Poets' protest cancels White House festival - they are pissed: FReeper Poetry anyone?

page A3 of the Boston Globe ^ | 1/31/2003 | David Mehegan

[rface]

It was to have been a celebration of poetry at the White House, but it looks as if it won't happen any time soon.

Late Wednesday, the office of Laura Bush announced the postponement of a Feb. 12 symposium on poets Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Langston Hughes after Sam Hamill of Port Townsend, Wash., one of the invited poets, urged the others who had been invited to protest the looming war with Iraq at the event.

[Charles Henrickson]

Hamill, who says he is ''nauseated'' by the prospect of war, fired off an e-mail asking colleagues to contribute statements or poems to protest President Bush's stance toward Iraq.

I think Hamill is skating on thin ice when he says that Bush is trying to stir wars.

[kcvl]

Amiri Baraka, also known as LeRoi Jones and Imamu Amiri Baraka, is one of the main leaders and inspirations of the BAM. Born in Newark, NJ, in 1934 to a middle-class family, Baraka attended Rutgers University then transferred to receive his degree from Howard University. Baraka served in the military for three years before settling in Greenwich Village in New York, at the heart of the Beat scene.

Baraka began writing seriously and with first wife, Hettie Cohen, founded the influential Beat literary journal, Yugen. Baraka then grew in notority when he won the Obie, awarded by the Village Voice newspaper, an off-Broadway award, for his play, Dutchman.

With his new found reputation, Baraka opened the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School (BART/S) in 1964. The BART/S became one of the most influential theatre/schools within the BAM and brought music, art, poetry and drama to the street corners of Harlem.

It was during this time that Baraka began to distance himself from the white culture. When Malcom X was assasinated in 1965, and after the closing of the BART/S, Baraka picked up and moved to Harlem, divorced his white wife, changed his name and adapted a Black nationalist view.

Baraka then married Amina Baraka, formerly known as Sylvia Robinson, and founded Spirithouse in Newark, NJ. Baraka was involved in almost every aspect of the beginning of the BAM and also in many other Black political and cultural movements, including participation with the Black Pather Party for Self Defense.

Since his days of the BAM, Baraka has abandoned his previous black nationalist views in favor of Marxism and the fight of the working class against the bourgeoisie. He continues to write and speaks frequently at colleges and universities nation-wide.

[AnAmericanMother]

Man!

That guy Baraka's got a bad case of logorrhea.

Somebody ship him a case of Kaopectate.

[cgbg]

The poet is "nauseated" by the war.

I am "nauseated" by the existence of a National Endowment for the Humanities that uses my tax dollars to fund people whose ideas are deeply repulsive to me.

Defund the left!

[kcvl]

Born in Newark, New Jersey the son of Colt LeRoy Jones, a postal supervisor, and Anna Lois Jones, a social worker. The product of a middle-class family.

1952 - From Rutgers University transferred to Howard University where he dropped out to join the Air Force. Changed his name spelling to LeRoi, a "Frenchified" version. He began writing for journals during this period.

BEAT PERIOD (1957-1962)

1957 - After leaving the Air Force under undesirable circumstances, he moved to the Lower East side of Manhattan and joined a loose circle of Greenwich Village artists, musicians, and writers.

1958 - Married Hettie Cohen, a middle-class Jewish woman, and co-edited the avant-garde magazine, Yugen. During this period he first published prose and poetry.

1961 - Earned praise and respect as a poet with his first volume of poetry, "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note..." -AND- Went to Cuba and wrote the essay, "Cuba Libre" -AND- production of his play, Dante at the Bowery Theatre. This was a philosophical turning point in his life.

1961 - In The Baptism he reviewed the territory of James Baldwin's Go Tell It On the Mountain with a surrealist imagination.

1962 - The Toilet again focused on adolescence as a quest for love in the socially enforced guise of toughness (these last two plays deal with theme of homosexuality).

1962 - In The Slave he continued the theme of the confrontation of a black poet/revolutionary with a white woman friend/antagonist.

TRANSITIONAL PERIOD (1963-1965)

1964 - Baraka's reputation as a playwright was established with the production of Dutchman at the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York on March 24, 1964. The play was in the manner of a seemingly realistic one act play, although there were some unrealistic elements. Clay's big monologue became the text of the 1960s black activists. The play also won the Obie award for best play and film was made.

BLACK NATIONALIST PERIOD (1965-1974)

1965 - Baraka solidified his hate for whites with the death of Malcolm X. He turned his back on his previous life and career -AND- his marriage broke up and he moved to Harlem and Newark and married Amina (Sylvia Robinson).

1965 - Founded the Black Arts Repertory Theatre/School in Harlem which produced Baraka plays which were often anti-white plays for black only audience. The theatre dissipated in a few months.

1967 - He also founded the Spirit House Players in Newark and other cultural and political organizations. Among the Spirit House productions were two anti-white plays against police brutality: Police and Arm Yourself and Harm Yourself.

1968 - His play, Home on the Range was performed as a benefit for the Black Panther part.

1968 - He dropped his western name and adopted the Muslim name of Imamu Amiri Baraka.

1969 - His Great Goodness of Life became part of the successful Black Quartet on Off-Broadway -AND- his Slave Ship was widely reviewed (portrays black history as suffering in the bowels of a slave ship on a two-tiered stage.

THIRD WORLD MARXIST PERIOD (1974- )

1974 - Baraka moved toward political activities and dropped the spiritual title, Imamu and adopted a Marxist Leninist philosophy (he called for the working class to revolt against the bourgeoisie).

Baraka addressed pressing social, sexual, psychological, and artistic implications of race in the United States -AND- he is referred to as a modernist in that he abandons realism and naturalism -AND- he influenced the future black playwrights like Ed Bullins.

1992 - Baraka visited EMU and read poetry and shared his ideas with the audience.

Today, Baraka is a critic, poet, playwright, and activist who still gets recognized as an outspoken critic and advocate for the rights and equality of African Americans. He frequently tours to speaking and reading engagements at universities and colleges nation-wide.

[hchutch]

Come to think of it, I have just the poem for the occasion...

Does Laura like Eminem?

---

C'mon folks, we goin to the beach
Grab a couple of toys and let Dubya strap you in the car seat
Oh where's Saddam? He's takin a little nap in the trunk
Oh that smell (whew!) Dubya musta runned over a skunk
Now I know what you're thinkin - it's kind of late to go swimmin
But you know your Saddam, he's one of those type of men
that do crazy things, and if he don't get his way, he'll throw a fit
Don't play with da-da's toy knife, honey, let go of it (no!)
And don't look so upset, why you actin bashful?
Don't you wanna help Dubya build a sand castle? (yeah!)
And Saddam said he wants to show how far he can float
And don't worry about that little boo-boo on his throat
It's just a little scratch - it don't hurt, he was eatin
dinner while you were sweepin and spilled ketchup on his shirt
Saddam's messy isn't he? We'll let him wash off in the water
and me and you can pway by ourselves, can't we?

See honey.. there's a place called heaven and a place called hell
A place called prison and a place called jail
And Saddam's probably on his way to all of em except one
Cause Saddam's got new weapons and a buncha missles
And you don't want weapons do ya? (Nah)
Maybe when you're old enough to understand a little better
I'll explain it to ya
But for now we'll just say Saddam was real real bad
He was bein mean to Bush and made him real real mad
But I still feel sad that I put him on time-out

Wake up sweepy head we're here, before we pway
we're gonna take Saddam for a wittle walk along the pier
Baby, don't cry honey, don't get the wrong idea
Saddam's too sweepy to hear you screamin in his ear (Saddam!)
That's why you can't get him to wake, but don't worry
Dubya made a nice bed for Saddam at the bottom of the lake
Here, you wanna help Dubya tie a rope around this rock? (yeah!)
We'll tie it to his footsie then we'll roll him off the dock
Ready now, here we go, on the count of free..
One.. two.. free.. WHEEEEEE! (whoooooshhhhh)
There goes Saddam, spwashin in the wa-ta
No more fightin wit us, no more UN bullcrap
No more nuclear labs, no more bio-war
Blow him kisses bye-bye, tell Saddam you love him (Saddam!)
Now we'll go play in the sand, build a castle and junk
But first, just help Bush with two more things out the trunk

[hchutch]

Ping to Post 26...

[Mr_Magoo]

I found this on another thread on this story:

To: SeenTheLight

What would happen if we sent our own original patriotic poems to Laura? If say, 50,000 poems were sent unsolicited to the White House with permission to publish, and if FreeRepublic were to spearhead such an event, what do you think would happen? Would the press report on that?And if the press didn't follow up on the story, would it really matter as long as their was a thread that posted all such submissions here on FreeRepublic?

How about let's find out?

8 posted on 01/30/2003 5:45 PM CST by dandelion
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[rabidralph]

All of this anger at the White House and the policies of the administration could be solved if the government would stop funding the arts. Communist countries fund the arts. These artistic anarchists have every right to say what they want but they shouldn't expect us to pay for it. And it's time we stopped paying for it. They still have their freedom of speech, they just have to find their own venue to spout it. Way to go, Laura!

[AnAmericanMother]

Yes, makin' mock o' uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an' they're starvation cheap;
An' hustlin' drunken soldiers when they're goin' large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin' in full kit.

Then it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, 'ow's yer soul?"
But it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it's "Thin red line of 'eroes" when the drums begin to roll.

[Republic]

Hamill whines,
with apparent glee,
and gathers his sycophants
in rapid spree.
thru crys of 'no war', we are poets, we 're free,
to change the form of an invite as the invitees.

But Alas, Mr. Hamill,
your subversion is rude.
You jammed in your viewpoint,
forced change, crashed the mood.
So now there's no reading, no poetry will flow,
stinkin liberal bravado, unmasked, stopped the show.

[RAT Patrol]

The arts should be self-funding. If it's good it will thrive. If not, let it die. Or let private donors fund it.

[xfmrman]

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
F*** Em!

[Pure Country]

I think Hamill is skating on thin ice

I think you have the wrong Hamill!

[shiva]

Sam Hamill

[hchutch]

Better Idea:

Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
My message to Saddam:
F*** YOU!

[RAT Patrol]

LOL Scott would never skate on thin ice.

[aristeides]

I agree. In other kinds of polity -- monarchies and aristocracies, for example -- governments may have good taste, at least some of the time. But bureaucrats subject to political pressure in a democracy will almost never favor good art.

[Charles Henrickson]

My "skating on thin ice" and "stir wars" allusions in post #21 were to Dorothy and Mark.

[RAT Patrol]

LOL Oops! it's Scott Hamilton, isn't it? LOL