I received this link from the poet Lenard Moore a few days ago:
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| LENARD MOORE |
E-NOTES: WHEN THE NEWS IS NOT ENOUGH. THE BLOG OF E. ETHELBERT MILLER
Friday, August 31, 2012
Breaking News Alert The New York Times Friday, August 31, 2012 -- 10:06 AM EDT ----- Bernanke Makes Forceful Case for More Fed Action to Spur Growth The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, delivered on Friday a detailed and forceful argument for the benefits of new steps to stimulate the economy, reinforcing earlier indications that the Fed is on the verge of action. Mr. Bernanke said that the Fed’s policies over the last several years have provided significant benefits, that a clear need remained for the Fed to do more and that, in his judgment, the likely benefits of such actions outweighed the potential costs.
VOCABULARY BUILDING
Keep an eye on how the Republicans (and the media) will keep using the word "failed" when talking about President Obama and his administration. Has Obama failed America? Of course not. Do people have a problem with some of his policies? Yes, they do. Our debates and discussions should focus on the role of government in our lives. How do we make wealth and distribute it fairly? How do we provide everyone with equal opportunities? How do we care for the sick and elderly? How do we build a multicultural society that is progressive and tolerant of minority rights? Decisions must be made. Depending on your worldview you might be upset with certain policies that have been promoted by the Obama Administration. A good example of this might be Gay marriage . One can disagree with Obama's position based on one's personal values but it's ridiculous to state that Obama has "failed" us. This is life and not a classroom. There are no "failing" grades. We need to "graduate" into reality. We need to find common ground between people and accept that our nation is still an experiment in living. It's a struggle to create a more perfect union. Perhaps we are a people in need of a second Bill of Rights. Failure is the absence of dreams.
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THE E-BOX IS READY
The next E-Box is ready and will be given to the poet Alicia Gregory tomorrow morning. This will be the third E-Box presented to a writer this year. Karolina Gajdeczka and James Cherry already have their goodies. The E-Box consists of books taken from my personal collection that I feel will help another writer. It's a gift from one heart to another. It's also a celebration of the book and a way of promoting reading in our community. For those of us who decide to be writers a good library is essential. During difficult economic times one doesn't want to be forced into selecting bread before books. I hope the E-Box will bring Alicia moments of joy and discovery.
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| Denise preparing the E-Box |
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| THE E-BOX |
Thursday, August 30, 2012
ACROSS THE BORDER
Ethan Cox, Rabble: "If
there was any confusion over whether the suspension of strikes at most
schools signaled an end to the broader social movement the strike
generated, it was put to bed with an emphatic bang Wednesday in the
streets of Montreal. The largest demonstration since the spring sent a
strong message that this movement is here to stay."
BLACK MAN IN THE MIDDLE
I've always enjoyed listening to Juan Williams over the years. I think he was honest when making the comments about Ann Romney. Notice how folks try to put this spin on how American women will identify with her. Is she not a corporate wife? How can you bypass that fact? She's not a single mom working and raising a family. She has her own experience - and she has been blessed.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/juan-williams-ann-romney-corporate-wife_n_1838352.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/29/juan-williams-ann-romney-corporate-wife_n_1838352.html
Cameron Jones, Photographer has images available from day 2 (August 29, 2012) of the Republican National Convention currently being held at Florida's Tampa Bay Times Forum. Some of the photos include images of the convention audience (wide and intimate), convention goers, and convention speakers including Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, Rand Paul, and Newt Gingrich. If you know of publishers, bloggers, independent journalists or other media outlets that might be interested in these photos, please feel free to forward this email on to them. Anyone interested in these images should contact: CameronJ99@yahoo.com 813-810-7970 or Jaje7@juno.com 813-968-2521
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
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to be shared:
“We maintain that to be homosexual is African.” We are calling for poems by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals living in Africa and in the Diaspora. The poems may focus on loss, childhood, violence, food, discrimination, love, fruits, disease, migration, strife, etc. In other words, poems on any topic are welcome – and in any form. The only requirement is that each poem must be of high merit. We prefer unpublished poems. Poems can be in any lan guage; however, translations have to be provided in English. If original poems are accepted, they will be published alongside the translations. If a translator is used, the author should indicate how credit should be acknowledged. Please submit no more than five poems. Send email submissions to Abayomi Animashaun (abayo.animashaun@gmail.com) by January 20, 2013. Please include “Poetry Submission” in the subject line. http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=195916
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Spend a Summer Sunday with poetry from the world's top literary artists.
SUNDAY | SEPT 9 | 5 - 8pm
SUNDAY | SEPT 9 | 5 - 8pm
Doors open at 4:30pm
at The Textile Museum
2320 S Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008
Master of Ceremonies | Willie Lloyd Reeves
Poetry | Dolores Kendrick, Dr. Joanne Gabbin,
Myra Sklarew & Introducing
the P.I.P. Poets
Music | Steven Bundick
Cuisine | Deliteful foods
Desserts | Tasty Expressions
For complimentary admission, please RSVP by Sept 5 at carolyn.parker@dc.gov
at The Textile Museum
2320 S Street, NW, Washington, DC 20008
Master of Ceremonies | Willie Lloyd Reeves
Poetry | Dolores Kendrick, Dr. Joanne Gabbin,
Myra Sklarew & Introducing
the P.I.P. Poets
Music | Steven Bundick
Cuisine | Deliteful foods
Desserts | Tasty Expressions
For complimentary admission, please RSVP by Sept 5 at carolyn.parker@dc.gov
JUNE JORDAN : Material for scholars.
Finding Aids at The University of Minnesota
330+ items – June Jordan and E. Ethelbert Miller Correspondence Collection
Tricycle Daily Dharma August 29, 2012 | |||
Buddhism is Having Fun
- Jamyang Khyentse
Rinpoche, "Do
Nothing"
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Tuesday, August 28, 2012
THIS IS WHAT REAL FAILURE COULD LOOK LIKE
The Nationals could blow this season if they are not careful. September could arrive with this club clinging to first place. This team is no longer hitting. Suzuki had 2 hits for the Nats - that's how strange things are right now. Last night's game was over after the first inning. Oh, and here come those Cardinals. The Nats need to play their home games like it's the playoffs.
SUCCESS IS NO FAILURE AT ALL
How many of us pulled the plug last night? I watched just one speaker at the Republican Convention - the black woman from Utah. That was enough for me...
Funny how she could make reference to Parks and King and then Obama never happened. Oh, and if I hear the word "failed" again I'll puke. This is all so sad. The world falling apart and we can't move beyond race or religion. We create funny narratives and then we go looking for those funny hats for our heads. Somewhere the Dutch ships are being built again. I'm going down to the shore and wait for Romney and Ryan. Biden the abolitionist warned us. We've heard the story before. Now it returns as the future instead of history.
Funny how she could make reference to Parks and King and then Obama never happened. Oh, and if I hear the word "failed" again I'll puke. This is all so sad. The world falling apart and we can't move beyond race or religion. We create funny narratives and then we go looking for those funny hats for our heads. Somewhere the Dutch ships are being built again. I'm going down to the shore and wait for Romney and Ryan. Biden the abolitionist warned us. We've heard the story before. Now it returns as the future instead of history.
HISTORY STOPS TO MEASURE TIME
Going through old files today - always finding nice surprises. This morning a copy of a poem June Jordan dedicated to me back on April 9, 1999.
ICHIRO WATCH
Ichiro Suzuki's Success Displayed in Museum Run by Parents ...
Dennis Normile for The New York Times .... with the headline: For Those Seeking Success, a Place to Take It In.
Thanks for signing up; come talk with other Advocates September 6th, lunchtime, at the Institute for Policy Studies.
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PASS THE NIPPLE?
Southern Cultures, the award-winning quarterly from UNC's Center for the Study of the American South, has just released its 2012 Politics issue. You can read it in print, online, and for Kindle, Nook, and Sony Reader.
Inside the new Politics issue:
...Guest Editor Ferrel Guilllory explores five important political trends in the South that could decide this election
...Bill Clinton talks Bill Clinton
...Jack Bass remembers the colorful public and private lives of Strom Thurmond
...Seth McKee surveys the past, present, and future of Southern politics
...Stephen J. Whitfield remembers the South in the shadow of Nazism
...and much more, including the politics of desegregation and the immigration debate.
Read it today at www.SouthernCultures.org
Inside the new Politics issue:
...Guest Editor Ferrel Guilllory explores five important political trends in the South that could decide this election
...Bill Clinton talks Bill Clinton
...Jack Bass remembers the colorful public and private lives of Strom Thurmond
...Seth McKee surveys the past, present, and future of Southern politics
...Stephen J. Whitfield remembers the South in the shadow of Nazism
...and much more, including the politics of desegregation and the immigration debate.
Read it today at www.SouthernCultures.org
Monday, August 27, 2012
Announcing
Forthcoming in the
Hilary Tham Capital Collection |
August 2012
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The Word Works
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| Dear Friends of The Word Works--
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Bernadette Geyer Chosen
for Hilary Tham Capital Collection
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Bernadette Geyer's manuscript, The Scabbard of Her Throat, has been selected by Cornelius Eady for publication by The Word Works in its Hilary Tham Capital Collection.
The book is slated for release in time for the 2013 AWP conference in Boston.
Geyer is the author of the chapbook What Remains and recipient of a Strauss Fellowship from the Arts Council of Fairfax County. Her poems have appeared in Oxford American, North American Review, The Los Angeles Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. Geyer works as a copy editor in the Washington, DC, area.
Every
spring, manuscripts are solicited from The Word Works community and
then forwarded to the judge. Each judge reads the submissions just as
entries for the Washington Prize are presented: without identifying
information of any kind.
Hilary Tham was the first author published in the Capital Collection, and later reinvigorated the imprint when she became editor-in-chief. The series was named after Tham upon her death in 2005 and has evolved over the years, most recently having moved from a jury process to selection by an outside judge of national standing. Past judges include Denise Duhamel and Gray Jacobik. |
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WW AUTHOR MOSHE DOR HONORED BY ISRAEL in DC CELEBRATION!
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September 13, 2012 at 7:30 pm, The Word Works International Editions author Moshe Dor (Scorched by the Sun,
translated by Barbara Goldberg) will be honored in a 65th anniversary
celebration of the State of Israel program co-sponsored by the Center
for Israeli Studies, the Embassy of Israel, American University
departments of Performing Arts and Literature, and The Word Works.
The program, "Israel in Poetry and Song: Evening of Roses," features the
American University Chamber Singers, performing songs specially
commissioned for the occasion, as well as "Erev Shel Shoshanim." Dor is
the lyricist of this song, translated as "Evening of Roses."
This
free program open to the public will be presented at the Katzen Center,
Abramson Family Recital Hall, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington,
DC.
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FALL 2012 "In the Works" Workshops
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Karren
Alenier and Adele Steiner Brown will lead poetry workshops on selected
Sundays this fall. Check out the options for fresh inspiration in these "In the Works" workshops!
Workshops will take place at the Friendship Heights Village Center in Chevy Chase. The cost will be $80 for each four-session workshop, each of which meets for an hour and a half as listed below. To reserve your spot, mail a check (payable to Friendship Heights Village Center) to:
Friendship Heights Village Center
Attention: Jennie Fogarty
4433 South Park Avenue
Chevy Chase, MD
WORKSHOP #1
Strategies for Writing in Poetic Forms
As led by Karren LaLonde Alenier
4 Sundays in October-- 11:30 am-1 pm
Have
fun shaping your words using such poetic forms as sonnet, pantoum,
ghazal, and paradelle. We'll look at the work of some notable poets
using these forms, discuss strategies, write our own, and workshop the
new poems. Some poetic writing experience would be helpful but not
required.
Register by October 1, 2012
WORKSHOP #2
Poetry and Art
As led by Adele Steiner Brown
4 Sundays: November 4 & 18,
December 2 & 9-- 11:30 am-1 pm
Let's
use art in all of its forms to inspire poetry! We'll read poetry by
such poets as John Keats, Notozake Shange, Seamus Heaney, and Justine
Rowden who were moved to write by paintings, photographs, sculpture, and
music. Then we will use various art forms (including works at the Chevy
Chase Village Center) to inspire our own writing.
Register by October 30, 2012
For further information, call Jennie Fogarty at 301-656-2797, or email Karren Alenier at Karren@WordWorksBooks.org.
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E-NEWS
This afternoon I spoke at the Institute of International Education. I spoke to a group of people from around the world who were participating in the International Visitor Leadership Program. My topic was " Promoting Social Change Through the Arts." We had a lively discussion. I talked about being a literary activist and shared ideas about the type of art that was created during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. I made reference to James Forman's The Making of Black Revolutionaries and read a passage of his description of Bernice Reagon (one of the original Freedom Singers) singing to an audience in Albany, Georgia. I also made reference to Mahalia Jackson singing at the March on Washington in 1963. Both examples illustrated the role music (and singers) played in contributing to the movement for social change. I also shared with the group excerpts about art and aesthetics from The Quotable Karenga by Ron Karenga:
- Black Art must be for the people, by the people, and from the people. That is to say, it must be functional, collective and committing.
- "Art for art's sake is an invalid concept, all art reflects the value system from which it comes.
- There is no art in the world you should have to go to school to appreciate.
One can easily take issue with these statements - and we did. They helped to shape a good discussion.
While people were talking Ms. Amany Zain Elabden from Sudan was listening and drawing. Below is what she thought I looked like. Hey - let us make a social change.
- Black Art must be for the people, by the people, and from the people. That is to say, it must be functional, collective and committing.
- "Art for art's sake is an invalid concept, all art reflects the value system from which it comes.
- There is no art in the world you should have to go to school to appreciate.
One can easily take issue with these statements - and we did. They helped to shape a good discussion.
While people were talking Ms. Amany Zain Elabden from Sudan was listening and drawing. Below is what she thought I looked like. Hey - let us make a social change.
FATHER'S DAY IN AUGUST
One of the joys of fatherhood is running into your child downtown on a crowded street. I come out of a cafe on L Street (today) and there is my daughter. She has a big smile on her face. I recognize this person and she is beyond special to me. She is on her way back to her law firm. We walk a few blocks together and when we stop it's like that first hello. Not one but two kisses before we have to go. Many years ago she would be on my back but today she's a woman opening her own doors. I look over my shoulder just to catch another glimpse of her...
YARI YARI NTOASO
Save the Date:
Accra, Ghana
May 16-19, 2013
YARI YARI NTOASO Continuing the Dialogue
International Symposium on Literature by Women from Africa and its Diaspora.
http://africanastudies.as.nyu.edu/object/Yari-2013-Ghana
Accra, Ghana
May 16-19, 2013
YARI YARI NTOASO Continuing the Dialogue
International Symposium on Literature by Women from Africa and its Diaspora.
http://africanastudies.as.nyu.edu/object/Yari-2013-Ghana
AFTER THE DRAMA WE LIVE OUR LIVES
They keep selling us drama because we consume it so well. Is the upcoming election really going to be a close one? Have we been sold the Obama Administration has "failed" us? Just circle that word "fail" and see how often you hear or read it between now and November. I'm going to unplug from this madness. Too many additives in the news these days. I try to especially avoid "race porn" and only read things that will keep my head clear and open to new ideas. Yes, I'll vote for Obama for president again. I don't believe the guy is gravity. He's just another president. Geez - did I think about Lyndon Johnson or Gerald Ford everyday? No, I didn't. Oh, and I only saw a glimpse of Martin Luther King, Jr. once in my life. I never saw the signs for coloreds in the south. I didn't get drafted and knew no one killed in Vietnam. I'm only still here because my mom and dad warned me about running with that fast crowd. I don't think my mom ever voted Republican in her life. Well, maybe for John Lindsay when he ran for mayor of New York. That's because he was the first politician we ever saw in the St. Mary's Projects (South Bronx). In 1968 I left the South Bronx and headed South. In my bags a book by Marshall McLuhan. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's the media...
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Nationals
The Nationals are slumping right now. When will it end? No one is hitting. Zimmerman and Harper were carrying this team once. So was Desmond - oh - and the pitching - it's still there but they need runs. The key problem is the team is no longer scoring first. How long do you keep Werth as a leadoff hitter? The best guy for that role might be Lombardozzi. It might all come down to Stras pulling us out of the darkness before we descend into the pit of September. The Cardinals will show us no mercy when they come to town. Did St. Louis create baseball or was that just Stan the Man and Brother Gibson?
"Where is your office?
What do you do exactly?"
She peered at him over bridged hands, her smile in hiding.
"You know things. I think this is what you do," she said.
"I think you're dedicated to knowing. I think you
acquire information and turn it into something stupendous and awful.
You're a dangerous person. Do you agree? A visionary."
- from COSMOPOLIS by Don DeLillo
What do you do exactly?"
She peered at him over bridged hands, her smile in hiding.
"You know things. I think this is what you do," she said.
"I think you're dedicated to knowing. I think you
acquire information and turn it into something stupendous and awful.
You're a dangerous person. Do you agree? A visionary."
- from COSMOPOLIS by Don DeLillo
READ, REVIEW AND WEEP.
The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy - The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/.../book-reviewers-for-hire-meet-a-demand-for-o...
19 hours ago – The Best Book Reviews Money Can Buy ... By DAVID STREITFELD
Saturday, August 25, 2012
GOD MUST BE A DEMOCRAT
Breaking News Alert The New York Times Saturday, August 25, 2012 -- 7:01 PM EDT ----- Republicans Postpone Start of Convention Because of Severe Weather Because of the expectation of bad weather in Tampa, Fla., the Republican National Convention will immediately recess after it convenes on Monday, picking back up on Tuesday afternoon. “Our first priority is ensuring the safety of delegates, alternates, guests, members of the media attending the Republican National Convention, and citizens of the Tampa Bay area,” Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement. He said that officials expected convention participants to encounter transportation problems because of wind and rain.
AMEN
Shirin Sadeghi, Truthout: "Are
we to believe that a fundamentalist in a suit is less scary than a
fundamentalist in a beard, even if both are spouting hatred against
women?"
Nats
I watched the Nationals in Philadelphia last night. They look like a team getting ready to enter a slump. Minor mistakes being made here and there. Bats are starting to have holes. The bullpen is suspect to me.Too many guys coming in and walking folks. You won't be able to to that in September and expect to win. I fear the Cardinals right now.These birds often bring omens.
Friday, August 24, 2012
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