Mark Nowak: A Tale of Two Book Festivals

The following is an excerpt from a blog post by 2010 Featured Poet Mark Nowak. For the full post, click here.

These were precisely the types of events that I imagined for “Poetry,” and for myself as “Poet,” more than a decade ago. Back then, I wanted to push beyond what felt (to me) like overly constricted, delimited spaces and audiences for the reception of Poetry (I’ll stop with the quotes, but they are still there in the shadows behind the word). So I started curating events at UAW Local 879 at the Ford plant in St. Paul, organizing “poetry dialogues” between Ford workers in Minnesota and South Africa (and with AFSCME 3800 clerical workers, Somali nurses, and other unions and workers’ groups). And my collaboration with SEIU 32BJ in Fairfax and my dialogue on “The Cost of Coal” at the Radical Bookfair Pavilion are just two more examples of that trajectory of work. For me, “This is what Poetry looks like,” indeed.

Fall for the Book Writers on Sodexo Workers

Letter to the GMU community

The following excerpt comes from Mark Nowak's blog, Coal Mountain, and concerns the reaction of Fall for the Book writers to the allegations of unsafe work environments by Sodexo workers at George Mason University. For the full article, click here.

Nowak is the author of, “Coal Mountain Elementary” (2009) and a distinguished writer of “labor poetics.” As a former fast food employee and current writer and researcher of labor issues, Nowak also felt the decision to join with Sodexo was an easy one.
“Throughout my entire high school and undergraduate career, I worked between 30 and 40 hours per week at a Wendy’s in Buffalo, N.Y., so I have quite extensive knowledge about working conditions in the industry,” Nowak said when reached by email Saturday afternoon.
“What is happening to the Sodexo workers is so intimately a part of my personal history and my own research and writing that I can’t imagine doing anything but supporting these workers,” Nowak continued.
As part of his involvement in this year’s festival, Nowak is scheduled to give a talk on “Occupational Folklore” and he expects the Sodexo worker’s situation to be part of his discussion.

Bid on a Split This Rock 2010 Autographed Poster!

Click here and bid today to take home an intimate piece of the historic 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival!

We have a 24” x 36” poster designed by the fabulously talented Nancy Bratton (www.nancybrattondesign.com), that feature original signatures from most of Split This Rock 2010’s featured poets:

Patricia Smith, Martín Espada, Jan Beatty, Fady Joudah, Lenelle Moise, Quincy Troupe, Lillian Allen, Chris Abani, Toni Asante Lightfoot, Cornelius Eady, Martha Collins, Richard McCann, Alison Hedge Coke, Mark Nowak, Nancy Morejón, Francisco Aragon, Natalie Illum, Sinan Antoon, Holly Bass, Beny Blaq, and Derrick Weston Brown, among others.


Spoken word artist Theresa Davis, who appeared on the panel Word Warriors: Women Spoken Word Artists at the 2008 festival, is featured on the poster – along with the late South African great Dennis Brutus. The poster also features a quote from a letter Adrienne Rich wrote to Split This Rock: “May this gathering inspire and affirm the spirit of many…Thank you for your belief in the freeing power of language and action.”

Your bid will help us bring poetry and poets into the public sphere in a variety of exciting ways:

* Biennial festivals – 2012 is just over the horizon. And guess what? We already have commitments from Marilyn Nelson, Sonia Sanchez, and Alice Walker for Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2012! You won’t want to miss it – March 22-24, 2012.

* Poets’ voices in the media – Through our partnership with the Institute for Policy Studies, Split This Rock arranges for poets to write op eds and appear on radio programs discussing critical social issues. In just one example, Mark Nowak’s op ed, “Warning: Shopping May Prove Deadly to Miners,” appeared in small-town newspapers throughout the country.

* Infusing poetry into political action – Split This Rock poets read at demonstrations, hand out poems, carry poetry signs. Recently, we distributed poems to a fired-up crowd at an immigration justice rally in DC and urged supporters to do so at the many rallies that took place throughout the country. And Split This Rock’s Poem of the Week reaches thousands who might not otherwise be reading poetry of provocation and witness.

* National and community collaborations – Here in DC, Split This Rock will present a reading of the poem “Howl” by poet Anne Waldman at Busboys and Poets in July, to celebrate the exhibit “Beat Memories” at the National Gallery. And next year, we’ll be a literary partner at the conference of the Associated Writers & Writing Programs, AWP, to be held here in DC on Langston Hughes’s birthday in February. We’ll have programs in the conference celebrating Hughes and the poet as public citizen, as well as off-site events, plunging us all into the vibrant life of the city.


This year is critically important for Split This Rock. We’ve received a major grant from the Open Society Institute to build the foundation of the organization so we can keep growing nationally and locally. We can’t do it without you. Won’t you join us?

Lannan Literary Symposium

The Lannan Literary Symposium and Festival

Literacy • Literature • Democracy

Georgetown University 6 and 7 April 2010

Georgetown’s 2010 Lannan Literary Symposium and Festival will explore the most vital and purposeful connections across the themes in its title, Literacy, Literature and Democracy; the Symposium welcomes a rich selection of writers, journalists and activists to the Georgetown campus over the two days following Easter break, Tuesday 6 and Wednesday 7 April, to discuss and to demonstrate how universal access to literacy, critical attention to the urgency of the creative imagination and to the power of the written word, and care for the fragility of authentic democracy must all equally concern citizens working for justice in our contemporary world. Guests to Georgetown include noted writers Dave Eggers, Chris Abani, and Uwem Akpan, SJ, journalist, writer and Mother Jones founder Adam Hochschild, social justice activist Mekonnodji Nadingam, poet Thomas Sayers Ellis, and recent Georgetown alums Happy Johnson (COL ’07) and Allison Correll (English MA ’09). Topics across two days of readings, roundtables and performances will include local and national literacy projects like Mr. Eggers’ 826 Valencia and 826 DC, literary, cultural and practical responses to historic challenges like the rebuilding of New Orleans after Katrina, and the ongoing global refugee crisis, with special focus on vulnerable populations in central Africa; the Symposium concludes with a special tribute to the poet Lucille Clifton by former Maryland poet laureate Michael S. Glaser and readings in her honor by Mr. Ellis and Mr. Abani. Participants from the Georgetown Community will include Professors Deborah Tannen, Maureen Corrigan, and Michael Eric Dyson, as well as Professor Carolyn Forché, the Director of Georgetown’s Lannan Center for Poetics and Social Practice. For more information please contact Professor Ricardo Ortíz at ortizr@georgetown.edu.


Preliminary Schedule:

Tu 6 April/7:30PM/Gaston Hall

A Public Reading and Talk Featuring

Dave Eggers

In Conversation with

Maureen Corrigan and Deborah Tannen
Reception to Follow, 2nd Floor Healy

•
Wednesday 7 April 2010

9:30 to 11am Riggs Library

“Writing Beyond Catastrophe: Literatures and Cultures of National Revival in Post-Katrina America”

A Discussion featuring
Michael Eric Dyson, Dave Eggers, Happy Johnson (’07)

Refreshments Served and Books Available in the Presidents’ Room

•
Copley Formal Lounge

“Writing (and Working) Beyond Genocide: Literary, Cultural and Social Activisms in a Changing Africa”


Session 1 • 1 to 3pm

Readings by
Uwem Akpan, SJ and Adam Hochschild

Session 2 • 3 to 5PM

A Roundtable Featuring
Mekonndji Nadingam
Allison Correll (MA ’09)
Chris Abani • Uwem Akpan
Adam Hochschild

Books Available and Light Refreshments Served

Post-Festival Thank You Reception Tomorrow

Split This Rock
Post-Festival Thank You Reception

Thursday March 25, 2010
6-8pm
Split This Rock Headquarters
Institute for Policy Studies
1112 16th St. NW
6th Floor
Washington, DC 20036

(Metro: Farragut North on the Red Line or Farragut West on the Blue/Orange Line)

Split This Rock invites you to our Post-Festival Thank You Reception. We'd like to express our appreciation for your significant contribution in making the 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival a success. Stop by for some snacks and drinks! This is also a great opportunity to collect your festival t-shirt if you have not already.

Please RSVP by contacting Program Associate Abdul Ali at ali at splitthisrock dot org or calling 202-787-5210.

What Festival Participants are Saying About Split This Rock 2010

Doug Carter at the BitLit blog of the Rose O'Neill Literary House[Photo Credit: Jill Brazel]:
The children of American, Vietnamese, or Chinese soldiers, these six rising poetic stars showed us how war extends itself into the domestic sphere of life. The poems demonstrated the curiosity of children who understand “war” is not a dinner-table subject, and the spiritual strength of adults who have the power to imagine the truth. These writers owe not only their creative impetus, but also their lives, to the war. Without the war, Cathy Linh Che said, many of us would not have been poets, we would not have lived in the U.S., and we would not have been born. As one panelist recited poems about her childhood experiences with her father, she came to the line “I don’t like you very much today,” then thanked our crowd and invited the next panelist up to read. She sat in front of me. During the remainder of the reading, I watched the panelist cry. I guess another really awesome thing about festivals like this is how they make you want to write. I foresee a poem in a word document, one about a girl reading a poem. Maybe her mouth will be an almond blossom. Maybe her words will be petals, and her tears, pearls of silk.

From Dan Wilcox, Split This Rock Panelist [Photo Credit: Jill Brazel]:
Time for dinner & a drink & then back to the Bell Multicultural High School for the evening's reading. Mark Nowak gave a reading with slides, touching on the Sago mine disaster & mining accidents in China, in what is being called documentary poetry. Lillian Allen, who lives in Canada, performed her poems in the tradition of "Dub poetry," reggae rhythms & the early roots of hip-hop. She took on the lingo & dance rhythms of the islands, mixing in sound patterns with the words, in such poems as "Limbo Dancer," poems about women in prison, in housing projects & giving birth, even a love poem ("would love to make a revolution with you").

Francisco Aragon's poem were mostly short, evoked the spirit of Garcia Lorca & Ernesto Cardenal. His poems to us "To Madrid," & Rome ("The Tailor"), & a strange slant translation of Rilke, "Torso." Nancy Morejon is from Cuba (& the Cuban ambassador was in the house). She read her poems in Spanish, then in translations done by others, often touching on the Afro-Cuban themes of slavery & oppression, but in the rich, colorful images often found in poetry from the Caribbean.

Patricia Spears Jones, another 2010 Panelist, shared the following thoughts [Photo Credit: Jill Brazel]:
I want to thank Patricia Monoghan and Michael McDermott, the co-founders of Black Earth Institute for inviting me to join this year's panel. Along with Patricia, Annie Finch, Judith Roche and Richard Cambridge, I spoke a panel, Speaking for the Silenc(e)d and of course, being the gentle contrarian that I am I spoke about listening--that we who speak are often speaking to indifferent, hostile or simply deeply ignorant audiences and that we have to start thinking of new ways to open ears. The panel was rich in information and deep connection to a rnage of communities from Annie's talk on collaboration in her Wolf Song project; Judith's work with incarcerated girls; and Richard's discussion of the media's mindset vis a vis our un-neighborly relationship with Cuba. Our audience was terrific--I got to meet Tracy Chiles McGhee and all the way from NYC, Marie Elizabeth Mali and Victoria Sammartino--teachers, arts group organizers, librarians, poets all. Patrica M. opened up the room for discussion and poetry and Victoria read an amazing piece about the incarcerated girls that she has worked with. It was deeply moving.

Photos from Thursday Evening Reading

Many thanks to Jill Brazel for the amazing photographs here.


Francisco Aragόn reads.


Lillian Allen, dub poet


Mark Nowak


Nancy Morejόn


Lillian Allen and Nancy Morejόn sign books for festival goers.


Co-Director Melissa Tuckey and Program Associate Abdul Ali

All Photo Credits: Jill Brazel

Andy Shallal's Tribute to Howard Zinn

The following is a tribute to Howard Zinn written by Busboys and Poets owner Andy Shallal for the Split This Rock Memorials.
Most historians report history – Howard Zinn made history through the history he reported. When asked about being objective about writing history – he replied with his signature saying – you can’t be neutral on a moving train. It is also the name of his autobiography and a film about his life.

He understood that writing about history it is not what you say that matters but what you leave out.

So he wrote about what has historically been left out in history books – he wrote about the steel mill workers and the robber barrons. He wrote about the disaffected and disenfranchised. His books went beyond heroes and holidays and into the lives of ordinary people – people like you and me – people who believe that peace and justice is not just something to dream about but an attainable goal.

The people he wrote about did not wear a cape or leap tall buildings in a single bound – they were people who organized and fought back when the odds were clearly stacked against them.

Howard had a major influence on so many people around the world and many of you in this room. Through Howard, I learned about Eugene Debs who formed the Socialist party in America and was arrested for sedition because he spoke out against WWI. I learned about John Brown – the abolitionist who was hung after trying to free slaves at Harper’s Ferry

I learned about people like Eugene Debs, Helen Keller, Emma Goldman, Jack London and Upton Sinclair were wonderful writers who joined the movement against war and injustice, against capitalism and corporate power.

I also learned about movements – the Civil Rights Movement – the sit ins – SNCC – the Pentagon Papers –

A People’s History of the United States became my go to book – it was everything you always wanted to know about history but were afraid to ask – I can honestly say that it was the most important book I ever read.

Howard understood the power of history – he said “I suggest that if you know history, then you might not be so easily fooled by the government when it tells you you must go to war for this or that reason -that history is a protective armor against being misled.

Howard had so many fans…

One woman wrote on his fan page:

Rest in peace, Howard, I thank you for teaching me to look at history through a different lens than was presented to me in school, that government can be as dangerous to a nation as it is useful, and that we all have a responsibility to be informed and aware.

But he was not without doubt… he wrote: “I'm worried that students will take their obedient place in society and look to become successful cogs in the wheel - let the wheel spin them around as it wants without taking a look at what they're doing. I'm concerned that students not become passive acceptors of the official doctrine that's handed down to them from the White House, the media, textbooks, teachers and preachers."

Early on in his career, while working on his book The Politics of History – Howard Zinn went back to revisit the cities that he bombed during the time when he became a bombardier during WWII - he learned that his raids would have killed at least 1000 people – people he could not see from thousands of miles above the ground – he interviewed some of the survivors and heard about the horrors of his actions.

This became the turning point for Howard’s life – he said that he received his orders by people who were more interested in career advancement than saving humanity or ending fascism.

He said … “I suggest that the history of bombing—and no one has bombed more than this nation—is a history of endless atrocities, all calmly explained by deceptive and deadly language like 'accident,' 'military target,' and 'collateral damage.'"

He was a radical through and through; he embodied the idea of speaking truth to power. Zinn’s classes at Boston University were large, often hundreds of students in one class. His classes were popular for his teaching style and growing reputation. He was funny and eloquent and engaging - but he also had a reputation as an easy grader.

He was neither a Democrat nor a Republican and did not adhere to any specific party affiliation… and understood that politics can be deceptive and self serving; instead he believed in the people's power.

He wrote…
“I think some progressives have forgotten the history of the Democratic Party, to which people have turned again and again in desperate search for saviors, later to be disappointed. Our political history shows us that only great popular movements, carrying out bold actions that awakened the nation and threatened the Establishment, as in the Thirties and the Sixties, have been able to shake that pyramid of corporate and military power and at least temporarily changed course.”

He was also one of the most patriotic people I have ever met. He once said that "Men who have no respect for human life or for freedom or justice have taken over this beautiful country of ours. It will be up to the American people to take it back.”

One of the proudest moments of his career came when he was able to finish his most ambitious project, making of the film… “The People Speak” - the film was based on his people’s history and people’s voices – the film is now on DVD and was shown on the History Channel a few months ago – Imagine, Howard Zinn on the History Channel – now millions of people will be witness his incredible body of work – over 20 books and thousands of articles in newspapers and magazines – and just recently People’s History made the NY Times best seller list for non – fiction.

He loved his wife Roz – an incredible artist and fierce critic of his work – without her, he would often say, he would not have written People’s History of the United States… They were the most incredible and elegant couple and both of them made you feel like you were the most important person in the world.

Of course anyone who knew Howard knew that he was the quintessential optimist… about optimists he wrote…

"An optimist isn't necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something..."

"If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand Utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

Photo Credit: Robin Holland

Photos from Split This Rock 2010

The following pictures are courtesy of the amazing Jill Brazel, who has been documenting our festival. If you or someone you know is in a photo but not identified, please comment below!


Abdul Ali, Split This Rock Program Associate, at WPFW


Martha Collins, Split This Rock 2010 Featured Poet, at WPFW


Regie Cabico!


Split This Rock Co-Director, Melissa Tuckey


Diamante Dorsey in the Teaching for Change Bookstore


One of the wonderful Split This Rock Panels


Fred Joiner at a Split This Rock Panel


Jericho Brown and E. Ethelbert Miller


Poetry

All photo credits to Jill Brazel

Images from Opening Night

Many thanks to Jill Brazel for these beautiful photographs of opening night.


The Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project


The Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project


The Shakti Brigade's Lisa Pegram


Young Women from the Shakti Brigade Read


Diamante of the DC Youth Slam Team


Busboys and Poets Shirlington Poet in Residence Beny Blaq reads at Bell Multicultural High School


Derrick Weston Brown, Poet in Residence for Busboys at 14th and V, reads


Holly Bass, Busboys 5th and K Poet in Residence, reads


2010 Featured Poet Wang Ping takes the stage


Cornelius Eady, 2010 Featured Poet, captivates the room with a whisper.


2010 Featured Poet Andrea Gibson, mid-poem.

Cento, Split This Rock Poetry Festival - March 11, 2010

In early 2010, the United States will have spent $1 trillion on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. On March 11, 2010, participants of the Split This Rock Poetry Festival gathered at Upper Senate Park near the U.S. Capitol, stepped up to the mic, and recited or read one line of poetry about their vision for the next $1 trillion.

These lines have became the beautiful cento you see below. (We invite you to read the Cento we created in 2008 at the inaugural Split This Rock Poetry Festival.)

Note: This is a work in progress. Please forgive any errors or omissions, which we will correct soon after the festival.

Cento, Split This Rock Poetry Festival - March 11, 2010
I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse ...

Extend helping hands rather than clenched fists

How big is a trillion dollars? How many Afghans, Iraqis dead?

Not every child can fit in a round or a square

“Matters of state” – who bears the cost? Wars, no jobs; Afghans, Iraqis die

If Peace broke out tomorrow …
Would you be ready?
Would you enlist?

Tomorrow no one in this room will be hungry.

Why do I live exiled from the shine of oranges?

Children should know the sky holds clouds and birds
and the occasional lost balloon. Why teach them bombs?



throw down your arms! reach out: put them around me, holding …

Soldiers below are not close enough to hear the throb of music.

when your heart is broken you plant seeds in the cracks
and you pray for rain

We’re going to stop war and we’re going to stop it now!

Flags raised high and waving: not calls to
battle, but festival banners!

One day we awake.
Each star shining in dawn’s headdress.

In every war, whoever wins, in the end, the people always lose.

Help each other. Have that singing in the evening.

Carry the shell of man into this clouded sky
blow the song

Today we shall look into the mouth of a small cave.

America
you don’t really want to go to war.

The words crime is to leave a man’s hands empty.
Men are born makers.

Thus in silence, in dreams I thread my way through hospitals …
I sit by the restless all the dark night.



I beg you: fund no more unthinkable acts
with unthinkable sums.

Home wishes:
Sex education that includes sex.
Public
Gender-neutral restrooms.
Social justice.

Could the poor see prosperity in America
and could we all be free

Inject the Monetary System with loving openness and witness
the revolution humanity craves

We must learn from our past, to instill hope for the future.

War Was Element of 3-Part Peace Strategy, Bush Says
I say watch your language

One trillion homes with clean drinking water

I can;
Can something, hope, wish day come, not choose not to be.

I could say much to you
Be happy as you can

The right to peace, to art and love
the dream and the right of all humankind

One more word like this and the
hammers will be swinging free



The next trillion? Learn Dari, attend same-sex weddings, memorize Lucille Clifton poems.

Stay together. Learn the flowers. Go light.

on earth as it is, Heaven.
It’s late, but everything comes next.

Lives lost are irreplaceable, attempt redemption, honor what was sacrificed.

Save My Generation.

Now is the time for poetry to storm the walls of Congress.

The loser now will be later to win, for the times they are a-changin’.

our political apathy greases the palms of hands outstretched to special interests.

As you conduct your wars, think of others—don’t forget those who want peace.



The ocean of our restraint
will swallow every blow, and
the ripples will spread across
our faces like a smile.

We are citizens, not tools.
Educate us.
Shelter us.
Feed us.

Rain glazes blue Hubbard squash in the field. I see their glint.

This is the oppressor’s language but I need it to speak to you.

Onions and chocolate and all the stew of ourselves we can eat.

I forgot I was awake ‘til I woke up again.

I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold.

6 billion beings 1 trillion for war.
That’s $1,666 per person US.



All Photo Credits to Jill Brazel

Split This Rock Poetry in the Streets in the Washington Post

For the full article, click here.

Friday's Schedule for Split This Rock!

We're having a great time! Last night was an amazing opening, and today promises to be fantastic. Join us this afternoon for Poetry in the Streets, and join us tomorrow for great workshops, panels, and readings!


Panels and Workshops tomorrow include:
-Dissidence, Memory, and Music in African American Poetry
-Women & War/Women & Peace: International Voices
-Warriors Writing: Teaching Creative Writing to War Veterans
-From Survivor to Thriver: Write Yourself
-Raising Radical Poets
-Documentary Poetics
-Poetry Workshops as Communities - Miriam's Kitchen
-Poetry Action Response Team: Thinking in Sevens (A New Community)
-Aging & Remembering
-Poetic Exploration
-What Makes Effective Political Poetry? Editors' Perspectives

From 2:00-3:00 there will be film and performance, including an Open Mic, Affrilachian Poet Reading, Yoga and Poetry in Changing Times, Poetry in China: A Force for Change, and Children of Warriors: Inheriting War Anthology Reading.

There will be two sets of Featured Readings Friday, both at Bell Multicultural High School. First, at 5, Patricia Smith, Martín Espada, and Arthur Sze. Then at 8, Jeffrey McDaniel, Natalie Illum, Jan Beatty and Quincy Troupe will read.

Check out the full schedule for details.

Patricia Smith is the author of five books of poetry, including Blood Dazzler, chronicling the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award, a choice for Library Journal's Best Poetry Books of 2008, and one of NPR's top five books of 2008; and Teahouse of the Almighty, a National Poetry Series selection, winner of the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and About.com’s Best Poetry Book of 2006. She also authored the ground-breaking history Africans in America and the award-winning children’s book Janna and the Kings. She is a professor at the City University of New York/College of Staten Island, and is on the faculty of both Cave Canem and the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. Patricia wowed audiences at Split This Rock’s inaugural festival in 2008.

Martín Espada, called “the Latino poet of his generation” and “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors,” has published sixteen books in all as a poet, editor, essayist and translator, including two collections of poems last year: Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas (Smokestack, 2008), released in England, and La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig (Terranova, 2008), a bilingual edition published in Puerto Rico. The Republic of Poetry, a collection of poems published by Norton in 2006, received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Another collection, Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. A former tenant lawyer, Espada is now a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and the work of Pablo Neruda. www.martinespada.net

Arthur Sze is the author of nine books of poetry, including The Ginkgo Light (2009), Quipu (2005), The Silk Dragon: Translations from the Chinese (2001), and The Redshifting Web: Poems 1970-1998 (1998), all from Copper Canyon Press. He is also the editor of Chinese Writers on Writing (forthcoming from Trinity University Press in 2010). His poems have been translated into Albanian, Bosnian, Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Romanian, Spanish, and Turkish. He is the recipient of a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers’ Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Book Award, a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowships, a George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship, three grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, and a Western States Book Award for Translation. He is a professor emeritus at the Institute of American Indian Arts and lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he served, from 2006 to 2008 as the city’s first poet laureate. [Photo credit: Mariana Cook]


Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of four books of poetry, most recently The Endarkenment (University of Pittsburgh Press). His work has appeared in dozens of journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry 1994, American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry. He has won several awards, including an NEA Fellowship. He teaches creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College. Jeffrey lived and wrote in Washington DC throughout the 1990s, working for DC WritersCorps and co-hosting a mainstage poetry series at the Black Cat called Blabbermouth Night. He studied at George Mason University, where he edited Phoebe and was active in Poetry Theater. He represented DC at the National Poetry Slam from 1993 to 1995.


Natalie E. Illum is an activist, writer and federal employee. Natalie is a founding board member of mothertongue and promotes queer and marginalized writers, musicians, and artists through 3Word Productions. She also facilitates poetry and activism workshops in a variety of community venues. Natalie's chapbooks Counterbalance and On Writers Block and Acrobats are available on Lulu Press. Her work is included in Growing Up Girl (GirlChild Press, 2006), Word Warriors: 35 Leaders of the Spoken Word Revolution (Seal Press, 2007), an anthology edited by Alix Olson, and Women of the World Poetry Slam Anthology. Her poetry was selected by Minnie Bruce Pratt for Feminist Studies. In May 2007, Natalie collaborated with LAVA, an acrobatic troupe in Brooklyn, and perfected her skills at performing poetry upside down. Natalie is in the process of adapting her unpublished memoir, Spastic, to the stage with the help of renowned performance poet and director Regie Cabico. She is currently ranked 25th at the Women of the Worlds Poetry slam. www.3wordproductions.com/Natalie.html

Jan Beatty's new book, Red Sugar, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in Spring, 2008. Other books include Boneshaker and Mad River, winner of the 1994 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize. Ravenous, her limited edition chapbook, won the 1995 State Street Prize. Beatty has worked as a welfare caseworker and an abortion counselor. She worked in maximum-security prisons and was a waitress for fifteen years. Her poetry has appeared in Quarterly West, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, and Court Green, and in anthologies published by Oxford University Press, University of Illinois Press, and University of Iowa Press. Awards include the $15,000 Creative Achievement Award in Literature from the Heinz Foundation and Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, and two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For the past fifteen years, she has hosted and produced Prosody, a public radio show on NPR-affiliate WYEP-FM featuring the work of national writers. Beatty directs the creative writing program at Carlow University, where she runs the Madwomen in the Attic writing workshops and teaches in the low-residency MFA program. www.janbeatty.com

Quincy Troupe is an award-winning poet and author. He has written 18 books that include poetry, children’s books, and non-fiction works. His books of poetry include The Architecture of Language (Coffee House Press, 2006); Transcircularities: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2002); Choruses; Avalanche; Weather Reports: New and Selected Poems; Skulls along the River; Snake-Back Solos: Selected Poems 1969-1977, which received an American Book Award; and Embryo Poems, 1967-1971. He has written two best-selling biographies: Miles: The Autobiography, Miles Davis with Quincy Troupe (Simon & Schuster 1989), and The Pursuit of Happyness (HarperCollins/Amistad 2005). He has written the screenplay for Miles and Me: A Memoir (University of California Press 2000), which is scheduled for production in 2009.

Poetry In The Streets: Torn Between Bitterness and Hope, Poets Bring Inspiration to Our Nation's Lawmakers

Take Poetry to the Capitol
Today at 4:30 on the Upper Senate Park at the U.S. Capitol Grounds

The United States has now spent $1 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile, our public schools and universities are facing massive cuts, millions of Americans are without health care, the earth is desperate for loving attention. Clearly, our lawmakers need the poets to tell them how to spend the next $1 trillion.

Come with a twelve word line of poetry (by you or by someone else) that expresses your vision for the future of our country and our planet. We will create and read aloud a collaborative Cento poem, which will begin with these lines sent to us by Adrienne Rich, from “An Atlas of the Difficult World”:

I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn
between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse ...

Write or type your line on a piece of paper. Include the name of the poet, your name (if different), and your home town.

Feel free to bring signs, but no poles bigger than 3⁄4" around and no signs offering anything for sale.

We will meet at Upper Senate Park, near Union Station, on Metro’s Red line (Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter on the Green/Yellow lines).

The #96 bus leaves from the northwest corner of U and 14th Street NW and goes right to the park, stopping at the corner of D Street NW and Louisiana Avenue NW.

Click here for a map.

Click here to read the Cento from the 2008 Festival!

Lots of Awesome Festival Activities on Thursday

Check out Thursday's Schedule and all details here.





Panels and Workshops include:

• The Peace Shelves: Essential Books and Poems for the 21st Century
• The Public Role of Poetry: How to Build a Poetry Reading
• Writing from the Margins: Life, Survival, and Healing for Women of Color
• The Care and Feeding of the Rural/Small Town Poet-Activist
• Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing: A Conversation with Cuban Poet Nancy Morejón
• The War is Not Over: Writing About Iraq and the Case of the Mutanabbi Street Coalition
• Cross-Discipline Collaboration: How Writers and Artists are Working Together to Push Boundaries and Engage the Public
• Giving Voice to the Silence/d
• Let Us Work Together: A Practical Guide & Discussion on Creating Community-Based Writing Projects
• Gay and Lesbian Poetry in the 40th Year Since Stonewall: History, Craft, Equality
  

From 2:00 to 3:30, there will be film and performances, including:

• Split This Rock 2010 Film Program
• Reclamation, Celebration, Renewal, and Resistance: Black Poets Writing on the Natural World
• 7 & 7: 7 Poets Celebrate Kundiman's 7th Year
• Beltway Poetry Quarterly Tenth Anniversary Reading
  

From 4:30 to 6 join us for POETRY IN THE STREETS

From 8 to 10, there will be a reading at Bell Multicultural High School featuring poets Francisco Aragón, Lillian Allen, Mark Nowak, and Nancy Morejón.

From 10 to midnight, decide between an Open Mic or a reprise of the film program!

Thursday's Featured Poets:

Francisco Aragón is the author of Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press) and editor of the award-winning The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press). Among his limited edition chapbooks are, Tertulia, (BOOKlyn). He is also the editor of Canto Cosas, a book series out of Bilingual Press that publishes Latino poetry. His poems and translations have appeared in various anthologies and in print and web journals. He directs Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He is a member of the Macondo Writing Workshop in San Antonio and serves on the boards of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) and the Guild Complex—a community-based literary organization in Chicago. He resides in Arlington, VA and works out of the ILS' offices in Washington, DC. franciscoaragon.net

Lillian Allen is an award-winning Canadian poet, fiction writer, playwright, and cultural strategist. As one of its lead originators, she has specialized in the writing and performing of dub poetry, a highly politicized form of poetry, which is sometimes set to music. Her recordings, "Revolutionary Tea Party" and "Conditions Critical," won Juno awards in 1986 and 1988 respectively. Her publications include Theorize This (2004), Psychic Unrest (Insomniac Press, 2000), Women Do This Every Day (Women’s Press, 1993), Nothing But A Hero (Well-versed, 1992). Her many recordings include Freedom & Dance, 1999, and Conditions Critical, 1988. Allen has also worked in film, both as a featured artist (“Revolution from de Beat,” 1995; Unnatural Causes, 1989; “Rhythm and Hardtimes,” 1987) and as co-producer and co-director of “Blak.. Wi Blakk…” (1994), a film on Jamaican dub poet Mutabaruka. She was the instigator, co-producer, and host of WORDBEAT, CBC’s show on poetry and the spoken word. A past member of the Racial Equity Advisory of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Experts Advisory on the International Cultural Diversity Agenda, past executive member of the Sectoral Commission on Culture and Information of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, Allen was named a Foremother of Canadian Poetry by the League of Canadian Poets in 1992.

Mark Nowak is the author of Coal Mountain Elementary (Coffee House Press, 2009) and Shut Up Shut Down (Coffee House Press, 2004). For the past several years he has been designing and facilitating “poetry dialogues” with Ford autoworkers in the United States and South Africa (through the UAW and NUMSA), striking clerical workers (through AFSCME 3800), Muslim/Somali nurses and healthcare workers (through Rufaidah), and others. Nowak’s writings on new labor poetics have recently appeared in Goth: Undead Subculture (Duke, 2007), American Poets in the 21st Century: The New Poetics (Wesleyan, 2007), The Progressive, and elsewhere. A native of Buffalo, New York, he now directs the Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College in Chestertown, MD. http://coalmountain.wordpress.com

Nancy Morejón, one of the foremost Cuban writers and intellectuals, has published more than twelve collections of poetry, three monographs, a dramatic work, and four critical studies of Cuban history and literature. Her lyrical verse, shaped by an Afro-Cuban sensibility and a feminist consciousness, evokes the intimacy of family, the ephemerality of love, and the significance of Cuban history. Her poems have appeared in several bilingual editions in the United States, including Where the Island Sleeps Like a Wing (The Black Scholar Press) and Looking Within-Mirar adentro (Wayne State University Press). She has translated numerous acclaimed French authors including Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Éluard, and Aimé Césaire, and her books of criticism of the work of Nicolas Guillén are considered classics.