Sherry Chandler

from Normandi Ellis:

Each year, more than 192,000 American women learn they have breast cancer. It could be someone you know.

According to the most recent figures available from the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 46 million Americans have no health coverage. Imagine what a diagnosis of breast cancer might mean to that individual. These people represent our friends, our colleagues, our families.

That is why on April 27th many, talented friends and artists are banding together to create a benefit event like no other in Richmond KY. From 7-9 p.m. friends of Judy Sizemore, a fellow artist and breast cancer patient, are showcasing their musical, performance, and literary talents to bring awareness to breast cancer and to the medically underinsured.

Storytellers Octavia Sexton and Mary Hamilton, musicians Beau Haddock, Sue Massek, John Gage, Randy Wilson, and Roberta Schultz (of Raison D’Etre), writers Leatha Kendrick and Anne Shelby, among many others will perform at the Richmond Area Arts Council stage on Water Street in Richmond. The gathering of friends represents the wide variety of talents in the performing arts and literature that Judy Sizemore has encouraged through her work as an arts coordinator for the Kentucky Arts Council. Her talent has been to nurture artists, educators, and the communities they serve. It seems fitting that the arts community wants to nurture in return.

“It would be difficult to find this variety and scope of talented Kentucky artists sharing the same stage again. We’re doing this to benefit our friend,” said Jennifer Rose, Berea musician, singer and performance artist, “but also to raise awareness of her situation; one that many women find themselves in.”

“The arts community in Kentucky is remarkable not only for its creativity and vitality but also for its compassion and commitment to using the arts as a vehicle for social change,” Sizemore replied. “I am humbled and honored by the kindness that has been extended to me and my family and the effort that is being made to draw awareness to these issues.”

There is no admission to the performances, but there are opportunities for donations. A silent auction of work by Kentucky’s talented visual artists kicks off the evening performances. Doors open at 7:00 p.m.

For more information, contact: Normandi Ellis (859) 985-3021 or (502) 320-2839 or normandiellis24@aol.com

Gin Petty sent me these photos of kudzu and graciously has agreed to let me share them with you. The first photo shows a barn, the second a house. Abandoned, I hope. Kudzu is scarey stuff!

Sez I to my son, “Northrop Frye says no work of literature should be emotionally depressing.”

Sez my son to me, “He obviously hasn’t read Jude the Obscure.”

From James Robert Payne’s introduction to Complete Poems of Joseph Seamon Cotter (University of Georgia Press, 1990):

Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr., was born September 2, 1895, in Louisville, Kentucky, one of three children born to Maria E Cotter, née Cox, and Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr. Both parents were members of the Louisville educational community. Before her marriage, Maria Cox served as teacher and principal, and the senior Cotter had a distinguished career as teacher, principal, and poet. Joseph Cotter, Sr., had been a precocious child who learned to read at the age of three, benefitting from the stimulation of a mother who had the gifts, according to her son, of “a poet, storyteller, a maker of plays. …Cotter Sr. was principal of the Louisville school named for his friend Paul Laurence Dunbar at the time of Cotter Jr.’s birth, and by then the family was relatively well off and in their own home at 2306 Magazine Street in Louisville. Propitiously, the younger Cotter was born at home in the very room in which, on Thanksgiving of the year before, Dunbar had read his poems at a family party. As Joseph Seamon Cotter, Sr., later proudly recorded: “Here for the first time in the South he [Dunbar] read the Negro dialect poems that afterwards made him famous.” Although the younger Cotter would completely eschew the dialect style that we see in much of Dunbar’s and the senior Cotter’s work, the circumstances of the young Cotter’s birth were auspicious. The young man was born into a strong family tradition of poetry traceable at least to his father’s mother and highlighted by his father’s literary achievements and the family friendship with Dunbar, one of the most highly regarded poets of his day.

Cotter graduated from Central High School with honors at fifteen, and entered Fisk University in the fall of 1911. During his second year, both he and his older sister Florence, who was also at Fisk, contracted tuberculosis. Florence died on December 16, 1914. the father wrote that it was the son’s intense grief over the death of his sister that “discovered to him his poetic talent.” Fighting illness and grief and unable to return to college, Cotter went to work for the Louisville Leader. He published a poetry collection, Band of Gideon and Other Lyrics, in June 1918 and was at work on a sonnet sequence, “Out of the Shadows,” when he died on February 3, 1919.

Rain Music

On the dusty earth-drum
Beats the falling rain;
Now a whispered murmur,
Now a louder strain.

Slender, silvery drumsticks,
On an ancient drum,
Beat the mellow music
Bidding life to come.

Chords of earth awakened,
Notes of greening spring,
Rise and fall triumphant
Over every thing.

Slender, silvery drumsticks
Beat the long tatoo—
God the Great Musician
Calling life anew.

So my calendar tells me that this is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and I will try to meditate a bit on what it is that makes us want to commit genocide against our fellow humans. Pray, if you will, if prayer is, as Georgia Stamper defines it, a medition of empathy and compassion.

This last weekend, my family and I finally got enough courage to watch Hotel Rwanda. It was as intense an experience as I had thought it would be, and yet a very, very good movie.

Recently, reading in Northrop Frye’s Anatomy of Criticism, I was struck by this statement: “If any literary work is emotionally ‘depressing,’ there is something wrong with either the writing or the reader’s response.” Hotel Rwanda was not depressing — it is, after all, primarily about the heights to which a human can rise in times of unimaginable adversity. It might also be called a poem or an act of prayer. It was beautiful in an awful way. Sobering.

Never again is the motto. And yet we did not act to stop that holocaust in Rwanda. We are not acting in Darfur. Our invasion was the catalyst for something very similar in Iraq, though I hope not of the same magnitude. We did help out in Bosnia. But that is in Europe. Is that what the difference is?

Here is a poem that I found this morning by Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. (more on him tomorrow). It was written in 1918 or 19, just before he died. It evokes some irony, now, I think.

Africa

A thousand years of darkness in her face,
She turns at last from out the centuries’ blight
Of labored moan and dull oppression’s might,
To slowly mount the rugged path and trace
Her measured step unto her ancient place.
And upward, ever upward towards the light
She strains, seeing afar the day when right
Shall rule the world and justice leaven the race.

Now bare her swarthy arm and firm her sword,
She stands where Universal Freedom bleeds,
And slays in holy wrath to save the word
Of nations and their puny, boasting creeds.
Sear with the truth, O God, each doubting heart,
Of mankind’s need and Afric’s gloried part.

Our governor, in his wisdom and having been given absolute line-item veto by the foot-dragging legislature, has left $10 million in the state budget to build a pharmacy school at the private, Baptist-run University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg. This is the same school that recently expelled a student for being gay. According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the money was left in the budget “partially because Eastern Kentucky needs pharmacists.” “Partially?”

State senator Daniel Mongiardo has pointed out that the building for a rural pharmacy program and the beginnings of such a program already are in place at the University of Kentucky’s Center for Rural Health in Hazard. Fletcher also cut $4.9 million for the expansion and renovation of a nursing school building at Kentucky State University in Frankfort. And he cut nearly $30 million from the budget of Morehead State, which also serves Eastern Kentucky. Ten million of that was to go for student housing, and having had a son live in MSU dorms, I know that the university is desperate for decent student housing. Altogether, of the $370 million in cuts Fletcher made to the budget, over $300 million was taken from the budgets of state universities.

But we still have $10 million for a private school that expells gays.

from Talking Points Memo:

Last week I mentioned that there’s a very bad bill moving through Congress. It’s supported overwhelmingly by Republicans but also by a lot of Democrats too. Basically the bill would turn over the control of the Internet to the phone companies — though ‘phone companies’ is probably now an antiquated phrase for Verizon and AT&T and other such outfits. There’s a lot more underlying complexity to it of course. But the change could make it much harder to access TPM or any source of news or entertainment that isn’t owned by some big corporation or, more likely, have the inside track with one of the phone companies. If you’re cool with AT&T deciding the sources of use you can access then you probably won’t mind. But if you like making those decisions yourself, you may want to speak up.

Here’s one group mobilizing against the bill: savetheinternet.com. Another group that is on the case is publicknowledge.org.

This isn’t some obscure issue of interest only to policy wonks. It may seem like it, but it’s not. It’s a very big deal and I strongly encourage you to find out what’s going on.

MoveOn.org is also active in this fight. Whatever you may think of Al Gore, I would urge you to look into this bill and make your voice heard.

A slightly different perspective from The Washington Monthly:

NET NEUTRALITY….I’ve been trying to understand this whole “net neutrality” thing and I’ve failed utterly. I just can’t figure out the underlying issues.

On the one hand, the telecom industry says they just want to be able guarantee service levels (for a price) for high-value, high-bandwidth services like on-demand video. This does not seem very alarming to me. Companies already buy bigger pipes and negotiate quality-of-service agreements when they need guaranteed bandwidth, and that’s never caused any problems. Bloggers are accustomed to paying their hosts based on the bandwidth they plan to use, for example, and this seems like more of the same on a larger scale.

At the same time, the CEO of Qwest claims that “No one should deny or impede access to lawful sites on the Web. Everyone supports that position.” But in fact, last year a small broadband provider decided to block access to Vonage phone service — so apparently support for that position isn’t quite as universal as Qwest’s CEO claims.

What’s more, if the real issue is that telecom companies want to be able to offer higher service levels to certain customers but would never reduce service levels for other customers — well then, why not write that into law? Especially if “everyone” supports this position?

Joseph Seamon Cotter (1861-1949) appears to have been Kentucky’s first African-American poet to get any attention from the white establishment. My peregrinations and researches lead me to believe that his poetic reputation has been eclipsed lately by that of his son, Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr. (and, in fact, there’s some confusion between them on the web), but Cotter Senior’s accomplishments are impressive. KYLIT has posted an excellent biography that is well worth reading. I’ll hit the highlights. He was born free in Bardstown, because his great-grandfather had bought his own freedom in 1829 and after that continued to buy members of his family into freedom. He also bought a farm, so he must have been both very industrious and very respected.

Like George D. Prentice, Cotter learned to read by age 3 and also like Prentice, he had to give up formal schooling to work the family farm. Cotter published five poetry collections, the most famous of which is Sequel to the Pied Piper of Hamlin, a book of short stories, and a play, Caleb the Degenerate. In addition, he founded Louisville’s Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (he was an admirer and friend of Dunbar, who visited his home in Louisville) and was principal there for nearly twenty years. He served in Louisville public schools for 50 years. He was active in the National Organization for the Advancement of Colored People, a member of the Author’s League of America, and was listed in Who’s Who in America.

The little poem below is reproduced by William S. Ward in his Literary History of Kentucky. I like it as well as anything else of Cotter’s I’ve been able to find.

The Tryst

The moon hangs limp in a lusty sky
And trysts with the evening star,
Which flingeth back a golden smile,
And they straightway lovers are.

The rich man trinkets the wares of life
And mocks the poor man’s plea,
Which flingeth back a dagger-thought
That trysts with anarchy.

Passing on the text of an e-mail from Mick Kennedy down at ECTC:

Below is a list of winners and finalists for the 2006 Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize. We received 567 entries from 23 states, quite an increase from last year. And I want to thank all of those who supported the contest and those who helped with performing the initial reading. Last Thursday, ECTC’s Morrison Gallery Poetry Series hosted our fourth annual National Poetry Month Celebration, which featured Lisa Williams, the judge for this year’s contest, and Sherry Chandler and Woods Nash.

It was an interesting evening, for a transformer somewhere in town blew out, and the attendees were left in darkness. But poetry can not be stopped! We utilized some pen lights and continued on. Some remarked that it gave the reading a medieval flavor, while others invoked Chaucer and Plato. The lights came on just in time for Lisa’s reading; I encourage you all to get her The Hammered Dulcimer, which won the May Swenson prize. We have a few signed copies in ECTC’s bookstore.

As for The Heartland Review, we are switching to summer/winter issues, for it is quite difficult to churn it out the last weeks of the semester. The upcoming issue will be worth the wait. My best to you all, and happy poetry month!

Cheers,

Mick Kennedy

First Place: Walking Taft Highway
Sherry Chandler
Paris, KY

Second Place: Van Gogh in Auvers, 1890
Woods Nash
Knoxville, TN

Third Place: Too Beer Bottle Smashed to Stop the Momentum
Christian Lund
New York, NY

Finalists:

Every Breath a Prayer
Sally Bingham
Santa Fe, NM

Something There Is &
Making Tomatoes
Trish Lindsey Jaggers
Smiths Grove, KY

Bemesha Swing
Woods Nash
Knoxville, TN

Bending Over
Rudy Thomas
Columbia, KY

Homeward &
Lacrosse
Frederick Smock
Louisville, KY

Prayer for a Competitive Ballroom Dancer
Teneice Delgado
Toledo, OH

Terrazzo &
Small Hours
David Cazden
Lexington, KY

Enigma
Carolanne Conerly Griffin
Louisville, KY

Mad Girl in Recovery
Allison Joseph
Carbondale, IL

OK Life
Dena K. Skees
Prospect, KY

At Bird Creek
Kathy Knuckles Barbour
Madison, IN

Soft White Petals
John T. Bensing
Louisville, KY

The Fire Bringers
Pamela Steele
Pendleton, OR

Irreconcilable Differences
James H. Bowden
Louisville, KY

By the way, I’ve been meaning to mention for some time that I’m not the only person in this conversation to do a page makeover lately. Gin’s Place has a new look, too. Very neat, with “everything in its place,” but also more obviously dynamic than her old page was. I love reading her creative journal for lessons in how a real artist works. Gin is very generous to share her process and so many nice photos, too. Check in often. The front page changes.

Jim Tomlinson’s page has changed, too. But what you really need to do is check out the advance blurb for his book of short stories, Things Kept, Things Left Behind , winner of the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award and due out in the fall. Jim talks about the publication process in his journal, which you’ll find here.