From: Thomas, Bruce (BThomas@ruthchek.com)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 11:14:51 PST
Message-ID: <01A06B484406D2118DC500805FC769CBF73A7C@RC_MAIL> From: "Thomas, Bruce" <BThomas@ruthchek.com> Subject: FW: Possible list posting Date: Mon, 3 Feb 2003 11:14:51 -0800
> Hi Deb, Thought you might want to post this to the SLA list. I'm not
> sure if it's appropriate, but due to the fact that the first lady was a
> librarian I found this particularly disturbing.
>
> -Bruce Thomas
>
> From globeandmail.com, Friday, January 31, 2003
> Chagrined Laura Bush finds poets oppose war
> SIMON HOUPT
>
> NEW YORK -- America's poets are too political for the White House.
>
> This week, first lady Laura Bush abruptly cancelled a Feb. 12 poetry
> symposium at the White House after she learned that some of the invited
> poets intended to disrupt the event with antiwar verses to protest the
> Bush administration's aggressive stand toward Iraq.
>
>
> "While Mrs. Bush respects the right of all Americans to express their
> opinions, she, too, has opinions and believes it would be inappropriate to
> turn a literary event into a political forum," said a spokeswoman for Mrs.
> Bush, a former librarian whose pet project is the promotion of museums and
> libraries.
>
>
> Most of the invited poets are vocal opponents of the Bush administration,
> including Sam Hamill, an award-winning poet and publisher with a long
> history of protesting against U.S. military aggression.
>
>
> "I'm sure the person who put my name on the list is looking for a job,"
> joked Mr. Hamill, who asked friends to send him antiwar poems he could
> compile into an anthology for the event.
>
>
> Many of the invited poets said they were bemused and disturbed by the
> sudden turn of events, since the symposium was to have celebrated the
> notably political poets Langston Hughes and Walt Whitman, as well as Emily
> Dickinson.
>
>
> "I saw profound irony in their choice of poets," Mr. Hamill said. "These
> people wouldn't let Walt Whitman within a mile of the White House -- the
> good gay gray poet! I don't believe anybody there has ever read Whitman."
>
>
> Yesterday, two former U.S. poets laureate joined the growing chorus of
> attacks.
>
>
> Stanley Kunitz, poet laureate 2000-01, told reporters, "I think there
> was a general feeling that the current administration is not really a
> friend of the poetic community and that its program of attacking Iraq is
> contrary to the humanitarian position that is at the centre of the poetic
> impulse."
>
>
> The 1993-95 poet laureate, Rita Dove, who declined an invitation to the
> symposium titled Poetry and the American Voice, said in a statement: "The
> abrupt cancellation of the symposium by the White House confirms my
> suspicion that the Bush administration is not interested in poetry when it
> refuses to remain in the ivory tower, and that this White House does not
> wish to open its doors to an 'American Voice' that does not echo the
> administration's misguided policies."
>
>
> Pulitzer Prize-winner Philip Levine said the event was cancelled before he
> could even turn down his invitation.
>
>
> "I had no doubt in my mind that I couldn't go, if only because of the
> hideous use of language that emanates from this White House. The lying,
> the Orwellian euphemisms," he said.
>
>
> Mr. Hamill says he has received almost 2,000 poems, including
> contributions from Pulitzer Prize-winners Yusef Komunyakaa and W.S.
> Merwin. The poems will be posted next week on the Web site,
> PoetsAgainstTheWar.org.
>
>
> Artists have used official invitations in the past to protest against U.S.
> government policies. In 1965, poet Robert Lowell registered his opposition
> to the Vietnam War by refusing to attend a White House arts festival.
>
>
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