Bless this house
built by many hands
holding together one generation after another
Light incense to elevate
its collective memory from dusty stairwells
and attics
Keep fresh flowers on tables
to give neglected alcoves the color
of imagination
Bless this house with water
to see ourselves clearly reflected on windows
because every room
is a living organism
that requires upkeep and restoration [Read more…]
Here is Ursula K. Le Guin (October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018, R.I.P.) accepting the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 65th National Book Awards on November 19, 2014. In her remarks she notes that
We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.
Featuring a hometown group today: Pony Death Ride, the married, half-Canadian musical comedy duo. This is the group that gave us the theme song for the Chargers’ departure: Goodbye Chargers (We Don’t Wanna Buy You a Stadium) This number, though, is about kitties and how nice they are, although they do tend to use some not-so-nice language occasionally; crude but not cruel. [Read more…]
TRAUMA
(Inspired by the women of the Armenian Genocide who were tattooed by their captors).
The body remembers
contusions the epidermis forgets
Recounts kisses
forcibly sealed within lips
Carry’s the weight
of wounds
time hastily erases
Feels the blunt force
of each hand
tied behind back
Bleeds internally
until the needle of a voice
punctures skin
with the name of the transgressor. [Read more…]
By Kilian Colin
When I started protesting the Muslim ban, a lot of people told me that I was blind, especially given that I’m a LGBTQ Muslim myself. The far right trolled my tweets with pictures of gay people being thrown from buildings and stoned to death in areas that ISIS controlled.
I had to spend a lot of time explaining to these people that ISIS controlled only a few villages in Iraq and Syria, and not the whole Muslim world. I also had to explain that the number of ISIS fighters only total a few thousand, whereas the global Muslim population is 1.5 billion.
Despite being an uphill battle, I’ve been able to make friends with many people who originally thought that Muslims come here for the sole purpose of killing Americans. One of those friends is a white female who lives in Lebanon, Missouri. She had never met a gay, a Muslim, or a refugee in her life. After being friends on Facebook for a few months, she told me she regretted her vote for Donald Trump in 2016. [Read more…]
Those of us in Southern California rarely have the opportunity to enjoy a “snow day” so I thought I’d try and convey some of that excitement by sharing a video that the Hopewell Valley Regional School District prepared to have available should the need to declare a snow day arise. Given what I’ve been reading about the weather back east, there may be the need to rerun this a few more times. [Read more…]
I threw the cross into water
to drown the acolyte nailed into wood
by priests of an encrusted religion
so I might live
The relic
raised from shrouded seabed
by hands of swimmers
was a burden lifted from my shoulders
An epiphany of vision
poetry read
in every face
[Read more…]
By Thomas Ultican / Tultican
Author Steven Singer shares a hoary story that has become a national crisis. Unlike a Steven King novel, this book, Gadfly on the Wall, is not a fantasy. It is impossible to overstate the damage being done to America and its children by the greedy, the self-centered and the stupid. They are set on destroying free universal public education in America.
Billionaires be wary, Singer says he is ready to kick your sorry asses.
Many people were disheartened when Donald Trump became president and installed an evangelical who despises public schools as Secretary of Education. Her agenda seems to be ending public education and creating a system of government financed Christian schools. Here, I really love Singer’s attitude. He says:
“We lived through administrations that wanted to destroy us and actually knew how to do it! We can take Tiny Hands, the Bankruptcy King any day! This is a guy who couldn’t make a profit running casinos – a business where the house always wins! You expect us to cower in fear that he’s going to take away our schools. Son, we’ve fought better than you!”
I first met the author of The Gadfly on the Wall at Chicago’s Drake Hotel almost three years ago. Educators, parents and others were arriving for the National Public Education (NPE) conference. The Drake’s lobby waiting area is at the top of a short flight of stairs next to the room where hi-tea has been served since the 19th Century. It was here that I met Karen Wolfe from LA, Larry Profit from Tennessee, Singer from Pennsylvania and many others. [Read more…]
The Russian dance group Berezka Ensemble, aka the Little Birch Tree Choreographic Group has perfected a dance step which when combined with their folk dress costume, creates the illusion of the dancers gliding across the floor as if on ice. The effect is quite mesmerizing and captivating. “Берёзка” (“Beryozka” or “Berezka”) means “Birch” in Russian. More info, including vintage versions of the dance, a version featuring costumes with LED lights, and video of rehearsals illustrating the “secret” of the dance step on the Open Culture website. [Read more…]
Perhaps this might be a metaphor for how, occasionally, how difficult it feels to navigate through life. According to the YouTube page:
Suspended from automated grids, more than 400 pendulums are activated to initiate a sweeping 15 part counterpoint of tempi, spacial juxtaposition and gradients of centrifugal force which offers the spectator a constantly morphing labyrinth of significant complexity. The spectators are free to attempt a navigation of this statistically unpredictable environment, but are requested to avoid coming in contact with any of the swinging pendulums. This task, which automatically initiates and alerts the spectators innate predictive faculties, produces a lively choreography of manifold and intricate avoidance strategies.
By Phillip Smith / Alternet
Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ announcement Thursday that he is rescinding Obama-era guidance to federal prosecutors directing them to take a laissez-faire approach to state-legal marijuana except under specified circumstances (violence, out-of-state diversion, money laundering, etc.) is sending shock waves through the marijuana industry, but its impact is likely to be limited.
That’s because marijuana prohibition is a dying beast, and while the twitching of its tail in its death throes could cause some injury, neither the attorney general nor his minions are going to be able to get that beast back up and roaring again. They are too late.
At least one of them recognized as much Thursday afternoon. Colorado U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer, a Sessions appointee, said within hours that there would be no changes in his office’s enforcement priorities. He would continue “identifying and prosecuting those who create the greatest safety threats to our communities around the state,” he said, an approach “consistent with Sessions’ guidance.”
[Read more…]
The arctic air
condensed spoken words
into fog
The sedentary froze
in chairs
[Read more…]
