We take off our shoes
before entering the mosque
Bare feet hovering
over red and gold carpet
We pause inside a prayer niche
carved with familiar stars
[Read more…]
Turista Libre Teams Up With Tijuana Photography Festival
Turista Libre tour of Tijuana Photo Festival captures border town’s moment of change
By George Howell
What better way to get to a photography festival than to sit in an old school bus with the artist-organizers and a handful of curious Americans, listening to booming dance music while the eastern hinterlands of Tijuana whiz past your window?
On Saturday, October 3rd, I hopped on board the bus tour co-sponsored by Turista Libre, the Tijuana-based tour operator, and the coordinating team of the modest, but highly ambitious First International Festival of Photography Tijuana (FiFT). As artist Rebecca Goldschmidt told me, “We don’t just want to take people to the sites where the festival events are taking place. We want a dialogue.” [Read more…]
Geo-Poetic Spaces: Bodysurfing
By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Skimming glassy waves
Beaded strands of water fly
From crests, closing lips
The nosediving sun ascends
Into heaven once again [Read more…]
Race to the Bottom
By Jeeni Criscenzo
Driving back to San Diego from a conference in Fresno
down 99 through the San Joaquin Valley,
you’d have to be sleep-driving not to see it – the Death Valley of California.
Miles after miles,
acres after acres,
east and west,
abandoned farmland as far as the mountain edged horizon,
not so long from being lush that you couldn’t identify what once was,
or dread what isn’t yet – that rugged desert
that comes next, after the tiniest bit of rain. [Read more…]
‘Sunshine/Noir II’ is for Bibliophiles
San Diego City Works Press’ distinctive approach to book as object
By Anna Daniels
While mass market publishing continues to flourish and self-publishing has increased, small independent presses have declined over the past decades. Those of us who can’t imagine a trip to San Francisco without a visit to the City Lights bookstore are an indication of the limited but passionate support that still remains for independent publishing.
Small presses release limited runs of titles and address a specific niche and readership which mass marketing publishers largely ignore. They seek out emerging talent, provide a platform for out of the mainstream views and take risks that go far beyond the financial– City Light’s publication of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl in 1955 resulted in an obscenity trial.
Another small press hallmark is the attention to how the book as an object feels and looks. That means high quality paper and unique cover art and illustrations. San Diego City Works Press’ release of Sunshine/ Noir II is a reminder of what small independent publishers can do better and differently than the big guys. [Read more…]
“Express Yourself”
Acknowledging the Playwright Project’s
“Deborah Salzer Excellence in Arts Education Award”
By Ernie McCray
Being recognized
for any contribution
I’ve made to the arts
is like being recognized
for breathing
a breath,
like being identified
for being myself –
as I was raised by a mother
and a grandfather
and a great-aunt
and cousins
and a church
and more than a handful of neighbors
and a teacher or two
at a segregated school
to,
in the spirit of the Golden Rule:
Express myself. [Read more…]
Sunshine/Noir II: A Continuing Exploration of Literary San Diego and Tijuana
San Diego City Works Press Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Anthology:
“Sunshine/Noir II: Writing From San Diego and Tijuana”
Friday, October 16th at 6:00 PM at the Glashaus Mainspace
1815 Main Street in Barrio Logan
By Jim Miller
This fall, San Diego City Works Press marks its 10th anniversary with the release of Sunshine/Noir II: Writing from San Diego and Tijuana, an anthology of local writing about San Diego edited by Kelly Mayhew and myself.
Sunshine/Noir II is dedicated to the late local poet Steve Kowit, who was an original member of the San Diego Writers Collective and, as so many San Diego writers can attest to, a fellow traveler and one of our community’s great treasures. His work appears in the anthology along with poetry, fiction, and nonfiction from Sandra Alcosser, Marilyn Chin, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Stephen-Paul Martin, Mel Freilicher, Elizabeth Cazessús, Perry Vasquez, and many more. Local journalist Kinsee Morlan formerly of San Diego City Beat as well as Doug Porter, Anna Daniels, Brent Beltran, and Frank Gormlie of the SD Free Press and OB Rag appear in the anthology along with former SDUT Book Review editor and columnist Arthur Salm.
[Read more…]
Geo-Poetic Spaces: Leaving the Underworld
Why
travel 7,000 miles
through 9 time zones
metal detectors
security checkpoints
layovers?
Endure delays
breathe recirculated air
exchange one currency for another
at inflated rates?
Why
leave the comfort of one’s native language
for a foreign tongue
landing
on an island
surrounded by turbulence
gambled away by offshore money lenders –
it’s geography: A garment
divided between soldiers
of foreign empires? [Read more…]
Geo-Poetic Spaces: Taken
Lashing out
of imperial robes
at Saint Paul’s pillar
where the founder of Christianity
was whipped by its father
Sun
striking me
with its scorpion tail
One soft drink
from heatstroke and Parousia
when, “A fisher of men,”
limped toward me
rattling small change in a paper cup [Read more…]
Ta-Nehisi Coates, ‘Unflinching’ Voice on Racism, Declared MacArthur Genius
‘Writing without shallow polemic and in a measured style, Coates addresses complex and challenging issues such as racial identity, systemic racial bias, and urban policing,’ declared the MacArthur Foundation.
By Sarah Lazare / Common Dreams
Journalist, author, and leading voice on anti-black racism in America, Ta-Nehisi Coates, was revealed Tuesday to be one of 24 recipients of the 2015 MacArthur Genius awards.
“Writing without shallow polemic and in a measured style, Coates addresses complex and challenging issues such as racial identity, systemic racial bias, and urban policing,” declared the foundation. “He subtly embeds the present—in the form of anecdotes about himself or others—into historical analysis in order to illustrate how the implications of the past are still experienced by people today.” [Read more…]
Haggen Stores Closing: Corporate Greed Costs Eight Thousand Jobs in California
By Doug Porter
Less than six months since taking over 146 Albertsons and Vons locations, the Haggen grocery chain has announced closings for all its locations in California, Arizona and Nevada. Twenty-five stores in San Diego county will be shuttered, just two days before Thanksgiving. (More inside)
Pope Francis gave his long-awaited address to Congress yesterday. Local faith, community and labor activists took the opportunity to amplify the pontiff’s messages on the social justice and the environment, holding a press conference and a packed interfaith forum at St. Paul’s Cathedral. (More Inside)
There are many noteworthy events coming soon:
- Point Loma Democrats will feature a presentation by Rabbi Laurie Coskey on the fight for $15 movement,
- The Center on Policy Initiatives will hosting the Spotlight on Justice Awards, and
- Organized labor is stepping up its game with the 2015 San Diego Conference on Labor and Community Solidarity.
(Details and more events inside) [Read more…]
Lively Hoods
Why are we asking for jobs?
Most jobs are a lopsided trade agreement
where we relinquish the majority of our waking hours,
and our labor and talent
to make someone else
wealthy – wealthier!
in exchange for just enough money to survive.
Sometimes it’s not even enough
…used to be.
What we all really want
and need
is a means of living
that makes being alive meaningful. [Read more…]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- …
- 48
- Next Page »
