Events to Mark the 34th Anniversary of the

Assassinations of Orlando Letelier and

Ronni Karpen Moffitt

LETELIER-MOFFITT

MEMORIAL PROGRAM

September 19, 2010, 10 – 11 am

Sheridan Circle, 23^rd and Massachusetts Ave. NW

PROGRAM

Emcee:  Sarah Anderson, Institute for Policy Studies

Invocation:  Reverend Sheila McCurdy 

Claudio Grossman, Dean, Washington College of Law

Poetry:  Saul Landau, IPS Fellow, author of “Assassination on Embassy Row”

Music:  Patricio Zamorano

Rodrigo Leiva, nephew of Orlando Letelier and Executive Director of Latino Federation of

Greater Washington

Chilean Ambassador Arturo Fermandois Vöhringer

Background

Until September 11, 2001, the car bombing on Massachusetts Avenue was the most infamous act of international terrorism ever to take place in our nation's capital. On September 21, 1976 agents of the Augusto Pinochet regime planted a car bomb at this location which brutally took the lives but not the memory of two IPS colleagues, who fought for equality and justice through reason, not violence.

Orlando Letelier and Ronni Karpen Moffitt were colleagues at the Institute for Policy Studies, where Letelier had become one of the most outspoken critics of Pinochet. Moffitt was a 25-year-old development associate. For more than three decades, the pursuit of justice for their murders has been a symbol of hope for victims of tyranny everywhere. Every year the human rights community, friends, family, colleagues, and supporters gather in remembrance of these tragic assassinations.

This program will take place outdoors at the site of the assassination and end with a laying of flowers on the Letelier-Moffitt memorial across the street from Sheridan Circle. Please bring flowers.

For more information, contact:  202 234 9382 or sena@ips-dc.org

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Benefit Screening

WILL THE REAL TERRORIST

PLEASE STAND UP

September 22, 2010, 7 - 9:30 pm

Letelier Theater, 3251 Prospect St. NW

For half a century, small groups of Cuban exiles have waged a terrorist campaign against Cuba's revolutionary government, with active or passive support from the US government. It was one of these exile groups who conspired with the agents of Chile's secret police under General Pinochet in the assassination of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt.  In the 1990s, Florida-based exiles began bombing tourist sites, the backbone of Cuba's economy. An Italian tourist died in one of the bomb attacks. Since the FBI did not arrest the bombers in Miami, Havana sent agents there to infiltrate and report on the violent groups. Instead of stopping the perpetrators of terrorism, the FBI arrested five Cuban spies. They were tried in Miami and given draconian sentences despite a dramatic absence of evidence against them.

As part of this year’s events in memory of Orlando Letelier and Ronni Moffitt, you are invited to a special fundraiser preview screening of the almost finished work in progress, Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up, a new documentary by IPS Fellow and award winning filmmaker Saul Landau.

A reception with Saul and catered by Busboys & Poets will precede the screening.

The film features rare interviews with four of the leading "terrorists" or "freedom fighters" -- Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Jose Basulto and Antonio Veciana as well as a recorded interview with Gerardo Hernandez, the leader of the Cuban 5, Fabian Escalante, former head of Cuban Counterintelligence and Otto Rene, one of the men who bombed Cuban hotels (from his Havana jail cell).

$20 Admission.  Please rsvp to Netfa@ips-dc.org.

  1 Attached Images

MUST READ:

The Sun Magazine | Quiet, Please

The Sun Interview. Quiet, Please. Gordon Hempton On The Search For Silence In A Noisy World. by Leslee Goodman

 

Tricycle Daily Dharma
 

Pure Observation

Normally you think, “I am seeing.” Yet in the ultimate sense, the seeing that happens isn’t anyone’s. Although hearing occurs, there’s no self who hears. Rather than a homogeneous entity, we find a collection of parts. Unless observed closely, what we regard as the self appears to be a solid, personal identity that perceives things. But in truth there is no metabeing who unifies the parts. All our actions happen without an agent, or self, performing them. There is no seer, just the seeing; no hearer, just the hearing.

- Cynthia Thatcher, "Disconnect the Dots"

I received this email from the novelist Charles Johnson this morning. He wanted me to share it with other poets:

           I'm working on that new Bedtime Story I mentioned. So I'm looking again at a little book (188 pages)  published by Don Ihde, my dissertation advisor in 1976 by Ohio University Press. The title is Listening and Voice: A Phenomenology of Sound. Ihde became well known as one of America's best popularizes of phenomenology in the 70s (which is why I went to Stony Brook to study with him), someone who did phenomenology in a reader-friendly, accessible way.

          Of special interest to every poet (or writer) are Chapter Thirteen, "Music and Word," and especially Chapter Fourteen, "Silence and Word." These two chapters, and really the entire book, complement more than I can say your fine poem on how we sound.

         So here's a title for when you---a man already flooded by books---might have some free time.

 

 LABOR DAY

Why are we working when we can reach the New Eden?  So much wealth - so much poverty. It's as if we were left alone by God to be ruled by snakes.


     - E. Ethelbert Miller

Unfettered at last, a traveling monk,
I pass the old Zen barrier.
Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life,
Of these mountains, which shall be my home?

    -Manan

Listening and Voice

 

New and expanded edition of the now classic study in the phenomenology of sound.

Listening and Voice is an updated and expanded edition of Don Ihde’s groundbreaking 1976 classic in the study of sound. Ranging from the experience of sound through language, music, religion, and silence, clear examples and illustrations take the reader into the important and often overlooked role of the auditory in human life. Ihde’s newly added preface, introduction, and chapters extend these sound studies to the technologies of sound, including musical instrumentation, hearing aids, and the new group of scientific technologies which make infra- and ultra-sound available to human experience.

 MINORITY REPORT?

 

Nation & World | Stopping crime before it starts | Seattle Times Newspaper

 

ICHIRO

Ichiro Watch:

With hit leader Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers) out for an extended period of time with an injury, it looks like Ichiro will lead the AL in hits this season. Hamilton has 183 hits. Ichiro is 7 behind at 176. He should move ahead of Hamilton this week. 200 hits before the 19th of September.

The poet Edward Weismiller died of cancer on August 25th. Yesterday afternoon I sat in his apartment with Georgia (his daughter), listening to her talk about his life, work and death. We sat in the poet's house surrounded by books. Ed Weismiller was an eminent scholar of John Milton. He was also the youngest person (at the age of 20) to win the Yale Younger Poet Series award in 1936, with his first book, THE DEER COME DOWN. Georgia read a few of his poems aloud. She gave me a copy of his last book, WALKING TOWARD THE SUN. W.S.Merwin wrote the foreword and made the following comment:

Mr. Weismiler is a modest man and has lived devotedly with his modesty and his awe, his disappointments, and his recurring though sometimes rueful delights.

As I got ready to leave, I looked around Weismiller's apartment, a place where he had resided for many years. In one room was a wheelchair, in the small bathroom, a chair to sit on while bathing, on the walls, paintings and photographs of family. I thought of my mother's old apartment, and how it was a place of memories. We live and then leave so much behind. How naked we would be without words. How alone we would be without friends and the poetry of Edward Weismiller:

Walking toward the sun I cannot exactly
see: the strong light
seizes my eyes. Ahead, it
dissolves surfaces; a gold shimer
drowns the cars, parked or moving. People
appear, in part vanish, struggle
in silence to be whole. But silence
lives elsewhere: motors hum, shoes scuff or clack,
brakes squeal, dogs bark, the sun
sings. They say that
if you look straight at the sun
you will go blind. People, things,
will vanish. The great hungers
of the dark are shrouded
in light. We are all
walking toward the sun. Like everyone else,
I must go into the shadows
to see. 

THICH NHAT HANH

Tricycle Daily Dharma
 

A businessless person

Someone may be able to speak beautifully about compassion, wisdom, or non-self, but this doesn’t necessarily help others. And the speaker may still have a big self or treat others badly; his eloquent speech may be only empty words. We can get tired of all these words, even the word “Buddha.” So to wake people up, Master Linji [Japanese, Rinzai] invented new terms and new ways of saying things that would respond to the needs of his time. For example, Master Linji invented the term “businessless person,” the person who has nowhere to go and nothing to do. This was his ideal example of what a person could be.

- Thich Nhat Hanh, "Simply Stop"

ICHIRO WATCH:

Since 2001 only 21 errors.

NEWS TO ME:

WHEN DID THIS BECOME ALL ABOUT CLINTON?  WHO WRITES THIS STUFF?
WHO GRADES THE EXAM?  WHAT GRADE IS THIS?
SILLY NEWS AGAIN. WE FRAME THESE STORIES AND THEN THEY FRAME US.
NO WONDER WE CAN'T SOLVE ANY PROBLEMS THESE DAYS.
EVERYTHING IS A TEST, A GAME OR A POLL.

I believe I'll run on and see what the end is gonna be...

 
In Middle East Peace Talks, Clinton Faces a Crucial Test
By MARK LANDLER
The talks could cement the legacy of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a diplomat, or pose risks to any political ambitions she may harbor.

THE SHORTNESS OF BREATH

Knees and memories,
this is what goes first.
The difficulty of walking
embraced by the inability
to remember. One falls
and discovers the shortness
of breath and how sunlight
enters a room seduced
by shadows.




 - E. Ethelbert Miller

ICHIRO WATCH:

Countdown to 200 hits again.
174 right now.

Edwidge Danticat has a new book out. The title is CREATE DANGEROUSLY: The Immigrant Artist at Work.

Danticat will be discussing and signing her book on Wednesday, October 20th, 6:30 -8:00 PM at Busboys and Poets ( 14th and V Street, NW).

Tricycle Daily Dharma
 

Where can we find satisfaction?

To look for total satisfaction in oneself is a futile endeavor. Neither satisfaction nor self really exist. Since everything changes from moment to moment, where can self and where can satisfaction be found? Yet these are two things that the whole world is looking for and it sounds quite reasonable, doesn’t it? But since these are impossible to find, everybody is unhappy. Not necessarily because of tragedies, poverty, sickness, or death: simply because of unfilled desire. Everybody is looking for something that isn’t available. It’s worse than looking for a needle in a haystack; at least the needle is there, even though it is hard to find. But satisfaction and self are both delusions, so how can they ever be found?

- Ayya Khema, "No Satisfaction"

I just started reading MENTOR a memoir by Tom Grimes.

A good book for anyone entering a writing program this year.

 I'M SO TIRED OF THE f-WORD.

Brawl erupts in stands at US Open, stopping play- The New Haven Register - Serving New Haven, Connecticut

 

VOTING AT THE END OF THE DAY:  E for F

Everyday the media will sucker punch you. Without any knowledge of how - you look around and soon you're humming a song you never liked. Why? Hey - today the sky is "Gray."  How did that happen so quickly?  Where did Fenty go?  Why is his personality suddenly an issue and problem? Maybe it's because there are no issues in DC after you move beyond Rhee and Harry Potter. When did running for office become a popularity test? No wonder the media fools love Palin. They push her to be president without questioning her intellect or maybe questioning it and laughing with the joke. If Gray wins the Democratic primary in a few days, it will be an attempt at this city trying to return to normalcy. Too much gentrification can make you miss your Chuck Brown. Right?

Funny how with all the green Fenty signs no one wants to go green in this city. But let's be honest, if Fenty is able to play "power" politics he will win the election. It's a good test to see if he has created a machine. Unpopular mayors can get elected if they have the network to get the vote out when they must. Forget the polls. Didn't the polls tell us Clinton would defeat Obama?  So many polls are wrong these days.

At the end of the day I'll vote for Fenty. I refuse to make his personality an issue. DC has been moving in the right direction. Why get off the history train and miss the next stop?

THE PALIN WATCH:

So very hard to imagine Palin as a presidential candidate. So very easy to imagine her on a reality TV show.

   -Gail Collins

Do you love DC? Celebrate your favorite city's cultural heritage with us!   30th Anniversary Showcase Presenting 30 years of DC culture in 8 outstanding humanities projects     Tuesday, September 21st, 5:30 - 8 PM    Featuring film, spoken word poetry, performance art, and more! With commentary by Jennifer Cover Payne, President, Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington   Charles Sumner School, 1201 17th Street, NW    Followed by the After-Party at the Beacon Hotel, 1615 Rhode Island Avenue, NW    Free; $30 Suggested Donation Click here to register "Washington Redskins: The Winning Years", a documentary film by Walter Gottlieb will make its debut at our Showcase.       30th Anniversary Celebration Honoring the 2010 Distinguished Service to the Humanities Award recipients    Thursday, September 23, 6 - 8 PM Reception honoring Peggy Cooper Cafritz, patron of the arts and co-founder of the Duke Ellington School for the Arts and Dr. Johnnetta Cole, Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art and the first African-American woman to serve as president of Spelman College   With a discussion moderated by Michel Martin of NPR's "Tell Me More"   Hogan and Lovells, LLP, 555 13th Street, NW   $100 Donation Click here to purchase tickets   The Duke Ellington mural, located at 1209 U St NW, is featured in the 30th Anniversary project, Murals of Washington, DC: Spectacle and Message.   For the full list of honorees and 30th Anniversary Committee members, please visit our website.     Read "30 Stories for 30 Years,” a series chronicling the cultural heritage of the past 3 decades in DC.   (Top image from the 1983 Super Bowl Courtesy Al Messerschmidt/WireImage.com) (Bottom image from Murals of Washington, DC: Spectacle and Message)

    Become a facebook fan of the Humanities Council
    Follow HumanitiesDC on Twitter

    Check out HCTV, the Humanities Council YouTube Channel

Take a Lunch Break with Cave Canem Join Cave Canem Tuesday, September 7, 12:30 pm, as fellows Jocelyn Burrell, Monica A. Hand and Lorelei Williams read from their work in Bryant Park, New York City's famed plein air venue. Cave Canem at Word for Word September 7, 12:30 - 2 pm Bryant Park Reading Room 42nd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues New York City Rain venue: General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen 20 West 44th Street Free & open to the public. 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

News from the Library of Congress

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Press contact: Donna Urschel (202) 707-1639
Public contact: Patricia Gray (202) 707-1308

August 26, 2010 (REVISED September 1, 2010)

Eight U.S. Poets Laureate To Read at Library of Congress on Oct. 6

Reunion to Celebrate Publication of “The Poets Laureate Anthology”

Some of the most distinguished voices in American poetry—eight former U. S. Poets Laureate/Consultants in Poetry—will reunite in the historic Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Congress for a night of poetry on Oct. 6.
The event marks the publication of "The Poets Laureate Anthology," which brings together for the first time in print a sampling of poems by all of the U.S Poets Laureate/Consultants in Poetry.
The evening, "A Celebration of American Poets Laureate," which starts at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 6, will feature readings by Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Daniel Hoffman, Donald Hall, Maxine Kumin, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic and Mark Strand, and will be followed by a reception and book-signing.
The program is free and open to the public, but tickets are required. Tickets may be ordered beginning Sept. 1 from Ticketmaster for a small handling fee. There is a limit of two tickets per person. Contact www.ticketmaster.com   or phone (202) 397-7328 or (703) 573-7328. The Coolidge Auditorium is located in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.
The Poets Laureate are appointed for a one- or two-year term by the Librarian of Congress. The choice is based on poetic merit alone and has included a wide variety of poetic styles. The position started in 1937 and was then called Consultant in Poetry. In the mid-1980s, a public law changed the title to "Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry." A list of the consultants/laureates, with dates served, can be found at www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-2001-present.html.
Elizabeth Hun Schmidt, a former poetry editor at the New York Times Book Review, is the editor of "The Poets Laureate Anthology," which features some of the world’s best-known poems and many new surprises by the 43 poets who have served in the country’s top poetry position. Schmidt teaches American literature at Sarah Lawrence College.
The anthology will be published on Oct. 1 by the Library’s Publishing Office in partnership with W.W. Norton. Copies of the volume will be available for purchase at the event.
The evening program is sponsored by the Library’s Poetry and Literature Office, the Library’s Publishing Office, W. W. Norton and the Poetry Society of America, an organization celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
Five other literary events will be held this fall as part of the Poetry and Literature Center’s free public programming:

• Oct. 19—Poetry at Noon—"Rhode Island Sampler." State Poet Laureate Lisa Starr brings award-winning Rhode Island poets to read at the Library. The program will also feature Amber Rose Johnson, national champion of the Poetry Out Loud competition, who will perform her winning recitation. The event takes place at noon in the Whittall Pavilion on the ground level of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.
• Oct. 25. W.S. Merwin gives his inaugural reading as the current U.S. Poet Laureate at 7 p.m. in the Coolidge Auditorium on the ground level of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Tickets are not required. A reception and book-signing will follow.
• Nov. 10. The prestigious 2010 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Poetry Award will be presented to an American poet whose book was chosen the best book of poetry in 2008-2009 and/or to a poet for lifetime achievement. The program begins at 8 p.m. in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. Tickets are not required.
• Nov. 16—Poetry at Noon—"Insider/Outsider Experiences." Guest poets will use poetry to convey what it feels like to be an insider or an outsider. The event is at noon in the Whittall Pavilion in the Thomas Jefferson Building.
• Dec. 7—Poetry at Noon—"Decade One." Guest readers reflect on life in the first decade of the 21st century. Audience members will have an opportunity to share their reflections about Decade One during a brief period following the reading. The event is at noon in the Whittall Pavilion in the Thomas Jefferson Building.

The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress administers both the noon and the evening series and is the home of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Many of the nation's most eminent poets have served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and, after the passage of Public Law 99 194 (Dec. 20, 1985), as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry.

IS THIS WHY WE STILL NEED BOOKSTORES?  An email from the poet Melissa Tuckey

Thanks E


for your friendship-- it was great to see you yesterday!


Would you believe I stopped at cakelove later in the day just as the hostage situation was unfolding across the street at the discovery building?  I literally parked my car just behind the police cars with guns drawn (unknowingly) and got stuck in Silver Spring for 9 hours because my car was within the police lines.  Hid out at borders-- where they locked us in at some point.  What a day.


Much love to you,


Melissa
 

WHAT BLACK MEN TALK ABOUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT LOVE

The man down the street is gone.
Our last conversation was about cancer
divorce and women. He sat in his car
resting, in obvious pain, but still trying
to rake the leaves in his front yard. He
sat in the passenger seat, his feet
hiding in the shade. I was on my way
to the cleaners. I had a bag of shirts
and two pants. I was making small
talk until he said his wife was trying
to take the house from him. I remembered
his wife the way I remembered a third
pair of pants that needed cleaning but
was in my closet slipping off a hanger.
I never liked his wife. She was a woman
who never spoke when I passed the
house and they were living together.
Their young daughter never spoke and
so she reminded me of her mother.
I always felt the two of them had tickets
for the opera or maybe a cruise to
Europe. Someplace where maybe there
were few black men. It was because of
these women that I got to know the man
who was now sitting alone in his car. A
sick man. A man who was dying. A man
who desperately needed conversation
the way some of us need a glass of
water and a pill. There is a sickness
black men suffer when their wives and
children leave. I was divorced once and
I remember how the woman I loved had
taken to wearing a Halloween mask when
we went to bed. It was the same year that
the circus came to town and I thought about
sleeping with a clown, just for the fun of it.
The man sitting in his car was wearing a
red shirt and blue short pants. He was sad
and I thought I saw a lone tear slip down
his face and mug his life. Or maybe it was
the last drop of love spilling and staining
the sidewalk where I stood.

 - E. Ethelbert Miller

WEDNESDAY IS A DAY OFF WITH YOU

Looking out the window
People going to work -
Let's play!


 - E. Ethelbert Miller
 

Split This Rock Seeks Interns

Split This Rock (www.splitthisrock.org) is a national organization based in Washington, DC, dedicated to integrating the poetry of provocation and witness into public life and supporting the poets who write this vital work. Our flagship program is a biennial national festival of readings, workshops, panel discussions, and activism held in DC neighborhoods. The next festival is scheduled for March 21-24, 2012. Split This Rock also sponsors year-round local and national programming at the intersection of poetry and social change. We’re a small staff housed at the Institute for Policy Studies, the nation’s oldest progressive think tank, located a few blocks from the White House in downtown DC. 

We have three intern positions available for the fall and spring of 2010-2011:

1. Youth Programs Intern – Assist with The World & Me poetry contest, a city-wide competition for children and youth, culminating in a public celebration and reading with the finalists. Assist with a program placing poets in DC public schools during the conference of the Associated Writers & Writing Programs (AWP), taking place in DC in February 2011.
2. Events Planning Intern – Assist with logistics and details of a monthly reading series, special events during AWP 2011, and other community collaborations – including marketing and publicity, venue liaison, and community relationship building.
3. Fundraising Intern – Plan and carry out events and other creative fundraising strategies for Split This Rock – house parties, happy hours, online campaigns, and the like – to raise the profile of the organization and solicit funds from supporters.

An individual with significant time to commit might be able to combine two of these positions. This is an opportunity to work with a literary organization that is unique in the field, while getting to know the local poetry and arts community. We’re looking for interns with excellent writing and organizational skills, a knowledge of poetry, and a commitment to social change. Experience with web site development or graphic design are not required but would be a plus. We are asking for a minimum commitment of 10 hours per week. These are unpaid internships. 

To apply, please send a resume, cover letter, brief writing sample (no more than two pages), and the names and contact information (phone number and email address) of two references to Alicia Gregory at gregory@splitthisrock.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

DON'T MISS:

 

Wednesday, November 17 at 7:00 pm

Beltway Poetry Quarterly Tenth Anniversary reading from the anthology Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, DC

Editor Kim Roberts will present 6 featured authors: Derrick Weston Brown, Barbara Goldberg, Brandon D. Johnson, Tony Medina, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Myra Sklarew.

Free Admission

DC Public Libraries, Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Branch Library, 1630 7th St. NW (at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue, 7th Street and T, and across the street from the Shaw Metro stop on the green and yellow lines).  (202) 727-1288.

DERRICK WESTON BROWN is the Langston Hughes Poet-in-Residence at Busboys and Poets, and host of their popular "Nine on the Ninth" reading series.  He is a Cave Canem fellow and author of the chapbook The Unscene.

BARBARA GOLDBERG is the author of seven books of poems, most recently The Royal Baker's Daughter.  She has translated poems from Hebrew and edited the anthology After the First Rain: Israeli Poems on War and Peace.  She is winner of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and two awards from the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project.

BRANDON D. JOHNSON is author of three books of poems, most recently Love's Skin.  He is a Cave Canem fellow and his work is widely anthologized.

TONY MEDINA is Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Howard University. He writes for adults and children, and his most recent books include I and I, Bob Marley, My Old Man Was Always On the Lam, and Pictures of Broke.

E. ETHELBERT MILLER is author of five books of poems, most recently Whispers, Secrets and Promises, and two memoirs, one of which, Fathering Words, was selected for a 2003 city-wide reading campaign, "One Book, One City," sponsored by the DC Public Libraries.  He is the recipient of a Fulbright Award, a Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and directs the African American Resource Center at Howard University.

MYRA SKLAREW is the author of nine books of poems, one book of short fiction, and a collection of essays.  She is Professor Emeritus at American University.

COMMENTS ON THE GRACE CAVALIERI INTERVIEW (See yesterday's E-Notes).

Interesting! Interesting! This is an insightful piece and I understand your question and her answer by equating it with music/musicians.

The sound of the artist is his/her personality. The inflections, pauses, use of time and space...Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Mary Lou Williams, Nina Simone, Art Blakey, Lee Morgan, Clifford Brown et. al devised their own technique to "voice" themselves, their craft. Rhythm, poly-rhythm, melody and phrasing are all about time and timing.

But consider Billie Holiday who really could not sing. She had limited pitch and often sounded off key accept in some of her very early recordings. Yet her use of time, the emotion in her voice, and the way she phrased a song made her an effective and compelling singer/story teller. The spoken word "Nomo" has particular meaning and importance, but it doesn't always require technical proficiency to be effective in communicating. In this respect we can't leave out Bob Dylan with his monotonous, nasally voice.

A line in Roberta Flack's super hit Killing Me Softly  "...telling my life with his song..." I think is indicative of what the audience is listening for. How does the reader/musician tell a story? Is the reader/musician even telling my story or a story I can believe in or a story that can make me feel better? Maybe its a story that can be experienced vicariously.

John Parks

September 2010 Beltway Poetry Quarterly http://www.beltwaypoetry.com The September 2010 Poetry News is now available online!  New releases. competitions, grants, calls for entries, workshops, festivals, readings, and more.   Beltway Poetry's Tenth Anniversary Events for September! Please join us! Tuesday, September 21, 2010 at 5:30 pm Book Release for Lip Smack: A History of Spoken Word Poetry in DC by Kim Roberts (Beltway Editions) featuring a guest performance by Regie Cabico, and tabletop exhibits on The Word Works, Inc., Split This Rock, and Beltway Poetry. Part of The Humanities Council of Washington, DC 30th Anniversary Celebration and Grantee Showcase. Exhibits, readings, performances, and film, with an awards ceremony, and a champagne and cake reception. Historical Society of Washington, Old Carnegie Library, Mount Vernon Square, DC. (202) 387-8391. Free, but reservations required. Friday, September 24, 2010 at 5:30 pmBook Release Reading for Lip Smack: A History of Spoken Word Poetry in DC (Beltway Editions) featuring Kim Roberts, with performances by Chris August, Twain Dooley, Gowri K, and Patrick Washington15th Annual Baltimore Book Festival, Festival Stage, Mount Vernon Place, 600 block of North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD. Free. ...and Friday, September 24, 2010 at 6:30 pm "Baltimore Celebrates Beltway Poetry": a Beltway Poetry Quarterly Tenth Anniversary Reading . Featured readers TBA. 15th Annual Baltimore Book Festival, Festival Stage, Mount Vernon Place, 600 block of North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD. Free. Other September Highlights New Releases New books by Rick Cannon, Thomas Sayers Ellis, JoAnne Growney, Jon Pineda, and Kim Roberts.  And the newest issues of the journals Broadkill Review and Tidal Basin Review are now available.  Workshops, and ExhibitsThe Writer's Center Fall Workshops in poetry, memoir, fiction, stage and screen, songwriting, children's literature, and professional development.  "Poetic Art" exhibit of collaborations between poets and visual artists.  Workhouse Arts Center, Lorton, VA, Sept. 15 to Oct. 10.  Opening reception Sunday, Sept. 19 includes reading by all selected poets and jurors Grace Cavalieri, Kim Roberts, and Eric Pankey. Fall Festival Season Fall for the Book Festival, City of Fairfax, VA and George Mason University, September 19-24.  Free. Baltimore Book Festival, Mount Vernon Place, 600 block of Charles Street, Baltimore, September 24-26.  Free. Sotto Voce Poetry Festival, Shepherdstown, WV, October 1-3.  Some events free; fees charged for workshops.  Featured poets: Edward Hirsch, Natasha Tretheway, and Michael Collier. Capital BookFest, The Boulevard at the Capital Centre, Largo, MD, October 2.  Free.  Featured authors include Sonia Sanchez and Haki Madhubuti. And there's so much more! Full Listings with links can be found online: http://washingtonart.com/beltway/ponews.html   Kim Roberts, Editor Beltway Poetry Quarterly Join our mailing list!

SANTA WAS A WOMAN?

Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac's Body Found in Chimney After She Tried to Enter Boyfriend's House

After reading this story I thought of how one might compose a blues line:

My baby is in the chimney 

But her fire has turned cold

 SITTING PRETTY? I hear so much nonsense these days.
Imagine this - President Obama is sitting in the Oval Office in front of the cameras. He says nothing for 20-30 minutes. After his silent performance the networks return to their studios. The pundits begin to talk about how awful the President looked sitting in his chair. What kind of message does this send? Why didn't he sit better, maybe lean to the right or left?  For thirty minutes the pundits discuss the President's performance. They all agree he must do better. Right now it appears he is doing nothing.

TODAY IS SEPTEMBER 1ST.
MY MOTHER'S BIRTH MONTH.  SHE WILL BE 91.

WHERE WOULD I BE WITHOUT THIS WOMAN?

Yet still he wondered: Was sorcery a gift given to a few, like poetry?  Did the Lord come, lift you up, then drop you forever?

     - from THE SORCERER'S APPRENTICE by Charles Johnson