Category Archives: Uncategorized

[another ecuadorian dead as a result of hate. this time anti-gay slurs added to the anti-latino sentiment. there’s not much to be said of any real use. just pray, hope for some resolution, stay vigilant, stay aware.]

Family Keeps Vigil for Beaten Brooklyn Man

An Ecuadorean immigrant who was brutally beaten in Brooklyn last weekend in what the police have described as a possible bias attack was declared brain-dead on Tuesday, a law enforcement official said. But the man was being kept on life support while his family decides whether to donate his organs, the official said.

There have been no arrests in the attack, which came four weeks after the fatal stabbing of an Ecuadorean immigrant on Long Island by a group of teenagers who had been looking for a Latino to attack. The attacks have jolted nerves in the city’s Latino communities and have drawn wide condemnation from city officials and Ecuadorean community leaders, many of whom joined relatives of the Brooklyn beating victim on Tuesday.

At a press conference outside Elmhurst Hospital Center, where the man, Jose O. Sucuzhanay, was being treated, his brother Diego Sucuzhanay said he was alive but in critical condition. Family members were waiting for Mr. Sucuzhanay’s parents to arrive from Ecuador before making any medical decisions.

More here.

• Javier Huerta (Thanks for the Harriet shout out, Javier) shares his list of influential books
• Claire Light offers a list of what to give writers
• NEA Poetry Fellow Bryan Thao Worra (Congrats, Bryan!) posts his list of influential artists
• Three Percent’s Best Translated Book of 2008: The Fiction Longlist

Associated Press – December 7, 2008 2:43 PM ET

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Nicaraguan writer Sergio Ramirez says his government is censoring him by blocking publication of his prologue to the work of an earlier Nicaraguan poet.

Spanish newspaper El Pais had asked Ramirez to write the introduction to a book of poems by Carlos Martinez Rivas. But Nicaragua’s government cultural institute owns the rights to Martinez’s works and El Pais says it refused to let them be published with a prologue by Ramirez — a former ally turned sharp critic of President Daniel Ortega.

The Managua newspaper Nuevo Diario said Sunday that Ramirez called the ban “an absurd reprisal for my criticism against injustice and in defense of democracy in Nicaragua.”

El Pais says it won’t publish the book without Ramirez’s introduction.

Big ups to Author Scoop for the link to the story.

Change.gov joins the Creative Commons movement:

Toward a 21st century government

President-elect Obama has championed the creation of a more open, transparent, and participatory government. To that end, Change.gov adopted a new copyright policy this weekend. In an effort to create a vibrant and open public conversation about the Obama-Biden Transition Project, all website content now falls under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

More here

This news comes right as I’m in the middle of Sound Unbound and really feeling the message that the more ways you can find to actively get your idea into the world, the better chance it has of actually becoming concrete. You would think this was simple enough and that poets would be the first ones behind this concept since
a) the vast majority of poets I know make more revenue from live readings/seminars/workshops than they do from the sales of their text
b) the art is based on the distribution of idea in an easily memorized structure
but then you have the case of British Poet Wendy Cope that declared You like my poems? So pay for them.

Cope makes a few good points but then fails to realize my other point
c) poets love to have their work taught
and that means most of the time a poem is photocopied out of a book or anthology (a No-No if you are following © down to the letter). I am sure Ms Cope can also make this demand: Want to teach one of my poems? Buy the whole damn book. But I do respect her stance and so you won’t find any of her work on this site.

Quick side note: If I ever do post a poem, MP3, or video that highlights you and you don’t want it displayed, lemme know and I’ll take it down. It’s already happened once, I was asked courteously, and so the media was deleted. Simple as that.

Back to sharing poetry: My own venture into gift economy has been working out pretty well with three used novels, one perfect bound chapbook, a bootleg John Legend CD, and a brand new hip-hop poetry CD to show for my efforts. I’m expecting a couple of more CDs and what has been described as a very rare poetry chapbook soon, but the coolness is being able to share the work with folks while still feeling like my poems are valued. Word.

Join us at the Koret Auditorium/San Francisco Main Library on Saturday, December 6 at 2:30pm for a book launching of Luisa Igloria’s Juan Luna’s Revolver (winner of the 2009 Ernest Sandeen Prize in Poetry), and readings from Barbara Jane Reyes, Karen Llagas, Joi Barrios Reception will follow the reading event.

In the morning, come discuss and write poetry with multi-award winning poet Luisa A. Igloria and Karen Llagas in a half-day workshop to be held at the Latino/Hispanic Community Meeting Room A at the SF Main Library from 10:00am until 1:30pm.
Visit: http://www.pawainc.com/poetryworkshop1.html
for more information and registration. Fee of $35(student), $45/50(other) includes breakfast, light lunch and refreshments.

These events are part of the PAWA Arkipelago Author Reading and Workshop Series. The December 6 events are made possible by PAWA, Inc., the Filipino American Center of the San Francisco Main Library, Arkipelago Books, Poets & Writers, Inc.