PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THE GOVERNMENT

Excerpt from The New York Times (November 28, 2010):

And Mr. Issa (pronounced EYE-suh) is already cultivating one of the highest profiles in the new Republican majority.

He is the richest man in the House, having made a fortune by making and selling car alarms, including the Viper, which features his own commanding voice declaring, " Please step away from the car." And he is now clearly intent on making a name for himself sounding alarms of a different sort about the Obama Administration.

Republican Representative Darrell Issa of California will take over as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. 

A PELICAN BRIEF:

Where did all the oil go?
BP should help with carpet stains.

SAVE THEM:

www.savetheazaleas.org 

EXCERPTS  FROM THE LOST DIARY OF THE BLACK HOUDINI

                 (for Enid Miller)

       

1.

What if I told you slavery was nothing but a magic trick gone wrong.

Would you believe me?

2.

It was during segregation that I decided to hang myself upside down.

My feet pointing North and upwards – my head still in the south.

3.

There is no prison I cannot escape from.

I’ve known blackness.

4.

When I was a young boy, I was a runaway.

I disappeared from the plantation and then history.

5.

What is the difference between escape and erasure?

How many times have I changed my name?

 

6.

The Colorline makes us all acrobats.

I learn to pass white folks without a net.

7.

The crowd applauds after each performance.

When they look into their mirrors they see me.

8.

I  taught Marcus Garvey the hat trick.

Everyone loves a parade.

9.

King tells me his dream.

I consult my dream book and find a page missing.

10.

My father takes me to Coney Island.

He tells me all of America is an amusement park. Learn to laugh or die.

11.

Fame made me a Race Leader.

I get paid for describing misery not magic.

12.

White teeth and a big smile.

I hide the key under my tongue.

13.

Let me tell you about “Metamorphosis.”

It will explain why I’m there and not here.

14.

Love is a pair of handcuffs.

Do I want to escape?  Can I?

15.

My mother died yesterday afternoon.

All my life I’ve been trying to reach her.

16.

I hold my breath and keep counting.

How long can I survive underwater without love?

  - E. Ethelbert Miller

                                               

For Immediate Release

Media Contact: 

Kyle Semmel 

4508 Walsh Street 

Bethesda, MD 20815 

kyle.semmel@writer.org 

www.writer.org 

301.654.8664 

The Writer’s Center Names Stewart Moss New Executive Director

Executive with more than 30 years experience to lead organization

BETHESDA, MD (Nov. 30)—The Writer's Center, the leading independent literary center in the DC metro region, announced today that Stewart Moss has been named Executive Director. Moss will be responsible for increasing The Writer’s Center’s operating resources and fundraising levels, and for overseeing the development of its Bethesda facility.

Moss comes to The Writer’s Center after having spent more than thirty years as an educator and fundraiser in independent schools around the country. In his most recent position at The Madeira School in McLean, VA, he worked on a number of successful initiatives, including the School’s Centennial Campaign.

According to Mier Wolf, Board Chair, "The Writer's Center is very fortunate to have engaged Stewart Moss as our new Executive Director. Stewart's commitment to The Writer's Center's mission – especially in workshop excellence – as well as his past success in non-profit development make him an ideal choice.”

Prior to his career in fundraising, Moss was a school administrator and taught literature and creative writing in both the USA and abroad. Scotland, Greece, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Nepal are among the countries in which he has lived and worked. A native of Boston, MA, Moss was educated at Union College (NY) and Harvard University, where he studied the relationship between culture and religion. He lives in Annapolis with his wife, the writer Barbara Klein Moss.

An avid poet, Moss has attended many workshops at The Writer’s Center, including those taught by Rod Jellema, Rose Solari and the late Ann Darr. “These were transformative experiences for me,” Moss says. “They helped me refine my own craft and deepen my love of language. I’m thrilled to lead an institution that has meant so much to me personally.”  

The Writer's Center cultivates the creation, publication, presentation, and dissemination of literary work.  We are an independent literary organization with a global reach, rooted in a dynamic community of writers. As one of the premier centers of our kind in the country, we believe the craft of writing is open to people of all backgrounds and ages.  Writing is interdisciplinary and unique among the arts for its ability to touch on all aspects of the human experience.  It enriches our lives and opens doors to knowledge and understanding. Visit our Web site at www.writer.org. The Writer's Center is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Cafritz Foundation, The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and by a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Writer's Center gratefully acknowledges assistance received from the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington's Business Volunteers for the Arts Program.

SEE YOU AT THE AWP:

Saturday, February 5th, 1:30 - 2:45 PM

 

Diplomat Ballroom Omni Shoreham Hotel, West Lobby

S183. The Way We See DC: African American Writers’ Riffs on Living in the Nation’s Capital. (Kermit Frazier, Breena Clarke, Eric May, E. Ethelbert Miller) African American writers, native Washingtonians, or those strongly connected in other ways to Washington, DC, read from their fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama, capturing aspects of the spirit of black people’s lives in the Nation’s Capital in ways that remind us why many folks have often called it their Chocolate City.

Daily Buddhist Wisdom
	The one who is very attached to the cave of the body, that one finds detachment very difficult. Those who constantly crave for pleasure are hard to liberate and certainly cannot be liberated by others, only by themselves. Sometimes it is only death that brings a realization of endings, and then the sensual person, deeply immersed in the body, will shout: "What will happen to me after death?" The way toward liberation is to train yourself to live in the present without any wanting to become anything. Give up becoming this or that, live without cravings, and experience this present moment with full attention. Then you will not cringe at death nor seek for repeated birth. - Sutta Nipata

WOOF!

Michael Vick is on the cover of the latest issue of Sports Illustrated.
We live in the Era of Lady Gaga.
Nuff Said.

I'VE GOT THOSE MONDAY BLUES.
 
LISTENING TO BILLIE HOLIDAY - Good morning, Heartache - sit down.

Persistent Voices: A World AIDS Event

Tuesday, November 30th
Thurgood Marshall Building (1816 12th St. NW)
Reception at 6:30, Event begins at 7
For an evening of reflection and remembrance in conjunction with World AIDS Day 2010, ten local actors, performers, and writers will read poems from the anthology Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS.  Hosted by Roby Chavez and sponsored by the DC Center, Us Helping Us, Ganymede Arts, and the Vaccine Research Center.  Copies of Persistent Voices will be available for sale at the reading.  More information:  http://www.thedccenter.org/blog/2010/10/persistent-voices-a-world-aids-event.html

Open Door Reading: A Celebration of Persistent Voices
Sunday, December 5th
The Writer's Center (4508 Walsh St., Bethesda, MD. 20815)
Event begins at 2 p.m.
In honor of all those whose lives have been affected by AIDS, four local poets and writers -- Philip Clark, Charles Jensen, Kim Roberts, and Dan Vera -- will read from the anthology Persistent Voices: Poetry by Writers Lost to AIDS.  There will be a Q&A to follow with Philip Clark, one of the anthology's editors.  Copies of Persistent Voices will be available for sale at the reading. 

More information: https://www.writer.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=564

 REMEMBERING TOM TERRELL

Tom is like a butterfly.........

A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam.

For a brief moment it's glory and beauty belong to our world.

But then it flies on again, and although we wish it could have stayed, we are so thankful to have seen it at all.

The family of Thomas "Scooter" Terrell celebrate him on his third year of heavenly flight. We miss him and love him. We appreciate all the love that he generated to the universe and all the love that we constantly get back from family, friends and fans. On this day take a moment, close your eyes and think of your favorite 'Tom Moment" and I guarantee that it will make you smile!

Peace and Love Every Time!!!!!!!

Bevadine , Michelle, Mona and Zoma Terrell

Tell me the story about heaven again. Sing me a lullaby.
 
It suddenly hits you that both your parents are gone.
Mom. Dad. You're no longer a child to anyone. It's a different type of loneliness.
It's the sadness of wanting to go home and the realization that home is the one you built, not the one you left many years ago.

ENID MILLER (September 19, 1919 -November 28, 2010).

So many images in my poems have my mother's hair and hands. My mother worked in the garment industry in New York. She did piece work. Cutting and sewing. Rhinestones would sparkle in front of her eyes and she would blink again and again. Yet even with her eyes closed she could catch you stealing a cookie or not washing behind your ears.

   - from FATHERING WORDS


my mother
wants the world to be young again
my mother wants to be young again
my mother wants to dance
my mother wants her hair to shine
my mother wants to play the piano


 - from Whispers, Secrets and Promises

ABDUL ALI

ABDUL ALI TALKS WITH PLAYWRIGHT MARCUS GARDLEY:

 
http://www.theroot.com/views/playwright-marcus-gardley-every-tongue-confess?page=0,0&auto=true

From The Lost Diary of The Black Houdini

(an excerpt)

There is no prison I cannot escape from.
I've known Blackness.

From The Lost Diary of The Black Houdini

(an excerpt)

It was during segregation that I decided to hang myself upside down.
My feet pointing North and upwards -my head still in the South.

From the Lost Diary of the Black Houdini

(an excerpt)

What if I told you slavery was nothing but a magic trick gone wrong- would you believe me?

FOR COLORED GIRLS WHEN THE RAINBOW IS NOT ENUF:

Moving beyond race rhetoric and missing romance, how do we explain that four out of five African American women are overweight or obese?

What is the connection between weight and one's mental health?
How many women no longer believe they are beautiful?
How many woman want to lose weight but lack the discipline?
What are women eating that might be responsible for their physical condition?
What's in the DNA?

What if we demanded in our schools not just good grades but good weight?
What if  we pushed for salt and sugar removal in the black community?

BLACKOUT: IN SEARCH OF THE BLACK HOUDINI

A few days after my 60th birthday I happened to sit down with the November issue of Ebony. There were a number of one page articles by "Black leaders" who offered an assessment of the state of Black people in the United States. What I read sounded like the exact same thing I heard back in the 1970s. Same problems, different year. Have you seen my chains? We need a Black Houdini not a Black Messiah.

I could die and come back in 20 or 30 years and the situation here (and in Haiti) would probably be the same. What is wrong with man?  How much can a person change (things) during their lifetime? At 60 I  know what I believe in and what I consider to be pure nonsense when it comes to "Black Talk." I tune out all those individuals I associate with the "race economy." These are people who appear in the media and explain race matters to the other race. They provide the soundtrack for our film noir. Too often smoke gets in my eyes. Is this the "veil" that has haunted everyone including DuBois? What if our race was reduced to smoke?  Who would be the Smoke King? Would we believe Africa started the fire? I cough, Freedom?

CHIP BERLET

Yesterday I read THE SUN interview (November 2010) with Chip Berlet and came away with the following quotes:

"Much of the information Tea Party members repeat and rely on to support their positions is demonstrably false. Some of this misinformation gets generated by spin doctors and public-relations agencies and political advertising. Then there are the politicians who are either lying or so caught up in an isolated worldview that they're putting out false "facts." And a third source is conspiracy thinking, which takes gossip and rumor and recasts it as research and information."


"I think the unfinished debate over race in America is part of what's behind the Tea Party movement. Much of the anxiety over Obama comes from whites' not knowing what to do with a black president. Most of the Tea Partiers have never had a black boss, and they're anxious, and this anxiety can be exploited by people like Glenn Beck on Fox News and other commentators who use a racial subtext. A lot of the racism in right-wing populism is built around the fear that when America is no longer majority white and majority Christian, it will no longer be America. I don't think that's true. America grows and becomes stronger with change, including changing demographics."

Chip Berlet is a senior analyst at Political Research Associates.
www.publiceye.org

Many years ago Berlet and I helped Gabrielle Edgcomb (and others) put out Working Cultures; a slick progressive journal that only had a lifespan of two issues. Was that around 1978? We knew there was a way to bring art and politics together. There is always a way.

November 28, 2010
Tricycle Daily Dharma
 

"Bad Me"

This sense of “bad me” comes from not understanding the view of selflessness that is so central to the Buddhist path. Understanding that there is no solid, singular, or permanent “me” makes it possible to accommodate whatever arises in life without feeling so intimidated by our experience, without rolling over like a defeated dog in a dogfight. We can see that things arise due to our karma playing itself out and that it does not necessarily have to be so personal. In this way we can identify with something greater—which is our nature itself. From this perspective, since there is no solid, singular, permanent self, there’s not going to be a “bad” self to feel guilty about. Mind is innocent but influenced by ignorance and wrong conceptual beliefs that project a self. But there is no self.

- Ven. Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, "Realizing Guiltlessness"

Listening to BLACK UHURU - Sinsemilla.

MY RESPONSE TO "After the Fall: A Progressive Game Plan" by Katrina vanden Heuvel and Robert L. Borosage (The Nation, November 29, 2010).

Before we compare President Obama to Bill Clinton or anyone else we should try and find those old t-shirts that circulated after Obama’s election. Remember those images of King and Obama? I called them “Dream” shirts. Maybe this is where the problem began and we are all at fault. We remember King’s “I Have A Dream” speech by only quoting the sweet parts. Forgotten is his economic indictment of our society. We also seem to no longer discuss the last chapter of King’s life. Wasn’t the man attempting to organize poor people?  The last time I heard anyone talking about poor people it was around the time John Edwards was seeing his mistress. 

We talk about the economy without talking about the ground floor. The failure of the political Left today is that it seems to be struggling with the direction of the federal government and not organizing anyone. We talk about building a movement as if it was like finding a vacant parking space in a garage. Let’s talk about the lives of people and not unemployment numbers or a balanced budget.  Movements begin when people move against injustice, when they fight with compassion, when they realize that truth is not shared or that lies dominate and destroy.  Our society has not corrected its direction since Michael Harrington wrote The Other America. We have not returned to those places in the south where Robert Kennedy walked and Paul Wellstone followed. We have not returned to the South Bronx or those urban areas where Reagan and Carter made promises. During the last year of King’s life he was speaking out against the war as well as poverty. He saw the connection then – do we now?

We talk about the last election and conclude that the overriding issue that determined its outcome was the economy. We accept what pundits tell us and get distracted by the serving of “tea.”  We are still a nation at war. The Left must put forth a plan that deals not only with ending the war in Afghanistan but also with confronting terrorism.  How much money do we spend on Homeland security?  How much money do we spend fighting against terrorism?  But let’s look at language and the Left for a moment. Does the Left believe there is a real terrorist threat in the world? If so, how much money should we spend on this war?  Is this an endless war?  Now, consider King for a moment, during his last year he understood that our nation could not win two wars at once. We could not win the war in Vietnam while defeating poverty at home. Is this equation true in 2010?  Can we fight a war against terrorism while confronting the problems of poverty in America?

The poor in the United States are still invisible. We must even redefine what poverty is in the 21^st century. This can only be done if we have a Progressive Game Plan that recognizes that we must do serious community work. Here is where the new Movement must begin. Once again we must ask ourselves what happened to the Resurrection City on the Mall?   The failures of 1968 might also be the failures of 2010 and beyond.  The “grounding” with our brothers and sisters, who have nothing is where we must begin to develop our political agenda. Even if our government fails, we must not fail ourselves. When we say we speak for the people, let us speak for the people who live on the margins that define our lives. Let us speak for the people outside the rooms of power. Let us speak for the people who cannot speak our language but who understand the common language is love.

It was King who asked where do we would go from here, chaos or community?  The Beloved Community is seldom mentioned on Fox News, nor is it a popular word used by politicians, scholars or activists. We would all be much richer if someone did.

-          E.  Ethelbert Miller, Board Chair, IPS

-          Washington, D.C.

-          November 25, 2010

 

Magazine Day:

Tomorrow is going to be magazine day. Time to read a stack of magazines that have been gathering in my home office. Will start in the early morning and maybe just take a break to run some errands and do yard work. December almost here and then it's 2011.

THINK ABOUT IT:
How many things are we paying for that are no longer free?

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MERRILL:
http://www.themontserratreview.com/bookreviews/Omnibus.html

My friend Grace sent me this link:

http://www.ted.com/ 

Science Fiction?

This city is beginning to get that seedy "Bladerunner" look.  Our language already reduced to babble. People dress in the drag of the poor. The young rob and steal for gadgets now. Soon it will be food and water. Everywhere a gang. Every celebrity with a bodyguard. This is the time for Rodan to appear in the sky. Rosary beads and prayer rugs are selling too well. What monster will put an end to our misery? Is Godzilla a Republican?

IRELAND

The austerity plan Ireland unveiled on Wednesday to secure a bailout from its international partners makes one thing clear: much of the 15 billion euros (or $20 billion) in savings the government has pledged to find over the next four years will come from the welfare state and the working class. But the measures will not touch large businesses like Microsoft, Intel and Pfizer, which have created thousands of jobs and fueled exports in Ireland for years, thanks to one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe.

  - The New York Times, November 26, 2010

Quote of the Day:

 
Sarah Palin teases that she might run for president. But she is unqualified - not just in the (let me count the) usual ways, but because she does not know the country. She could not be the president of black America nor of Hispanic America. She knows more about grizzlies than she does about African Americans - and she clearly has more interest in the former than the latter. Did she once just pick up the phone and ask Michelle Obama what she meant by her remark? Did she ask about her background? What it was like at Princeton? What it was like for her parents or her grandparents? I can offer a hint. If they were driving to Washington, they slowed down and stopped where the sign said "colored" - and the irritated Palins of the time angrily hit the horn and went on their way.


  - Richard Cohen, The Washington Post.

Elderly Americans Increasingly Declaring Bankruptcy in Retirement

Lynnette Khalfani-Cox
Nov 22nd 2010 at 10:00AM

Elderly Americans struggling under the weight of credit card debt and medical bills are increasingly resorting to bankruptcy in retirement.

A slew of recent data highlights the problem:

• A 2010 study from the University of Michigan Law School, called The Rise in Elder Bankruptcy Filings, found that those 65 and older are the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population seeking bankruptcy protection
• The Washington D.C.-based public policy group Demos reports that Americans 65 and above who carry a balance on their credit cards owe an average of $10,235 -- up 26% from 2005.
• Older debtors who filed for bankruptcy owed a median $22,562 to credit card companies, the Michigan study showed

"The findings are both striking and ominous," says John Pottow, author of the University of Michigan study. "While multiple factors, such as health problems and medical debts, contribute to elders' financial distress, the dominant force appears to be overwhelming burdens related to credit cards."

Pottow's study found that elder debtors carry 50% more credit card debt than younger debtors, and seniors cite credit card interest and fees as a reason for their bankruptcy filings 50% more frequently.

Unfortunately, the rise in bankruptcy filings among the elderly isn't merely a recent phenomenon, or a reflection of the Great Recession. Even before the recession hit, seniors were struggling.

From 1991 to 2007, the rate of personal bankruptcy filings among those ages 65 or older soared by 150%, according to AARP, which released research on the issue via the Consumer Bankruptcy Project. At the time, the biggest jump in bankruptcy filings occurred among people aged 75 to 84; their rate skyrocketed 433%.

Even more alarming: Some experts think that since Americans collectively owe roughly $2.4 trillion on their credit cards and consumer debts, the bankruptcy problem will only continue to grow.

"People usually live off credit cards for a year or so before they file bankruptcy," says bankruptcy attorney Theodore Connolly, the author of The Road Out of Debt: Bankruptcy and Other Solutions to Your Financial Problems.

Connolly notes that personal bankruptcies already hit a record 1.5 million filings in the first half of 2010.

In considering when to file for bankruptcy protection, as I recently reported here on WalletPop, there are times when bankruptcy makes sense and times when other alternatives and strategies are best.

The challenge for seniors, however, is that when they run into financial trouble their options may be somewhat limited. For example, unlike younger Americans who may be able to obtain work, put in more hours on the job, or perhaps get a second job to make ends meet, those choices don't always exist for everyone in their 60s and beyond.

Additionally, there are some issues confronting seniors that the rest of the population generally doesn't face. One big issue: Financial abuse by family members.

"It's an epidemic," says Jenefer Duane, Founder and CEO, Elder Financial Protection Network.

Duane says many elderly Americans are going broke, not just because of their own spending and high health care costs, but also because their assets are being depleted by relatives or close friends who feel entitled to get an expected inheritance now, rather than after the elder has passed away.

"An inheritance is supposed to be what's left after the elder has taken care of themselves. But unfortunately, many family members taking assets from elders are standing by the belief that 'It's going to be my money anyway,' or 'Mom or Dad can just go to a nursing home,'" says Duane. "The sense of entitlement is shocking."

Indeed, senior citizens lose an estimated $2.6 billion from financial exploitation every year, according to a 2009 MetLife Mature Market Institute study.

Henry A. Giroux | Lessons to Be Learned From Paulo Freire as Education Is Being Taken Over by the Mega Rich
Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Since the 1980s, there have been too few intellectuals on the North American educational scene who have matched Freire's theoretical rigor, civic courage and sense of moral responsibility. And his example is more important now than ever before: with institutions of public and higher education increasingly under siege by a host of neoliberal and conservative forces, it is imperative for educators to acknowledge Freire's understanding of the empowering and democratic potential of education. Critical pedagogy currently offers the very best, perhaps the only, chance for young people to develop and assert a sense of their rights and responsibilities to participate in governing, and not simply being governed by prevailing ideological and material forces."
Read the Article

FIGHT FOR EVERY JOB, RESIST EVERY CUT.

Dirty Dancing?

What did you think Sarah Palin was doing all this time?

Do you really think Sarah Palin wants to be President?  Is she serious about running?  Of course not - well not yet. I find it strange that we can consider this woman becoming President. I have a hard time seeing her winning the Republican nomination. Palin is just dancing with the other possible contenders for the top job. How much information would she have to write on her hand in order to get through the Republican debates?  I can't see Palin defeating Pence. Unless like Bristol she can give everyone the middle finger. If that's the case we might all be F---

The Quote of the Day:

It would be like a big middle finger to all the people out there that hate my mom and hate me.

   - Bristol Palin

November 25, 2010
Tricycle Daily Dharma
 

Mindful Eating: Slow it Down

Here are some methods for helping yourself to slow down your eating by creating pauses:
1. Pause before beginning the meal. Look at each item of food, taking it in with the eyes. Notice colors, textures, shapes, arrangement on the plate or bowl.


2. Take a moment to say grace. Thank the animals, plants, and people who brought this food to you. Be aware of their gifts as you eat.

3. Begin the meal by pausing to inhale the fragrance of the food. Imagine that you are being nourished by just the smell.

4. Eat food like a wine connoisseur tastes wine. First sniff the food, enjoying the bouquet. Then take a small taste. Roll it around in the mouth, savoring it. What ingredients can you detect? Chew slowly and swallow. Take a sip of water to cleanse the palate. When the mouth is empty of food and flavor, repeat the process.

5. If you notice that you are eating without tasting, stop and pause to look at the food again.

- Jan Chozen Bays, "Mindful Eating"

 THESE GUYS SHOULD WRITE EDITORIALS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTUY16CkS-k

Miami Heat - Heat-less in November?

JOB FOR YOU?

 

Dear Lifting Voices friends,

We're looking for a new teacher. Here is a link to the job posting. Don't hesitate to share this with your own network, too.

Thanks,

Lifting Voices

PENCE WATCH:  The New York Times (11/24/10) page A17, paragraph in an article written by Helene Cooper:


Mr. Obama's first big domestic trip since the midterm elections, which ushered his Democratic Party out of control of the House, brought him to a state that he improbably carried in 2008. Indiana is traditionally Republican territory, and home to two potential Republican candidates in the next presidential election, Gov. Mitch Daniels and Representative Mike Pence.

New Book of Poems:

Karl W. Carter, Jr.  - SOJOURNER AND OTHER POEMS

For copies contact Karl at: kcarter44@hotmail.com

Carter is a native of New Orleans who resides in Washington, D.C.

His work appears in Stephen Henderson's UNDERSTANDING THE NEW BLACK POETRY and SYNERGY edited by Ahmos Zu-Bolton and E. Ethelbert Miller.

THE KOJO NNAMDI SHOW

WAMU 88.5 

Winter Reading

Wednesday, Nov 24, 2010 at 1:06 p.m.

Winter Reading:

It's the season for curling up under a blanket with a good book. In our annual Winter Reading show, we'll get tips for must-read new releases and classics that deserve your attention during the busy holiday period.

Guests:

Barbara Hoffert

Editor, Prepub Alert, Library Journal

Terry Hong

"Bookdragon" blogger for the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program

E. Ethelbert Miller

Literary activist and board chair of the Institute for Policy Studies. His latest book is "The 5th Inning," a second memoir and the first book published by Busboys and Poets.

TOP NEWS

U.S. to Send Carrier for Joint Exercises Off Korea

By DAVID E. SANGER and MARK McDONALD

President Obama and South Korea's president agreed to hold joint military exercises as they struggled to keep a North Korean provocation from escalating into war.

• 
  

YES, THE EAR IS AN ORGAN MADE FOR LOVE:

TextTelevision is collaborating with the Academy of American Poets on a poem-of-the-day iPhone app entitled Poem Flow.

A unique feature of the app is that it includes a flow-movie of the poem when the phone is turned to Landscape View.
 

"The Ear is an Organ Made for Love" by E. Ethelbert Miller is today's (November 24th) poem:

http://www.poemflow.com/839

AUSTERITY ANYONE?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/05/AR2010110503763.html



Next year everyone will want to be on the show.

Join Cave Canem November 30, 6:30 pm, as poets Kazim Ali and Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon read from their work and engage in a lively discussion of poetic craft. Moderated by Camille Rankine. Reception and book signing to follow. Free and open to the public. Poets on Craft: Kazim Ali & Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon Tuesday, November 30, 6:30 pm The New School Wollman Hall 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor New York City CAVE CANEM FOUNDATION, INC. • www.cavecanempoets.org • 718.858.0000 20 Jay Street, Suite 310-A, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Support Cave Canem: Firstgiving • Paypal • Network for Good

“To Prayer I Think I Go”

               Robert Frost’s Spiritual Poetry

Experience faith through the lens of an unorthodox yet sincere seeker.

 Through Frost’s poetry, share his struggles, his doubts, his fears, his 

embarrassment and his frustrations with religion, and travel with him,

 however indirectly, to affirmations   (sometimes tentative, sometimes

      resounding) of God’s ultimate mercy and love for creation.

                Dramatized by poet/actress

 Chris Longenecker and her husband, Rick Shoup

                    Saturday, Dec. 4, 2010

                                    7pm

                       The Festival Center

                           Washington, DC

     Do you have a favorite Robert Frost poem?

                      Bring your requests.

        A free-will offering will be taken to benefit the Festival Center

                            The Festival Center

                1640 Columbia Road NW, Washington DC

                     202-328-0072 * www.slschool.org

Rose Marie Berger
Associate Editor, Poetry Editor

rberger@sojo.net  202.328.8842 x619

 2011 NEA Poetry Fellows:  CONGRATS!

The 2011 Poetry Fellows page can be viewed here: http://arts.gov/grants/recent/11grants/litFellows.php 

The 2011 Poetry Panelist names can be viewed here: http://arts.gov/grants/recent/disciplines/Lit/11panelists.html 

 Hey, I just saw Ethelbert's name on that Panelist list. I thought the guy was into baseball...

 

RSVP appreciated to help us prepare but not required.