Hunger April 5, 2012: It’s been one of those weeks when, uncharacteristically, I’m affected by the negativity of the media. Yes, it’s an election year, so the political pandering to communities that I don’t (and can’t) relate to is on overdrive. When politicians seeking office recognize hate groups disguised as patriots, it only invites distasteful [...] by Rigoberto González

MAY BE! Chorus for Inquisitive Occupiers April 4, 2012: Does Occupy exceed Occupy as an Occupation? Does Occupy need Occupy to Occupy? Can Occupy Occupy without Occupy? Does Occupy need to get De-Occupied to Re-Occupy? Will De-Occupy need to get Re-Occupied to Occupy? Will Re-Occupy need Occupy in any way at all? Were there poetic acts that came before Occupy that were mainly of [...] by Rodrigo Toscano

Memories and Thoughts on Adrienne Rich April 3, 2012: I was nervous about our lunch. I might have even dreaded it since I was afraid that I would somehow disappoint her (she chose my book for the Barnard Women Poets Prize and said she’d like to meet me). The Warwick Hotel possessed a vintage charm amid all the midtown chain hotels. It was where she always stayed when she came to New York, where [...] by Cathy Park Hong

Poets Occupy Wall Street September 27, 2011: Poetry gets back to good old-fashioned rabble-rousing with Occupy Wall Street, an Arab Spring-inspired mass mobilization currently gathering in New York City. A designated Poetry Corner has been established in the Liberty Plaza area, which protesters have been occupying since September 17th. Through the Poetry@OccupyWallStreet Facebook page, [...] by Harriet Staff

Frieda Hughes to Write a Poem Against Wind Farms May 23, 2011: Frieda Hughes, daughter of poet Ted Hughes, "one of the Twentieth Century's greatest nature poets", is none-too-pleased about the wind farm coming to her home in Abermule, Wales, and she's going to write a poem about it. Describing the turbines as protruding like "homeless bits of aeroplane,” she can’t understand why nobody in the Assembly [...] by Harriet Staff

Jon Stewart’s “Tone Def Poetry Slam” May 12, 2011: Part I: The Daily ShowTags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook and Part II (NOW with Stewart rapping!): The Daily ShowTags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook by Harriet Staff

May Day May 1, 2011: I was going to write a post this month on Alfred Temba Qabula, the great South African worker-poet whose Collected Writings I’ve been trying to get published here in the States for several years; I was going to tell people to read the Poetic Labor Project blog; I was going to say more on Tillie Olsen's "I Want You Women Up North To Know" [...] by Mark Nowak

On Wisconsin!—Poetry? YouBetJah! April 29, 2011: In his April 3rd Harriet entry on the anti-union, anti-human mishigas in Madison and beyond, Mark Nowak asks: ‘But this is a poetry blog… What does this have to do with poetry?’ It has EVERYTHING to do with poetry, education and the intellectual life of our nation—and all the arts! While corporations are given welfare, artists, poets and [...] by Wanda Coleman

Workers Across the Americas April 27, 2011: Several times this month, fellow Harietteers have posted wonderful lists of books they’ve been reading, catalogs of their poetry bookshelves, overviews of new poetry volumes, histories of their late modernist avant garde archival projects, and the like. Probably not so surprising to those who read my posts, my own reading patterns tend to drift [...] by Mark Nowak

Poets’ Strike (version 2.0) April 24, 2011: A few days ago, Eileen Myles posted – first through Facebook and then here on Harriet – a general call for a poets’ strike on International Workers Day (May Day). I have to confess that, while I love the trajectory of Eileen’s idea, I have my doubts. About a decade ago, I founded a small Marxist organization in the CLR [...] by Mark Nowak