Category Archives: Uncategorized

Take a listen to Jeff Chang’s remarks from the very excellent RE:DEFintion Hip-Hop Conference. His speech definitely challenges the hip-hop generation to continue and expand on the work that helped Barack Obama enter into the Presidency. The biggest question is: What will it look like when we win? Which I interpret as: Can we take the lessons of hip-hop, as a tool of cultural memory, and use it to shape national and international government policies away from hoarding power and capital to the ruling class and take our material resources and invest it back in the next generation of artists, teachers, and political minds?

[Banned Book Week isn’t till later in the year but it looks like folks aren’t waiting. “Bless Me, Ultima” already appears frequently on Banned Book lists (#75 on the American Library Association’s list) but something like this will only add to its mystique. If nothing else, this news has shot Anaya’s novel up to the top of my “To Read” list.]

NEWMAN — With little discussion, school district trustees voted 4-1 on Monday night to uphold the removal of “Bless Me, Ultima” from Orestimba High School’s English classes.

The decision ends a months long dispute about banning the Latino coming-of-age novel taught to sophomores.

Trustees heard another round of public comment from parents, teachers and community members urging them to look past the book’s obscenities and recognize its literary merits, including its symbolism, imagery and, most of all, its ability to connect with teenagers.

Complete Modesto Bee article here

What a great reading this last Saturday as the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library presented “Writers Remembered 2009.” This tribute to writers who passed away the previous year is in its 7th year and seems to be one of those reading that is sincere, well organized, star studded, moving, and (sadly) not well known. Host Gerry Nicosia started the proceedings by noting that while the San Francisco Chronicle was kind enough to send a reporter to cover the event, it did not give any mention of the event before hand.

The shame is that this is the kind of event that with some good print & online advertisement, a glitzy venue, bad dress code, focus on high profile authors, and exuberant ticket price would probably sell out. Funny how things tend to work out like that.

The good news is that “Writers Remembered” is a community event that seeks to serve the community and remains committed to delivering an event that honored all kinds of writers (household names, community stalwarts, fringe anti-culturists, and the just emerging) that highlighted possible in the San Francisco Public Library’s easily accessible, free, acoustically wonderful and very packed Koret Auditorium.

When we arrived for the event, Barb mentioned that it felt “like church” with the mood shifting from serious to somber, from remembrance to tragedy, from humor to introspection. Yeah, we were at a literary wake but that wake where the dead are honored and spoken of as if still in the room- with no one getting too carried away with their tributes. No need to create monuments when the works of these writers remain for us.

I’ll leave the last word to Daniel Handler who noted, when remembering his friend Ellen Miller, that maybe in writing there is only one kind of story: “Someone lost something.”

• Gerry Nicosia’s Introduction (Parts 1 and 2)
• Naomi Quiñonez pays tribute to Alfred Arteaga (Parts 1 and 2)
• Al Young pays tribute to Reginald Lockett (Parts 1 and 2)
• Alejandro Murguia pays tribute to Raulsalinas (Parts 1 and 2)
• Peter Plate pays tribute to James Crumley
• A. D. Winans pays tribute to Dave Church
• Carl Macki pays tribute to Father Albert Huerta
• Gerald Nicosia pays tribute to Studs Terkel (Parts 1 and 2)
• Deema Shehabi pays tribute to Mahmoud Darwish
• Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) pays tribute to Ellen Miller
• Tom Barbash pays tribute to Sheila Schwartz
• Agneta Falk pays tribute to Tony Vaughan
• Jack Hirschman pays tribute to Tony Vaughan
• Oscar Villalon pays tribute to Oakley Hall
• Barbara Berman pays tribute to Hayden Carruth
• Jason Roberts pays tribute to David Foster Wallace

Ozark Poet Brenda Moossy passed away yesterday at her home in Fayetteville. Her loss is deeply felt in the Slam Community since Brenda was a very active part of the National Poetry Slam scene as a competitor, Treasurer for PSI, Inc., part of the Slam America bus tour and contributor to many Slam anthologies including Spoken Word Revolution. She was respected for her detail to craft and energy on the mic, Roger Bonair-Agard has told me that Brenda was the only poet he knew that had successfully slammed on the national level with a sestina.

I met Brenda in 2002 at two louderARTS readings. The first was for one of the very first times I was curating at Bar13. I was already stressed out about the curating since we were adding a lot of new elements to the night including musical accompaniment, collaborations and rearranged the setup of the room, but then, at the last minute, our feature canceled on us and we had to scramble to get someone new to cover. The night turned out fine and the new feature did great but the most calming presence in the room was Brenda Moossy. A fan of the louderARTS Collective, as it was known back then, Brenda was happy to be at Bar13 and offered to help out in any way possible. She took a spot right in the front row and was an attentive listener to every open micer, nodding her heads to strong lines, smiling when a strong image or unexpected turn developed on the stage, and then wildly clapping for every poet. I think the only reason we didn’t ask her to feature that night was because she was set to feature at our Brooklyn reading in a few nights.

She brought her same enthusiastic energy to Morgie’s Cafe, the home of louderARTS South, both as a listener and the feature. On the mic she was happy to share her experiences from the Ozarks and let us know how different things in New York might be but that the feeling of poetry was just as strong in both places and wherever there was a good venue that she could share her words, she was always at home.

I’m sorry that our paths never crossed again since that spirit of community and wonder (so often taken for granted) is something that I need to always be reminded of.

More Brenda Moossy
• Poet’s Bio
• Publications
• Brenda Moosy reads “Anaconda” (MP3)

• The Chicago Tribune asks: “What does ‘literary president’ mean, exactly?”
• Stanley Fish of the New York Times examines Barack Obama’s Prose Style.
• Kwame Dawes composes his own Inaugural Poem: “New Day.”
• Chi-Town’s Kevin Coval also has his own Inauguration Day verse: “The Chance to Change.”
• Scott Woods (President of Poetry Slam, Inc.) elaborates on why he feels the Inaugural Poem didn’t work at Poetry is Doomed.
• Choriamb rounds up other Inaugural Poems and Commentary.
• Rachel Zucker and Arielle Greenberg’ 100 Poems for 100 Days will post a new poem by a contemporary American poet—a poem written for and during the first 100 days of this new administration. (Check Patricia Smith’s Day #7 poem.)