WE ARE NEEDING ONE ANOTHER
Empire has a breathtaking thirst for war but poets can come together on the streets to imagine with everyone our lives against and beyond the harness. In 2004 I cofounded PACE with Frank Sherlock, Mytili Jagannathan, and Linh Dinh. 10 years ago today Frank wrote on the PhillySound blog about that first PACE action in Philadelphia on Christmas eve. Read his account HERE. Soon after I wrote THIS blog post which included the poetry samples we read and gave to people.
Empire has a breathtaking thirst for war but poets can come together on the streets to imagine with everyone our lives against and beyond the harness. In 2004 I cofounded PACE with Frank Sherlock, Mytili Jagannathan, and Linh Dinh. 10 years ago today Frank wrote on the PhillySound blog about that first PACE action in Philadelphia on Christmas eve. Read his account HERE. Soon after I wrote THIS blog post which included the poetry samples we read and gave to people.
PACE is not only an acronym it is also the Italian word for PEACE. Poet-activists Jules Boykoff and
Imagine — and witness — public space that is produced by us. In Landscapes of Dissent, Sand and Boykoff remind us that there is a long history and ripe presence of intersections between poetry and politics. Don Mitchell is quoted in these pages as saying that public space is “decisive.” In an age in which alienation is among our most prevalent health hazards, Landscapes of Dissent demonstrates that poetry may be newly, again, good for you. This book is a gift. Take the power.
10 years later to continue the work I started with my friends PACE The Nation is visiting every possible poetry community in the United States of America. Click HERE for details and to contact me about visiting your family of poets to do PACE actions on your streets and to talk with you all about the conditions of your lives and communities and what we can do to end our nation’s obsession with war.
This is a photo from 2004 of Frank Sherlock and Linh Dinh, taken by our friend Nicole McEwan:
