Wednesday, June 24, 2009
"Who" is correct
Many thanks to my Dad, Preston Browning, Jr., who let me know that in fact "who" is correct in the following sentence:
Plus a bunch of nonfiction writers who I'm sure are just as cool.
This was in a previous post about Sweet Literary Journal -- I had thought that the correct usage in that sentence was "whom," but Dad, the expert, says that: "'who' is correct since it's the subject of the verb 'are.' Using 'whom' in such a construction is sometimes done today but it's incorrect."
Thanks, Dad!
Plus a bunch of nonfiction writers who I'm sure are just as cool.
This was in a previous post about Sweet Literary Journal -- I had thought that the correct usage in that sentence was "whom," but Dad, the expert, says that: "'who' is correct since it's the subject of the verb 'are.' Using 'whom' in such a construction is sometimes done today but it's incorrect."
Thanks, Dad!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Happy Birthday, Gwendolyn Brooks!
From the good folks at the Poetry Foundation:
Remember that poetry is life distilled.
—Gwendolyn Brooks
June 7, 2009, would have been Gwendolyn Brooks's 92nd birthday; to join us in celebrating one of America's greatest poets, check out the Hall Library stop on the Chicago Poetry Tour, which features archival recordings of Brooks reading from and speaking about the impressive span of her work. The program ranges from the intimate neighborhood portraits included in her first collection, A Street in Bronzeville, such as "kitchenette building" and "the rites for Cousin Vit," to the political turn her poetry took in the '60s as she became involved with the black arts movement:
And we did such exciting things. And we went into the park and recited our poetry and we went to city jail. And the most exciting thing we did was just to walk into a tavern, and someone like Haki Madhubuti, once known as Don L. Lee, would say, "Look folks, we're gonna lay some poetry on you!" . . . And they would turn from their drinks, temporarily, and listen to poetry, which they hadn't come to the tavern to hear, of course.
The Poetry Foundation website offers a critical biography of Brooks, as well as contemporary articles, including Danielle Chapman's "Sweet Bombs," a review of the recently issued collection The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks.
For a broader look at Brooks’s effect on Chicago poetry, listen to "Confronting the Warpland," an original one-hour radio documentary produced by the Poetry Foundation. The show presents African American poets who have found influence and inspiration living in the city, and features Brooks, Tyehimba Jess, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Haki Madhubuti, Sterling Plumpp, and Margaret Walker in interviews, readings, and archival recordings.
Finally, Brooks is showcased in the Essential American Poets archive, selected by Donald Hall during his poet laureateship in 2006. Recorded at the Library of Congress in 1961, Brooks, in her early 30s, reads several poems not available on the Chicago Poetry Tour, including "the mother," "of De Witt Williams on his way to Lincoln Cemetery," and "A Sunset of the City," which ends,
Tin intimations of a quiet core to be my
Desert and my dear relief
Come: there shall be such islanding from grief,
And small communion with the master shore.
Twang they. And I incline this ear to tin,
Consult a dual dilemma. Whether to dry
In humming pallor or to leap and die.Somebody muffed it? Somebody wanted to joke.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
America's Sorry Policy
On Obama's Speech in Cairo and US Policy in the Middle East
by John Feffer, the always-astute co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus
In 1697, five years after the judges of Salem, Massachusetts sent 20 suspected witches to the gallows, one man stood up in front of his congregation and apologized. Samuel Sewall was one of the nine judges that gave official sanction to the hysteria of the witch trials. In a remarkable act of contrition, Sewall took upon his head the "blame and shame" of the tragedy and wore a hair shirt until the day of his death to remind him of his sin. More intriguingly, he went on to become a champion of civil rights and an early abolitionist.
It would be truly breathtaking if George W. Bush - or any of the architects of the U.S. foreign policy fiascos of the 21st century - donned a hair shirt, repented of his actions, and performed an ideological about-face. The parallels with Salem are not trivial: the hysteria, the torture, the legal travesties. But don't hold your breath waiting for a mea culpa from the 43rd president. Instead, it's left to Barack Obama to come to terms with the Bush legacy.
Last week in Cairo, President Obama gave a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world. In many ways the speech was extraordinary. The president reaffirmed his own personal ties to the Islamic world, quoted from the Koran, lauded religious tolerance, upheld the rule of law, recognized that "the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable," called on Israel to stop settlements, reaffirmed his commitment to nuclear abolition, and tactically refocused U.S. military campaigns against "violent extremism in all forms."
The speech "reflected a significant shift away from the ideological framework of militarism and unilateralism that shaped the Bush administration's war-based policy toward the Arab and Muslim worlds," observes Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) contributor Phyllis Bennis in Changing the Discourse. It will be remembered, as Akiva Eldar writes in Haaretz, "as the last day of the 9/11 era." And the speech could also help shift the U.S. public's attitudes about Islam, which have been largely negative. "If it reduces American prejudice against Arabs and Muslims, then his address would truly mark a new beginning for U.S.-Muslim relations," writes FPIF contributor R.S. Zaharna in Improving U.S.-Muslim Relations.
For all its strong points, however, the speech didn't contain any apologies. The president might have taken the opportunity to apologize for the way the Bush administration demonized Islam, killed countless Muslim civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, supported repressive states in the region, and abrogated the civil liberties of Muslim and Arab-Americans in the United States. But the United States rarely does apologies. And Obama prefers to focus on the future rather than the past.
The closest the president came to an apology was when he mentioned U.S. complicity in the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected government in 1953. He didn't apologize for the act (nor did Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000 when she too acknowledged U.S. involvement in the coup). "Rather than remain trapped in the past," Obama said in Cairo, "I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward."
The president no doubt fears a slippery slope - apologize for one U.S. policy and the demands will escalate to apologize for them all. For the conservative attack dogs, meanwhile, the word "sorry" is like the scent of fear and weakness. At the merest mention of an apology, they will leap at Obama's throat.
And then there's the problem of current U.S. actions. We continue to support autocratic leaders in the Arab world. "Many Arabs and Muslims have expressed frustration that Obama failed to use this opportunity to call on the autocratic Saudi and Egyptian leaders with whom he had visited on his Middle Eastern trip to end their repression and open up their corrupt and tightly controlled political systems," writes FPIF senior analyst Stephen Zunes in How Not to Support Democracy in the Middle East. The Egyptian government's crackdown on dissent prior to Obama's visit was a painful reminder of U.S. double standards on democracy in the region.
Obama pledged to adhere to the timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, noted that the United States desires no military bases in Afghanistan, and referred to the $1.5 billion in infrastructure assistance for Pakistan. But we're still at war in these countries, and apologies, if they come at all, are issued long after the last shot is fired.
For all of the president's attempts to focus the debate on "violent extremists," U.S. aerial assaults and counterinsurgency operations are still claiming civilian lives in the Muslim world. This is particularly problematic in Afghanistan, as FPIF contributor Farrah Hassen points out. In his Cairo speech, the president "failed to acknowledge the growing civilian casualties due to increased U.S. drone attacks ostensibly aimed at dismantling the Taliban - a reality that only increases the risk of blowback against the United States, as opposed to winning the hearts and minds of Afghans, and of Muslims, alike," she writes in Lifting the Veil. "Indeed, a military investigation concluded the United States made mistakes after the May 4 airstrikes in the western province of Farah that killed dozens of civilians."
On the ground in Afghanistan, where support for NATO military operations has declined precipitously over the years, U.S. forces are experimenting with a new policy of prompt apologies for civilian casualties. The apologies are welcome in the region, but words can only go so far. "Apologies are good things," Maolawi Hezatullah, provincial council head in Kunar where U.S. troops killed six civilians in April, told Reuters. "But the foreign troops should convince the people that there will be no more such incidents."
Samuel Sewall didn't simply apologize for his role in the Salem witch trials. He tried to remedy his errors by working to ensure that such atrocities would never reoccur. We may not see apologies for U.S. conduct in the Muslim world coming from top U.S. officials. But if Obama manages to end the "collateral damage" to civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, then U.S. policy will change indeed.
Links
Eve LaPlante, "The Opposite of Thanksgiving," The Boston Globe, November 18, 2007; http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/11/18/the_opposite_of_thanksgiving/?page=full
"A New Beginning: Obama's Egypt Speech," The Huffington Post, June 4, 2009; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/04/obama-egypt-speech-video_n_211216.html
Phyllis Bennis, "Changing the Discourse: First Step Toward Changing the Policy," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6169); Obama's approach toward the Muslim world may be diplomatic, but it remains the work of mobilized people across the United States to end Obama's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, halt the occupation of Iraq immediately rather than years from now, stop U.S. military aid to Israel, and launch new negotiations with Iran not based on military threats.
Akiva Eldar, "Obama's Cairo Speech Signals End of 9/11 Era," Haaretz, June 8, 2009; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090535.html
R. S. Zaharna, "Improving U.S.-Muslim Relations," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6171); For the United States to focus only on improving its image in the Arab and Muslim world is to see only half of the picture.
Madeleine Albright, "American-Iranian Relations," March 17, 2000; http://www.fas.org/news/iran/2000/000317.htm
Stephen Zunes, "How Not to Support Democracy in the Middle East," Foreign Policy In Focus, http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6173; Obama failed to address Egyptian and Saudi repression in his address to the Muslim world.
Hossam el-Hamalawy, "Cairo Under Siege Ahead of Obama's Speech," The Huffington Post, June 3, 2009; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/03/cairo-under-siege-ahead-o_n_211154.html
Farrah Hassen, "Lifting the Veil," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6170); A Muslim-American reflects on Obama's Cairo speech.
Peter Graff, "New Tactic for U.S., NATO in Afghanistan," Reuters, April 17, 2009; http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE53G3L620090417?sp=true
by John Feffer, the always-astute co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus
In 1697, five years after the judges of Salem, Massachusetts sent 20 suspected witches to the gallows, one man stood up in front of his congregation and apologized. Samuel Sewall was one of the nine judges that gave official sanction to the hysteria of the witch trials. In a remarkable act of contrition, Sewall took upon his head the "blame and shame" of the tragedy and wore a hair shirt until the day of his death to remind him of his sin. More intriguingly, he went on to become a champion of civil rights and an early abolitionist.
It would be truly breathtaking if George W. Bush - or any of the architects of the U.S. foreign policy fiascos of the 21st century - donned a hair shirt, repented of his actions, and performed an ideological about-face. The parallels with Salem are not trivial: the hysteria, the torture, the legal travesties. But don't hold your breath waiting for a mea culpa from the 43rd president. Instead, it's left to Barack Obama to come to terms with the Bush legacy.
Last week in Cairo, President Obama gave a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world. In many ways the speech was extraordinary. The president reaffirmed his own personal ties to the Islamic world, quoted from the Koran, lauded religious tolerance, upheld the rule of law, recognized that "the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable," called on Israel to stop settlements, reaffirmed his commitment to nuclear abolition, and tactically refocused U.S. military campaigns against "violent extremism in all forms."
The speech "reflected a significant shift away from the ideological framework of militarism and unilateralism that shaped the Bush administration's war-based policy toward the Arab and Muslim worlds," observes Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF) contributor Phyllis Bennis in Changing the Discourse. It will be remembered, as Akiva Eldar writes in Haaretz, "as the last day of the 9/11 era." And the speech could also help shift the U.S. public's attitudes about Islam, which have been largely negative. "If it reduces American prejudice against Arabs and Muslims, then his address would truly mark a new beginning for U.S.-Muslim relations," writes FPIF contributor R.S. Zaharna in Improving U.S.-Muslim Relations.
For all its strong points, however, the speech didn't contain any apologies. The president might have taken the opportunity to apologize for the way the Bush administration demonized Islam, killed countless Muslim civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan, supported repressive states in the region, and abrogated the civil liberties of Muslim and Arab-Americans in the United States. But the United States rarely does apologies. And Obama prefers to focus on the future rather than the past.
The closest the president came to an apology was when he mentioned U.S. complicity in the overthrow of Iran's democratically elected government in 1953. He didn't apologize for the act (nor did Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in 2000 when she too acknowledged U.S. involvement in the coup). "Rather than remain trapped in the past," Obama said in Cairo, "I have made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward."
The president no doubt fears a slippery slope - apologize for one U.S. policy and the demands will escalate to apologize for them all. For the conservative attack dogs, meanwhile, the word "sorry" is like the scent of fear and weakness. At the merest mention of an apology, they will leap at Obama's throat.
And then there's the problem of current U.S. actions. We continue to support autocratic leaders in the Arab world. "Many Arabs and Muslims have expressed frustration that Obama failed to use this opportunity to call on the autocratic Saudi and Egyptian leaders with whom he had visited on his Middle Eastern trip to end their repression and open up their corrupt and tightly controlled political systems," writes FPIF senior analyst Stephen Zunes in How Not to Support Democracy in the Middle East. The Egyptian government's crackdown on dissent prior to Obama's visit was a painful reminder of U.S. double standards on democracy in the region.
Obama pledged to adhere to the timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, noted that the United States desires no military bases in Afghanistan, and referred to the $1.5 billion in infrastructure assistance for Pakistan. But we're still at war in these countries, and apologies, if they come at all, are issued long after the last shot is fired.
For all of the president's attempts to focus the debate on "violent extremists," U.S. aerial assaults and counterinsurgency operations are still claiming civilian lives in the Muslim world. This is particularly problematic in Afghanistan, as FPIF contributor Farrah Hassen points out. In his Cairo speech, the president "failed to acknowledge the growing civilian casualties due to increased U.S. drone attacks ostensibly aimed at dismantling the Taliban - a reality that only increases the risk of blowback against the United States, as opposed to winning the hearts and minds of Afghans, and of Muslims, alike," she writes in Lifting the Veil. "Indeed, a military investigation concluded the United States made mistakes after the May 4 airstrikes in the western province of Farah that killed dozens of civilians."
On the ground in Afghanistan, where support for NATO military operations has declined precipitously over the years, U.S. forces are experimenting with a new policy of prompt apologies for civilian casualties. The apologies are welcome in the region, but words can only go so far. "Apologies are good things," Maolawi Hezatullah, provincial council head in Kunar where U.S. troops killed six civilians in April, told Reuters. "But the foreign troops should convince the people that there will be no more such incidents."
Samuel Sewall didn't simply apologize for his role in the Salem witch trials. He tried to remedy his errors by working to ensure that such atrocities would never reoccur. We may not see apologies for U.S. conduct in the Muslim world coming from top U.S. officials. But if Obama manages to end the "collateral damage" to civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, then U.S. policy will change indeed.
Links
Eve LaPlante, "The Opposite of Thanksgiving," The Boston Globe, November 18, 2007; http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/11/18/the_opposite_of_thanksgiving/?page=full
"A New Beginning: Obama's Egypt Speech," The Huffington Post, June 4, 2009; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/04/obama-egypt-speech-video_n_211216.html
Phyllis Bennis, "Changing the Discourse: First Step Toward Changing the Policy," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6169); Obama's approach toward the Muslim world may be diplomatic, but it remains the work of mobilized people across the United States to end Obama's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, halt the occupation of Iraq immediately rather than years from now, stop U.S. military aid to Israel, and launch new negotiations with Iran not based on military threats.
Akiva Eldar, "Obama's Cairo Speech Signals End of 9/11 Era," Haaretz, June 8, 2009; http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1090535.html
R. S. Zaharna, "Improving U.S.-Muslim Relations," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6171); For the United States to focus only on improving its image in the Arab and Muslim world is to see only half of the picture.
Madeleine Albright, "American-Iranian Relations," March 17, 2000; http://www.fas.org/news/iran/2000/000317.htm
Stephen Zunes, "How Not to Support Democracy in the Middle East," Foreign Policy In Focus, http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6173; Obama failed to address Egyptian and Saudi repression in his address to the Muslim world.
Hossam el-Hamalawy, "Cairo Under Siege Ahead of Obama's Speech," The Huffington Post, June 3, 2009; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/03/cairo-under-siege-ahead-o_n_211154.html
Farrah Hassen, "Lifting the Veil," Foreign Policy In Focus (http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6170); A Muslim-American reflects on Obama's Cairo speech.
Peter Graff, "New Tactic for U.S., NATO in Afghanistan," Reuters, April 17, 2009; http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE53G3L620090417?sp=true
Friday, June 05, 2009
Sweet is sweet!
The new issue of Sweet: A Literary Confection is online, happily including my poem, "Kissing Girls" from The Smart Girl Poems. I'm very happy to be in the company of the magnificent Tim Seibles, as well as poets Barbara Daniels, Hugh Behm-Steinberg, Laura McCullough, and Emily K. Bright. Plus a bunch of nonfiction writers who I'm sure are just as cool. (Should be "whom" but that would be um... uncool). Check it out here: http://www.sweetlit.com/issue1.3.html
Help Out GirlChild Press and Get a Great Book
GirlChild Press is moving to the West Coast and they need help. Here's a note from the publisher, Michelle Sewell:We have 300 first edition copies of Just Like A Girl left from our 1,200 copy run. It is cost prohibitive to ship them to the west coast when we relocate so we are asking that everyone buy a copy. Simple as that. They are $20.00 a piece. Go to www.girlchildpress.com/products.html
to make your order. We have about 20 copies of Growing Up Girl if you are interested in that anthology. If you would like a bulk order of 12 copies or more please email me at girlchildpress@aol.com for a special rate!
If you can't afford to buy a copy pass this announcement to someone with deeper pockets:)
Thank you for your continued support!
Michelle Sewell
Editor/Founder of GirlChild Press
(ps from Sarah - My poem "Poem for Turning 40" is included, plus lots of other terrific writings, poetry and prose. A perfect gift for the feisty gals in your life!)
(ps from Sarah - My poem "Poem for Turning 40" is included, plus lots of other terrific writings, poetry and prose. A perfect gift for the feisty gals in your life!)
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Augusto Boal, 1931-2009
From The Guardian (UK):Augusto Boal, the visionary Brazilian theatre director and dramatist, who has died aged 78, spent his life proving that you didn't have to wait until "after the revolution" for worthwhile social improvements - you could use theatre to make radical changes in the here and now. Best known as the author of the 1974 classic Theatre of the Oppressed, which had grown out of his theatre movement of the same name, Boal was an inspirational and internationally recognised theatre guru.
Full obituary here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/06/augusto-boal-obituary
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Panel Proposal Deadline Extended to June 30
Dear Friends,
We've extended the deadline for proposals for panels, workshops, and sundry exciting festival events. Please spread the word - and send us your fabulous ideas. Thanks! The "Call" is below, for your convenience, with a link to the full guidelines.
- Split This Rock Team
**
Call for Proposals: Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness invites poets, writers, activists, and all concerned citizens to Washington, DC, March 10-13, 2010 for four days of poetry, community building, and creative transformation as our country continues to grapple with two wars, a crippling economic crisis, and other social and environmental ills.
The festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism -- opportunities to imagine a way forward, hone our community and activist skills, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change.
We invite you to send proposals for panel discussions, group readings, roundtable discussions, workshops, and small-scale performances on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us.
NEW DEADLINE: June 30, 2009.Details and guidelines are online at: www.splitthisrock.org/documents/2010_panel_proposals.doc
Discussion and community building are at the heart of Split This Rock. We value diversity, creativity, and new ideas. Check out last year's schedule for inspiration: www.splitthisrock.org/schedule.html.
Please join us!
Help Split This Rock Spread the Word
Forward this email, post it on your blog, send a message to all your Facebook friends. We are a grassroots movement and need your help to reach a wide variety of poets and poetry lovers. Thanks!
We've extended the deadline for proposals for panels, workshops, and sundry exciting festival events. Please spread the word - and send us your fabulous ideas. Thanks! The "Call" is below, for your convenience, with a link to the full guidelines.
- Split This Rock Team
**
Call for Proposals: Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness invites poets, writers, activists, and all concerned citizens to Washington, DC, March 10-13, 2010 for four days of poetry, community building, and creative transformation as our country continues to grapple with two wars, a crippling economic crisis, and other social and environmental ills.
The festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism -- opportunities to imagine a way forward, hone our community and activist skills, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change.
We invite you to send proposals for panel discussions, group readings, roundtable discussions, workshops, and small-scale performances on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us.
NEW DEADLINE: June 30, 2009.Details and guidelines are online at: www.splitthisrock.org/documents/2010_panel_proposals.doc
Discussion and community building are at the heart of Split This Rock. We value diversity, creativity, and new ideas. Check out last year's schedule for inspiration: www.splitthisrock.org/schedule.html.
Please join us!
Help Split This Rock Spread the Word
Forward this email, post it on your blog, send a message to all your Facebook friends. We are a grassroots movement and need your help to reach a wide variety of poets and poetry lovers. Thanks!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
A Human Eye: Essays on Art & Society, by Adrienne Rich
Reviewed by Michael Roth in the San Francisco Chronicle:
In an essay on the poet Muriel Rukeyser, Rich says that Rukeyser "was one of the great integrators, seeing the fragmentary world of modernity not as irretrievably broken, but in need of societal and emotional repair." And this, too, has been Rich's own perspective: a vision both unsparing and full of hope. Poetry has the power "to revive spirit, stimulate consciousness, restore a brutalized humanity."
Read the full review here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/24/RV6E174N6U.DTL
In an essay on the poet Muriel Rukeyser, Rich says that Rukeyser "was one of the great integrators, seeing the fragmentary world of modernity not as irretrievably broken, but in need of societal and emotional repair." And this, too, has been Rich's own perspective: a vision both unsparing and full of hope. Poetry has the power "to revive spirit, stimulate consciousness, restore a brutalized humanity."
Read the full review here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/24/RV6E174N6U.DTL
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The Creativity Stimulus
Every moment of major social change requires a collective leap of imagination. Political transformation must be accompanied not just by spontaneous and organized expressions of unrest and risk but by an explosion of mass creativity. Little wonder that two of the most maligned jobs during the forty years after Richard Nixon's 1968 election sealed the backlash of the "silent majority" were community organizer and artist.
Obama was both. So why haven't community organizers and artists been offered a greater role in the national recovery?
Read the full article by Jeff Chang, a cover story in The Nation, here.
Is this blog blocked?
Blogger says I've been tagged as a possible spam blog and is reviewing the blog. Has anyone received spam that says it's from this blog? I assume this is just the equivalent of being hauled out of security at the airport and having your bags "randomly" checked - but how do I know?
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Rain Inside, by Ibrahim Nasrallah, from Curbstone
An exciting note arrived from Sam Hamill today:I wanted you to know that Curbstone Press (under my Middlepoint Books imprint with them) has just published a selected poems of the important Palestinian poet & novelist, Ibrahim Nasrallah, Rain Inside.
Check it out and please spread the word. Here's the Curbstone page for more information and ordering: http://curbstone.org/bookdetail2.cfm?BookID=209&view=BL
Read a few sample poems here: http://littleredleaves.com/LRL3/nasrallah.html
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Sweet: A Literary Confection
I'm very pleased that the new online journal, Sweet: A Literary Confection, has accepted one of my poems, "Kissing Girls," from the Smart Girl Poems. I'll post again with a link when the poem comes out, but in the meantime I wanted to spread the word about this delicious new offering, two issues young. Dig in!Tuesday, April 21, 2009
In Memoriam: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick (1950 - 2009)
Queer Studies has lost a founding figure. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick passed away April 12 in New York after a long battle with breast cancer. Many LGBT students and scholars benefited directly from the gifts of her teaching, mentorship, and friendship. It is almost impossible to imagine the incredibly rich, varied field we have today without Eve's brilliant work and her brave example.Eve's friend Cathy Davidson has a brief, moving blog post up announcing the news. Read more at Media Bistro's Galley Cat.
Monday, April 06, 2009
That "Glorious Bountiful Nightmare": musings on Christopher Nolan and "Milk"
Throughout his life, Nolan's mantra was "accept me for what I am and I'll accept you for what you're accepted as." When a Hollywood producer asked to make a movie of his life, Nolan declined his offer. "I want to highlight the creativity within the brain of a cripple," he told the producer, "and while not attempting to hide the crippledom I want instead to filter all sob-storied sentiment from his portrait and dwell upon his life, his laughter, his vision, and his nervous normality. Can we ever see eye-to-eye on that schemed scenario?"
Read Kathi Wolfe's essay on the uses of anger in art and in social change, with musings on Christopher Nolan and the film, "Milk," here: http://www.scene4.com/html/kathiwolfe0409.html
Read Kathi Wolfe's essay on the uses of anger in art and in social change, with musings on Christopher Nolan and the film, "Milk," here: http://www.scene4.com/html/kathiwolfe0409.html
Friday, April 03, 2009
Call for Proposals: Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness invites poets, writers, activists, and all concerned citizens to Washington, DC, March 10-13, 2010 for four days of poetry, community building, and creative transformation as our country continues to grapple with two wars, a crippling economic crisis, and other social and environmental ills.
The festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism -- opportunities to imagine a way forward, hone our community and activist skills, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change.
We invite you to send proposals for panel discussions, group readings, roundtable discussions, workshops, and small-scale performances on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us.
The deadline is May 30, 2009.
Details and guidelines are online at: www.splitthisrock.org/documents/2010_panel_proposals.doc
Discussion and community building are at the heart of Split This Rock. We value diversity, creativity, and new ideas. Check out last year's schedule for inspiration: www.splitthisrock.org/schedule.html.
Please join us!
Help Split This Rock Spread the Word
Forward this email, post it on your blog, send a message to all your Facebook friends. We are a grassroots movement and need your help to reach a wide variety of poets and poetry lovers. Thanks!
The festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, activism -- opportunities to imagine a way forward, hone our community and activist skills, and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for social change.
We invite you to send proposals for panel discussions, group readings, roundtable discussions, workshops, and small-scale performances on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us.
The deadline is May 30, 2009.
Details and guidelines are online at: www.splitthisrock.org/documents/2010_panel_proposals.doc
Discussion and community building are at the heart of Split This Rock. We value diversity, creativity, and new ideas. Check out last year's schedule for inspiration: www.splitthisrock.org/schedule.html.
Please join us!
Help Split This Rock Spread the Word
Forward this email, post it on your blog, send a message to all your Facebook friends. We are a grassroots movement and need your help to reach a wide variety of poets and poetry lovers. Thanks!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
What do you look for in a good poem? - Patricia Fargnoli
I like this summary:
"Depth, beauty, spirit, craft, sound, humanity. Sometimes fracturing and remaking of reality, so that I as a reader can see a thing newly. Some news to help me understand my own life and its meaning."
The full interview of Patricia Fargnoli by Robert Lee Brewer is here: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/Interview+With+Poet+Patricia+Fargnoli.aspx
"Depth, beauty, spirit, craft, sound, humanity. Sometimes fracturing and remaking of reality, so that I as a reader can see a thing newly. Some news to help me understand my own life and its meaning."
The full interview of Patricia Fargnoli by Robert Lee Brewer is here: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/Interview+With+Poet+Patricia+Fargnoli.aspx
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Death of Walt Whitman, March 26, 1892
From my friends of the cyberwalt list serv:
Today is the day Walt Whitman died.
Living in Camden, NJ at Mickle Street.
He is buried at Harleigh Cemetery in a granite "burial house" of his own construction.
**
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me,
he complains of my gab
and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yaws over the roofs of the world.
The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.
I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.
I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.
-- Walt Whitman
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop
http://www.vibe.com/news/online_exclusives/2009/03/rhymes_with_reason/
An excerpt from Adam Bradley's, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop
From the author: In my new book, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, I explore the ways that MCs have transformed the poetic tradition, extending the legacy of William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. I argue that over the last four decades rap has helped bring about a renaissance of the word, returning rhythm, rhyme and wordplay to our daily lives. What follows is an excerpt from the book in which I describe how I uncovered an important truth about rap’s poetry in an unexpected place: a nearly abandoned beach in Brazil.
**********************************************
Rhythm is rap’s reason for being. I realized this several years ago in an unlikely place, a beach in a small seaside town outside of Rio de Janeiro. Unable to speak Portuguese, I had been making do by resorting to the traveler’s Esperanto of smiles and hand gestures, but I hungered for familiar words. One afternoon as I walked along the beach, I contented myself by idly reciting rap verses that came to mind. I was in the midst of Inspectah Deck’s opening lines from the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Triumph” (“I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies/ and hypotheses can’t define how I be dropping these/ mockeries. .20.”) when I heard the first words uttered by another person that I had clearly understood in days.
“Wu-Tang Clan!”
An excerpt from Adam Bradley's, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop
From the author: In my new book, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop, I explore the ways that MCs have transformed the poetic tradition, extending the legacy of William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks. I argue that over the last four decades rap has helped bring about a renaissance of the word, returning rhythm, rhyme and wordplay to our daily lives. What follows is an excerpt from the book in which I describe how I uncovered an important truth about rap’s poetry in an unexpected place: a nearly abandoned beach in Brazil.
**********************************************
Rhythm is rap’s reason for being. I realized this several years ago in an unlikely place, a beach in a small seaside town outside of Rio de Janeiro. Unable to speak Portuguese, I had been making do by resorting to the traveler’s Esperanto of smiles and hand gestures, but I hungered for familiar words. One afternoon as I walked along the beach, I contented myself by idly reciting rap verses that came to mind. I was in the midst of Inspectah Deck’s opening lines from the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Triumph” (“I bomb atomically, Socrates’ philosophies/ and hypotheses can’t define how I be dropping these/ mockeries. .20.”) when I heard the first words uttered by another person that I had clearly understood in days.
“Wu-Tang Clan!”
Monday, March 16, 2009
My father’s life gives me a clue about how we got here
I am pleased to post below an essay my friend Jennifer Freeman wrote on the eve of Barack Obama's election. In it, she uses her father's life -- and her speculations about how he might have voted in the election if he were still alive -- as a lens on the changes so many Americans have gone through in the past 50 years. I find it a very hopeful reflection.
**
I wish my father were alive to see Barack Obama’s candidacy. I would love to know how he felt about it. I’m pretty sure my father, the proud veteran of WWII, would be voting for Obama. That’s a surprise given who my father was; not surprising given who he became throughout his 84 years. I find it remarkable, and thrilling, that we are poised to elect an African-American president. My father’s life gives me a clue about how we got here. His evolution must mirror an evolution that has been taking place around the country for decades, in individuals and across generations, leading us to who and where we are today.
My father was always uncomfortable, at the very least, with people of other races and cultures. I was born 18 years after my father’s discharge from the Air Force where he was stationed in Italy and Egypt. My memories date no earlier than 1968 or so, but though 24 years had passed since his time in the war, I remember that Italians were still Wops to my dad, Egyptians were still A-Rabs. And yet his war stories reflected a subtle change in those 40’s era attitudes. He told a story of how none of the men in the unit at the base of Mt. Vesuvius believed the Italian geologists when they warned that it would erupt. My dad said they lost bombers and tanks that could have been saved if they’d heeded the warnings. I don’t even know if that story is true (Mt. Vesuvius did erupt in 1944, lava did pour over bombers, but I don’t know if it’s because the Italian warnings were ignored) but my father told the story with a note of disdain, or at least something a little smug, toward those who he said had refused to believe that “Wops” had any useful advice.
My Italian-American sister-in-law, whom my father adored, put to rest his waning anti-Italian bias. When he launched into yet another war story and my mother, two brothers and I rolled our eyes and cried for relief, Hank (nicknamed after her grandfather) was rapt and filled with questions. But when he referenced the I-talians (long-I), she’d always correct him “(short-I) talians, Frank, Italians.” He’d laugh and correct himself. She never let him get away with the mispronunciation or any slip back to Wop. She helped him overcome his anti-Catholic bias too, which had already taken quite a hit during the Kennedy era but was still there nonetheless.
During my childhood my father was uncomfortable with African-Americans too, and while I can’t recall anything specifically racist it seemed pretty clear that he was. Maybe it was the way he laughed with Archie Bunker instead of at him like the rest of us. Archie was beleaguered by a more liberal family, a changing neighborhood and changing times, just like my father. I recall how we berated him when he referred to Negros or colored people, until finally he corrected himself and learned to say “black.” He would often express his appreciation for black athletes or actors with an inadvertent tone of surprise or a qualifier -- “he’s good, for a colored guy.” We were merciless at those times, angrily demanding to know what he meant. He’d get flustered and say he didn’t really know, that he didn’t really mean anything. I guess we were part of changing him, but it seemed that the changes in his commentary were designed to avoid our abuse, not a reflection of any real change. I remember asking him how he’d react if I married someone black. We all baited my father like that, taunting him a bit, sneering at his prejudices. I felt bad for him in a way, saw how much he was a lonely island in his own home, yet felt righteous in my message and my style of delivery, however insensitive and ineffective, as only the youth can be righteous.
The Vietnam War also divided us. I remember vividly an argument between my mother and father when my mother declared that she’d encourage my brother to flee to Canada if the war was still going on when he became draft age. My father was furious and deeply wounded. His own sacrifice, his sense of honor and pride instilled during WWII could not reckon with my mother’s questions and the resentment she must have felt toward her country in 1970. Jeff was only 12 years old. It was an unnecessary argument, wound up in a hypothetical war 6 years in the future. But at that point it looked like Vietnam could go on that long, and in my mother’s eyes, there was no good reason why it should.
Another time I recall a discussion about busing, when Minneapolis like many cities was working to undo school segregation. We lived in a quiet, white suburb, watching it all from a safe distance. My mother said that that didn’t seem right, that they should include the suburbs in a busing plan. I don’t recall my father’s reaction, but I’m sure he was not gung-ho about busing his children over the line into North Minneapolis. Maybe he’d learned by then to keep his reactions to himself.
Over the years there were little signs that my father was changing with his family and the world around him, and that the changes were truly about him, not just a means to avoid our barrage of assaults. The first significant evidence was his shift from the Republican to Democratic party. He claimed it was Richard Nixon who did that. He felt deeply betrayed by Watergate. He said it helped him see that the Republican party was becoming a party interested only in helping the well-to-do. The Republicans my father was drawn to were frugal, small “c” conservatives who appealed to values rooted in his upbringing on Minnesota and Iowa farms. After Watergate, he began to appreciate the Democrats focus on “the little guy” like him. Throughout the rest of his life he became a loyal and tireless volunteer on many a democratic campaign.
By early 2000 it seemed that my father had changed quite a bit when it came to issues of race. I was suddenly struck by this when he and my mother moved into an assisted living facility. They introduced me to the aides who came to help clean up their apartment, take their medication and get ready for the day. Nearly all of these men and women were Haitian or African-American. I remember coming by for a visit and finding my father and one of his Haitian aides sharing pictures and stories of their grandchildren. He would have found this impossible 20 years before.
After my mother passed away my father became increasingly frail and began to need the help of his aides more and more. They were there all the many times he fell or the EMTs needed to be
called. During those days the suspicious, mistrustful manner of his younger days was nearly gone, given way to a man much more frail, a little nervous, but grateful for the kindness of these strangers who were his daily support.
The father I recall from 1968 – 1975 or so would have most certainly voted for John McCain, Watergate notwithstanding. He simply could not comfortably vote for a black man, even if he was a Democrat, even if my father had turned away from the Republican party to be in the party that stood up for the little guy. But the father with tender admiration and appreciation for his hard-working health aides, I’m certain he would be voting for Obama. It brings tears to my eyes to think that, and wish that he were here to see this day. I’m sure he’d be proud of his country right now.
by Jennifer Freeman
**
I wish my father were alive to see Barack Obama’s candidacy. I would love to know how he felt about it. I’m pretty sure my father, the proud veteran of WWII, would be voting for Obama. That’s a surprise given who my father was; not surprising given who he became throughout his 84 years. I find it remarkable, and thrilling, that we are poised to elect an African-American president. My father’s life gives me a clue about how we got here. His evolution must mirror an evolution that has been taking place around the country for decades, in individuals and across generations, leading us to who and where we are today.
My father was always uncomfortable, at the very least, with people of other races and cultures. I was born 18 years after my father’s discharge from the Air Force where he was stationed in Italy and Egypt. My memories date no earlier than 1968 or so, but though 24 years had passed since his time in the war, I remember that Italians were still Wops to my dad, Egyptians were still A-Rabs. And yet his war stories reflected a subtle change in those 40’s era attitudes. He told a story of how none of the men in the unit at the base of Mt. Vesuvius believed the Italian geologists when they warned that it would erupt. My dad said they lost bombers and tanks that could have been saved if they’d heeded the warnings. I don’t even know if that story is true (Mt. Vesuvius did erupt in 1944, lava did pour over bombers, but I don’t know if it’s because the Italian warnings were ignored) but my father told the story with a note of disdain, or at least something a little smug, toward those who he said had refused to believe that “Wops” had any useful advice.
My Italian-American sister-in-law, whom my father adored, put to rest his waning anti-Italian bias. When he launched into yet another war story and my mother, two brothers and I rolled our eyes and cried for relief, Hank (nicknamed after her grandfather) was rapt and filled with questions. But when he referenced the I-talians (long-I), she’d always correct him “(short-I) talians, Frank, Italians.” He’d laugh and correct himself. She never let him get away with the mispronunciation or any slip back to Wop. She helped him overcome his anti-Catholic bias too, which had already taken quite a hit during the Kennedy era but was still there nonetheless.
During my childhood my father was uncomfortable with African-Americans too, and while I can’t recall anything specifically racist it seemed pretty clear that he was. Maybe it was the way he laughed with Archie Bunker instead of at him like the rest of us. Archie was beleaguered by a more liberal family, a changing neighborhood and changing times, just like my father. I recall how we berated him when he referred to Negros or colored people, until finally he corrected himself and learned to say “black.” He would often express his appreciation for black athletes or actors with an inadvertent tone of surprise or a qualifier -- “he’s good, for a colored guy.” We were merciless at those times, angrily demanding to know what he meant. He’d get flustered and say he didn’t really know, that he didn’t really mean anything. I guess we were part of changing him, but it seemed that the changes in his commentary were designed to avoid our abuse, not a reflection of any real change. I remember asking him how he’d react if I married someone black. We all baited my father like that, taunting him a bit, sneering at his prejudices. I felt bad for him in a way, saw how much he was a lonely island in his own home, yet felt righteous in my message and my style of delivery, however insensitive and ineffective, as only the youth can be righteous.
The Vietnam War also divided us. I remember vividly an argument between my mother and father when my mother declared that she’d encourage my brother to flee to Canada if the war was still going on when he became draft age. My father was furious and deeply wounded. His own sacrifice, his sense of honor and pride instilled during WWII could not reckon with my mother’s questions and the resentment she must have felt toward her country in 1970. Jeff was only 12 years old. It was an unnecessary argument, wound up in a hypothetical war 6 years in the future. But at that point it looked like Vietnam could go on that long, and in my mother’s eyes, there was no good reason why it should.
Another time I recall a discussion about busing, when Minneapolis like many cities was working to undo school segregation. We lived in a quiet, white suburb, watching it all from a safe distance. My mother said that that didn’t seem right, that they should include the suburbs in a busing plan. I don’t recall my father’s reaction, but I’m sure he was not gung-ho about busing his children over the line into North Minneapolis. Maybe he’d learned by then to keep his reactions to himself.
Over the years there were little signs that my father was changing with his family and the world around him, and that the changes were truly about him, not just a means to avoid our barrage of assaults. The first significant evidence was his shift from the Republican to Democratic party. He claimed it was Richard Nixon who did that. He felt deeply betrayed by Watergate. He said it helped him see that the Republican party was becoming a party interested only in helping the well-to-do. The Republicans my father was drawn to were frugal, small “c” conservatives who appealed to values rooted in his upbringing on Minnesota and Iowa farms. After Watergate, he began to appreciate the Democrats focus on “the little guy” like him. Throughout the rest of his life he became a loyal and tireless volunteer on many a democratic campaign.
By early 2000 it seemed that my father had changed quite a bit when it came to issues of race. I was suddenly struck by this when he and my mother moved into an assisted living facility. They introduced me to the aides who came to help clean up their apartment, take their medication and get ready for the day. Nearly all of these men and women were Haitian or African-American. I remember coming by for a visit and finding my father and one of his Haitian aides sharing pictures and stories of their grandchildren. He would have found this impossible 20 years before.
After my mother passed away my father became increasingly frail and began to need the help of his aides more and more. They were there all the many times he fell or the EMTs needed to be
called. During those days the suspicious, mistrustful manner of his younger days was nearly gone, given way to a man much more frail, a little nervous, but grateful for the kindness of these strangers who were his daily support.
The father I recall from 1968 – 1975 or so would have most certainly voted for John McCain, Watergate notwithstanding. He simply could not comfortably vote for a black man, even if he was a Democrat, even if my father had turned away from the Republican party to be in the party that stood up for the little guy. But the father with tender admiration and appreciation for his hard-working health aides, I’m certain he would be voting for Obama. It brings tears to my eyes to think that, and wish that he were here to see this day. I’m sure he’d be proud of his country right now.
by Jennifer Freeman
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Split This Rock Poetry Contest Deadline Extended
Contest Deadline Extended! New Deadline for 2009 Split This Rock Poetry Contest: March 23
$1,000 awarded for poems of provocation & witness
Patricia Smith, Judge
NEW Postmark Deadline: March 23, 2009
We've extended the deadline for the 2nd annual Split This Rock poetry contest, to be judged by poet and National Book Award finalist Patricia Smith.
So, if you missed the deadline, don't panic - just send those poems! And please help us spread the word by forwarding this notice widely and posting it on your blogs. Thanks!
First place receives $500; 2nd and 3rd place, $250 each.
Winning poems will be published on SplitThisRock.org, and the 1st-place winner will be invited to read winning poem at Split This Rock Poetry Festival, 2010.
$25 entry fee. Proceeds support the next festival (March 10-13, 2010).
So, if you missed the deadline, don't panic - just send those poems! And please help us spread the word by forwarding this notice widely and posting it on your blogs. Thanks!
First place receives $500; 2nd and 3rd place, $250 each.
Winning poems will be published on SplitThisRock.org, and the 1st-place winner will be invited to read winning poem at Split This Rock Poetry Festival, 2010.
$25 entry fee. Proceeds support the next festival (March 10-13, 2010).
Find full details and guidelines online at: http://splitthisrock.org/contests.html
