I spent yesterday talking with friends in Norway. I will travel there in August to give a talk about Obama. Right now the tentative title of my speech is "The Wonder of Obama: Signed, Sealed, Delivered." Will examine the cultural and political significance of his campaign and early presidency. Will look closely at his memoir, as well as what I define as his 7 key speeches. They include:

1. DNC Speech of 2004
2. Speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 2008
3. Philadelphia Speech on Race
4. Nomination Speech
5. Victory Speech in November 2008
6. Inaugural Speech, January 2008
7. Recent Cairo Speech

What's key to these speeches is how they can be linked to one another in terms of similar substance and rhetoric. More like James Brown than Stevie Wonder, Obama often plays the same chords over and over. For example, reference to his racial background, reference and the definition of the word hope, as well as a concern with such things as energy policy and better health care. The 2008 speech at King's old church in Atlanta is different from the other six because of its audience. Here we find Obama speaking directly to black people. One finds him drawing upon scripture and mixing it with basic tenets from key American documents. In many ways this speech echoes King's and borrows very heavily from his vision. It's also one of the speeches in which we find Obama using repetition more frequently and being more of a preacher than a professor.

I watched 2 speeches on Utube and made notes. Will watch two more today. Tomorrow I will go over a folder of newspaper clippings.

Much to do...

Reading CAPE COD by Henry David Thoreau.

When things go your way, it's easy to think you're a genius.
- Steve Forbes

A NOTE FROM GIOVANNI SINGLETON IN CALIFORNIA:

I am happy to announce that three “pages” from my series AMERICAN LETTERS: Works on Paper, were selected for San Francisco’s 1st Visual Poetry and Performance Festival. I’ve been working on the series for over a decade and this is their debut gallery appearance.
What you’ll find:

1. bee • ing
2. bird caged (after Charlie Parker and Paul Laurence Dunbar)
3. Time: being or Portrait of Alice Coltrane (1937-2007

So if you can, stop by the show. Lots of good stuff. Flyer attached and below the line. Please forward.

peace,
giovanni

---

1st San Francisco Visual Poetry & Performance Festival
Opening Reception: June 19, 7 p.m.
Exhibition Dates: June 19 - July 10

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts
2868 Mission (at 24th St.)
San Francisco, CA
Phone: (415) 821-1155
Price: $5

http://www.missionculturalcenter.org/gallery08.htm

Visual Poetry is a form of experimental poetry in which the image and the plastic element are predominant. Visual Poetry uses any technique and support that helps it develop as non-verbal poetry and constitutes a whole new discipline in the field of experimentation.

Artists include Adriana Diaz, Agneta Falk, Alberto Roblest, Alejandra Rotondi, Alfonso Jaramillo, Augusto Carrasco, Cecile Brillet, Charlyn Montiel-Trent, Eve Luckring, Giovanni Singleton, Gloria Arteaga, Guillermo Valdizán Guerrero, Gustavo Reátegui Oliva, Jorge Polar, José Antonio Galloso, Kreit Vargas Gómez, Laron Biekerstaff, Lucía Fernández, Luis Alvarado, Ole Scovill, Reina Prado, Renato Pita Zilbert, Sabina Nieto, Shelley Cook-Contreras, Todd Brown, and Yu-Hang Huang.

Special guests: Caterina Davinio from Italy and a selection from the International Visual Poetry Festival "Un Par de Vueltas por la Realidad", curated by Giancarlo Huapaya in Lima, Perú.

3 Minutes with E. Ethelbert Miller - City Desk - Washington City Paper

ONE HEARS THIS OFTEN THESE DAYS. IT'S GOOD WE ALL LOOK ALIKE.

A friend of mine was recently stopped in the street by a white couple, and told that she reminded them of Michelle Obama.

God Bless the Queen!

FROM MY FRIEND PAM:

Hey, friends,

I'm announcing this week's opening of my new business: PEACE AND GINGER an eco-luxury massage salon! It's in Dupont Circle. Please take a look at my website at www.peaceandginger.com and add peaceandginger@gmail.com to your email list so that you can receive future emails from the business.

For the first month, I'm offering a 20% discount to friends and family (that means you) and 30% off for appointments this week. You can schedule an appointment with the online scheduler on the website.

You can also get a free massage for yourself or a massage gift certificate for someone else by sending me referrals. For each friend you send me, you receive a $20 credit towards massage services. That way you get a free massage (or a massage gift cerificate) when you send me five people. Or you can use each $20 credit as you go, as a discount off your next massage. You decide.

I hope to see you or someone you know at Peace and Ginger.

Pamela Woolford, MT

PEACE AND GINGER an eco-luxury massage salon

www.peaceandginger.com

peaceandginger@gmail.com

Imagine That? No, just see my E-Note for May 31st.

Eddie Murphy's new movie "Imagine That" had a disastrous showing at the Box Office. Well, imagine that. One could tell how awful this movie was going to be by its trailer. Even the trailer was trailing. Some of this film money could have been used to plant trees in Haiti.

THE 4TH MILLER CLASSIC AT THE BENNINGTON WRITING SEMINARS:
Here is a word back.

Hey Ethelbert,

Your old student Tonaya Thompson here! I'm up visiting for the anniversary and helped organize (and win) the softball game!!

I'm pleased to say the poets won! It was a close game though. We went into 2 extra innings!

Everyone had a blast. Thanks for starting such a great tradition!

Tonaya Thompson
Assistant Editor
Tin House Magazine

Has anyone listened to Mitt Romney lately? Boy, this guy looks right out of a time warp. Let's be honest -The Republican Party in late 2010 or early 2011 needs to place some new faces before the public. No way, they can compete on a national level with grade school leaders. Romney is a whiner. He wears the frat face that once kept people of color out of private clubs. Yes, this guy looks like old money at a time when the economy is having problems. Of course, Romney is upset about Obama adopting a new foreign policy which has America joining the world again. This guy loves the old America the way the Brits once loved colonialism. Now, what if folks kept saying isn't Romney a Muslim and not a Mormon? That would be stupid- right? I know, but it's the type of logic we would hear from the Right if they were thinking Left.

NBA:
Well the Lakers won. Unfortunately the media won't let this victory breathe. Do we really have to hear more about the Shaq/Kobe stuff. Did you see where Shaq sent his Twitter congrats to Kobe?
Maybe not. You have to search for that. Oh, and please, let's move beyond the Jordan era. Did Jordan ever reach the level of Bill Russell? Not really. Why do we look for comparisons and rivalries all the time? Well, because it sells. Funny how we always talk about it's team, team, team.
But we "market" the game around individuals. The last "team" to win something were those "Bad Boys" of Detroit. Oh, and they were marketed as if they were a gang of thugs. The media always sends mixed messages because it always tries to win no matter what happens. Yet it intrudes by creating shadows behind news and events.

Oh, and when can we begin to eliminate the post-game show and comments? Sports people ask the same dumb questions each year. How is winning this title different from the last? Isn't that a dumb question? What were you thinking when you made that last shot? Yep, that's dumb too. Right? Networks should just go silent after a championship game and keep the mikes opens. What might we hear? "Yeah, we kicked those MF..." Well, nothing like true color, right?
Where is Duane Thomas when we need him?

Ichiro Watch:
2 more hits last night
Average at .360

DID YOU KNOW TODAY WAS THE 4TH ANNUAL MILLER

CLASSIC AT BENNINGTON?

The softball game between poets and fiction writers. Literary All-Stars. I have to check the score and see who won.

LOVE BILL:

• Why Have We Stopped Talking About Guns?

  by: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship.
  

Today I completed the reading of Tye's SATCHEL. It gave me some good ideas for my Project 60.
I love this quote by Paige:

Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.

THE OTHER E(rotic) NEWS from my friend Loraine Hutchins:

http://personallifemedia.com/guests/2094-loraine-hutchins

POEMS FROM THE NOTEBOOK

NEWS

Cheese. Crackers.
Lunch in the cottage.

The New York Times is here.
It's Sunday!

- E. Ethelbert Miller

NEW TRENDS?

I was looking at footage of Iranians protesting the election, and suddenly I saw a guy wearing a surgical mask. Is this going to be the new style for protesters? Fighting the old pigs (police) with swine flu masks? What should people wear these days to a revolution or protest? Have we seen the end of the bandanna?

I imagine somewhere, someone is still hiding behind a Richard Nixon mask.

VOTING AND DEMOCRACY:

I don't think any election takes place without someone trying to "influence" the outcome. Stolen ballots, voting equipment that won't work, not enough ballots, voting sites closing with long lines outside, etc. Then there are the results. Sometimes the outcome after the election makes no sense but then it does. Give everyone the right to vote and you open the doors to things that just might not be good for a society. That's why democracy can't just be a game of voting. Democracy is protected by the existence of good strong democratic institutions in a society. A key one being a free press. One concern I have with newspapers folding around the country is the loss of journalism. Good journalism can be a watchdog in a society. What happens when an election is not honest? Who should challenge it? The Courts? Sometimes. When a judicial system is ignored, a nation can quickly become a Pakistan. As we move further into the 21st century our challenge is to prevent an increase in failed states. The world can't afford another Somalia. Often behind a rigged election is chaos. It forces people who are in opposition with the results to make a difficult choice. Protest openly and risk the wrath of the state, or continue to organize and control the other democratic institutions. In Iran, people (of reform) in cities like Tehran will have to do better outreach to Iranians living in rural areas. This is similar to our own Democratic Party having a 50 state strategy. Popular political movements don't necessarily win elections. If one is going to beat a political machine then one has to adopt more than John Henry politics. A vote is just a hammer in a hand. One still needs other tools in order to build a better world.

THINGS TO FOLLOW BEFORE THEY FOLLOW YOU OR YOU DON'T WANT TO FOLLOW THEM (AGAIN).

HOT NEWS:

North Korea
Iran and the struggle for reform


COMING SOON:

Hurricanes
The return of Manny to the Dodgers
Another call for gun control reform
Supreme Court Hearings with a possible Bronx surprise
Tiger Woods back on top again
Will Kobe stay with the Lakers chatter; Will LeBron stay in Cleveland; what about Dwayne Wade?
Is Tom Brady back to win it all again?
A racist comment by Rush, or someone on Fox News
A bad hair day for Michelle Obama
Obama: The first year or One Nation Entering a Groove
Ethelbert's 60th year (Project 60)

Let's monitor the news. Here are stories that have been pushed aside for now:

Pirates off the coast of Somalia
Sudan
Bolivia and Venezuela (Replaced by Peru)
Conflict in Nigeria (In the North not South)
The economic conditions in places like Iceland
Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens
LeBron James
Paris Hilton
Tom Cruise
Jesse Jackson (Sr and Jr)
The Black Caucus and Obama (Cousins or distant relatives?)
Haiti (Poor Haiti, Bill Clinton could only help them for a day)
Recovery efforts in Galveston, Texas
Poetry Readings by poets over the age of 40
Wesley Snipes

Ichiro Watch:
2 hits last night.
Another multiple hit game.
Leading AL with .357 average.

MORE MICHON:

• Eclectique Citizen: The President’s Weekly

  posted by Michon at Eclectique|916 - 20 hours ago

  Health Care Reform Watch I’m hoping to make today’s Health Care Can’t Wait Kick-Off Summit . This is basically a gathering for volunteers to get the latest information about health care reform, the process...
• Eclectique News and the 200th post

  

  posted by Michon at Eclectique|916 - 2 days ago

  Note: This is my 200th post. Just thought I’d share that. HEALTH CARE REFORM ON THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S WATCH See where the Obama administration is going with health care reform; submit your stories...
  

DON'T MISS:

Title: Krapp's Last Power Point

Where: The Bedroom at Fort Fringe (612 L Street NW, Washington DC) near Archives Metro station.

When: July 11 (5 p.m.), July 17 (10:30 p.m.), July 18 (5 p.m.), July 24 (7 p.m.)

Tickets: Tickets cost $15 and can be bought online at CapitalFringe.org or at 1-866-811-4111 after June 22.

Facebook Group

Krapp’s Last Power Point is an almost-one-man performance about technology gone out of control. George Krapp is a scientist giving a presentation on a new drug with miraculous benefits. His presentation is not exactly a slam dunk, however. The drug has controversial side effects, and the government has refused to grant approval for human trials. Krapp himself is reeling from the news that his wife has just left him for his younger colleague. To top it off, his Power Point presentation begins to develop a mind of its own. This volatile combination reaches an unexpected, chilling conclusion.

Like its namesake Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, the play is a darkly comic meditation on mortality. It addresses contemporary ethical dilemmas raised by biotechnology. It’s fast-paced, cerebral, and relentlessly topical – like a genetically modified Tom Stoppard.

And it features a truly top-notch Power Point presentation.

Tricycle's Daily Dharma

Training the Heart

Often we hear the adage, “Follow your heart.” But having practiced and looked at all the things that have arisen in my heart, I’ve seen that while some things were fine and beautiful, many were not so noble. The heart is not only driven by love, kindness, and compassion; it is also driven by desire, greed, and anger. We need to train the heart, not simply follow it.

–Joseph Goldstein, from A Heart Full of Peace (Wisdom Publications)

WHAT'S AN IRAN TO DO?

Look for everything green in this country to suddenly turn red. The government will have to quickly silence the opposition. Fraud? When you can't text message, do you think your vote is safe?
Women will play a key role in shaping the future of this nation.

When will we see Ahmadinejad - the movie?

SPORTS:

- The Atlanta Falcons relinquished their contractual rights to QB Michael Vick.

- The Washington Redskins released WR James Thrash. I don't understand this. Thrash was a real good money player. How many big plays did this guy make over and over for Washington. I can think of a Redskin player who is coming back to play receiver that I would have cut, instead of Thrash. Will this team every get it right? Look for fans to boo QB Campbell by the second game of the season. When do we begin the injury reports? New York, Philadelphia and Dallas should finish ahead of Washington.

The authorities won't be able to stop every "lone wolf" with a gun and a gripe. But we, as a society, can do a much better job of creating an environment where hateful beliefs are never ignored and suspicious behavior never goes unreported.

- Charles M. Blow

Quote of the Day:

Americans kill each other at roughly the rate of 16,000 a year! From racial violence to family violence to gang warfare to street crime to mass murder - the blood never stops flowing.

- Bob Herbert, The New York Times (6/13/09)

Remembering Stephen Johns...

Back in 1889, this woman was dancing in Paris.

NO MORE ANALOG TELEVISION?

WELL, YOU BETTER READ E-NOTES.

This screen won't go blank tonight.

IRAN TODAY, IRAQ TOMORROW...

Let's see what the elections will bring.

WHERE IS THE CHAIR?

One thing I find dumb is the official press conference format where a speaker stands behind a podium, with several people behind him/her. What is this suppose to tell us? Group think?
That everyone has a partner in the room? The men often stand with their hands folded in front of their private parts. What is this about? Is the speaker always the right "head" to talk to? Now and then someone in the line-up will speak, but only to make very brief remarks. I prefer the sports format where a player (after the game) sits behind the table waiting for a sportswriter to ask the tough questions.

Greg Palast | Oil and Indians Don't Mix
http://www.truthout.org/061209A
Greg Palast, GregPalast.com: "There's an easy way to find oil. Go to some remote
and gorgeous natural sanctuary, say Alaska or the Amazon, find some Indians,
then drill down under them. If the indigenous folk complain, well, just shoo
them away. Shooing methods include: bulldozers, bullets, crooked politicians and
fake land sales."

MILLER'S LAW:

The real danger to any society will come from the Right as well as the Left.
Every political belief can be found somewhere behind bars.

THE MEDIA:

Read Paul Krugman's " The Big Hate" in today's New York Times. It's very important article. Here is his last paragraph:

Yes, the worst terrorist attack in our history was perpetrated by a foreign conspiracy. But the second worst, the Oklahoma City bombing, was perpetrated by an all-American lunatic. Politicians and media organizations wind up such people at their, and our, peril.

LIGHT OF THE SUFIS: The Mystical Arts of Islam
On view through September 6th in the Islamic galleries at the Brooklyn Museum (200 Eastern Parkway, at Prospect Park).
www.brooklynmuseum.org

What's in your head - throw it away!
What's in your hand - give it up!
Whatever happens - don't turn away from it.

- Abu Said ibn Abil-Khair, Sufi.

THE PALIN WATCH:

Why are we still watching this woman?
Do we really think she has a future in American politics?

Let's be honest. Would you vote Obama out and Palin in?
This is a Kool-Aid test, not the DavidLetterman Show.

NBA:

Magic folded last night. Howard however is playing better. If this guy has a couple of big point nights in him the series could still go seven. Kobe is struggling a little. I've always felt Fisher was the key to the old Laker wins. Kobe and Shaq got too much of the credit. As soon as Fisher returned to the Lakers from Utah - this team became better. With Kobe one game away from a championship he might just get into a zone. A possible 50 point night would be an exclamation point for the guy who is the best player in the league. Is LeBron speaking to anyone yet? He should talk to the Cleveland front office and have them sign Dwayne Wade. Cleveland will always be Cleveland.
Don't blame it on Chief Wahoo.

Ichiro Watch:
2 hits yesterday.
Double and triple.
Average is at .360.
Can he raise his batting average to .375 by the end of the month?

Oh Say -Our National Mental Health:

One novel I enjoyed reading was Bebe Moore Campbell's YOUR BLUES AIN'T LIKE MINE. I found the sensitive description of her white characters to be very moving. Campbell took one inside the minds of individuals who saw their world changing. One can document the violence that took place after the Supreme Court decision of 1954. One can interpret the actions and responses of various communities as a political and social response to government intervention. But one might also examine the psychological profiles of individuals at that time and determine that the new social order made them crazy.

A black person walks into a store or drinks from a fountain, and a white person's world is suddenly turned upside down. How does one adapt to this sudden change without losing one's balance? Is this a mental health issue? Perhaps. Let's fast forward to 2008-2009. Obama is elected president of the United States. Notice the joy and the tears on so many faces. Many people thought this day would never come. But let's flip the coin over. How many people "feared" this day? The world coming to an end because black people were "taking over." Is this the reason for the rush for guns? Is this the fear of a black planet?

Is it possible for people to become crazy and just lose it? Good people, suddenly becoming angry
and expressing hatred they didn't even know they had. People around the country snapping while a change in racial conditions sweethearts a bad economy. Things falling apart? During the next two -three years, look for the media to present stories that will be shocking and sad. Folks just going crazy. Why? Because 6 is now 9. A person without a sense of gravity, won't know how or where to stand. This could get ugly before the medication arrives.

THE CROSS IS SO HEAVY, HOW DO WE BEAR IT?

How many times does one hear about the need to move beyond matters of race? Even black people don't want to talk about race these days. Too much slavery in one's tea? So what if we used the "ruler" of black measurement for other cultures? Could Jews move beyond Arabs? Arabs beyond Jews? Here are excerpts from 2 letters that were sent to the editors at the New York Times:

1.One cannot forget that nearly half the population of Israel is made up of refugees from Arab countries and their descendants.

2.However Jews were not the only victims. Vibrant Christian communities, including Armenians and Greeks, also suffered from discrimination in Arab countries, leading many to flee.

Don't you think it's time to move forward? What's holding us back? It's so difficult moving forward. How did Jesus do it? Simon step forward...

Small news:
The next president of the United Nations General Assembly is going to be Ali Abdessalam Treki of Libya. It's a one year term.

So, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is visting Italy. Whew, that's a PR wonder. Italy ruled Libya from 1911 to 1943. Qaddafi arrives flanked by his trademark cadre of female bodyguards. The Italian News media referred to them as "Amazons." No mention of their virgin status? Where are the bloggers?

Quote of the Day:

Simply giving everyone a place at the table is just not affordable in an era of shrinking resources.

- The New York Times, June 11, 2009

Tricycle's Daily Dharma

Be Who You Want to Be

Happiness is possible when you are capable of doing the things and being the things you want to do and to be. When we walk for the sake of walking, when we sit for the sake of sitting, when we drink for the sake of drinking tea, we don’t do it for something or someone else. Awakening means to see that truth—that you want to know how to enjoy, how to live deeply, in a very simple way. You don’t want to waste your time anymore. Cherish the time that you are given.

–Thich Nhat Hanh, from Answers from the Heart (Parallax Press)

OBIT: Robert Colescott, 83. Artist

No American painter of the late 20th century made such telling use of painting's European past to lambaste the painful contradictions of the American present.

- New York Times

Colescott toyed with with racial and sexual stereotypes, pushing images to their limits.

Ichiro Watch:
1 hit yesterday.
He has reached base in 39 straight games.

THE VIEW FROM EL SALVADOR:

http://www.voiceselsalvador.wordpress.com

CIRCUS ANIMALS:
Some people will carry anger and hatred to their graves. I just learned that the person who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum was in his eighties. This is just terrible and sad. I recall pictures of old segregationists during the Civil Rights Movement, people defiant until death. No change. No compromise. Stubborn and racist. How many people walk around hating Jews and wishing to do harm? How many people want to kill Arabs? Latinos? Asians? Gays? I look around and all I see are young people beginning to hate and old people who can't stop. How do we get off this merry-go-round?

I started working on an essay about intimacy. An outgrowth of some exchanges with Charles Johnson the last two days. Below are some of my random thoughts:


Intimacy. When was the last time a woman discovered the unpaved path of the center of my back?
The closeness of bodies and thoughts. To know that someone is thinking about you while staring at something beautiful in nature: sky, rainbow, trees, the calmness after a storm. Intimacy, the smell of a lover's neck before falling asleep. The tracing of skin. The sunset after making love. Being connected to someone after disconnecting. Intimacy, the silence that comes with familiarity. Words whispered and understood before they vanish into ears. The feeling one gets when touching something unknown but finding a memory and name for it. The moment of blessing and being blessed. The seeing of oneself in the mirror of another. The desire to comfort, to embrace and hold close. The remembering of special moments with family and friends. Speaking to the dead as well as listening. Intimacy is the promise that is kept, the spiritual ruler which measures the deepness of love. It's what restores faith after misunderstandings and misconceptions. Intimacy is how well we struggle to live, when our bones hurt or speak in their own language.

- E. Ethelbert Miller

Who is this guy?

Please leave a name next time. Thanks.

FREE EUNA LEE AND LORA LING!

A GUNMAN WALKS INTO THE HOLOCAUST MUSEUM...

Tell me this is just the beginning of a bad joke.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

June 10, 2009 Joshua Ford, Chief Program Officer

(202) 777-3249 joshf@washingtondcjcc.org

WHAT NOW FOR DC VOTING RIGHTS?

A PUBLIC FORUM TO REACT TO THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 7:30 pm

WASHINGTON, DC – The Washington DCJCC’s Department of Dialogues and Public Affairs presents a special Rapid Responsa to discuss the most recent failure of legislation before Congress that would have granted the District of Columbia full voting rights in the House of Representatives, but effectively repeal all gun control laws. DC Council member Michael A. Brown (At-Large, Independent) will be joined by community activists including: Keshini Ladduwahetty, DC for Democracy, Elissa Froman, National Council of Jewish Women and Joe Sternlieb from DC Vote.

The evening is co-sponsored by Jews United For Justice and the Jewish Community Relations Council.

It seemed that the District was closer than it has ever been in its quest to obtain voting representation in Congress. However a late amendment to the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 offered by Senator John Ensign (R-NV) called the Second Amendment Enforcement Act sought to strip the District government from enacting “laws or regulations that discourage or eliminate the private ownership or use of firearms.” When the amendment passed, a divide was created among those campaigning for DC voting rights, with some believing that an accommodation could be reached with pro-gun Democrats, and others insisting that a vote in Congress could not come at the expense of public safety or the broader democratic rights of District residents. As a result, on June 9, Senate Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced that the legislation would not move forward, saying, “There is not a consensus among the leadership of the District of Columbia on this issue as I understand it. And as a result of there not being consensus, I don't think we're going to be able to move the bill at this point in time.”

Is there a way around this apparent political reality? How do we get to consensus and would it really result in a better deal? Indeed, what now for DC Voting Rights? Congressional leaders are blaming local leaders, local leaders are blaming the NRA. As the continuing struggle enters a new phase, join us and our panel to deconstruct what went wrong this time, what needs to be done in the future, and how best to achieve voting rights for DC in the current political climate.

The evening will engage in a discussion with leaders and activists currently struggling with these issues, and seek comment from DC residents in a free discussion at the Washington DCJCC (1529 16^th Street NW).

Rapid Responsa is a new program of the 16th Street J. It seeks to periodically provide a forum, as public events warrant, to shape a quick, civil discussion on ideas that have immediate cultural relevance and about which average citizens ought to be able to speak with one another. Responsa have a long history in Judaism, and concern themselves not only with religious matters, but increasingly with contemporary issues, beginning as early as the 14th Century. What we are embracing with this title is not the stamp of authority that a responsa from a learned rabbi brings with it; rather we are embracing the dialectical approach which characterizes a great many of them. In these cases there is a willingness to discuss thesis and antithesis, a participatory Socratic method and, while we expect we will raise more questions than we answer, our hope is that something can be learned. Prior Rapid Responsas have focused on “Barack Obama’s Philadelphia Speech on Race,” “From Meyer Lansky to Bernie Madoff: Talking About Jewish Criminals” and “Women on Top: Clinton, Palin and Women in Politics.”

ABOUT THE WASHINGTON DCJCC

The Washington DCJCC works to preserve and strengthen Jewish identity, heritage, tradition and values through a wide variety of social, cultural, recreational and educational programs and services. The 16th Street J is committed to welcoming everyone in the community; membership and all activities are open to all. The Washington DCJCC is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and a designated agency of the United Way.

TICKETS/INFO

What: Panel Discussion and Dialogue on DC Voting Rights

When: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm

Who: Invited panelists includeDC Council Member Michael A. Brown (At-Large, Independent), Keshini Ladduwahetty, DC for Democracy, Elissa Froman, National Council of Jewish Women and a Joe Sternlieb, DC Vote

Where: Washington DCJCC, 1529 16^th Street NW
Washington, DC 20036

Tickets: Free, but RSVPs are encouraged since space is limited. Available at washingtondcjcc.org/dialogues

To reserve: Tickets are available at washingtondcjcc.org/dialogues

Information: (202) 777-3249; joshf@washingtondcjcc.org

POEMS FROM THE NOTEBOOK:

PILGRIMS

More rain. Cold.
Commercial Street a combination
of hoods and sweaters. Bike riders
wear shorts. Where are they from?

- E. Ethelbert Miller

THE SHYREE NOTES:

I gave a memoir workshop at Busboys and Poets (5th & K, NW) last month. Here are notes Shyree Mezick took. Maybe they might be of interest to you. If you want additional information about memoir writing, I can be contacted at: emiller698@aol.com. Photo to the left was taken by Shyree.

E. Ethelbert Miller conducted a great workshop as part of Holly Bass's (DCCAH grantee) "Lyrical City" series this past Sunday, May 3, 2009. The workshop was quite diverse. With just over 14 people in attendance, I think that every category" in the diversity survey was accounted for. Though I love Busboys and Poets, I do not know that it is the best place to conduct a writing workshop, particularly one lasting 2 and a half hours. The best part was going over a few exercises suggested by Ethelbert.

**Word on the street is that Reuben Jackson will be teaching the next workshop :) Woop Woop.
Holly has set up a great writing series with some very notable writers.


Notes from the Class:

One activity involved recounting where we were and who we talked to for two events:

1. 911
2. Obama won the Election


It was intriguing to hear all of these stories being told. It kind of reminded me of this movie, Vantage Point. I feel like it would be a great anthology to put together over 100 short stories of where people were and who they first spoke to after finding out Obama won.


Here are a few tips and titles Ethelbert shared:

Tips ( Not word for word... just my notes)

1. Using photographs
looking for what is not in the photo
2. Diary
These can often provide the first step

3. Letters:
Convey a lot
Think about who you get letters from

4. Newspapers:
Contextualizing the time you are writing and putting it into a broader perspective

5. Talk with friends and relatives

6. Begin to know where you are in the family
This perspective will bleed into your writing

7. Go back to places where you lived
This is something you see in Ethelbert's memoir, Fifth Inning

8. Food

9. Secrets revealed by neighbors

10. House
The sounds of your house

11. Physical Objects


More Tips:

1. What have you been a witness to?
2. What can a person learn from you?
3. What do you wish to forget?
4. What secrets are you ready to reveal?
5. What you are prepared to leave out
6. What events do you intend to interpret?
7. Remember you are
Instructing
Entertaining
Documenting

Proverb:
Tell me a fact and I will learn something
Tell me the truth and I may believe it
Tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever


Book Titles:

Writing the Memoir
by Judith Barrington

Living to tell the Tale
Jane Taylor McDonnell

Inventing the Truth
William Zinsser


Hand outs:

In the Heart of the Forest, Someone Remembers
Marjorie Agosin

Memoir? Fiction? Where's the Line?
Mimi Schwartz

Publishers' Solution to slow Sales: My Story (And His, Too)
Robert J. Hughes ( Wall Street Journal - 4.14.06)


City as Memory: Lyrical City Writing Workshop #1
Whether we were born in Washington, DC or migrated here, the city functions as a living repository, holding memories of people, places and events in our lives. What happens to our memories as the city evolves and changes, as landmarks disappear and new sparkling edifices take their place? How do we write about the places and people that have shaped us? What have you been a witness to? How do we look into the mirror at ourselves?


About Lyrical City
Lyrical City is a six-part writing workshop series facilitated by outstanding writers with a strong DC connection. The workshops focus on the African-American poetry tradition in DC and various cultural aspects of the city. The workshops are open to all. Participation is limited to 12 people. The cost of each workshop is $25. Some partial scholarships are available.

TELL THE BELOVED CITY, BEFORE IT CRIES:

Humanities Council of Washington, DC, Conversations on Great Streets with the 4 Living Mayor’s of Washington

WEDNESDAY, June 24th from 6-8:00pm - FREE

Historical Society of Washington, DC

The Humanities Council of Washington, DC presents a discussion on the transformation of Washington, DC over the past 30 years. Invited panelists include all living Mayors of Washington: Marion Barry, Adrian Fenty, Sharon Pratt and Anthony Williams.

Please RSVP at www.wdchumanities.org or call 202.387.8391.

LIT NEWS FROM KIM ROBERTS:

Thursday. June 11 at 6:30 pm

Brookland Reading Series: "Dog Days: A Reading Celebrating Our Lives with Dogs." Featured readers (reading their own poems and those by others on the subject) are: Michael Gushue, Kim Roberts, Sue Scheid, and Dan Vera

Free. Washington Animal Rescue League, 71 Ogelthorpe Street NW, DC. (202) 726-2556.

>>>

Sunday, June 14 at 2:00 and 5:00 pm

Jane Franklin Dance Company presents "Travel Tales," modern dance collaborations with poet Kim Roberts, photographer Ray Gniewek, musician Peter Fraize, and media artists Becky Heaver and Gail Scott White. "Travel Tales is a concert recalling dances from Jane Franklin Dance Company's past 12 years. Travel Tales is a journey through dance, media and text created in partnership with some of the area's most significant artists."

$28 Admission, with lower rates for students, seniors, youth. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, 641 D St. NW, Gallery Place neighborhood, DC. (703) 933-1111.

>>>

Saturday, June 20 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm

The American Poetry Museum will host an opening for its newest exhibition "The Washington Caravan," curated by Mig Dooley and Abdul Ali. The exhibition will feature photography and poetry to document over twenty diverse living poets who live in the DC area or whose work has both been influenced by the Capitol City. Participating poets include: Kim Roberts, E. Ethelbert Miller, Brandon Johnson, Belle Waring, Joel Diaz-Porter, Carolyn Joyner, Derrick Brown, Fred Joiner, Katy Richey, and Brian Gilmore.

Free. American Poetry Museum's Anacostia Gallery, 1922 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE, DC. (202) 249-0253.

Tricycle's Daily Dharma

The Metamorphosis of Wisdom

Wisdom is that which makes a vessel into a teacup when it is filled with tea, a sauce dish when it is filled with sauce, a rice bowl when it is filled with rice, and a medicine pot when it is filled with medicine. There is no set method in the functioning of this wisdom. It is simply that which knows how to utilize things according to the case at hand.

–Kusan Sunim, from The Way of Korean Zen (Weatherhill), trans. by Martine Batchelor.

Ichiro Watch:
2 hits last night.
Average at .359.
He is leading the AL. My early prediction had him reaching this position by the end of June.
What I'm monitoring are the number of multiple hit games this year. Doing this for an entire season can prevent a serious slump. It's the only possible way I see someone having a chance to hit .400. Is it possible for Ichiro to be hitting around .385 in late August? I can't wait to see.

DO YOU REMEMBER THOSE DAYS OF SLAVERY?

From page 16, New York Times (6/9/09):

ROY BOE, 79, OWNED 2 TEAMS BUT SOLD DR. J.

SOMEONE KEEPS PISSING IN THE BROOKS. IS IT YOU DAVID?

I try to avoid eye contact with David Brooks when his OP-EDs appear in The New York Times.
It's amazing the clout some folks have. Folks will read Brooks and then quote him. Yipes! Brooks is always talking about people being smart or intelligent, like it comes as a surprise. Does this guy have any close black friends? Remember when we could litmus test a person with this question?
Anyway, why can't we have radical judicial activists? What's wrong with racialist thinking if you're trying to restore balance in a racist world? Brooks is a levee trying to hold back change. He's on the wrong side of history and his newspaper might fold in two years. This guy can't swim upstream in today's world, so he writes and tries to define things according to what's best for down streamers. What year is this David? Is your star fading? As the courts change, the laws will change. There is nothing wrong with identity politics. Race and Gender is a good thing, not a bad thing. Unless of course you're a pale male, swimming in the wrong brook. Watch out for the fish of the day.

OBIT: Kenny Rankin. Dead at 69.
I loved this guy's music.

"I sing the songs that touch me in the heart, the songs I would like to sing to someone in front of a roaring fire on a leather couch draped in flowers."

THAT LANGUAGE THING AGAIN?

Read this:

Whatever the case, they do not deserve to be sent to a brutal labor camp, where according to international human rights activists and North Korean defectors, detainees endure beatings, hunger and inhumane workloads. With no access to lawyers or due process, the two journalists did not have anything approaching a fair chance to defend themselves.

- Editorial, The New York Times (6/9/09)


The above is an excerpt from an editorial demanding the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling. But couldn't one use the same language for prisoners detained in US custody since the Iraq war and 9/11?

Two wrongs will make anything look right. Governments do what they want. Journalists like Lee and Ling pay the price in pursuit of truth. As newspapers continue to fold, it's important that we not see the end of journalism. Somewhere in the halls of philosophical Starbucks, one will always be able to make a strong case for journalism and democracy. The two are lovers, and it's a scandal when we try to keep them apart.

POEMS FROM THE NOTEBOOK:

WHERE BREAKFAST COMES FROM

After days of smiles,
breakfast comes with conversation.

"From Belarus," she says.

She leans against my table,
body explaining geography.

- E. Ethelbert Miller

IF NUMBERS COULD ONLY COUNT OUT LOUD

Why are war numbers always different? Last month there was a deadly incident in Afghanistan.
People were killed. Our Pentagon released a statement saying 20 to 30 deaths. The Afghan government said the number was 140. Who is doing the math here? Can't we just count the coffins? Oh, and what about the wounded? Are they being left out of the war equation?

I visited one of the African American websites the other day. I was doing race work. It was a recovery project. So, what did I find? Here is a question people were being asked:

Do you think that Michael Jackson's children look like they are biologically his?

If this was North Korea I would have to ban the African American use of the internet. Why are we using our technology for this type of nonsense? What about Jackson's right to privacy? We must all be trapped in the remake of The Wiz. We are all missing something.

I spent yesterday working on my poetry manuscript, revising the old work. Polishing. Making them better than new? Some of the poems included in the E-Notes might find a room in the book.
Right now I'm working on "A(N)other Poem of Wonder and Desire."

COUNT VICTORIES BUT CONTINUE TO STRUGGLE: for Ken Saro Wiwa and others.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/nigeria-usa

Charles Johnson sent me this information about a new book:

FINDING THE OX

The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature

Edited by John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff

SUNY Press, 2009

272 pages, $80 (hardcover)

Dharma is everywhere; sometimes it takes an adroit finger to point it out for us. This is an art, which is one of many possible translations of the Sanskrit term for the Buddhist approach to teaching, upaya (skillful means). Think of the ox-herding sequence from 12^th-century China. It’s equally a cultural masterpiece and a timeless tool for teaching Dharma. Comes now in our midst a ground-breaking anthology of critical writings making vital new connections between Buddha and our own culture, within the framework and vehicle of American literature, to bring the ox back home.

Who is a Buddhist writer? What paradoxes and stereotypes must be understood and gone beyond? Where might Dharma pertain to American literature and how might American literature lead to Dharma? The dozen or so contributors to The Emergence of Buddhist American Literature address such matters as these, which naturally resonate within readers and students of the Way, as well as academicians.

Editors John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff have carved out a sumptuous and very canny selection of well-crafted materials here. Like giant flagstones, three broad themes guide their arrangement. First, there’s the recognition that there’s no adoption of Buddhism by any culture without adaptation. Buddhism isn’t some free-ranging abstraction floating around in the ether. And culture is where you find it. Do you hold your teacup in one hand, or two? Do you read poetry aloud? Practice Pilates, or yoga? Prefer recorded music, or live?

Second, the exchange is mutual. Put into practice, Dharma not only adapts to but is also inflected by culture. Just as American literature has been enriched by our encounter with Buddhism, so too has such literature facilitated how Americans have perceived and received Buddhism. Indeed, instrumental was groundswell of reaction against an outdated status quo, mid-century, reflected notably in the literature of JD Salinger and the Beats, and the more diffuse but no less potent movement of the avant garde, at the cusp of high and post- modernism. The editors argue that through the writings of such a counterculture were ideas taught by DT Suzuki and Alan Watts to then reach an even greater audience indeed, one as vast as America, encompassing at least 300 major cities, alone.

And, third, the scope of the American experience is by definition essentially diverse. Thus American Buddhism and Buddhist American literature aren’t restricted to white citizens. Generously, the editors widen their circle of discourse beyond their own prerogatives (as pale males), to offer us a sense of the whole picture. Awakened wisdom as to the provisional nature of experience and identity is equally applicable to questions of the immigrant experience and racial identity, as well. So, just as literature can inspire or embody inner practice, so too can it look outwards to the individual’s mindful engagement in the world.

These three themes, quickly summed up here, naturally aren’t isolated and water-tight. Yumen He, for instance, touches on them all as she looks deeply at Gary Snyder’s translation of a then relatively obscure T’ang dynasty poet Han Shan (Cold Mountain) in the late 1950s. She makes a case for how his selection and rendering of poems provided a mirror that gave Americans their own reflections, rather different from how Chinese perceive him. Such line of investigation might be more familiar to a contemporary student of liberal arts than the average Dharma practitioner who might never have read Edward Said, say. But it is certainly pertinent beyond the walls of academe. In such an examination, we’re shown critical tools that we may consider employing if our own practice is liable to getting trapped in the mirror of orientalism exoticizing an Other to establish a flattering position for ourselves.

Indeed, Emergence is admirably rich throughout in such unflinching, provocative relevancies. (Snyder is elsewhere given due honors, in Tom Lavazzi’s appreciation of the iconoclastic but vital intertwining of poet’s deep reading of ecology and anthropology in tandem with Eastern sources.)

Carefully thought-through, Emergence doesn’t favor any one kind of approach. Some contributions are sharply focused topics, such as Jane Falk’s study of Zen in the poetry of Philip Whalen; Jane Augustine’s of Vajarayana in the poetry of Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman; and Marcus Boon’s tackling the transgressive poetry of John Giorno. Hanh Nguyen and RC Lutz collaborate to unlock the multiple dimensions of karma layered in Lan Cao’s under-recognized novel Monkey Bridge.

Other pieces are free-form, such as Michael Heller’s survey of Vajrayana but also phenomenology and the Objectivist poets as mutual influences on his own poetry, all of a piece. He maintains our awakening to the intrinsic clear light of the ground of our being can occur through poetry or meditation equally and without need of credentials, bearing its own silent seal of luminous authority.

Maxine Hong Kingston and Charles Johnson also speak experientially about their own work, from first-person vantage. Besides her presence in her pithy foreword (Zen without words), she’s revealed in an interview with editor Whalen-Bridge. She speaks there for the first time publicly about her Buddhist influences. The importance of this topic for future students may be directly proportionate to the importance of her body of work. Elsewhere, Prof. Whalen-Bridge has hailed her first book, The Woman Warrior (1976) as one of the four or five most influential books in postwar American writing. In a creative, genre-bending form, it achieves three kinds of liberation at once: women's liberation, Asian-American imaginative empowerment, and the insistence that personal utterance has a rightful place in the open world. This reviewer would add how her two latest works remain largely under-appreciated: The Fifth Book of Peace, (which took her 15 years to write), and her subsequent anthology Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace. But then war writing has been part of our literature since time immemorial while peace writing seems a relatively new phenomenon.

The editors are no less laudatory about Charles Johnson, praising him as the leading spokesperson for Buddhism and literature in America today. In support of this, Gary Storhoff offers good, close readings of the many resonances of meditation in Johnson’s Dr. King’s Refrigerator and Other Stories. In the title story, for instance, Johnson imagines King, in 1954, raiding the icebox for a midnight snack before working on what would become one of his most famous sermons. And, lo!, he discovers the whole universe inside his refrigerator. Storhoff uncovers the more serious subtexts beneath this humorously treated revelation, and its deeply profound implications. Johnson’s own 14-page afterword, also well worth the read, testifies to the ample range and plainspoken depth of his insight, and his graceful, freely associative, nuanced, but incisive style.

The authors of these critical texts may keep office hours in the halls of English Departments, but the scope of an English major has quite changed since I was a lad. It now spans a Swiss Army knife of multiple disciplines: cultural studies, critical theory, comparative literature, literary translation studies, post colonialism, etc. So be prepared for challenging yet rewarding reading, expanding the horizons of the Humanities (what it means to be human) as well as American Buddhism. In opening our eyes and minds and hearts to the possibilities of Buddhism in American literature, they also implicitly empower the literary critic’s inherent role as part of the Dharma too as well as of literature.

My own saying this is to acknowledge what our best critics always do, in any field, including our own lives. They assist us in renewing and sharpening our vision, that we may learn to finely discern for ourselves.

In the pages of Emergence are but a handful of leaves from a vast continent, itself but a node within the living, blue orb we call gaia, earth, home. Clearly, we can see here’s an idea whose time has come. As further cause for celebration, this title inaugurates the launch of a new series from SUNY Press, on Buddhism and American culture. Judging from this initial entry, we can look forward to further illumination along the trail. And if you happen to see a big blue ox named Babe, you might ask him if Paul Bunyan has considered trying Manjushri’s nondualist sword of awakened wisdom, in place of his axe.

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THERE IS ONLY ONE QUESTION WE SHOULD BE THINKING ABOUT RIGHT NOW.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS?


Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It's almost 2019, do you have an answer?