Sandra Cisneros: People remembered and people observed.

Yes, I know this video has been posted everywhere but there is so much more happening here than just some Iowa bashing.

I’m diggin the questions about the relevance of literature to low-income urban folks. The real real is this: a poem will not change the circumstances of life. Poets need to remember that a poem is a battle and not the war. You win some, you lose some. Folks listen and are moved, folks listen and are not moved. Folks read and are inspired, folks read and don’t care. And that’s just if you can actually get someone to read or listen to your work.

Back to the interview and Cisneros’ end comment of self-doubt and pressure from the community Yes, that same ‘community’ that’s supposed to always be there no matter what, but, way too often, becomes the same kind of institutional noose that stifles a writer if they seek to speak for themselves instead of the group that forced her to ask the big question: What do *I* really want?

The full interview can be found at WNYC’s Leonard Lopate Show.