state-ment

The Poets Party recognizes Amiri Baraka as Poet Laureate of New Jersey and enthusiastically endorses his re-in-state-ment!

Poetical echo

Dear Mr. President,
Love and poetry last forever,
War is always a great big lose.
I am a poet and a lover and a winner,
How 'bout you, how 'bout you?

Philip Whalen, circa 1968

The Poets Party: No Platform, Many Stances

Supreme Court will not review Amiri Baraka's free speech case

Newark: Court won't hear ex-N.J. poet laureate’s appeal

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: November 14, 2007

The United States Supreme Court declined yesterday to review a lawsuit filed by a former poet laureate of New Jersey challenging the elimination of his post. Without comment, the court declined to hear the case. In March, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that state officials were immune from the suit brought by the former poet laureate, Amiri Baraka. Gov. James E. McGreevey eliminated the post in July 2003 amid an uproar over Mr. Baraka’s poem “Somebody Blew Up America,” a work referring to 9/11. The governor and Legislature had been barred from firing Mr. Baraka, and eliminated his post instead. He sued, claiming free speech rights had been violated.

Remember our troops... and remember who put them there.

Another Page Turned

Norman Mailer died on November 10.

With the publication of his first novel in 1948, then twenty-five year-old Mailer positioned himself to be a major force in American fiction. He didn’t become that. In fact, Mario Puzo, famous for The Godfather, once offered the searing comment that Mailer had never created one enduring fictional character. What Mailer became was a first rate writer of non fiction (Armies of the Night, Miami and the Siege of Chicago, The Executioner’s Song) and a monumental, irreplaceable cultural icon.

America defined the twentieth century and in that time, New York City defined cultural America. Leonard Bernstein… Andy Warhol… Norman Mailer. Both Paul Simon and John Lennon referenced him in songs. Simon, in his ill-considered send-up of Bob Dylan (A Simple Desultory Philippic) and Lennon in Give Peace a Chance.

Regarding a literary activist, one would be hard pressed to find a figure more public. Mailer co-founded The Village Voice and sought the office of mayor of New York. His fascination with, and promotion of, sex and violence did not serve him well in his lifetime and will surely cloud his legacy. But he was passionate and committed and his best work will provide evidence of a time that, like its most vivid protagonists, is slipping into history.

Junior Burke
November 13, 2007

A Voice and A Vote

After ten years of living in the States, and five years of paperwork, I got my green card in 2006. Once you’ve got your green card (or at least my type of green card), you’re eligible for citizenship after 5 years. So right now I have a voice and no vote.

I’m still a citizen of Australia, which is holding a national election in two weeks. I have a vote there. And there’s not a candidate I want to use it for. That’s not to say I won’t vote. But I’m going to be voting against someone rather than voting for anyone. I will cast my vote against the greater evil and we’ll see if anything happens.

But the Poets Party is not about voting. It’s about discourse. One voice does not equal one vote. I hope that whoever and whatever you vote for in 2008 will represent your voice. But there may not be anything there that resembles you or your beliefs.

This is about “both both.” Even if you’re lucky enough for your vote and your voice to line up, one doesn’t have to cancel out the other.

Have your voice be heard in the Poets Party by posting your poem, your manifesto, your inauguration speech here. Have your voice be heard in the Poets Party by running for office and speaking your truth. You can even run for office and vote for your opponent.

Opening the discourse does not equate to diluting the discourse. Freedom of speech should have plenty of elbow room for everyone.

Lisa Birman