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Suheir Hammad’s anti-war poems at TED Women March 18, 2011: Poet Suheir Hammad who "blends the stories and sounds of her Palestinian-American heritage with the vibrant language of Brooklyn" performed at TEDWomen in Washington DC in December. Hammad addressed the crowd of "confused, aspiring pacifists" and spoke of how poetry prepares you to confront "man's creative violence" in her poems "What I Will" [...]
Cowboy Poetry attacked with… poetry? March 9, 2011: Political theater now plays out on more venues than just the floor of the Capitol, but verse still thrives on all of them. Harry Reid has been catching some flack for citing Nevada's annual Cowboy Poetry Festival as a reason to preserve the budget for the National Endowment for the Humanities. While said flack has more to do with his [...]
A poet’s take on Wisconsin, as Wisconsin governor takes out poets March 8, 2011: Bloomberg reports that Wisconsin's Poet Laureate post, created by order of then-Governor Tommy Thompson in 2001, will be one of the casualties of embattled Governor Scott Walker's budget bill. The post comes with a stipend that covers up to $2,000 in gas money a year to make up for the poet's travels across the state to lecture and read. The [...]
Obama offers advice on how to use poetry to woo the ladies March 3, 2011: Yesterday, while bestowing the National Medal of Arts and Humanities on 20 artists (including Donald Hall and Wendel Berry), President Obama let slip his secret socialist/fascist plot to take over the brains of all women via linguistic dexterity: "We also remember the art that challenged our assumptions; the scholarship that brought us closer [...]
Poets set the tone for “Natural Events to Social Disasters” conference in Austin February 22, 2011: Natasha Trethewey and Evelyne Trouillot will keynote this week's conference From Natural Events to Social Disasters in the Circum-Caribbean hosted by the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at University of Texas, Austin. The conference will discuss the long-running injustices across the region that natural disasters of the [...]
Go directly to jail. Do not write a poem. Do not collect $200. February 14, 2011: In 2009, an Eygptian civil servant, Moneer Said Hanna was locked up for three years for writing a satirical poem about Hosni Mubarak. He revisits his jail-time in a short piece for the Daily Kos, which includes large citations from older news reports on the matter, and some well-deserved pissed-off gloating about the end of the regime. Here’s [...]
Presidential love poetry for Valentine’s Day February 11, 2011: The Christian Science Monitor has a primer on the love poetry of US presidents, or rather the love letters that could be construed as poetry. A lovely dovey POTUS top ten, including: 6. John Tyler. Though his decision to annex Texas led to the Mexican-American War, Tyler had a poet's sensibilities. After his first wife died early in his [...]
Poetry in Tahrir Square February 7, 2011: Anthony Shadid evoked the nightlife scene in Tahrir Square for the New York Times this morning, revealing the protest community's reverence for tea, prayer, and, of course, poetry: On any day, the Arab world’s greatest city staggers, its 18 million people joined by a million more from the countryside. Staccato horns bring a cadence to a [...]
Essays for Robert von Hallberg February 1, 2011: Poetry magazine recently received this welcome dispatch from Chicago Review, with links to PDFs of knockouts from their latest number. From CR editor, V. Joshua Adams: Readers of Harriet may be interested in two essays on contemporary poetry from the latest issue of Chicago Review (55:3—4). In "Apocalypticism: A Way Forward for Poetry," [...]
“Everyone is their own blindspot” when it comes to picking new talent January 21, 2011: Poet and editor Don Paterson talks to The Guardian about why it's necessary to publish and create awards for new poetry like the Picador Prize, awarded to Richard Meier this year. The legwork involved in uncovering these talents is only half the battle. The network of poets is so tight that it doesn't take much for one to get noticed and referred [...]