Sunday, October 31, 2010

MORE MINA LOY:
 http://jacketmagazine.com/05/mina-iv.html
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Sun, October 31, 2010 -- 3:46 PM ET
-----

Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy Counselor and Wordsmith, Dies at 82

Theodore C. Sorensen, who was a close adviser and counselor
to John F. Kennedy for 11 years, writing words and giving
voice to ideas that shaped the president's image and legacy,
died Sunday. He was 82.

Mr. Sorensen said he suspected the headline on his obituary
would read: "Theodore Sorenson, Kennedy Speechwriter,"
misspelling his name and misjudging his work. "I was never
just a speechwriter," he said in an interview with The New
York Times in 2007.

He was best known for working with Mr. Kennedy on passages of
soaring rhetoric, including the 1961 inaugural address
proclaiming that "the torch has been passed to a new
generation of Americans" and challenging citizens: "Ask not
what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for
your country." Mr. Sorensen drew on the Bible, the Gettysburg
Address and the words of Thomas Jefferson and Winston
Churchill as he helped hone and polish that speech.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na
DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE GREAT PUMPKIN?

 
WHAT MORE CAN WE SAY?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AWnfFRc7g&feature=channel
THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLE BY MY FRIEND SHONDA BUCHANAN - PLEASE READ.

 
 
SHONDA BUCHANAN
 
 
LISTENING TO ISAAC HAYES  - JOY
I love this 15:55 song. Those silly romantic lines...
What is so powerful is the constant beat that becomes almost hypnotic.That Stax Sound. Oh, Black Moses - where are my chains?
 POOR BUDDHA...
Shambhala SunSpace » Buddhist imagery and modern weed culture: Aqua-Buddha’s just the tip of the “casual use” iceberg
October 31, 2010
Tricycle Daily Dharma

 
The Energies That Keep Us Alive
The energies that keep us alive are joy, generosity, compassion, curiosity, truthfulness, serenity, equanimity, wakefulness, one-pointedness, and impeccability—the qualities of mind that Buddhist teaching sometimes calls paramitas, or perfections, or sometimes bojjhangas, the factors of enlightenment. They are qualities of awakened mind as well as qualities that can be cultivated to aid awakening.

Jack Engler, "Just As It Is"

Saturday, October 30, 2010

THE LADY GAGA COURSE

http://www.gagacourse.net/
MINA LOY
It's impossible to read anything by Mina Loy and not remember Reetika Vazirani. I remember Reetika sitting in my office working on the Loy lecture she was going to give at Bennington. An examination of white space on the page. Reetika with her legal pad filled with notes and other words I would discover too late. We follow the dead in time.What is missing has only disappeared. What is found has never left. We survive the departed and the dead. Memories keeping the flame of love burning bright. This is how we live - surrounded by darkness. A true friend now and then.

REETIKA VAZIRANI

October 30, 2010
Today's poem appears in The Lost Lunar Baedeker, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
More about this book



Other Loy Poems

  • Lunar Baedeker

  • Moreover, the Moon ---

  • The Black Virginity



  • On the web at: www.poemflow.com
    You can unsubscribe from our Poem-A-Day emails at at anytime—either completely, or until next April.

    Academy of American Poets
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    academy@poets.org


    The Dead
    by Mina Loy

    We have flowed out of ourselves
    Beginning on the outside
    That shrivable skin
    Where you leave off

    Of infinite elastic
    Walking the ceiling
    Our eyelashes polish stars

    Curled close in the youngest corpuscle
    Of a descendant
    We spit up our passions in our grand-dams

    Fixing the extension of your reactions
    Our shadow lengthens
    In your fear

    You are so old
    Born in our immortality
    Stuck fast as Life
    In one impalpable
    Omniprevalent Dimension

    We are turned inside out
    Your cities lie digesting in our stomachs
    Street lights footle in our ocular darkness

    Having swallowed your irate hungers
    Satisfied before bread-breaking
    To your dissolution
    We splinter into Wholes
    Stirring the remorses of your tomorrow
    Among the refuse of your unborn centuries
    In our busy ashbins
    Stink the melodies
    Of your
    So easily reducible
    Adolescences

    Our tissue is of that which escapes you
    Birth-Breaths and orgasms
    The shattering tremor of the static
    The far-shore of an instant
    The unsurpassable openness of the circle
    Legerdemain of God

    Only in the segregated angles of Lunatic Asylums
    Do those who have strained to exceeding themselves
    Break on our edgeless contours

    The mouthed echoes of what
    has exuded to our companionship
    Is horrible to the ear
    Of the half that is left inside them.


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    Friday, October 29, 2010



    The Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery at the Washington DCJCC presents:
    A Night of Poetry in the Bronfman

    In conjunction with the exhibition Memory of a time I did not know which showcases works on paper by artist Miriam Mörsel Nathan, the Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery will be hosting A Night of Poetry in the Bronfman on November 21, 2010 at 5 PM.

    Miriam Mörsel Nathan’s work deals with the themes of memory and post-memory. Being a poet, her art has a lyrical quality to it. The images are poems themselves. This poetry reading will also reflect on the theme of memory and the many forms in which it comes.

    During the reading, each poet will have ten minutes to read one or a series of poems. Some of the poets who will be reading include: Mörsel Nathan, E. Ethelbert Miller, Simone Jacobson, Derrick Weston-Brown and Bassey Ikpi.

    Presented in partnership with the 16th Street J’s Authors Out Loud Series

    We are still looking for participants. If you are interested in participating in this poetry reading, please contact Dafna Steinberg at (202) 777-3208 or at dafnas@washingtondcjcc.org.



    Contact
    Dafna Steinberg
    Gallery Director
    Ann Loeb Bronfman Gallery
    T.: (202) 777-3208

    Washington DC JCC                           
    1529 Sixteenth Street NW    
    Washington, DC 20036                                       
    Metro: Red Line, Dupont Circle
    Website: http://www.washingtondcjcc.org/gallery

    WENDY AND ME:

    Pier Review: E. Ethelbert Miller's Love of Poetry | NBC Washington

    Oct 27, 2010 ... Wendy Rieger sits down on the pier with E. Ethelbert Miller. ... NBC4 Washington has announced that NBC Washington Nonstop, ...
    www.nbcwashington.com/.../Pier_Review__E__Ethelbert_Miller_s_Love_of_Poetry_Washington_DC.html - Cached
    The M.F.A. in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts at the University of
    Baltimore Reading Series, Fall 2010 presents
    
    AMY HEMPEL
    
    Monday, November 8
    7 p.m.
    Hilda and Michael Bogomolny Room
    UB Student Center, 5th Floor
    21 W. Mt. Royal Avenue
    
    Free and open to the public.
    
    This reading is sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Visiting
    Scholars Fund and the Klein Family Fund.
    
    For more information, go to www.ubalt.edu/creativewriting;
    www.ubalt.edu; or email jcrooks@ubalt.edu.
    ----------------------------------------
    Local Commuter Alert: McPherson Square Metro station closed due to suspicious package
    October 29, 2010 6:28:24 AM
    ----------------------------------------


    The McPherson Square Metro station has been closed due to a suspicious package outside the station. Expect delays on the Blue and Orange lines.

    According to Metro, trains are continuing through the station without stopping. Shuttle bus service has been requested.

    http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/O914NF/0G8LOI/HYLG0A/59YLUA/UZW5T/KI/h

    For more information, visit PostLocal.com
    It's only forms that change, not essence.

       - Ram Dass
    A DAY IN THE LIFE

    It's Friday and I'm trying to "hit" myself out of a slump. A letter of recommendation to write, several books and manuscripts to read, and comments to send back to fellow writers. A tenure evaluation to begin ( a huge amount of work), reviewing and selecting poems to read on November 20th ("BertDay" at Busboys), a big pile of leisure books to read - yes the Willie Mays biography is quietly waiting on deck...

    But first I need to pull my notes together and prepare for my memoir workshop that is next week on the campus of Howard University.

    Next trip - Texas in December.
    I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU BUT I VOTED EARLY (THIS WEEK):
    I found a CD one of my students at George Mason University gave me a couple of years ago.
    So I've been listening to Sekou Sundiata's LONG STORY SHORT.
    I miss my brother poet. We met back in 1974 - I think it was at the 6th Pan African Congress. He took a picture of me talking with South African poet Dennis Brutus. The photograph remains - so many of us gone. Even the photographers.
    Yesterday I met Malik Washington. It's always exciting to meet students who make the future look bright. Here is a link to his blog:

    www.normativechaos.com
    OBAMA WATCH:

    New book coming out that might be worth reading - READING OBAMA: DREAMS, HOPES, AND THE AMERICAN POLITICAL TRADITION by James T. Kloppenberg (Princeton University Press).
    REPUBLICAN TAKE DOWN?

    One thing that no one seems to be talking about is the possible "death" of the Republican Party. Let's not talk about seats in Congress, but instead concern ourselves with ideas. Where are the "new" ideas from the GOP going to come from?  We are talking about ideas that will help them govern and get the nation back on track. How can the Republicans be the party of the future if they only want to go back to 1773. What does the GOP have to say to people of color? Does Sarah Palin have any black friends? Notice how Karl Rove is openly critical of Palin. When will she go away?  No way this woman could ever be elected president. Who would join her Administration? Best to take her down now with a Rove drone before 2012.
    W.S. MERWIN

    Jeffrey Brown has a conversation with Copper Canyon Press poet W.S. Merwin, appointed  17th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, by The Library of Congress. PBS interview  

    Thursday, October 28, 2010

    ----------------------------------------
    Breaking News Alert: FCC reaches record settlement with Verizon Wireless over 'mystery' fees
    October 28, 2010 2:20:12 PM
    ----------------------------------------

    The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday it has reached a record $25 million settlement with Verizon Wireless for wrongly charging subscribers "mystery" Internet fees over the past several years.

    The payment is the largest in FCC history and the settlement concludes the agency’s 10-month investigation into these overcharges, the agency said in a press release.

    http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/0H2RO6/EWXZOQ/L9G0A5/1YWM36/X5KEN/YT/h
    DON'T JUST PAINT, WRITE, DANCE OR SING. ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! 
     
    Dear Colleague,
    
    In Fiscal Year ‘09 the city funded the DC Commission on the Arts and
    Humanities (DCCAH) at $13,257,583.
    
    In FY ’10, the city funded the DCCAH at $5,833,610.
    
    In FY ’11, the city budgeted the DCCAH at $4,940,310.
    
    Three weeks ago the city cut arts funding for a fourth time in three
    years, reducing the FY 11 allocation for the DCCAH to $4,495,889.
    
    And right now the mayor is preparing a gap-closing budget, for
    consideration by the city council in November, which could cut the arts
    even further.
    
    Please join the DC Advocates for the Arts on Wednesday November 6th from
    4-5:00pm at the Studio Gallery (2108 R. St. NW – Dupont Circle) to help
    craft an advocacy strategy to respond to this latest round of arts funding
    cuts. RSVP to steering@dcadvocatesforthearts.org requested but not
    required, and please forward to your colleagues.
    
    Sincerely,
    
    Rob Bettmann, Chair
    DC Advocates for the Arts
    
    
    Breaking News Alert
    The New York Times
    Thu, October 28, 2010 -- 1:30 PM ET
    -----
    
    Firms Knew of Cement Flaws Before Spill, Panel Says
    
    Halliburton and BP knew weeks before the fatal explosion of
    the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico that the cement
    mixture they planned to use to seal the bottom of the well
    was unstable but still went ahead with the job, the
    presidential commission investigating the accident said on
    Thursday.
    
    In the first official finding of responsibility for the
    blowout, which killed 11 workers and led to the largest
    offshore oil spill in American history, the commission staff
    determined that Halliburton had conducted three laboratory
    tests that indicated that the cement mixture did not meet
    industry standards.
    
    The result of at least one of those tests was given on March
    8 to BP, which failed to act upon it, the panel's lead
    investigator, Fred H. Bartlit Jr., said in a letter delivered
    to the commissioners on Thursday.
    
    Read More:
    http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na
    

    The

    Killens Review of Arts & Letters

    seeks submissions of

    short stories, creative nonfiction,

    essays, poetry, and artwork!

     

     

    The Killens Review of Arts & Letters, a literary journal, seeks short stories, creative nonfiction, essays, poetry, and artwork related to the various cultural, sociopolitical, and historical experiences of writers and people of color from the African Disapora.

     

    The Killens Review of Arts & Letters, published by the Center for Black Literature, is a journal dedicated to supporting the mission and work of the John Oliver Killens Chair.  The objective of the Chair is to provide short residencies for literary writers/activists who embody the vision and spirit of the late John Oliver Killens. Through the Killens Review of Arts & Letters and the John Oliver Killens Chair, writers and students will have opportunities to create and expand the canon of literature produced by writers of color.

     

    The Killens Review of Arts & Letters is published twice a year by The Center for Black Literature (CBL) at Medgar Evers College, of the City University of New York, 1650 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11225, 718-804-8883. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the CBL. The Killens Review of Arts & Letters cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork.

    Submission of Material

     

    Please e-mail material to writers@mec.cuny.edu with “Killens Review” in the subject heading. Please include your name, telephone number, and e-mail address on the first page of your submission.
    Or mail material to:

     

    Killens Review

    Center for Black Literature

    Medgar Evers College, CUNY

    1650 Bedford Avenue

    Brooklyn, NY 11225


    UPCOMING PROGRAM:

    December 12
    East Building Auditorium
    National Gallery of Art 

    2PM

    The Image of the Black in Western Art
    David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
     
    FALLS:

    Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths for adults ages 65 and older in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
    POETRY AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS:

    2010-2011 Poetry at Noon series continues with a November program entitled "Insider/Outsider Experiences."  David Gewanter, Carol V. Davis and Joseph Ross will use poetry to convey what it feels like to be an insider or an outsider.  The event takes place on Tuesday, November 16 at 12:00 noon in the Whittall Pavilion in the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. SE in Washington, DC.  The event is free and tickets are not required.  

    Daily Buddhist Wisdom






    We should always live in the dark empty sky. The sky is always the sky. Even though clouds and lightning come, the sky is not disturbed. Even if the flashing of enlightenment comes, our practice forgets all about it. Then it is ready for another enlightenment.
    - Shunryu Suzuki, "Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind"

    Wednesday, October 27, 2010


    THE WORLD ACCORDING TO PAULA HIBLE.
     I corresponded with her yesterday.
    www.kitchenprimer.blogspot.com

    SO MUCH POETRY - SO LITTLE TIME:

    lhttp://www.loc.gov/poetry/poetpoem.html

    MEET ME AT THE AWP: Here are the panels I will be on next year. 
     
    YOUR EVENT SCHEDULE
    Below is your event title(s), as well as their scheduled day, time, and
    room. All events will take place at either the Marriott Wardman Park or the
    Omni Shoreham Hotel. Schedule requests cannot be considered at this date.
    
    Event Title #1:  Shaping a Life: Voice, Structure and Craft in Memoir
    Scheduled Day: Saturday, February 5
    Scheduled Time: 3:00 PM to 4:15 PM
    Scheduled Room: Diplomat BR, Omni
    
    Event Title #2:  The Way We See D.C.: African American Writers' Riffs on
    Living in the Nation's Capital
    Scheduled Day: Saturday, February 5
    Scheduled Time: 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM
    Scheduled Room: Diplomat BR, Omni
    
    
    WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MICHON (AND ANDY)?

    E-NOTES:
    UPCOMING INTERVIEW WITH GRACE ALI on her trip to Ethiopia.