AUT: Statement by Baraka on his poem

[Scott Hamilton <s_h_hamilton@xxxxxxxxx>]

STATEMENT BY AMIRI BARAKA, NEW JERSEY POET LAUREATE
10/2/2002

I WILL NOT "APOLOGIZE", I WILL NOT "RESIGN!"

The recent dishonest, consciously distorted and
insulting non-
interpretation of my poem, "Somebody Blew Up America"
by
the "Anti-Defamation" League, is fundamentally an
attempt to
defame me. And with that, an attempt to repress and
stigmatize independent thinkers everywhere.

This trashy propaganda is characteristic of right-wing
zealots who are interested only in slander and
character
assassination of those whose views or philosophies
differ
from or are in contradiction to theirs.

First, the poem underlying theme focuses on how Black
Americans have suffered from domestic terrorism since
being
kidnapped into US chattel slavery, e.g., by Slave
Owners, US
& State Laws, Klan, Skin Heads, Domestic Nazis,
Lynching,
denial of rights, national oppression, racism,
character
assassination, historically, and at this very minute
throughout the US. The relevance of this to Bush call
for
a "War on Terrorism", is that Black people feel we
have
always been victims of terror, governmental and
general, so
we cannot get as frenzied and hysterical as the people
who
while asking us to dismiss our history and
contemporary
reality to join them, in the name of a shallow
"patriotism"
in attacking the majority of people in the world,
especially
people of color and in the third world.

This is said to us, even as this counterfeit
president has legalized the Confederate Flag in
Mississippi.
Could the victims of European Fascism be as
frantically loyal
to a regime that would fly a Nazi Swastika over their
homes?
So we cannot, in good conscience, celebrate what seems
to us
an international crusade to set up a military
dictatorship
over the world, legitimatized at base, by white
supremacy,
carried out, no matter the crude lies, as the most
terrifying
form of Imperialism and its attendant national
oppression.
All of it designed to drain super profits bluntly from
the
colored peoples of the world, but as well, from the
majority
of the peoples in the world. For all the frantic
condemnations of Terror by Bush etc., as the single
International Super Power, they are the most dangerous
terrorists in the world!

Actually, in my focus on various forces of terror Afro
Americans and other oppressed people of the world have
suffered, slavery, colonialism, Imperialism, Neo neo-
colonialism, National Oppression, the ADL
disingenuously
makes no mention of my probing into the creators of
the
holocaust, e.g., "who put the Jews in ovens, / and who
helped
them do it, / Who said "America First"/ and Ok'd the
yellow
stars", which of course is a reference to America's
domestic
fascists just before World War II and the Nazi
Holocaust.

Nor do these ADL purveyors of falsehood mention
the poem's listing of some of the Jews across the
world,
oppressed, imprisoned, murdered by actual Anti-
Semitic
forces, open or disguised. The poem asks "Who killed
Rosa
Luxembourg, Liebnecht/Who murdered the Rosenbergs/ And
all
the good people iced, tortured, assassinate,
vanished".

The ADL apparently is not outraged by McCarthy
era frame-up and execution of the Rosenbergs, nor the
assassination of German Jewish Communist leaders like
Liebnecht, Luxembourg. The ADL leaves these things out
to try
to make their lies more believable, and also because
these
victims of imperialism were on the Left.

Happily the Star Ledger published the entire poem,
though including in a box, supposedly identifying the
offending phrases, my question, "Who Blew Up The
Reichstag?"
as if the ADL had also claimed that the poem was
inferring
that Jews did it. When it was Hitler's destruction of
the
Reichstag, that provided the pretext for the general
imprisonment of Jews, after incarcerating Communists,
Social
Democrats and Trade Unionists. Why this was done one
can
only speculate, but this is the kind of sloppy or
intentionally slanderous journalism one can often find
in the
media. It also reflects the kind of unprincipled
attack that
characterizes ADL press release.

The Reichstag fire, parallels the 911 Attack, in
that after that "mysterious act of terrorism", which
Hitler
blamed on Jews and Communists, the Nazis passed a law
The
Reichstag Enablement Act, that gave the Nazis much the
same
carte blanche as the Bush administration used the 911
tragedy
to pass the wholly undemocratic Patriot Bill and begin
rounding up suspects, even without identifying them.
Of
course the actual arsonists of the Reichstag terror
were
never found, though most scholars are certain it was
the
Nazis themselves.

Of the other lines of the poem, which the ADL termed
an example of the Hitlerian "Big Lie", and the poet's
"spewing Anti-Semitic venom". The lines, "Who knew the
World
Trade Center was gonna get/bombed?" Well now,
certainly, even
the Democratic Party has affirmed that the Bush
Administration
knew. I agree with this, and it is everywhere on the
Internet
that not only was the US warned repeatedly by Germany,
France, Russia, England but also Israel. Michael
Ruppert of
the Green Party has issued a video stating clearly,
"Israeli
security issued urgent warnings to the CIA of
large-scale
terror attacks. .And that the Israeli Mossad knew that
the
attacks were going to take place.they knew that the
World
Trade Center were the targets. This is from British
newspaper
the "Telegraph". (Copies of these documents available
with
this statement.)

In addition there are articles in all forms of media
and of course the Internet confirming or suggesting
that the
entire Imperialist world knew and had warned the US
CIA in
advance, but no action was taken. WHY. They say
they "couldn't connect the dots". The FBI agents in
Minnesota and Arizona who sd that FBI received a
report in
1998 that a terrorist organization .planned to bring
people
to the US to enroll in flight schools. Zacharias
Moussoui,
now charged with conspiring in the Sept 11 attacks,
was
arrested by the Minnesota agents of the FBI in August
2001
but FBI HQ denied agents request to seek a warrant
even to
search his computer. And in a prepared statement by a
Minnesota FBI agent, he blamed legal restrictions but
principally FBI headquarters for impeding a more
aggressive
investigation of this man. As for the other agent's
attempt
to warn the FBI HQ of these attacks, he was rebuffed
when he
made the report, but now FBI HQ says it has not record
of
such warning. (See http://www.Truthout.org/docs) There
are
other incredible dots on the media, for instance the
stockholders of American Airlines and United, which
were the
carriers highjacked to commit the terror began
withdrawing
stock from these companies in August before the
attacks.

The most offensive phrase in the poem to my various
attackers is, "Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the
Twin
Towers / to stay home that day/ Why did Sharon stay
away?" To
infer that I am accusing Israel of committing the
atrocity is
disingenuous slander and character assassination. But
I do
believe, as I stated about England, Germany, France,
Russia,
that the Israeli government, certainly it's security
force,
SHABAK knew about the attack in advance.

My sources were, "Ha'aretz" and "Yadiot Ahranot" (two
Israeli newspapers) "Al Watan" (a Jordanian newspaper)
"Manar" -TV and the website of the Israeli security
force
SHABAK. There are myriad references to this in
Reuters, Der
Spiegel. The Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot first
revealed
that SHABAK had canceled Sharon's appearance in New
York City
that day, Sept 11, where he was supposed to speak at
an "Israel Day" celebration. This was also mentioned
in the
Star Ledger, to the effect that Sharon was supposed to
visit
the US, but no dates were mentioned.

It is the Green Party's Ruppert who makes the most
effective case for the 4000 Israeli workers (Not
Jewish
Workers!) but Israeli nationals. He says in his video,
"if
what I am showing you is known overtly although the
media,
how much more does our thirty billion dollar
intelligence
community know". He goes on, and this seems true to
me, It
is "Nonsense" to say the Israelis did it. They were
warning
the U.S. hand over fist." Ruppert speculates further
1. The
US did not listen 2. They needed the attacks" which I
leave
to time, as Malcolm X sd, Time will tell.

But the most stunning revelation is this, again
Ruppert, "We reviewed the list of former tenants of
the World
Trade Center at the on-line Wall St Journal site. And
there's
the website. It is an alphabetical list of tenants.
Scroll to
the very bottom and notice the moving date for the
office of
Zim American-Israeli Shipping to Norfolk Virginia.
They were
in the World Trade Center. They must have had Mossad"
(or
Shabak- AB) input because they vacated one week before
September and they broke their lease. The Israelis
didn't
pull the attack, but they were smart enough to get
their
people out of the way. How come our government didn't
do the
same thing for us." (Statement & Quote by George
DeCarlo,
Coordinator of Union County Greens, Co Founder of the
NJ
Lavender Greens- included in media pkg.)

The poem was never saying anything else, i.e., why
didn't the other slaughtered Americans know? I WAS NOT
SAYING
ISRAEL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ATTACK, BUT THAT THEY
KNEW AND
OUR OWN COUNTERFEIT PRESIDENT DID TOO! There is other
disturbing facts surround the hideous 911 attacks,
which my
family and I could see from the third floor bathroom
window
of our homes! And certainly one day all this will be
thoroughly investigated. The poem says "Who know why
Five
Israelis was filming the explosion/ And cracking they
sides
at the notion." I got this story from The Star Ledger,
where
it appeared twice, and The New York Times.

The reference to "cracking they sides" or laughing
uproariously while filming the 911 attack, apparently
on the
top of a truck from the Jersey side is a direct
paraphrase of
the Ledger articles. In fact, the State Police, who
arrested
them, stated that that is one of the reasons they did
arrest
them, because they were laughing.

Again, these were Israeli Nationals, persons holding
Israeli passports. The Times article even reported on
what
their lives were like in Jail. And implied they would
be
deported. So this reference is not more of the ADL's
"Anti-
Semitic venom" but arrived at merely from studying the
US
media. Why those five Israelis were there filming and
laughing I do not claim know. That's why the poem here
and
throughout continuously chants the question WHO WHO
WHO? That
is, who is responsible for this horrible crime and
WHY? It is
a poem that aims to probe and disturb, but there is
not the
slightest evidence of Anti-Semitism, as anyone who
reads it
without some insidious bias would have to agree. Why
the ADL
would do this, I can only speculate.

I wish they and other concerned pundits would
speculate
on how an Airplane flying in America, where the pilot
has to
file a flight plan before taking off, how can such a
plane or
two or three of them file such a route in which they
would
travel, and in the case of the planes leaving Boston
make 45
degree turns south and fly 54 minutes to the World
Trade
Center and 90 minutes to the Pentagon and not be
challenged
by US Air Defense Fighters, or brought down by ground
to air
missiles?

Having been in the Air Force I know those ADC fighters
would normally confront such "rogue" aircraft within a
few
minutes! Why was this not done? Let the ADL and the
media
investigating me, investigate that! We should know
that Bush
and his Right Wing crew want War against all the
forces of
their so called "Axis of Evil" What a not so wild
coincidence
that the path of this Axis parallels the route of the
proposed US oil corporations- pipe line from Saudi to
the far
east, apparently to oppose the spiraling economic
growth and
influence of China. They scream "Bin Laden" and
"Taliban" and
destroy Afghanistan, install a puppet president and a
shadow
occupation force.

Next in the Axis is Iraq, we should have known that.
With no real proof at all again the people of the US
outraged
and frightened by the Reichstag of 911 are hyped with
chants
of "Regime Change" and "Saddam Hussein". No longer is
the
madness of crowds being aroused by the "Anti
-Terrorist"
campaign and Bin Laden as the Devil figure used to
rouse the
people to a patriotic frenzy, now it is Saddam
Hussein. So
forget last month's war and get ready for this
month's.
Bush says he wants "regime change" in Palestine, he
wants to
oust Arafat, now in Iraq, and he wants to oust Saddam.
The
Axis projects Iran next and then North Korea. What is
this an
updated version of 1984 or an American version of
Hitler's
and Bush 1's) New World Order?

Regime Change, why? Because these regimes are anti
democratic or terrorists or in the case of Saddam,
they
have "weapons of mass destruction". Well if being anti
democratic were a good rationalization for foreign
invasions
of countries then the United States better watch out
because
the Florida coup, which tricked the American people
into
accepting Bush as President is anything but
democratic.
Should we let foreign countries invade us to get rid
of Bush?
What would be the American People's reaction to such
Third
Reich replay?

And as for Saddam having "weapons of mass destruction"
(or mass diversion as some critics say), the US has
these
weapons. So do Israel, South Africa, Germany, France,
Italy,
England, Russia, and now China, India, Pakistan. How
is it
the US and its allies (except the Chinese) can have
such
weapons, but no one else can. The answer to that, of
course,
is White Supremacy and Imperialism. And what should be
the
growing understanding by the American people and the
democratic people of the world, is what the far right
Bush
coven wants is a military dictatorship of the world.
The ADL, by attacking me by distorting what my poem is
saying, is doing its usual ugly, as a well known
running dog
of imperialism, particularly by attacking anyone who
takes an
independent position or is critical of Israeli
Imperialism
and its attendant ideology political Zionism. As they
are
attempting with me the ADL slanders anyone who is not
happy
with Israel's ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians
As Anti Semitic, when lst of all Israel and its
guiding
philosophy have nothing to do, as categories, with
Jews.
(See "Zionism in the Age of the Dictators", Brenner

But this is the trick such demagogues as the ADL use
to
hide the crimes of Imperialist Israel. When we
criticize US
imperialism does that make us enemies of Christianity,
maybe
only to Jerry Falwell and such Right wing Christian
Zealots,
perhaps Asscraft But neither Israel nor Zionism is the
same
as Judaism. (Op cit Brenner; also "The Dilemma of the
Modern
Jew, Prinz".) But this is the trick the Israeli's and
their
sympathizers use to hide behind Judaism. Israel (and
it's
political Zionism) has as much to do with Judaism, as
the US
has to do with Christianity.

In the US our constitution makes clear that this is a
secular nation and by law theoretically enforces
separation
of church and state, tho Mr. Bush and Mr. Asscraft
have
demonstrated they disagree, and Israel outright says
it is
a "Jewish State" but if that is so then that explains
why it
can discriminate against its Arab people living inside
Israel
and make them 2nd class citizens, in much the same way
that
South Africa, a close friend did under Apartheid. (See
"The
Crisis of Black Jewish Relations", Brenner & Bloom;
"Israel
and South Africa", Stevens & Ellmessi; The "Arabs in
Israel"
by Sabri Jiryis, foreword by Noam Chomsky).

The ADL attacks so it can confuse people and show me
as
just another Anti- Semitic attacker of their
absolutely false
depictions of Israel as a victim of Palestinian
Terrorism.
This is absolutely in tune with the Bush
administrations
Frenzied "destroy Iraq regime change "Jones" (a street
word
for narcotics addiction) that the administration is
chanting
around us like cheer leaders at a football game! So
that US
imperialism can transform the whole of the Middle
East, the
Arab world into a gas station (See "Bushwacked: A
Counterfeit
President for a Fake Democracy", Baraka)

So that we are supposed to believe that if a little
girl blows herself up in a Israeli Pizza Parlor, she
is a
terrorist, but when Israeli Jets, made in the USA,
destroy
whole sections of Palestinian cities, bulldoze
neighborhoods,
all but destroy the Palestinian Center of Governance,
with
its President, Yasser Arafat, inside sitting in the
dark, it
is the Israelis who are victims and the little
Palestinian
girl or boy or young man or young woman or even elder,
they
are the terrorists. We are supposed to be intimidated
by
demagogues like the Anti Defamation League (who should
be
called the Anti Anti Defamation League) so that Israel
as a
jr. partner of the Bush led US goosestep to world
military
domination can commit ethnic cleansing of the
Palestinians in
the name of fighting terrorism.

It is the ADL, which is actually guilty of what its
leader, Abraham Foxman calls the Hitlerian "Big Lie",
and
ironically it is the ADL, which is "spewing
anti-Semitic
venom". The same ADL which became aware of "Black Anti
Semitism", which it had earlier said has never been a
threat,
until Stokely Carmichael and SNCC began to support the
PLO
and the Palestinian Struggle as a Liberation Struggle
and
condemn Israeli Imperialism and Zionism. That is when,
as
Stokeley Carmichael says in the A-APRP's "Smash
Zionism" the
ADL smashed SNCC instead. As Israel drew closer to
South
Africa, politically, economically, militarily in the
60's
(Op Cit, above & others) the Black Liberation Movement
and
African Nations became more and more guilty, according
to the
ADL, of "Black Anti-Semitism".

This is the same ADL who opposed Affirmative Action,
even though many Jews benefited by the Civil Rights
Struggle,
and the most notable white comrades in that struggle
were
young Jews. The same ADL that filed an Amicus Curiae
(friend
of the court brief) in the historic and reactionary
Baake
Decision which challenged & defeated the University of
California's affirmative action as "racist" and was
explained
by the ADL as its opposition to quotas. So that the
university's could now enforce a quota on Black
students of
none!

This is the same ADL, which in league with the
American Israel Political Action Committee, just a few
weeks
ago sent millions of dollars into Atlanta, Georgia to
defeat
progressive Black Congress woman Cynthia McKinney,
because
she called for a more balance American view of the
Palestinian -Israeli Conflict. These same forces
defeated
in Alabama, another progressive Black incumbent
Congressman,
because he too dared to support the Palestinians. (See
New
York Times), Amsterdam News, Star Ledger). Very much
like the
way Bush touts "Regime Change," recently even hinting
at an
attempted Assassination of Saddam Hussein, if the
American
People rise up and force our congress to deny the Bush
juggernaut of terror to attack Iraq.

ADL and their " bagman" AIPAC didn't like these black
politicians stance on Israel, so in a minute and a few
million dollars, they are gone! So now, it's my turn.
Using
my poem, Somebody Blew Up America" they are going to
spread
the Big Lie, distort what poem says. Cover the fact
that this
poem actually is an attack on Imperialism, National
Oppression, Monopoly Capitalism, Racism,
Anti-Semitism. I
challenge ADL to show anywhere in this poem that is
Anti-
Semitic in the least. In their press release they say
talk
about "Jews being scapegoated throughout history.'
then "conspiracy mongers of the Arab world.have taken
Anti-
Israel propaganda to a new level " (Mr. Foxman, what
is the
Arab World? Alan Dershowitz in his "Chutzpah" says the
basis
of bigotry is "overgeneralization," so where is the
"Arab
World"? Is Detroit included? Asscraft thinks so.

Earlier the press release mentions "the Muslim
World" does that include Lyons Ave., Newark? But then
from "Anti-Semitism" the release goes to Israel, not
Jews,
and Israeli Mossad as those victimized. So they fight
Anti
Semitism mainly by "defending" Israel. In fact they
defend
Israel like Joe McCarthy "defended" the US against
Communism.
Included in my package is a communiqué from an Israeli
Peace
Organization ": Gush Shalom", "Israeli Peace Block
(see
Defamation from the Anti Defamation League Answered"
(info@xxxx) This was first published 7/11/2000 as
a press release. "In the past 24 hours, an attack is
being
mounted against Gush Shalom. Knesset Member Collette
Avital
(Labor) has actually lodge a complaint with the
police,
claiming that cartoons presented on our website
constitute "incitement". And the powerful American
Jewish
organization Anti -Defamation League found time, even
on
election day, over there, to disseminate a message of
defamation against "Gush Shalom", which already
resulted in
hate e mails being sent our address".

In a following message signed by Adam Keller Gush,
Shalom Spokesperson. The organization defends itself
from an
ADL press releases "expressing outrage at Gush
Shalom's
portrayal of Prime Minster Barak as a killer of
Palestinian
children in a caricature on its web site, stating that
the
image of Barak standing on the bleeding bullet ridden
body of
a Palestinian child is abhorrent." Gush Shalom
replies,
"Still after consulting with my fellow activists I am
in a
position to make an offer. Should a complete week -
seven
days pass in which not a single unarmed Palestinian is
killed
by the Israeli armed forces which are answerable to
Mr.
Barak, we would remove the above mentioned cartoon
from our
website.

The Gush Shalom statement ends "As for the ADL- an
organization which claims to "counter hatred prejudice
and
bigotry" can you truly find no other places to search
for
such, with Israeli society in its present condition,
except
at our modest website. Was the ADL attacking these
Israelis
for being Anti Semitic or criticizing rather
forcefully the
continuous murder of the Palestinians. So in Israel
itself,
ADL is still covering for and attacking anyone, even
Israeli
citizens themselves who oppose the Bush Zionist Plan
to de-
Palestinianize Palestine!

Another communication from Israe(robertoj69@xxxx):
This signed by 95 Israeli Academics (copy included in
pkg),
Sept 23, 2002 that begins "URGENT WARNING: THE ISRAELI
GOVERNMENT MAY BE CONTEMPLATING CRIMES AGAINST
HUMANITY" It
goes on, "We members of the Israeli academe are
horrified by
US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the
Israeli
political leadership's enthusiastic support of it. We
are
deeply worried by indications that the "fog of war"
could be
exploited by the Israeli government to commit further
crimes
against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged
ethnic
cleansing."

One striking description of the Israeli Military by
these professors is that in an interview found in
Ha'aretz
Sept 19, 2002, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon
describe
the Palestinians as a "cancerous manifestation" and
equated
the military actions in the Occupied territories with
"chemotherapy". Certainly the ADL will have to go
after
these "Anti Semites" using the "Big Lie" and "Spewing
Anti-
Semitic Venom"! And the growing list of progressive
democratic people around the world who will have
opinions
about Israel and Political Zionism independent of the
ADL,
the ADL will have to attack and slander them as well

I challenge the ADL to set up a national television
program so that we might debate this issue. We can
project
the poem on a wall and go down line by new and discuss
it. If
not that then why not a forum or debate some place
like NYC
Town Hall or at Symphony Hall in Newark. Why not take
a
survey of those who heard the poem at the Dodge
Festival?
Those who registered and the students brought by
schools
could be contacted and a survey taken to reflect just
the
majority of people hearing the poem thought, not just
some
shadowy surrogates of Imperialism who are trying to
convince
people that I and my poem are the enemy not US and
Israeli
Imperialism.

I have already gotten a great many communications
praising the poem. A great many E-mail letters and
phone
calls not only praising the poem, and the poet for
writing
it, but also opposing the attempt to violate my first
amendment rights by this oft repeated ADL skin game of
calling critics of imperialism Anti Semites. I have
already
said, in answer to what Governor McGreevey is quoted
as
demanding that I apologize and that I resign as NJ
Poet
Laureate. And I have said repeatedly that I will do
neither.

It is unfortunate that Governor McGreevey has been
stampeded by paid liars, and apologists for ethnic
cleansing
and white supremacy, bourgeois nationalists and the
dangerously ignorant, to be panicked into joining in
the
ADL's slander, belittling my intelligence, and
insulting not
only my person, my family, my fellow artists and
activists
who know all this is just the feces of a very small
cow. But
they are also attacking my work in the arts and my
social
political views. By demanding that I apologize to Evil
and
Submit to some fundamentally racist and politically
motivated
call for me to resign as New Jersey's Poet Laureate,
he is
insulting the broad group of people who know he is
incorrect
and who have read and celebrated and valued my work.
And that
is a grave mistake, one I am hoping he will correct.

"Somebody Blew Up America!" was written Oct 1, 2001. A
month after the terror attack. Almost immediately I
circulated it around the world on the Internet. In
addition,
I have read this poem in Spain, Portugal, Africa,
Switzerland,
Italy, Finland and it was translated into German and
read on
German radio, at Universities and other venues across
this
country. It has become one of the most circulated of
my
poems. Yet it was not until I read the poem at the
Dodge
Poetry Festival that I got negative response from
three
people that I know of. The overwhelming response was
an
almost thunderous applause. I even had to come out and
take a
second bow at one performance. So why now and Who, as
the
poem asks, is behind it? Perhaps the forces which have
dishonestly tried to characterize the poem as "venom"
or
merely "a harangue" (just as they called John
Coltrane's
music "Barbaric Yawps") are simply, the Charlie
McCarthy
voices for Bush & Sharon's Edgar Bergen's.
Empty-headed
devilish dummies constructed of wood and painted and
costumed to look like it is real people speaking, when
all
the time it is imperialism is the ventriloquist
speaking
through their mouths.

NO, I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE, I WILL NOT RESIGN. In fact
I will continue to do what I have appointed to do but
still
have not been paid to do. Publicize and Popularize
poetry and
poets throughout this state. To set up new venues and
new
networks for poetry reading and workshops, in the
state's
libraries and schools and other institutions.
Hopefully
initiated and given paradigm right here in the Newark
Public
Library, its branches and throughout the school
system.
Therefore giving more of our citizens access to
poetry,
involving poets of all nationalities, both male and
female,
of diverse experience and styles. I have already begun
to
enlist coordinators of poetry programs throughout the
state,
so that we can network a tour of poets, hopefully
beginning
in January, throughout the state.

To do this I will be approaching local, county,
state, federal and private funding. And expand our
budget
with the cooperation of these other existing programs.
We
will ask that poets POET-ON! That they begin to
produce at
least one poem or publish a poem monthly, in the most
modest
forms, Kinko style, and give them away if they have
to. That
they begin to set up readings not only in the places
we
mentioned but also in parks and restaurants and in
neighborhoods.

We say this because we feel that this state and
indeed this nation and this world is desperately in
need of
the deepest and most profound human values that poetry
can
teach. That is what Keats and Du Bois called for the
poet to
do, to bring Truth and Beauty. To be like the most
ancient
paradigmythic image of the poet. To be like Osiris and
Orpheus, whose job it was to raise the Sun each
morning with
song and story. To illuminate the human mind, and
bring light
into the world.

POET ON!
Read it for yourself.

SOMEBODY BLEW UP AMERICA
http://www.themarcusgarveybbs.com/board/msgs/10788.html
by Amiri Baraka


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"Revolution is not like cricket, not even one day cricket"

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