Your Life for a Love Poem

Learn about landai, a two line poetic form (perfect for Twitter!) practiced by the women of Afghanistan and about the risks they take for the right to self-expression. Eliza Griswold (The Tenth Parallel, Wideawake Field) has a great piece about Afghan women's poetry in The New York Times Magazine, Why Afghan Women Risk Death to Write Poetry,

Like most folk literature, landai can be sorrowful or bawdy. Imagine the Wife of Bath riding through the Himalayan foothills and uttering landai so ribald that they curled the toes of her fellow travelers. She might tease her rival: “Say hello to my sweetheart/If you are a farter [tizan, one who farts a lot], then I can fart louder than you.” She might make a cutting political joke: “Your black eyelashes are Israel/and my heart is Palestine under your attack.” She might utter an elegiac couplet: “My beloved gave his head for our country/I will sew his shroud with my hair.”

“A poem is a sword,” Saheera Sharif, Mirman Baheer’s founder, said. Sharif is not a poet but a member of Parliament from the province of Khost. Literature, she says, is a more effective battle for women’s rights than shouting at political rallies. “This is a different kind of struggle.”

There's more, including a slideshow, at the Pulitzer Center website. More in this form can be found collected in Songs of Love and War: Afghan Women's Poetry. Samples from the book here. Also of interest, there is a new collection of poetry by Taliban authors, Poetry of the Taliban. The editors were interviewed in The Atlantic recently, 

The average reader in the West probably regards the Taliban as being profoundly hostile to culture. How do we reconcile incidents like the destruction of the Buddha statues at Bamiyan with the outpouring of poetic sentiment documented in your book?

There is a difference between the formal pronouncements or edicts of the Taliban's leadership and the fighters on the ground. That is as true for the Taliban as it is true for the British Army. In our introduction we also note the contradiction between the formal edicts issued by Mullah  Mohammad Omar (banning most kinds of music) and his private consumption of those same songs that he had banned. This is to be expected. The Taliban are not a monolithic movement, with fixed and unchanging attitudes. In many ways, our difficulties understanding the movement say more about us than it does about the Taliban.

Sounds like what we need is an Afghan poetry slam.

What Is It About A Zoo?

One of the key events in Tea Obreht's The Tiger's Wife is the 1941 Easter Sunday bombing of the Belgrade Zoo. As it happens, this event was also depicted in the 1995 award-winning film Underground directed by Emir Kusturica. Watch the opening sequence here. You can see from just this excerpt that it shares a certain sensibility with the novel, combining tragedy and humor, absurdity with pathos.  Here's an account of how Obreht visited the Syracuse Zoo when she found herself in need of inspiration. She explains in this interview with fellow novelist Jennifer Egan,

There is something jarring about seeing an animal out of place: there’s a universal feeling of awe when you see an animal, particularly an impressive animal, out of place.

The novel reminded me of some other war torn zoo-themed books: Diane Ackerman's true story of the Warsaw Zoo and the Polish resistance, The Zookeeper's Wife, and the graphic novel Pride of Baghdad, inspired by the destruction of the Baghdad Zoo during the Iraq War in 2003. Poet Brian Turner also meditated on the strange animals roaming about the city in "The Baghdad Zoo" (from his collection Here, Bullet). Apparently, there's even an award-winning play that makes use of the incident, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Last but not least, AIUSA's Human Rights Now blog notes that the website that accompanies Sacha Baron Cohen's latest satire The Dictator, highlights tourism attractions for the fictional Republic of Wadiya's zoo, including endangered species such as "pandas, white tigers, and Amnesty International officials." Hah!  Have I missed any good displaced animal stories? What is it about a zoo?

Shirt

How about starting off April's National Poetry Month with Robert Pinsky's homage to the seamstresses of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory (and garment workers everywhere), "Shirt."

Read the poem here.  More info and analysis here.  Another collection of Triangle Fire by poet Mary Fell here.

Audio of Pinksy reading the poem from the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition's Open Archive.

Our January Author: Mahvish Khan

Mahvish Khan, author of this month's selection, My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me, has her own website: Mahvish. You'll find pictures from Guantanamo, Afghanistan and the detainees and their families there. Guantanamo is a popular place for photo essayists. See also these provocative photo collections from TIME, Edmund Clark at lens culture and more from the Boston Globe.

Video of talks given by Khan are available from Authors@Google and ForaTV.




To follow up on the status of prisoners mentioned in the book or others you may have read about or written an Amnesty action on behalf of, you can consult the NYT's Guantánamo Docket. The Washington Post has a Guantanamo Bay Timeline that could be useful as well. Two of the NGO's featured prominently in the book are the Center for Constitutional Rights and Reprieve. CCR runs down all the Supreme Court cases concerning Guantanamo inmates and Reprieve does a good job of featuring the stories of their various detainee clients. Reprieve's director, Clive Stafford Smith wrote in the LATimes in 2007,

In more than 20 years trying death-penalty cases, I have visited all the worst prisons in the Deep South, yet none compares to Camp Six here. To the military, this tribute to Halliburton's profiteering is state-of-the-art; to the human being, it is simply inhumane.

The ACLU is always a worth a look too: Close Gitmo & End Military Commissions. And of course, you should check out Amnesty International USA's Counter Terror with Justice page, especially the current actions on behalf of detainees.

NPR reports on Guantanamo poetry and Harper's adds a poem from Jumah al-Dossary, who also penned this account of his imprisonment for the Washington Post, I'm Home, but Still Haunted by Guantanamo, leaving us with a little hope,

In Guantanamo, I was very angry with the people who had decided to hold me thousands of miles from home without charging or trying me. I was very angry with the people who kept me in isolation even when I was at my most desperate. I was very angry about having no rights at all. I was not angry with Americans in general and I even drew comfort from some, such as my lawyers and the kind soldier. But I could scarcely comprehend how U.S. policy had allowed me to be treated as I had been.
On the plane ride home, though, I decided that I would have to forgive to go on with my life. I also know that Sept. 11 was a great tragedy that caused some people to do dark things that they would not otherwise do. This knowledge helped me forget my miserable existence in Guantanamo and open my heart to life again...

Would that we could leave this behind us too, but the matter of what happens after Guantanamo still confronts us. I leave you with this post, Obama & the Guantanamo Mess: A Way Out? by David Cole from the New York Review blog as a signpost for discussion.

Sunday Meditation

While we are still feeling the wind off the steppe from our exploration of Stalinism (The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin) it's natural that some of us have turned to the great Russian poets. Intrepid Reader Stevi suggests the very appropriate "The Heirs of Stalin" by Yevgeny Yevtushenko as companion to this book. I'll add that some of the references to Anna Akhmatova sent me off to browse poetry sites. I recommend "The Sentence" available at the Favorite Poem Project site. More Akhmatova here.

Juarez: Poetry, Art and Song

As a little warm-up to this month's discussion of Teresa Rodriguez' The Daughters of Juarez: A True Story of Serial Murder South of the Border, take some time out for a poetic treatment of the tragedy of the women of Juarez through the work of Marjorie Agosin. Her poetry collection, Secrets in the Sand: The Young Women of Juarez,

Sometimes
How many times do I talk with my dead?
And the night was a precipice

More of her poems here.

You might also want to check out musical tributes by Lila Downs and Los Tigres del Norte (more on the Los Tigres song from NPR here). I know there has been more than a few artists who have commemorated these young women, but so far I've found only one link. Suggestions welcome.

Rights Readers Round-up: Climate Change Edition

Another in our periodic updates on Rights Readers authors, this time with an environmental twist:

Orville Schell (Mandate Of Heaven) previews the upcoming climate talks in Copenhagen highlighting the U.S.-China divide on climate change solutions. Nation subscribers might want to check out Mark Hertsgaard's (Earth Odyssey) article on the same subject, 'Shades of Green'. I also highly recommend exploring the Asia Society's excellent multimedia web resources on China and climate change which feature interviews with Schell. Check out the air quality in Beijing and watch time lapse view of the melting of the Tibetan plateau and learn how drought is affecting nomadic herding cultures of the area.

Edward Humes (No Matter How Loud I Shout), now on the environmental beat, profiles the Center for Biological Diversity and their fight against development at Tejon Ranch,

The organization’s goal is to augment its usual battle over specific endangered species issues—in Tejon’s case, the California condor—with a broader campaign to show that projects such as Tejon are precisely the sort of development, built far from existing cities and requiring residents to “leapfrog” through the outlying area to get to work, that must stop if we are to get serious about slowing climate change. It argues that state and federal laws should force developers at Tejon—and elsewhere—to quantify their contribution to global warming and then do everything feasible to eliminate that impact, from installing solar roofs to mandating zero-emission vehicles for residents.

A little follow-up on Wiwa v Shell: Transcript of Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr. (In the Shadow of a Saint)interview at CNN and here's a Reuters report on the impact of the case on Big Oil. Meanwhile Zina Saro-Wiwa, taking on a cultural ambassador role for African positivity premiers a film, This is My Africa.

More than one of our Esteemed Readers have praised the film, The Linguists (view online here). I'm going to recommend this fascinating article about the nexus between climate change and language diversity from Seed, 'In Defense of Difference,'

Epicenters of global biodiversity, it turns out, tend to be situated in exactly the same places as the epicenters of high cultural, linguistic, and food-crop diversity.

...

Homogeneous landscapes — whether linguistic, cultural, biological, or genetic — are brittle and prone to failure. The evidence peppers human history, as Jared Diamond so meticulously catalogued in his aptly named book, Collapse. Whether it was due to a shifting climate that devastated a too-narrow agricultural base, a lack of cultural imagination in how to deal with the problem, or a devastating combination of the two, societies insufficiently resilient enough to cope with the demands of a changing environment invariably crumbled.

Hey! Poets and scientists unite! You should also Check out this UN Tribute to Poetry in Endangered Languages with handy world poetry map!

Jailed without Justice

Revisiting the subject of our March discussion (Brother, I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat) of deaths in immigrant detention, Amnesty International released a compelling report on the subject in March (yeah, I'm a little late on this one), Jailed without Justice. You can download the report and take action here.

Hear AIUSA Executive Director discuss the report on WNYC:



The NYT reports on another death in immigrant detention here.

Bonus: Edwidge Danticat reads poetry in Haitian creole for PEN.

Sunday Meditation: Tiananmen Poetry

Last Saturday veterans and supporters of the 1989 Tiananmen protests gathered at Caltech to share poetry and reflections of their experiences. On the eve of the 18th anniversary of the June 4 massacre we present a little poetry here to commemorate the day. OpenDemocracy has a 2004 interview and poems of exiled poet Liu HongBin. And here is a taste of Bei Dao's "June" from Perihelion,

unending plastic flowers
on the dead left bank
the cement square extending
from writing to

now

An excellent resource on Tiananmen is the website for the Frontline documentary Tiananmen: The Gate of Heavenly Peace and don't forget to leave a bouquet on the square for the Tiananmen Mothers!

Louise Erdrich: Poet

April is National Poetry Month, so aren't we fortunate in choosing a fiction writer this month who is also a poet. The Poetry Foundation has a selection of Louise Erdrich's poems. For one relating to our discussion of Tracks, try "Windigo."

Sunday Meditation: Hurricane Blues

Observant Readers may have noticed that I've been featuring poetry links on occasional Sundays, in an attempt to broaden our horizons behind our usual fiction/nonfiction rotation. This week I want to call attention to a collection of Katrina/Rita related poetry entitled, Hurricane Blues. From the publisher's description,

Hurricane Blues is a unique artifact of American history: an anthology of original poems about the two most infamous hurricanes of 2005. Many of these poems are eyewitness accounts--written by both distinguished and emerging poets, all of whom were moved by the destruction of a legendary American city and the roughly 300-mile radius within Katrina's wrath.

This collection not only records history but serves in some way as a balm, a relief effort toward the inevitable reconstruction of the region. Accordingly, all proceeds from Hurricane Blues will go toward the relief effort.

Some snippets and reflections on the collection are available on this blog and from the Boston Globe,

Some "Hurricane Blues" poems remind us of the disconnect of being where sun warmed our faces as we listened to news about the rising waters. Virginia Ramus, watching, horrified, "from this New/Jersey beach," wrote of "ocean darkening/beneath fingernail/moon visible from all/over the nation." Likewise, Thomas R. Smith's poem, " In Wisconsin, Hardly a Breeze," asked "How would our/heart beat without the city that birthed Satchmo?"

Okay, so full disclosure: T.R. Smith is an old friend of my brother's. In the absence of a full poem from Hurricane Blues to share, try this excerpt from T.R.'s poem "Peace Vigil." I'm sure many of our Loyal Readers and Veteran Vigilers can find themselves in that circle.

For more Katrina related poetry, check out this Newshour feature from a few months back.

Sunday Meditation: Emmett Till

NPR interviews poet Marilyn Nelson about her book of poetry for young adults, A Wreath for Emmett Till, another in a series of explorations of African American history via poetry by this author including Carver: A Life in Poems and Fortune's Bones. An excerpt from the book and audio of the poet reading are available at the NPR website.

Sunday Meditation: The Poetry of Guantanamo

For your Sunday contemplation, here is news of a forthcoming collection of poetry, including a sample poem by Jumah al-Dossari, from detainees at Guantanmo. Jumah al-Dossari's personal account of his incarceration was recently featured in the Los Angeles Times,

I would rather die than stay here forever, and I have tried to commit suicide many times. The purpose of Guantanamo is to destroy people, and I have been destroyed. I am hopeless because our voices are not heard from the depths of the detention center.

If I die, please remember that there was a human being named Jumah at Guantanamo whose beliefs, dignity and humanity were abused. Please remember that there are hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo suffering the same misfortune. They have not been charged with any crimes. They have not been accused of taking any action against the United States.

Lengthier testimony is also available from Amnesty along with a case sheet and downloadable action.

This reminded me of the story from nearly a year ago of another Guantamo poet (now released and writing a book). From the BBC,

At first, deprived of paper and pen, he memorised his best lines or scribbled them secretly on paper cups. He recited a verse: "What kind of spring is this where there are no flowers and the air is filled with a miserable smell?"

Sadly, it looks like there is no shortage of poets for the collection.

Arts and Culture from the Axis of Evil

NPR ran a profile the other day on poetry and prose from Iran, Iraq and North Korea, now in a new collection, Literature from the Axis of Evil. The page features a short story from North Korea and samples from a similarly themed musical collection, Lullabies from the Axis of Evil.
SoundRoots has an Evil sample playlist which might appeal if you find lullabies to tame. If your taste runs more visual, NPR also explores Guy DeLisle's Pyongyang, a graphic novel/memoir of his stay in North Korea. You can download a pdf excerpt of the comic at the site. That one has been on my to-be-considered list for a while. Just waiting for the paperback!

Burma: Human Rights Links

More follow-up to our discussion of Finding George Orwell in Burma;
 
Burma Project -Voices of '88 commemorates the 1988 demonstrations and includes photos, cartoons and poetry.  Burma- Grace Under Pressure is a slick multi-media presentation of photography from contemporary Burma that guides you through the basic human rights issues facing the country. (I quite enjoyed the soundtrack!)

Larkin mentions the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners as her source for information on the experiences of Burmese prisonsers of conscience.  I recommend browsing "Learning Behind Bars" in the Photo Gallery.

Also from Larkin's acknowledgments, here are links to BurmaNet and The Irrawaddy News Magazine Online Edition for more in depth news about Burma.

Last but not least!  Take action:  sign the petition for Ma Khin Khin Leh!

Angel Island Poetry

National Poetry Month is coming to a close and I thought I might raise a little poetic consciousness and at the same time spotlight the current immigration legislation controversy by journeying back to the days of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the detention of Chinese immigrants at Angel Island in San Francisco where they wrote poetry about their plight all over the walls of their barracks. Here's a great photo gallery. For a fun lesson for the linguistically curious and students (or former students) of Chinese language amongst us-- including audio readings in Mandarin and Cantonese-- try this link.
Scholastic has a nice account of children's author Li Keng Wong's (Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain) stay at Angel Island. A more adult, scholarly approach to the poetry can be found here.

Okay, enough history lesson! Read about Amnesty's concerns and take action on the pending immigration legislation!

Nikki Giovanni coming to Caltech

We are looking forward to "An Evening with Nikki Giovanni" brought to you by our friends who run the Caltech Social Activism Speaker Series. Nikki Giovanni is a world-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator and the event will be Thursday, February 9, at 7:30 PM at Beckman Auditorium at Caltech (maps). The event is free and open to the public.

Giovanni and illustrator Bryan Collier recently won a Caldecott Honors for her children's book about Rosa Parks, Rosa. The timing of this event seems especially appropriate following on the deaths of Rosa Parks and Corretta Scott King.

A couple of her poems are available online: "Possum Crossing" and "Quilts". The latter poem is part of a unique collaboration, Visual Verse: Poetry Meets Fabric (scroll down to see the quilt that matches the poem).

Memorializing Ken Saro-Wiwa

Today is the tenth anniversary of the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa. How to commemorate this date? Revisit the other posts on this site about the on-going struggle of Nigerian activists to protect their environment in the face of degradation caused by the oil industry and take the recommended actions. Read Ken Wiwa's piece on his father in the Guardian (also linked on this blog), and let's let Saro-Wiwa the writer speak for himself: Sydney PEN Center has a tribute which includes a couple of his poems plus tribute poems by Ben Okri and Jack Mapanje. I used to read "The True Prison" at the end of every talk I gave for Amnesty/Sierra Club's Just Earth Network. A creation of a memorial poetry collection, Dance the Guns to Silence is part of the international effort to recognize this date, but alas the book appears to have no US publisher at this point.

Finally, how about some thoughts from a Nigerian blogger: Nigerian Times reminds us of the other martyrs to the Ogoni cause.

Rosa Parks, Lady Freedom

From Rita Dove's poetry collection On the Bus with Rosa Parks,

Rosa

and

Lady Freedom Among Us

"don't think you can ever forget her

don't even try

she's not going to budge

no choice but to grant her space

crown her with sky

for she is one of the many

and she is each of us"