THE NATION

High on the list of people I admire is Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor and publisher of The Nation magazine. Last night at the National Museum of Women in the Arts there was a reception to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of The Nation. When progressives gather in the evening it's an indication that all our tomorrows will be better. This is supported by the 150 years of work appearing in the pages of a magazine that has provided not just blueprints for survival but alternatives that remind us we can live better and do better.

My association with the publication probably begins around 1976. That's when I met Harry Maurer (author of NOT WORKING) in Cuba. Maurer was an editor with The Nation. He would be the person responsible for introducing me to Victor Navasky. Navasky was running The Nation at that time and had the genius to organize the American Writers Congress held in New York City from October 9-12, 1981. I was on the planning committee that resulted in many long term literary friendships. The Congress was also where the National Writers Union received its birth certificate.

Be sure to obtain a copy of the April 2015, Anniversary issue of The Nation.
One could teach a class in American history with this publication. It's a 268 page vitamin supplement for activists. This is the magazine you place near the bed and in the bathroom. It's the magazine near the fruit on the kitchen table. The Anniversary issue reminds me of the Yellow Pages before the Internet.

Thanks to Katrina vanden Heuvel - The Nation lives!   I like to think of Katrina as the "Good" Katrina. Not the hurricane but the Sea Change.

This woman continues to bless us with her vision and dedication to building a better world. She is living the legacy.

THE NATION - 150 years old and still writing the pages of history.

For my children everywhere

Why do we see white people before flowers or trees?
Why do we not see birds and bees?


  - E. Ethelbert Miller

UPCOMING EVENT

http://www.cvent.com/events/equity-summit-2015-all-in-for-inclusion-justice-and-prosperity/custom-36-985ffb8beee84097b99e8965035a8c78.aspx?RefID=email

10 ANNIVERSARY - BUSBOYS AND POETS

This year Busboys and Poets founded by Andy Shallal will be celebrating its 10th Anniversary. When his sacred place ( on 14th and V) opened it changed not just the city but individual lives. 10 years ago I met Grace Ali at Busboys. Little did we know it would be the beginning of a wonderful and fascinating friendship. Today we got together at Busboys in Takoma. Grace just returned from Italy.We talked this morning about the future and the important cultural work we need to do. Here is a link to her digital journal:
www.ofnotemagazine.org

BEVERLY HUNT AT WORK

Derryk shared a video with you! View video

ANNA THORN

It's just a matter of time before Anna Thorn becomes the First Lady of Books in Washington DC. This woman has already made Upshur Street Books a cultural destination in the Petworth neighborhood. If bookstores have sequels - look for the small independent bookstore to return like sweet cafes. Bookstores become popular because of the people who work in them. When I look around at the many books in my personal collections they were first touched by beautiful book lovers working in stores gone too soon. Here are a few names that should be in a DC Bookstore Hall of Fame: Hodari Ali, Dave Marcuse, Doug Lang, Ivy Young, Bridget Warren, Don Allen, Derrick Brown, Todd Stewart,Anderson Allen, Deb Morris, and LaTissia Mitchell.

www.upshurstreetbooks.com

Thanks to Anna I will be doing a reading from my Collected Poems (edited by Kirsten Porter) on April 3, 2016 at 4PM.

Busboys and Poets celebrates 10 years in 2015! Come celebrate Busboys style with music, dancing, poetry, special guests,  food, open bar and more  Friday, October 2nd, 2015  6:30 PM - Midnight  Busboys and Poets Brookland  625 Monroe St NE Washington, DC  #BUSBOYSX Special guests include  (more to be announced): Alice Walker     Angela Davis   Featuring D.C. Music      DJ Ayes Cold      DJ NativeSun     Chelsey Green     Early Reception + Party - $75 per person 6:30 PM This is a unique opportunity to mingle with our special guests in an intimate setting. Enjoy an open bar and hors d'oeuvres while supporting the non-profit organization, Teaching for Change. Special guest performer, Billboard charting recording artist, violinist Chelsey Green.  From 2005 to 2015, Teaching for Change operated the bookstore at the Busboys and Poets flagship location at 14th & V.   $30 from your ticket price goes directly to Teaching for Change, and is tax-deductible  Main Party - $45 per person8 PM Dance party with special guests Alice Walker, Angela Davis, Bill Ayers, Jeff Zinn and many more! Music selections by DJ Ayes Cold and DJ NativeSun. Includes open bar, light hors d'oeuvres, drumming and other entertainment to be announced    Tickets are available now

WALTER MOSLEY

At the National Book Festival I ran into Walter Mosley. I joked with him for a few minutes. I told him I was taking his picture for his next book cover. Everybody needs a photo opportunity.

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Today was the National Book Festival. A big gathering of writers and book people at the Washington Convention Center. I only went to see Naomi Shihab Nye. She is non-stop energy and fun. I spent much of the day escorting her around and taking pictures. Nothing like a Naomi Day. Around Noon she read from her children's novel THE TURTLE OF OMAN.

NEW WEBSITE COMING...

BRADY AND THE NFL FUMBLE

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/04/sports/football/tom-brady-suspension-deflategate.html?emc=edit_au_20150903&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=58724958

The Palestine Center | Humanitarian Link | The Gallery The 2015 Edward Said Memorial Lecture "The Legacy of Edward Said" with Dr. Cornel West  Professor of Philosophy & Christian Practice, Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus, Princeton University To register, please click here. Registration is required for entry. Thursday, 1 October 2015 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. The Palestine Center WATCH LIVE Edward Said, an internationally venerated intellectual and an illustrious figure in Palestinian history, culture, and politics, was a distinguished professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. He was an acclaimed literary and music critic and theorist whose seminal work, Orientalism, influenced generations of academics and scholars on the Middle East and other non-western societies. A few days after Dr. Edward Said’s untimely death, Dr. Cornel West described him as follows: “Edward Said was the last great humanist. He was a literary genius. He was an intellectual giant. He was part of the tradition that goes from Erasmus to Vico, from Swift to Cesare, from Auerbach to Lionel Trilling.” As the Palestine Center’s Edward Said Memorial Lecturer this year, Dr. West will discuss the profound legacy of Edward Said in social and political thought. He will explore Dr. Said’s role as an “engaged intellectual” whose voice provoked introspection, deep questioning, dialogue, and enduring change. Dr. West's lecture will be also be livestreamed for those unable to attend. Dr. Cornel West is Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He has also taught at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Paris. Dr. West has written over 20 books and has edited thirteen, among which are Race Matters, Democracy Matters, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, Black Prophetic Fire and Radical King. In 1993, Dr. West was recipient of The American Book Award. Dr. West has had a diverse career spanning from academia to media icon. A frequent guest on the Bill Maher Show, Colbert Report, CNN, C-Span and Democracy Now, he also has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films includingExamined Life, Call & Response, Sidewalk and Stand, as well as science fiction feature film, The Matrix - for which he was the commentator (with Ken Wilbur) on the official trilogy released in 2004. In addition, Dr. West has made three spoken word albums includingNever Forget, collaborating with Prince, Jill Scott, Andre 3000, Talib Kweli, KRS-One and the late Gerald Levert. His latest spoken word feature reunited him with Terence Blanchard for, “Breathless” – a tribute to the “I Can’t Breathe” movement. Dr. West says that his work has been shaped and enriched by the variety of people from all walks of life whom he has invited into his world of ideas, thus keeping alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – “that of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.”

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National Book Festival 2015 The IDB celebrates an outstanding generation of Latin American authors appearing this weekend at the National Book Festival, one of the biggest literary events in America. Reading Latin America Saturday September 5, 2015 11:50 AM  Reading Latin America: The Poet as a Public Intellectual Homero Aridjis, Gwen Kirkpatrick 12:45 PM  Reading Latin America: The Role of Time in a Writer's Life and Work Álvaro Enrigue, Cristina Rivera-Garza, Maria José Navia, Alejandro Zambra 1:40 PM    Santiago Roncagliolo  2:35 PM   Alejandro Zambra  3:30 PM   Valeria Luiselli 4:25 PM   Andrés Neuman   5:20 PM   Juan Gabriel Vásquez  Where Walter E. Washington Convention Center International Pavilion (Room 143, Street Level) 801 Mount Vernon Place NW,  Washington DC 20001  Organized by the Library of Congress International Pavilion co-sponsored the Inter-American Development Bank

On the final day of my trip to Alaska, I understand that I became the first president to travel above the Arctic Circle. I'm proud and happy I got to do it -- because some pretty extraordinary people live up there. I visited Dillingham -- a small, vibrant coastal city that sits on Nushagak Bay, at the heart of the Bristol Bay salmon-fishing district. I had the opportunity to stand on a beach and watch subsistence fisherman pull their catches up out of the water. If you've eaten wild salmon, there's a good chance it came from here -- and having sampled some pretty outstanding salmon jerky, I can attest that it's delicious. It was fascinating to see fishing skill that has been built up over hundreds of years at work -- and a reminder that the beautiful waters of this region have come to house a massive economic engine. The region provides 40 percent of America's wild-caught seafood, and helps support a $2 billion commercial fishing industry whose jobs extend beyond Alaska's borders. That's why we took action last December to shut off oil and gas exploration in this area indefinitely -- and why I'll continue to support efforts to protect this community as long as I'm President. I was proud to take action last year to protect Bristol Bay and honored to meet folks today who depend on it. And don't miss the salmon jerky if you come visit. At Dillingham Middle School, I got to watch (and dance with) a group of young people performing a traditional Yup'ik dance -- a cultural tradition which spans millennia. And I rode with Robin, a lifelong Dillingham resident, who described to me how the frozen tundra of his youth has transformed into scrub forest in just a few decades as a result of a warming climate. From there, it was on to Kotzebue -- a town of about 3,000 26 miles above the Arctic Circle. The town's main roadways, the community's blood line, runs right above the Kotzebue Sound, making it very vulnerable to coastal erosion and the intense arctic storms that can raise the water levels much higher than normal high tides. After speaking to folks at the local high school, I got a chance to take a look at the Kotzebue Shore Avenue Project -- made of thousands of feet of roadway, sheet pile, and armor stone -- which has protected the roadway and was paid for, in part, with federal transportation funds. It's a reminder of exactly why we fight so hard for infrastructure spending. It's for communities like these. From there it was back to Anchorage, and we'll be departing for the mainland in the next few hours. It's hard to believe this trip is already coming to a close. Over the course of the past three days, from the decks of Coast Guard cutters and the edges of ice fields, I've had the opportunity to see some wild and beautiful things in Alaska -- and I've enjoyed sharing them with the rest of the country. But a very serious reality lies within those breathtaking sights: And that's the fact that this state's climate is changing before our eyes. A couple of days ago, I stood on rock where, just ten years ago, there was a glacier. Yesterday, I flew over Kivalina Island, an Arctic town that's already losing land to the sea from erosion and further threatened by sea-level rise. I've seen shores that have been left battered by storm surges that used to be contained by ice. And now, that ice is gone. This is Kivalina Island, an Arctic town that's already receding into the ocean because of rising sea levels. For many Alaskans, it’s no longer a question of if they have to relocate – but when. There aren’t many other places in America that have to deal with questions of relocation right now. But there will be. What’s happening here is America’s wake-up call. When it comes to climate change, I believe there's such a thing as being too late. And that moment is almost here. The Alaskans I met with these past three days know that better than anybody. And so as I close out this travelogue, it's my hope that decades and decades from now, when this generation has long since left the planet, we will have acted decisively. We will have left those generations with a planet they can continue to thrive on. We will have lived up to our own words -- that our best days are still ahead. President Barack Obama

POEM- A- DAY

the bullet was a girl   Danez Smith

the bullet is his whole life. his mother named him & the bullet was on its way. in another life the bullet was a girl & his skin was a boy with a sad laugh. they say he asked for it— must I define they? they are not monsters, or hooded or hands black with cross smoke. they teachers, they pay tithes they like rap, they police—good folks gather around a boy’s body to take a picture, share a prayer. oh da horror, oh what a shame why’d he do that to himself? they really should stop getting themselves killed            Copyright © 2015 by Danez Smith. Used with permission of the author.

LYNDA TREDWAY

I spent the morning visiting educational activist Lynda Tredway. She lives a few blocks from me.We had a good political discussion about a wide range of topics. Lynda is the type of woman who works at changing the world. Earth is a better planet because of her.

KEBEDECH TEKLEAB

Many years ago I walked across the campus of Howard University and introduced myself to Kebedech Tekleab. It was the start of of a wonderful friendship and a couple of artistic collaborations. Yesterday we talked and laughed for a couple of hours at Busboys (Takoma).  We discussed our new work and plans for the future. Kebedech is currently teaching in Savannah. Here is a link to an interview I did with her back in 2009.

http://www.ofnotemagazine.org/2009/08/23/748/