Arts and Culture

View Articles in Other Categories

September Poetry of the Street

Poetry
With more foreclosures/ than in Great Depression/ with no solution to unbearable/ homeless lives and the/ massive redistribution of wealth/ diminishing collective mental health/ with a President who plays it safe/ at every decisive moment for change/ keeps the generals and/ Wall Street happy/ there's going to be more and more/ homeless children and huddled masses

Homelessness in Art from the New Deal to the Present

Arts and Culture
A new book by San Francisco artist Art Hazelwood, Hobos to Street People: Artists’ Responses to Homelessness from the New Deal to the Present, examines the legacy of political artists from the Great Depression to the Great Recession. It also serves as a catalogue to a traveling art exhibition.

August Poetry of the Streets

Poetry
A gentle lady with Parkinson's/ slept in dark alleyways/ without curfew and/ abandoned houses without walls/ in lonely Cable Car Land/ She's not there anymore/ a concerned young man/ gave her his arm and/ brought her to the hospital/ from where she never returned

When a Great Heart Ceases

Arts and Culture   Poetry
I read M.A. Griffiths’ collected poems, "Grasshopper," from what I believe is a unique perspective, that of a poet who, like Griffiths, was dying over many months, alone, aware that she was close to death. Many of her poems are extremely moving to me, and I feel very close to them.

"I READ THE NEWS TODAY, OH BOY!"

Poetry
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York was a disaster of legendary horror that killed 146 people, mostly young immigrant women, and helped galvanize the labor movement.

July Poetry of the Streets

Poetry
Her first steps are a stagger-limp/ a block, a mile to go!/ On the grimy street stage,/ she still tries to play a part,/ mutters moving lines/ but few hear them at all/ or hear them as true.

June Poetry of the Streets

Poetry
“Mona Lisa of the Streets” I gave the woman a simple smile,/ some dollars, knowing not enough./ Her aura glowed: she once had style./ I gave the woman an open smile/ then plowed my way, single file/ holding tears, keeping the bluff./ I have Mona Lisa a knowing smile/ some dollars that were not enough.

Poetic Resistance to the Berkeley Sitting Ban

Poetry
Poets held a poetry reading to challenge the City Council’s proposed sitting ban. How delightful it would be if we could just sing our way right past this terrible proposal to outlaw something as natural as sitting down. We should pour enough poetry on it that it is doused entirely.

Poetry, May 2011

Poetry
The Hungriest People / Song by Carol Denney/ the hungriest people in this town/ aren’t starving in the street/ they sit in fancy restaurants/ and worry what to eat/ the poorest people in this town/ without a single doubt/ conspire at boardroom tables/ how to drive poor people out/

A Nonviolent Path to Peace in the Holy Land

Arts and Culture
Increasing numbers of Palestinians and thousands of Israelis see nonviolent action as an effective way to challenge the Israeli military occupation. This excellent book encourages all of us to get beyond the all-too-common division of the world between “us” and “them,” and the need to resort to war and killing as a way of solving problems and achieving security.

Poetry, April 2011

Poetry
LENT 2011 (Spring Renewal) by Maureen Hartmann This year there have been uprisings of the grassroots against oppressive governments, like Wisconsin, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia. The protests are signs of a growth in consciousness. A maturation, like a small amount of yeast in dough for a large loaf, spreads throughout the Earth. This year the grassroots implant, even in many deaths, seeds of hope and renewal.