There are a lot of books on the market about pagan and neo-pagan traditions like Wicca and Asatruar. There’s a smaller number of books about Afro-Carribean syncretic religions like Santeria, Voodoo, and Candomble. This is the only book I’ve come across that is the personal story of a voodoo priestess’s own reclamation of her heritage. It’s fascinating for a variety of reasons. Caulder’s personal story is wrenching and compelling, her description of her trip to Benin to rediscover her Voodoo roots is fascinating as travel writing and cultural comparison, and her account of the cultural differences between African Americans and native Africans is eye-opening. It’s also a good foil to the many myths and misconceptions that surround a religious tradition that, like any religion, has the potential for both good and evil.
Review of The Dispossessed by Ursula LeGuin
Arguably my favorite book, unarguably my favorite author, The Dispossessed tells the story of a brilliant physicist born and raised in a colony established on Anarres, the barren red moon of Urras, a blue planet that bears a striking resemblance to late-19th-century Earth. LeGuin’s Hainish cycle often explores socio-political issues at play in our own society, and this book is no exception. The Dispossessed describes what might have happened if a group of anarcho-communists (Odonians) had been able to establish and develop a society in isolation from the hierarchical, capitalist world that rejected it. I appreciate LeGuin’s evenhanded presentation of each world: the egalitarianism and austerity of Anarres, and the lush abundance and injustice of Urras.
Shevek leaves Urras because his work as a physicist isn’t considered “central” by Odionian society, but he struggles to maintain his ideals and his identity on a planet that grants him luxury and wealth while forcing others to live in hardship and poverty. As Shevek travels between the two worlds, his journey sheds light on the wonders and flaws of each.
On Anarres, it is an insult of the highest order to call someone a profiteer. In her 2014 acceptance speech for the National Book Award, LeGuin used the word “profiteers” to refer to the increasingly money-focused publishing industry. Anyone who’s read The Dispossessed will recognize the philosophy of the Odonians in the following excerpt from that speech:
“We need writers who can remember freedom: poets, visionaries, the realists of a larger reality. Right now, I think we need writers who know the difference between the production of a market commodity and the practice of an art. Developing written material to suit sales strategies in order to maximize corporate profits and advertising revenue is not quite the same thing as responsible book publishing or authorship.”
View the full speech via this link, or embedded below:
[A previous version of this review was posted on November 3, 2009 on Goodreads]
Making Love in Public: Part One of Poets & Writers ((LIVE)) San Francisco
Always good to hear about existential angst and fear of writing conferences from another poet.
A guest blog post (and nifty sketches) from Rebecca Fish Ewan reviewing the recent Poets & Writers ((LIVE)) event in San Francisco:
Why go to a writer’s conference? Isn’t writing an occupation of isolation? Of loneliness? David Shields often quotes David Foster Wallace’s wisdom on loneliness. He did so in Melbourne in 2012 (see Is Writing Better Than Sex?) and again this past weekend in San Francisco at Poets & Writers ((LIVE)), while his friend Caleb Powell joined him on stage looking agitated (This is their collaborative art form … arguing in public).
Wallace had said: “We’re existentially alone on the planet. I can’t know what you’re thinking and feeling and you can’t know what I’m thinking and feeling. And the very best works construct a bridge across that abyss of human loneliness.”
Right. The work constructs a bridge, not the actual writer, so why fly from Phoenix to…
View original post 724 more words
Poetry Readings in the Boston Area for January and February 2015
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but
expanding your poetic horizons
feeding the soul with beauty
connecting with your ancestors by gathering together in the warmth to hear the older sister of song
the poetry’s so delightful.
Revision is the mother of skill.
Below are listings for the Boston area and environs. My fellow poet Adam Stone is also on a mysterious poetry tour across America. He’s been seen most recently in Utah. Follow him on Facebook for more details.
Sunday, January 11, 3 – 5 pm
Kim Baker, J.D. Scrimgeour, and Cammy Thomas
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
Donation: $5. Refreshments provided
Sunday, January 18, 2-4 pm
Kathi Aguero and Denise Bergman
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Thursday, February 5, 7 pm
Joan Houlihan and Martha Collins
Suffolk University Poetry Center
Mildred F. Sawyer Library
73 Tremont Street
Boston
Sunday, February 8, 3 – 5 pm
Mark Hart, Audrey Henderson, and Jennifer Tseng
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
$5
Sunday, February 15, 2-4 pm
Stephen Burt, opening reader TBA
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Thursday, February 26, 6 pm
Eliza Griswold
Katzenberg Center, 3rd floor, CGS
871 Commonwealth Ave.
Boston University
Boston
Book Review: The Fall of the Kings, by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman
I first learned of Ellen Kushner’s work through her radio show “Sound and Spirit,” on WBGH. Grounded in the songs and stories of cultures throughout the world, her show explored the spiritual and religious traditions and themes that transcend divides of politics and dogma. This understanding of how ancient stories and archetypes echo through the ages blossoms forth in The Fall of The Kings. It’s one of the Swordspoint books, which take place in an unspecified country that bears some resemblance to 18th-century Venice or London.
Earlier books focused on political intrigue and traditions around sword-fighting, and evoked a time in which same-sex love was part and parcel of the fabric of society. As a bisexual woman, I find it refreshing to read about a world in which people were free to take male and female lovers without scandal, condemnation, or even much gossip.
The plot of The Fall of the Kings, which Kushner co-wrote with her partner Delia Sherman, turns not on its characters’ amorous adventures but on a deep, old archetype found in British folklore and tradition. Echoes of the story of the Oak King and the Holly King can be found in Sir Gawaine and the Green Knight, Le Mort D’Artur, accounts of William the Conqueror’s reign, and in modern Traditional British Witchcraft. Kushner takes this old myth and makes it new in a story that weaves love and sexuality, scholarship and magic, family duty and political intrigue, and ancient notions of kingship and leadership into a rich tapestry that touches the very deepest part of human experience.
Winter Solstice Haiku
at last the blessed
darkness comes and covers us
in its warm embrace
Boston Area Poetry Readings for the Rest of December 2014 and January 2015
Below are poetry readings in and around the Boston area for December 2014 and January 2015. Wishing you a festive winter holiday of your choosing.
Thursday, December 18, 7 pm
Karen Skolfield
Midnight Voices
Friends Meeting
5 Longfellow Park
Cambridge, MA
Saturday, December 20, 10:30 am
Wake up and Smell the Poetry
Ted Reinstein, Dan Zampino and Lloyd Thayer
HCAM Studios, 77 Main Street
Hopkinton, MA
Saturday December 20, 6 pm
January Gill O’Neil, Adam Fitzgerald (virtual), Simeon Berry, Cecily Iddings, Michael Morency, and Donald Vincent
Mr. Hip Presents: #HipKidsRead Raffle Benefit
Room 83 spring
83 Spring Street
Watertown, MA
Sunday, December 21, 2- 4 pm
Sandra Lim and Jennifer Tseng
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Brookline, MA
Friday, January 2, 7-10 pm
Donald Vincent, Toni Bee, Jade Sylvan, Tom Daley, Anda Volley and Jennifer Matthews
Lo Galluccio hosts
Mandela room at the Democracy Center
45 Mt. Auburn St.
Harvard Square
Cambridge, MA
Saturday, January 3, 6:30 pm
Marilyn Nelson
Lesley University
Marran Theater, 47 Oxford Street
Mellen Street entrance
Cambridge, MA
Monday, January 5, 6:30 pm
Adrian Matejka
Lesley University
Marran Theater, 47 Oxford Street
Mellen Street entrance
Cambridge, MA
Monday, January 5, 7 pm
Margot Wizansky and Richard Waring
Newtonville Books
10 Langley Road
Newton, MA
Monday, January 5, 7 pm
Irene Koronas, Dennis Daly and Michael Todd Steffen
Somerville Library West Branch
(not wheel-chair accessible)
40 College Ave
Somerville, MA
Wednesday, January 7, 7:00 pm
Erin Belieu
Lesley University
Marran Theater, 47 Oxford Street
Mellen Street entrance
Cambridge, MA
Saturday, January 10, 3 pm
Andrew Sofer and Anne Mulvey
Powow River Poets Reading Series
Newburyport Public Library
94 State Street
Newburyport, MA
Sunday, January 11, 12 pm
Winston Bolton and Patricia Gomes
Poetry: The Art of Words/Mike Amado Memorial Series
The Plymouth Center for the Arts
11 North St
Plymouth, MA
Sunday, January 11, 3 – 5 pm
Kim Baker, J.D. Scrimgeour, and Cammy Thomas
Calliope: Poetry Readings at West Falmouth Library
575 West Falmouth Highway
Falmouth, MA
Donation: $5. Refreshments provided
Thursday, January 15, 7 pm
Alexis Ivy, Emily Ferrara, and open mike
Rozzie Reads
Roslindale House
120 Poplar Street
Roslindale, MA
Sunday, January 18, 2-4 pm
Kathi Aguero and Denise Bergman
Brookline Public Library, Main Branch
361 Washington St.
Brookline Village
Brookline, MA
Early December Haiku
cold enough for coats
big round moon in the pale sky
I trudge up the hill
Garden of Images – Distressed Mermaid Mandala
I drew this mandala during a particularly difficult morning, when I was feeling extra sensitive and had lots of noise and hubbub happening all around me. When I’m in a regular state of mind, leaf blowers are an annoyance. When I’m feeling like I have no skin, they’re an assault to the senses. In the text that (very imperfectly) folds into the curves of this mandala, I try to reconcile the gift of my senses with the challenging things they sense. I never did finish the thought in the drawing, but I do in the caption below.
I must walk the line between protection and sensitivity
The world will always be there with all its slings and arrows
Leaf blowers, car heaters, trees make me cough.
Sun burns. People say callous things
I persevere
Garden of Images: Mother-Brother-Sister Mandala
This is one of my favorite mandalas. I drew it just after a visit from my mother and brother — the nuclear family I grew up with. We each live in different cities (and on different coasts) and hadn’t been together in the same place for at least three years.
