MICHAEL "CLEBO" RAINEY RAREFIED CELEBRATION

MICHAEL CLEBO RAINEY

RARIFIED CELEBRATION

A celebration of the life and legacy of Michael “Clebo” Rainey, legendary icon of the Dallas poetry scene and founder of the Dallas Poetry Slam.

My name is Jonathan White, but most friends call me GNO. I am a poet, and like most poets, I’ve had some incredibly giving mentors.

Clebo Rainey is one of those mentors; as a matter of fact, Clebo mentored hundreds of poets from all walks of life.

Michael Clebo Rainey is entering his 73rd rotation around the sun. We as a community would like to celebrate his legacy and pour back into him all the love and dedication he has given to the Dallas, Texas, poetry community.

I first met Clebo when I was 28 years old. I’m now 53. He heard my poetry at a Dallas open-mic, said I was good, and invited me to a “poetry slam.”

He was older than I was, a white, grizzly biker type. He looked like the kind of person I was taught to mistrust as a young Black man growing up in Highland Hills in the south side of Dallas. But Clebo was living proof about what they say about books and their covers. Clebo wasted no time inviting me to his home, introducing me to his wife and dogs, and talking to me about poetry and good music. We became quick friends and the oddest couple of guys to talk into a Deep Ellum open-mic, me in my 90’s hip-hop attire and him in his cowboy boots and a blue jean jacket.

As a young Black man from Oak Cliff, Texas, I had rarely traveled outside my neighborhood, let alone to another state. Clebo took me on my first out-of-state road trip. In one month, we cruised through the south, the east coast up to Middletown, Connecticut, visiting open-mic poetry venues all along the way. We took many more road trips over the years, pushing through the country in Clebo’s minivan filled with Dr. Pepper, poetry, and good music.

As the years rolled by and careers and priorities changed, Clebo and I would catch a phone call from each other now and then. But he was always in my thoughts because of the impact he had on my life and the lives of so many other poets in Dallas.

Clebo has never asked for much in return from all those years of housing, mentoring, transporting, and feeding poets outside of an ice-cold Dr. Pepper, but life has caught up with him at 73. During one of our rare phone calls, I learned Clebo had fallen onto hard times or what he would call “life.” He didn’t complain, it was just life, and the cards dealt.

A 73 with Clebo partially blind in one eye, suffering from acute asthma, made worse with age, and needing a partial dental implant.

During the Covid pandemic, Clebo was laid off from his job at a local bookstore, an industry already in dire straits before Covid, and is living on the little bit of savings he has left. Those savings are running out, and rent and bills are due.

And this is where this GoFundMe account comes into play. I want to give back to the man who gave so selflessly to so many for all those years in Dallas.

I want to help Clebo, I need to help Clebo, and I need your help to see that my mentor, our mentor, has enough to make it to the end of the year and hopefully even beyond. I know we’re all struggling, but I ask you, if you have something to give, please give it. And no donation is too small. Please know that if you give to this cause or help us spread the word about this cause I will be forever grateful.

Thank you,

Jonathan “GNO” White

National Poetry Slam Champion