minimum we have that we can give to our poets.”
A native of Brooklyn who now lives in Buffalo, Stone has made a distinct impression upon the city’s poetry landscape. And he’s often seen “in the wild” performing as a featured speaker at various venues including Milkie’s, Em Tea, Caffe Aroma and Ujima Theater.
So, who exactly is J.B. Stone?
“J.B. Stone is a Neurodivergent/Autistic slam poet, writer, editor and literary critic,” reads the back of the writer’s 2022 work Fireflies and Hand Grenades published by Bottlecap Press.
Known also as Jared Benjamin, Stone — an award-winning and prolific writer — is the author of three books of poetry. They’re work has also appeared in a number of anthologies such as These Poems Are Not What They Seem – A Tribute to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (Apep Publications 2020), Poets to Come: Walt Whitman’s Bicentennial (Local Gems Press 2019); and Pact Press: Changing Tides (Pact Press-Regal House Press 2020).
Stone said, “being disabled I sort of struggled in school most of the time. A lot of it is playing keep up.”
Considering the awards and accolades that have come Stone’s way — all of them hard-earned and well-deserved, including slam poet champion and a writer’s nomination for “Best of the Net” — it would seem he’s been successful in overcoming the challenges with which he’s been confronted.
Still, Stone said, having to learn differently than others mean it takes longer to grasp things, and there’s always a feeling of needing to do more, no matter how far he’s come.
“It took me 10 years to get here,” he said. “There are a lot of people that can get this stuff in a year. It took me 10 years to get to the point I am right now.”
Yes, it’s hard to describe J.B. Stone exactly.
Yet it’s safe to say — no matter what you might call this writer — Stone's is a voice in Buffalo that must be heard.
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