February 15th, 2010

Quick Links Blog This Rock Split This Rock on Facebook YouTube! Give to Split This Rock Buy featured poets' books at Teaching for Change Sponsoring Organizations DC Poets Against the War The Institute for Policy Studies Busboys and Poets

Dear Friends, If you live in the Washington, DC, area or read The Washington Post, please write a letter to the editor urging more reviews of poetry. We hope to swamp the Post with hundreds of letters demonstrating the wide audience for poetry among its readership. Use our Sample Letter to the Post, or write your own. If you live outside the area, write a similar letter to the book review section of your local newspaper (even better, launch a local campaign!). Together, we can make this a national campaign to increase coverage of poetry books in book reviews of major newspapers and begin to restore poetry's place as a major genre of literature in this country. For inspiration and more details on our early progress, read our flyer and check out some of Split This Rock's favorite sites for book reviews!   Please let us know what response you receive. We'll post more links and updates on the campaign soon. Read on for more details, and contact Yvette Neisser-Moreno for more information. In peace & poetry, Split This Rock SPLIT THIS ROCK LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN: MORE POETRY IN BOOK REVIEW SECTIONS OF MAJOR NEWSPAPERS!!    In January 2011-in response to a special year-end "Best Books of 2010" issue that included an appallingly small number of poetry books-Split This Rock decided it was time to let the editors of The Washington Post's Book World know that we expect them to publish more reviews of poetry books. Following is an excerpt from the letter we sent on January 14th: To the Editors: We take issue with the gross lack of poetry books included in the Book World's "Best Books of 2010" list (Dec. 12, 2010). The section (misleadingly) titled "Fiction & Poetry" included 46 fiction titles and only 2 poetry titles. The insinuation that only 2 poetry books in 2010 were worth recommending-and that poetry is some kind of inferior sub-genre of fiction-is appalling, inaccurate, and completely inappropriate for a major literary publication like the Book World. . . . These statistics reflect the dearth of poetry book reviews in the Book World throughout the year, in striking contrast to the vibrancy and diversity of contemporary poetry. . . .We believe that the Book World should be publishing at least one poetry book review each week. This letter was co-signed by several well-known local poets, university professors, leaders of literary organizations, and editors of local presses and literary magazines, including Grace Cavalieri, Kyle Dargan, Carolyn Forché, and E. Ethelbert Miller. We received the following encouraging reply from Book World Editor Rachel Shea: Thank you for your letter. We did have a debate about whether to call the section "Fiction" or "Fiction & Poetry." We decided on the latter to signal that poetry books were included. In an ideal world, there would have been more, but our coverage of poetry has been limited since Book World stopped being published as a separate section in 2009. We will continue to do as much as we can, with occasional reviews (for instance, Michael Dirda will be reviewing a biography of Andrew Marvell this Thursday) and roundups of collections. In the meantime, may I forward your letter to the letters page? I think it is fodder for discussion among our readership. We have followed up to urge the Book World to commit to publishing at least one full-length poetry review per week, and to devote its limited poetry space to contemporary poets. Please add your voice to the campaign by writing a letter today! Support Split This Rock  Please support Split This Rock, the national network of activist poets. Donations are fully tax-deductible. Click here to donate. Or send a check payable to "Split This Rock" to: Split This Rock, c/o Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036. Many thanks! Contact info@splitthisrock.org for more details or to become a sponsor. Split This Rock Poetry Festival www.SplitThisRock.org 202-787-5210info@splitthisrock.org

EYES ON THE PRIZE:

Dear Writer:

Greetings from Nimrod International Journal. I’m writing to tell you about the 33rd annual Nimrod Literary Awards: The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction.  The Awards offer first prizes of $2,000 and publication and second prizes of $1,000 and publication, along with a trip to Tulsa to receive the Awards and take part in our annual writing conference. The postmark deadline for this year’s Awards is April 30th, 2011.

The Awards are among the most distinguished literary prizes in the country. Past judges include Stanley Kunitz, Marvin Bell, Mark Doty, Olga Broumas, W. S. Merwin, Denise Levertov, William Stafford, Ron Carlson, Edward Hirsch, and John Edgar Wideman. Past winners include Sue Monk Kidd, Diane Glancy, Daniel Lusk, Felicia Ward, Ruth Schwartz, and Gina Ochsner.

One of the oldest “little magazines” in the country, Nimrod has continually published new and extraordinary writers since 1956.  We are dedicated to the discovery of new voices in literature, and the Nimrod Literary Awards are a special way to reward talented new poets and fiction writers.

I have included the Awards rules in this e-mail.  Please contact us if you have any questions, or visit our website—www.utulsa.edu/nimrod—to learn more about Nimrod.  Also, feel free to share this information with any writing friends or groups.  I hope to see your submission soon!

Best,

Eilis O’Neal
Managing Editor
Nimrod International Journal


The 33rd Nimrod Literary Awards
The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction &
The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry

Founded by Ruth G. Hardman

FIRST PLACE: $2,000 and publication
SECOND PLACE: $1,000 and publication

Contest Rules
Contest Begins: January 1, 2011

Postmark Deadline: April 30, 2011

Poetry: 3-10 pages of poetry (one long poem or several short poems).

Fiction: 7,500 words maximum.

No previously published works or works accepted for publication elsewhere.  Author's name must not appear on the manuscript. Include a cover sheet containing major title and subtitles, author's name, full address, phone & email. "Contest Entry" should be clearly indicated on both the outer envelope and the cover sheet. Manuscripts should be stapled, if possible; if not, please bind with a heavy clip. Manuscripts will not be returned.  Nimrod retains the right to publish any submission.  Include SASE for results only.  If no SASE is sent, no contest results will be sent; however, the results will be posted on Nimrod’s Web site. Submitters must be living in the US by October of 2011 to enter the contest.  Winners will also be brought to Tulsa for the Awards Ceremony in October. All finalists will be considered for publication.

Entry/Subscription Fee: $20 includes both entry fee & a one-year subscription (two issues).  Each entry must each be accompanied by a $20 fee.  Make checks payable to Nimrod.

Send to:

Nimrod Journal
Literary Contest--Fiction or Poetry
The University of Tulsa
800 S. Tucker Dr.
Tulsa, OK 74104  

 

Small News:

Tourism makes up 11 percent of Egypt's national economy.
How will this nation begin to move forward and invite people back for tours?
What's a black nationalist to do?

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Breaking News Alert: Obama says governments in the Middle East must recognize 'hunger for freedom'
February 15, 2011 11:58:25 AM
----------------------------------------

In the wake of the uprising that toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, President Obama on Tuesday sharply criticized Iran for using force against protesters and said that governments in the region "can't maintain power through coercion" and must recognize their populations' "hunger for freedoms."

"The world is changing," Obama said at White House news conference, in a message directed at autocratic rulers across the region. "You have a young, vibrant generation within the Middle East that is looking for greater opportunity. ... You've got to get out ahead of change; you can't be behind the curve."

ADVOCACY ALERT: SUPPORT THE NEA NOW!

Please call or write to your Representative in the House now and ask your Representative to support the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

Ask your Representative to vote against:
1) any amendment to eliminate the agency
2) any amendment to cut the agency's budget further.

Ask your Representative to vote in favor of:any amendment that increases the agency's budget in the Continuing Resolution now before Congress.

You may find you Representative's contact information at this website:
Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives

And you may find updates on public funding for the arts here:
Advocate for the Arts


For over three decades now, the NEA has been AWP's most important funder. Our association probably would not exist were in not for the NEA's regular support since 1973. The NEA has helped to establish dozens of literary magazines and presses. The NEA's literary fellowships have helped hundreds of writers complete new books for the benefit of the reading public.

Please protect this important facilitator of our nation's literary culture and urge your Representative to support the NEA. Now is the time to act.

The fate of the NEA is tied to a Continuing Resolution. Congress passes Continuing Resolutions (CRs) when it lacks the political will to pass timely new budgets. Stopgap measures, CRs, often just carry over last year's funding levels into the new fiscal year, so that federal agencies may continue their operations. Last year, Congress passed a CR to keep government funded until March 4, 2011. Last year's funding levels continued into the new year.  Congress in now working on a new CR to enable the government to function beyond March 4. Last week, the a draft of a new CR reduced the NEA's funding level to $155 million, down from $167.5 in last year's budget.

This week, the House has reduced that amount to $145 million.

175 members of the Republican Study Committee have targeted the NEA for elimination, and we expect some of them to offer amendments to eliminate the agency from the budget all together.

Please contact you Representative now. We need creativity and innovation to ensure our nation's well-being, and the arts help to cultivate that creativity.

Thank you.

IT'S A BOOK AND BLOG WORLD:

http://www.guidetoonlineschools.com/library/best-book-review-blogs

SEE E-CHANNEL TODAY. 

CHARLES JOHNSON TALKS ABOUT HIS WRITING SPACE. 

http://ethelbert-miller.blogspot.com/

IS THAT FLAT ANDY RUNNING WITH THAT FAST CROWD?

http://www.ips-dc.org/blog/the_high_road_to_profitability_in_the_restaurant_industry

MORE ABOUT THE ADVENTURES OF FLAT ANDY AND FLAT LANGSTON:
http://www.tbd.com/articles/2011/02/how-much-does-busboys-poets-owe-local-poets--52613.html

COME EGYPT WITH ME:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/02/2011214141138320651.html

MUST READING:
 
Bill Moyers: "Facts Still Matter ..."
Bill Moyers, Truthout: "While 'most of us like to believe that our opinions have been formed over time by careful, rational consideration of facts and ideas and that the decisions based on those opinions, therefore, have the ring of soundness and intelligence,' the research found that actually 'we often base our opinions on our beliefs ... and rather than facts driving beliefs, our beliefs can dictate the facts we chose to accept. They can cause us to twist facts so they fit better with our preconceived notions.' These studies help to explain why America seems more and more unable to deal with reality. So many people inhabit a closed belief system on whose door they have hung the 'Do Not Disturb' sign, that they pick and choose only those facts that will serve as building blocks for walling them off from uncomfortable truths."
Read the Article

Hill Briefing: How Would You Spend $1 Trillion?

February 16, 2011, 12:00 pm–1:00 pm
Capitol Visitors Center, Room SVC 210
First & East Capitol Streets, NE
Washington, DC

At this congressional briefing and screening view two four-minute compelling videos that chronicle how the filmmakers – and the people they interview – would spend the more than $1 trillion already spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The filmmakers will engage in a discussion.

The presentations will also take place from 4 pm to 5 pm in Rayburn House Office Building, Independence Ave & South Capitol Street, Room 2255 and from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm for the event Youth Voices on the Economic Cost of War at Busboys & Poets, 2021 14th Street, NW.

The young filmmakers represent:

• The Sadie Nash Leadership Project (SNLP) in Brooklyn, New York--a program designed to help young women develop leadership skills through a combination of coursework, mentoring, community organizing and activism.
• AmplifyMedia in Boston, Massachusetts, an organization that provides opportunities for students to work towards positive change and foster civic engagement through music, media, and video.

Join the first-prize winners as they share their dreams for their communities and the many challenges they face in today's tough economic times. For more information email Jo Comerford at jo@nationalpriorities.org, Erin Polley at epolley@afsc.org or contact the AFSC office at 202-544-0324.

co-sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, National Priorities Project, and the Institute for Policy Studies' Foreign Policy In Focus project.

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Film: Wal-Mart; The High Cost of Low Price

February 18, 2011, 6:30 pm–9:00 pm
Plymouth Congregational Church
5301 North Capitol Street, NE
Washington, DC

Wal-Mart has plans to establish four stores in DC by 2012. Notorious for threatening small businesses, causing the loss of more jobs, and bringing lower wage standards for all workers to communities, concerned District of Columbia citizens and social justice advocates are coming together to spread the news and resist the potentially disastrous implications for the District.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price features the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to survive in a Wal-Mart world. It's an emotional journey that will challenge the way you think, feel...and shop.

This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided and a discussion about the likely impact Wal-Mart will have on the District of Columbia will follow the screening.

Co-sponsors:  Ward 4 Thrives, Wal-Mart Free DC, Empower DC, DC Jobs With Justice, UFCW Local 400, Sisterspace and Books, Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action, and the Institute for Policy Studies' Cities for Progress project.

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A Talk With Wendy Navarro

February 21, 2011, 7:00 pm–9:00 pm
Busboys & Poets
5th & K Street NW
Washington, DC

Washington Project for the Arts (WPA) and Foreign Policy In Focus are excited to announce a public talk with Wendy Navarro, an independent art critic and curator currently based in Barcelona, Spain. Since the mid 1990s, Navarro has been an active curator at the Visual Art Development Center (CDAV) in Havana, Cuba, while working as an editor of the magazine ArteCubano, and lecturing about Cuban contemporary art at the Higher Institute of Art (ISA) and Havana University.

Navarro visits DC as part of Information Exchange, an informal partnership between WPA and the International Studio and Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, New York. Information Exchange brings international curators in residence at ISCP to DC to present recent and upcoming projects. By bringing international curators to DC, WPA hopes to initiate challenging conversations and provide a forum for the discussion of global perspectives on contemporary art.

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Music, Messages, and the Movement

February 24, 2011, 7:00 pm–8:30 pm
Southeast Neighborhood Library
403 7th Street SE
Washington, DC

Throughout every stage of the struggle for social change music has both fueled and united people and helped galvanize the movement. Marvin Gaye still keeps us asking “What’s going on?” James Brown helped teach people to be “Black and proud” and to "say it loud." Song has been a communal act of expression that sheds light on injustices from slavery, to the Jim Crow segregation of the Civil Rights and Black Power era, to social the inequalities of today, and it has also served as a creative release.

Join the Institute's Social Action & Leadership School for Activists in partnership with the DC Public Library's Southeast Neighborhood Branch as they host Dr. Jared Ball for a seminar exploring the function of music as a fundamental feature of social change and how it’s become affected as part of a larger mass media structure. This multimedia presentation involves an investigation of U.S. music history, the inner-workings of the industry, and its evolution to hip-hop as media and cultural expression with the historical legacy of Black image and the hip-hop underground.

THE NOTE TAKER

It is difficult to determine the exact time

things began to disappear. I have tried.

I have kept a growing list of what is missing:

Phone booths

Mailboxes

Bookstores

In some neighborhoods black people.

I record my observations in notebooks.

The old black and white kind.

The wide ruled. 100 sheets. The type where

inside the cover there is space for a class schedule.

I am learning how to measure words.

A few heavy for tongue and speech.

I have started to sketch.  Pictures letting me

see better, perhaps explain. I draw from

memory. A light going on in the back

of my head. I create with a pencil. Ignoring

all lines and borders.

My lips kiss the tip of the eraser.

A farewell to the old life.

-         E. Ethelbert Miller

2/14/2011

Cave Canem Workshop for Arab American Writers & Poets of Color The May dates have changed for Cave Canem's Spring Workshop, Writing across Cultures: see the new dates below. The deadline, however, remains the same! Submit your applications by Friday, February 18. Spring 2011 New York City Workshop Mondays, 6-9 pm March 21 & 28; April 4, 11 & 25; May16, 23 & 30 Cave Canem, Brooklyn, NY Writing across Cultures led by Nathalie Handal In this 8-session workshop for Arab American writers & poets of color, participants will explore cultural memory and identity through weekly exercises and readings of poets from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Arab world. For details & application guidelines, follow the link below. Spring 2011 NYC Workshop: Writing across Cultures   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 Quote:

Energy drinks are under-studied and overused, and can be dangerous for children and teens, warns a report by doctors who say kids shouldn't use the popular products.

The potential harms, caused mostly by too much caffeine or similar ingredients, include heart palpitations, seizures, strokes and even sudden death, the authors write in Monday's medical journal of Pediatrics.

express ( A publication of the Washington Post), February 14, 2011.

Now for another question:
Who should take care of people in need?
Should it be "the government," or charitable organizations, or "the neighborhood"?
And if these entities decline to accept the obligations you have defined for them, what then?

 - William T. Vollmann  "Homeless in Sacramento" in Harper's Magazine/March 2011

NASHVILLE:

I can back from Nashville with a CD from my friend Thandiwe Shiphrah.
I'm listening right now to - THE BOSCH INSTITUTE -Biting the Peony.
This is Thandiwe's collaboration with composer/musician Daniel Arite.

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Breaking News Alert: Obama to offer $3.7 trillion budget blueprint
February 14, 2011 6:04:49 AM
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President Obama will roll out a $3.7 trillion budget blueprint Monday that would trim or terminate more than 200 federal programs next year and make key investments in education, transportation and research in a bid to boost the nation's economy and reduce record budget deficits.

TWO LOVE POEMS FROM MY FORTHCOMING BOOK, THE EAR IS AN ORGAN MADE FOR LOVE.


NERUDA

   (for Naomi)

Neruda's head is across town
It's in the garden outside
the OAS building.

I need to go there.
No, I need to find what they
did to the rest of Neruda's body.

Where are Neruda's hands?
Legs? Feet? Did someone believe
Neruda's poems came only from his head?

What does one make love with?
Bring me Neruda's poems!
Ask them to confess.




ALONE

The streets are empty
without your arms. 

ON THE E-CHANNEL TODAY:

Charles Johnson talks about writers and editors.

TUNE TO E: 
http://ethelbert-miller.blogspot.com/

THE BIG PICTURE:

Hi Ethelbert,
The photo exhibition, 'STARS OF ETHIOPIA,' thirteen color images of mine representing the diversity of Ethiopian people will be on view at the New York University's Kimmel Center from 01 March to 01 May 2011.

Each image, measuring 70" x 80" will look like bus stop ads fronting onto the public sidewalk for pedestrian and vehicular traffic to see. At night, the images will be backlit, so for 24 hours a day during this two months the Washington Square public will be treated to a little of Ethiopia in Greenwich Village.

There will be an opening reception on Friday, 11 March in the 2nd floor lounge from 6:30 - 8:30pm. RSVP 212.998.4222.

See more info at; http://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2011/02/01/stars-of-ethiopia-outdoor-photography-exhibition-by-chester-higgins-jr-march-1-may-1-.html

All the best,
Chester


www.chesterhiggins.com

Tricycle Daily Dharma
 

The Bodhisattva Vow: Activism 101

Activism is part of Buddhist mind. The Bodhisattva Vow is Activism 101! You work to alleviate the suffering of other human beings, right? Isn’t that the point? Obviously you need to get your own trip together first, and there’s the rub. We have this precious human birth and freedom, and yet with so many of us who are privileged in this way, there seems to be an incapacity to get beyond our minor aches and pains.

—Anne Waldman, “Radical Presence”

News from the Capitol Hill Reading Series.

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This Tuesday! Holly Karapetkova Reading Tuesday, Feb. 15th 2011 @ 7PM at Riverby Books The 2010 WWPH poetry contest winner, Holly Karapetkova, author of Words We Might One Day Say.  Her book explores subjects of love and loss, marriage and domesticity, parenting and motherhood. The pieces range in style and form from prose poems to sonnets, moving through a variety of voices and experiences. Many of the poems are inspired by folklore and myth, and many deal with the interaction between two cultures: the author’s own American culture and her adopted Bulgarian culture. The first poem in the collection, a prose poem entitled “The Woman Who Wanted a Child,” introduces the book's themes by asking questions about the limits of motherhood, taking its cue from the mythological experience of metamorphosis. Holly Karapetkova’s poetry, prose, and translations from the Bulgarian have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Crab Orchard Review, New Madrid, Mid-American Review, River Styx, 150 Contemporary Sonnets, and the International Poetry Anthology(Slovenia). She is the author of over twenty books and graphic stories for children and young adults, including Goodbye Friends! and Knock! Knock! She also serves as artist in residence and literary advisor for the Rhodope International Theatre Laboratory in Smolyan, Bulgaria, where she teaches, writes, and performs poetry for the stage. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati and an M.F.A. from Georgia State University. She is an Assistant Professor of English at Marymount University and lives in Arlington, Virginia. Tuesday, Feb. 15th 2011 @ 7PM at Riverby Books Friend on Facebook Forward to a Friend The Capitol Hill Reading Series ais a program of Poetry Mutual.  A Washington based poetry incubator dedicated to publishing poetry, sponsoring events that build community between poets and audiences. For more information visit our website at www.poetrymutual.org Riverby Books Readings are held each month at Riverby Books on Capitol Hill.  This fine bookshop is at 417 East Capitol Street Southeast, three blocks from the Capitol Hill and two blocks from the Folger Shakespeare Theater. March's Reader Kim Roberts reads from her new book Animal Magnetism, winner of the 2009 Pearl Prize. Tuesday, March 15th 2011 @ 7PM

forward to a friend Copyright © 2011 Poetry Mutual, All rights reserved. Hey there. You wanted information about upcoming events in the Capitol Hill Reading Series held monthly at Riverby Books at 417 East Capitol Hill, Washington, DC. Contact us through our website.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences | view email in browser

Thank God for Bruno Mars...

DEATH IS FILLED WITH MEMORIES:
Please pass this information along...

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sacbee/obituary.aspx?n=samuel-johnson-wallace&pid=148511420

THE EAR IS AN ORGAN MADE FOR LOVE:

Yes, I turned off the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. When did screaming and yelling replace singing?
Yes, it takes 5 women to sing Aretha and fail. Christina Aguilera probably exhausted her voice - which might be the reason she fell down. Geez - this woman sounds like Janis Joplin carrying a ball and chain.
I have nothing to say about Justin Bieber. Where did this kid come from?  Being discovered by Usher is like waiting for Columbus. I was even disappointed with Lady Gaga tonight. For some reason I keep associating too much hair twirling with oral sex. After too many spins someone gets dizzy. Thank God it wasn't me tonight.

BILL AYERS COMES TO WASHINGTON:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teachingforchange/sets/72157625902182139/

THE FLAT LANGSTON BLUES:

Dear Mr. Shallal,

Various characterizations of Busboys and Poets, your own and others', suggest that it is a space created and named in honor of the late Langston Hughes, his work and his legacy within and beyond the District of Columbia. It is true that wonderful things happen in the Langston Room. We have all, at one point or another, been present to witness the wittiness, the bravery, the signifying and the song that characterizes Hughes’ work as it emanates from the stage and the various poets who have graced it over the years.

As poets who have sat in those chairs and booths as well as stood upon that stage, we ask you to consider the ways in which placing a cardboard cutout of Hughes within Busboys and Poets—making of him a character, a mascot, more than a presence—unfortunately does not honor his legacy.

Our objections to this display are varied. Some of us feel it is improper that Hughes be physically reduced to a gimmicky object within a space commemorating part of his experience as a young writer in Washington, D.C. Others hope that if you must have a cutout image of Hughes in the space that it be an image that aspires to communicate Hughes’ greater significance rather than the unsophisticated semantic connection to your business’ name. Even with our mélange of concerns about this matter, we all agree that it is a gesture that does not suit Busboys and Poets’ relationship to Hughes’ legacy and its relationship with the poets, local and national, who continue his work and who patronize Busboys and Poets.

The poet Ethelbert Miller this week asked the following on his blog: “POLITICS AND POETRY? What would Langston do?” Fortunately for us, Hughes’ words are still present. Your staff attempted to answer the question of how he would feel about this moment, and respond to the week’s events, by posting the following quote on the Busboys and Poets twitter feed and attributing it to Hughes: "I am glad I went to work at the Wardman Park Hotel (as a busboy), because there I met Vachel Lindsay." Firstly, the parenthetical in the quote is not Hughes’ language but an addition on the part of whoever manages the Busboys and Poets twitter feed (and should therefore be marked with brackets). Secondly, while this quote does suggest Hughes appreciated the opportunity to slip his poems to the critic Vachel Lindsay, the following excerpt from Hughes’ autobiography The Big Sea makes it fairly clear that he did not appreciate being made a spectacle as a “bus boy poet”:

The widespread publicity resulting from the Vachel Lindsay incident was certainly good for my poetic career, but it was not good for my job, because from then on, very often the head waiter would call me to come and stand before some table whose curious guests wished to see what a Negro bus boy poet looked like. I felt self-conscious and embarrassed, so when pay day came, I quit.

If Busboys and Poets is in the business of honoring Langston Hughes and, of the utmost importance to a poet, his words, we suggest that you seriously consider his own words about his own life as they pertain to this matter.

Some of us saw the physical cutout. Many of us only heard about it or saw pictures before we, as a group, could come to you and ask that it be removed. As a showing of good faith, we have enclosed with this letter a check for $150.00 (the stated price of the cutout in the 02/08/2011 Washington Post column detailing its disappearance) to compensate you for your lost property. We only ask, respectfully, that this image not be replaced. It is not necessary and, for us, serves as more of a deterrence than a welcome.

In the interest of strengthening the relationship between Busboys and Poets and the local, active poetry community, we extend the offer to help initiate and sustain a dialogue between you, your management, your advisors and the poets whose work and organizations fill Busboys and Poets. To date, it has been a fruitful yet unexamined relationship. We want it to continue, but in a manner that fosters open lines of communication and a mutual mindfulness.

Sincerely,

Kyle G. Dargan
Sandra Beasley
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Cornelius Eady
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Brian Gilmore
Michael Gushue

Laura Hartmark
Melanie Henderson
Randall Horton
Reuben Jackson
Fred Joiner
Bettina Judd

Gregory Pardlo
Joseph Ross
Myra Sklarew
Sonya Renee Taylor
Dan Vera

LUCILLE CLIFTON:

June 27, 1936- February 13, 2010.

Birth of the new?

I would like to see a new Egypt, a new Iran, a new Israel,ushering in a new era of peace in the Middle East.How popular is non-violence these days? Will it be followed by the creation of the Beloved community? Remember how the streets of our nation were filled with joy and celebration after the Obama win? Where are we now? Every revolution creates a counter-revolution. The problems of economics soon overshadow the dream of democracy.A hungry belly can turn a wise man into a fool.What can a poor man do without employment? Elections don't create jobs overnight.I think of the new morning in Egypt-please tell me darkness will not follow the dawn.

"...spiritual warriorship. At its most basic, it means working on ourselves, developing courage and fearlessness and cultivating our capacity to love and care about other people. It involves taking good care of ourselves, but whatever we do, it's all in the bigger context of helping."

- Pema Chodron

Baseball:

A new season about to begin. I hope to attend more Washington Nationals games;get some cheap seat tickets.Maybe get to the ballpark on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons. The team was 69-93 last year.

Update on Flat Langston:

Missing from the discussion of the poets has been the issue of surveillance video cameras.Should poets and performance artists demand release forms if caught on tape?

Be sure to read Malcolm Gladwell's article on college rankings -"The Order of Things" in The New Yorker this month.

Last night I did a poetry reading with Nikky Finney at the Global Education Center in Nashville, TN. The program was organized by the wonderful Thandiwe Shiphrah. It was also a tribute to Lucille Clifton.

Today I will conduct a memoir workshop.

Modern Hieroglyphics?
What's next for Egypt?

FLY JEFFERSON AIRPLANE?
----------------------------------------
Breaking News Alert: Egyptian President Mubarak leaves Cairo, state television reports
February 11, 2011 9:38:17 AM
----------------------------------------

Egyptian state television has reported that President Hosni Mubarak and his wife, Suzanne, have left the capital of Cairo. Their destination was unknown.

OUT OF EGYPT:

Could a third dictator be heading to Haiti?
They come in threes don't they?

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Fri, February 11, 2011 -- 8:57 AM ET
-----

Mubarak Leaves Cairo as Military Asserts Control

The Egyptian military appeared to assert its leadership
Friday amid growing indications that President Hosni Mubarak
was yielding all power. A Western diplomat said that Mr.
Mubarak had left the capital.

As protesters were swarming into the streets Friday morning
for what was expected to be the biggest and most volatile
demonstrations in the three-week revolt here, the Supreme
Council of the Egyptian Armed Forces issued a statement over
state television and radio indicating that the military, not
Mr. Mubarak, was in effective control of the country. It was
unclear whether the military would take meaningful steps
toward democracy or begin a military dictatorship.

Western diplomats said that officials of the Egyptian
government were scrambling to assure that a muddled speech
Mr. Mubarak made on Thursday night that enraged protesters
had in fact signaled his irrevocable handover of presidential
authority.

THE WETNESS

I wanted to write a simple poem
about the wetness between a woman's legs

and what kind of holy moment it is
when the man's hand quietly moves south

over the smooth curve of the belly
into the shade of that other hemisphere

and his fingertips find hidden in dark fur
the seam already expectant in its moistness.

 -Tony Hoagland

Excerpt from one of his poems in the current issue of The American Poetry Review. 

HOW BOOKS ARE BORN and folklore too:

I was thinking of writing a children's book - THE ADVENTURES OF FLAT ANDY.

In the book Flat Andy loses his best friend Flat Langston after reading a story about slavery. Flat Andy thinks Flat Langston has been stolen by slave catchers. During his adventures he encounters a secret society of poets (known as the Dark Collective). They are responsible for kidnapping Flat Langston. The poets are holding Flat Langston in a dark room forcing him to sleep so they can find the keys to his dreams. The poets want to sell Flat Langston's dreams about America and make money in order to fix their PoetryShip that crashed outside a place only known to a few as Cave Canem.

 

Another Egypt: Or throwing our lives into the sea like tea.

Take a look at The New York Times editorial this morning - "Beyond Reason on the Budget." Here is my take on matters:

It's just a matter of time before folks here in the U.S. are in the streets. The Republicans are being pushed by new Tea Party members to demand more cuts in government spending. This is going to create more "sufferers." How many more people will lose their jobs this year? How many lives will be destroyed? Look for Obama to compromise and not fight back. Watch the media begin to talk about March 4th as if it's the next Super Bowl. Will the government shut down?  Yes, it might. If we have to make cuts to the budget, let's protect the poor first. Without federal programs and protection there is no ark for millions of Americans. More people will be pushed into poverty. More people will become homeless. The poor can't take no more.

E-CHANNEL UPDATE: Coming Attractions.

The E-Channel will focus on the work of Charles Johnson for the entire year of 2011.
 
It looks like the E-Channel will focus on the work of presidential historian Doug Brinkley in 2012.
It's going to take a summer of research to prepare. Back in 1998, Brinkley wrote the introduction to my book of poems - WHISPERS, SECRETS AND PROMISES published by Black Classic Press.

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Breaking News Alert: Egypt's military council backs Mubarak, Sept. elections
February 11, 2011 5:45:10 AM
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Egypt's military chiefs said Friday that they would back President Hosni Mubarak's decision to remain in office as part of a gradual transfer of power.

The armed forces leadership also said it would guarantee "free and honest" elections, and a lifting of Egypt's 30-year-old state of emergency as soon as calm returned to the streets.

The military's announcement came as determined masses of demonstrators packed central Cairo, with organizers of Egypt's popular rebellion predicting the biggest turnout so far in their 18-day revolt.

DEPARTURE:

One gets that feeling that soon maybe the CIA will wake Mubarak from his sleep. Escort him (in his pajamas) to a plane waiting on a desolate runway. Once in the air he will be given some beverages, a small hot meal, and of choice of countries where he might want to live for the rest of his life.

In a day of cell phones, why are we all waiting for one man to leave the phone booth?