Ron Paul's New Hampshire Poetry Slam
What's important to remember as this new year pulls us softly to its round-numbered bosom is that the debates and caucuses aren't annoying at all.
And then there's this. MTV reported that a poetry slam, "Slam Free Or Die", in Manchester, NH was organized as a lead-up to the Primary there today.
From the MTV article:
"They call it the Department of Education ... Let's put an end to the Department of Indoctrination!" That kind of sentiment was flowing like extra-hoppy craft beer on Sunday night at Manchester's only brewpub, Milly's Tavern. It was the site of the "Slam Free or Die" political poetry open mic that drew a number of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul's supporters. And while the sentiment onstage was often dripping with elegantly worded sarcasm, the boots on the ground had plenty of sobering thoughts on the suddenly surging candidate who refuses to play by his party's staid rules.
Nearly a week after the Iowa caucus, Congressman Paul's rivals continue to take digs at one another in an attempt to win over traditional GOP voting blocs and prove their family values bona fides. Libertarian Paul's pull with younger voters, meanwhile, was inspiring the kind of enthusiasm that motivated his followers to drive in from as far as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to attend the slam and volunteer in the Granite State in the lead-up to Tuesday's primary.
A common theme among the Paul faithful who spoke to MTV News for the channel's ongoing Power of 12 series was a disappointment with the Obama administration and a feeling that the promises of change touted four years ago have not come to fruition as they expected.
"I think there were a lot of disillusioned voters in '08 who thought Obama would be a good solution to the problems presented by Bush," said Pericles Niarchos, 26, who, like the several tables of Paul-ites in the bar, was firmly focused on the poetry rather than the nail-biting Steelers-Broncos NFL playoff game being shown on the bar's flat-screen TVs.
Well, as it turns out, the organizers of the event feel quite the opposite, according to this article from the Worcester Telegram.
The organizers of Slam Free or Die, the Manchester poetry slam, are anxious for people to know that they didn't throw a rally for Ron Paul Sunday night … despite what MTV might have you think. In an article titled “Ron Paul Inspires Poetry in New Hampshire,” Gil Kaufman, a writer for MTV, wrote: “‘They call it the Department of Education ... Let's put an end to the Department of Indoctrination!' That kind of sentiment was flowing like extra-hoppy craft beer on Sunday night at Manchester's only brewpub, Milly's Tavern. It was the site of the ‘Slam Free or Die' poetry open-mic event in honor of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. And while the sentiment onstage was often dripping with elegantly worded sarcasm, the boots on the ground had plenty of sobering thoughts on the suddenly surging candidate who refuses to play by his party's staid rules.”
No one was more surprised to discover that Sunday's event was a Ron Paul rally than Manchester poets and event organizers Mark Palos and Sam Teitel, both of whom are also fixtures on the Worcester and Boston poetry scenes.
“The intention of the event was to provide people from the local and New England community a place to read their poetry as a reaction to the Republican debate on Saturday night,” said Teitel of the event, which featured performances by Worcester poet Sarah Sapienza and Boston poets James Caroline and Harlym 125. If anything, Teitel and Palos felt that the tenor of the evening was largely liberal and anti-Republican.
“Not everybody was condemning the right wing,” says Palos, “but there was definitely a liberal slant to most of what was read. There was one person who went up and read a poem for Ron Paul, and everybody else in the audience groaned.”
Follow the links to both articles and decide for yourself?