 Hello and welcome, everyone. Thank you all for coming to this month's edition of Poem Jam with Kim Shuck. I'm John Smalley and I'm a librarian with the San Francisco Public Library. While we're waiting for everyone to join us, I want to take a moment to acknowledge our community and to tell you about a few of our upcoming programs. On behalf of the Public Library, we want to welcome you to the unceded land of the Ohlone Tribal people and to acknowledge the many Ramatish Ohlone Tribal groups and families as the rightful stewards of the lands on which we reside. Our library is committed to uplifting the names of these families and community members and we encourage you to learn more about First Person Rights. San Francisco Public Library's Summer Stride Literacy Program began in June and will run through August. Summer Stride is the library's annual summer learning, reading and exploration program for all ages and abilities. Join us for author talks, reading lists, book giveaways, nature experiences and more. You can register today by visiting our website, sfpl.org. This Sunday, July 11th, SFPL is hosting the 40th annual Northern California Book Awards. These awards recognize the best public works of 2020 by Northern California authors. On July 13th, author Jonathan Taplin and cultural critic, Gryal Marcus, discussed Taplin's new book, The Magic Years, Scenes from a Rock and Roll Life. And on July 20th, Dr. Keisha Middlemouse of Howard University and sociologist Ruben Jonathan Miller of the University of Chicago, discussed the politics, race and policies of incarceration and reentry. Lastly, on July 28th, please join us for our time travel journey to the mid-century nightlife of San Francisco via the unique letter forms and designs of matchbooks and neon signs associated with legacy businesses. This ends my poetry announcements. Now I'd like to turn the microphone over to Kim Shuck, San Francisco's beloved poet and the Poem Jam series organizer. Please welcome Kim Shuck. Thank you, John. Thank you library and thank you everybody who's here this evening. I was really excited. I attended the reading of the Revolutionary Poets Brigade, Building Socialism, Two Fighting Fascism book and it was such a beautiful reading that I felt like I wanted more of that. And so I've invited some of the authors for this to come share their words with us. I think what I really love to do would be to start with Kitty Costello who Kitty is a lot of things. I'm not gonna read bios, it's terrible. I didn't even start out doing it. I promised them that I'd try to read their bios and then I'm not gonna house that. But Kitty's a really good friend and incredible publisher of sort of generally marginalized voices and it has one of my favorite poetry reading voices of all time. So if you could share your poem with us, Kitty. Thank you, Kim. I just wanna do a little plug but Summer Stride on July 22nd is gonna feature this book that I co-edited this past year. Muslim American writer and writer at home, stories, essays and poems of identity, diversity and belonging. If you, like most people don't know any Muslims, this is a really good way to start to get to know some. Anyway, July 22nd, check the library website on Summer Stride. This is two fighting fascism across sticks. Breeding ourselves from us and them ideology would be a good start. Hatred hijacks hearts, that's its craft. So let's inspect the divide carefully again. No human is bad without a backstory. Let's go deeper to the root of wrongs. Let us feel and avert all heart hardening and attend beyond justified outrage. See and tend to whatever needs breaking without becoming sure. It's an alchemy of warrior spirit as yet unseen. Make yourself a new kind of sword. For every child born, invited or not of whatever creed and breed, grant each one their basic needs. Thwart childhood, harm, abuse, neglect, trauma that snarls itself into exponential grown up insanity, inhumanity, doom to repeat until none of them is alive. The inhumanity, doom to repeat until none but the tone deaf can hear good people staying thunderously silent again. Front load goodness, bestow abundant blessings on each new self arriving here and upon their parents, cultivate humans who know what love is and is not and who know the sound of truth being spoken, the magic of harmony being sung. Thank you. Thank you so much, Kitty. I think I'd like to go next to Elizabeth, who has hosted some incredible poetry readings since I started becoming aware of it and also just some great events at the SF Maritime Museum and excellent organizer and a very fine poet. Please read your poem, Elizabeth. Well, thank you. This is called Flowers of Zeus. These aren't flowers for bows, button ears. Mothers bouquets, doctors altruism or president's luck. These flowers of Zeus rise from roots alive underground. They are never dormant. Workers hands and faces reddened by their labor as they scrape and scratch a living from under capitalism's thumb. Red expressions of pain before crimson rises or like unearthed passion, compelling us to live lovingly. Carnation is a word of honor standing for blood embodied for remembering and celebrating the people's sacrifices. The people of Portugal toppled their capitalist city ended the dictatorship by peaceful reincarnation. The red carnation is the joy of the Portuguese people who are the midwives of their democracy, a community tested and now evolved. On April 25th, let's emulate the awakened power of the Portuguese people as we've raised red carnations everywhere. Thank you. So good, you guys. Lots of anthologies that I've featured. I really spotty and I felt like this one was particularly strong all the way through. I'm really grateful for you all being here. Let's see, Scott. Can we have you read next? Scott Burt is an incredible poet and a really great organizer, a wonderful support for projects that are happening and also an incredible painter whose work I hope to see more of as time goes on. Scott, please share your poem. Thank you, Cam. I have another flower poem. This one is called Children of a Whitman Dalia. I am a red dalia, a Mexican daisy growing, budding from the crown of my own head and tangle hair. You pluck the red blossom and pin it to your lapel above the dangling linen broadside and proud hammer sickle swinging. We remember carnations, roses, and other red roses infinite in their strength when taped to the tip of a razor fountain pin. Fight by the cover of the dark word night for joy is an upward struggle, a radical bow and arrow of lip and tongue flexing into smile. Fascism can only frown. Its porous heart soaked and drowned in the blind glaze of powers greed and greed's power needs only to read your lips and remember the word always. We have it within ourselves to dissemble all factions today and in the first word of the first line of every stanza written in our poems, I, you, we, Children of Whitman's best Dalia. Fight fascism always. Thank you. Wonderful. Judy, can you share yours with us, please? You need to unmute, darling. Four bearers. 1947, a baseball player, a Negro leagues infielder who had faced court martial in the army for refusing to move to the back of the bus, became the first black to play in the major leagues and oh, did they torture and harass him. But Jackie Robinson never lost his dignity. 1959, a basketball player, one of the best, boycotted a game in the American South the first he and other black Minnesota Lakers were denied rooms and service. And oh, it wasn't a popular decision but Elgin Baylor never relented. 1966, good looking man, boxer told the world he was the greatest, was. But when he stood up for his religion, his name changed. Oh, they came down hard on him. But Muhammad Ali never wavered. 1968, two Olympic runners among the fastest in the world raised their black love fists in protest as the Star Spangled Banner played and oh, it cost them plenty. But Tommy Smith and John Carlos never recanted or backed down. Remember their names now and forever and add the names of athletes they inspired to stand up or kneel and speak out to insist on justice no matter the consequences. Remember Arthur Ashe, Jim Brown, Larry Dobie, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mahmood Abdul-Roff, Bubba Wallace, Colin Kaepernick, LeBron James and other NBA players and WNBA players and other women athletes and players in nearly every sport around the world where black lives matter on shirts. Tell everyone about them. Thank you so much. Bobby, will you share your poem with us? Bobby Coleman has a lot of great things. But one of the things that I appreciate the most is that in moments of extreme stress we have spent ridiculous amounts of time on the telephone together. And I think, I don't know about you guys. I have friends that I see a lot and I have friends I don't talk to as often, but you know the people who are there when they're there. And anyway, please share your poem. Thank you, Kim. It's been my pleasure and that's very generous of you to say so. Thank you so much. The poem is titled, Why We Still Ask? Why we still ask where is the love, the real kind of love that we give to ourselves when we're connected, when we are taught how our lives were once before creatures lied and warred over trees, sat in the White House and stormed the Capitol encouraged by anglers of mischief and madness. Why we still ask where is the love since the new prez says how the numbers roll back but merely to Ws, that billionaires rock if they share a few cents, that we're losing the race. So let's get tough, that we're in a trade war and have now had enough. So we ask again, why cancel love? Why wipe out art, not offer the class? Why turn the art room into a sty of stemful dung and racial myopia missing the point, thumping our chests, announcing ourselves, nor say so ghastly. And why we still ask where is the love is because of this. When we jilted the poet and broke her heart, when we did that, the whole simple reason for being together for our full engagement and knee at the altar, our exchange of rings was a lousy trick, a mask was used, an imposter was paid, a betrothal to fascism, not social love. And the only way out since we still have to ask is to return to the poem, our first declaration that we love each other and will not sell the house or the house of Whitman, Emerson and Thoreau and will marry in truth and escape with our muse, not the fake ones still there. We have three ushers beaming, giving proof through the night that our hearts are still free. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Greg Pond. I first heard Greg at the Sacred Grounds poetry reading and then we started seeing each other at lots of other readings. I think he is really one of the finest poets in the city and one of the understung ones. And I'm really delighted to have you here, Greg. Thank you. I'll share your poem. Thank you, Kim. Reconstruction blues two. Back in the day after Sambo became Django and we were legally no longer slaves, reconstruction was dangled before us like a carrot but we never managed to grab it though it seemed to be inches away. After centuries of servitude, our men murdered, emasculated, our children sold our women raped. In order to ensure our survival, we had to grin to bear the pain before we labored through birth of a nation feeling the pinch of division and hate. Years after burning crosses, repeated lynchings and clansmen's rage. Sad to say we're still reconstructing, still recovering after restless decades with hell much closer than heaven while equality got lost in space. Black woman and man made some gains but never better than second place. Our lives continually marginalized, victims of an economic system based on power, class, and race. We're sick of singing kumbaya. We're tired of rhyming do re mi waiting for some Liberty Bell to toll. Greg, you've somehow muted again. I'm sorry. The last line we heard was and Liberty Bell toll, Liberty Bell. We're sick of singing kumbaya. We're tired of rhyming do re mi waiting for some Liberty Bell to toll to finally set us free, to save us from the choke of the rope, the pressure of the knee, from under the thumb or the wrong end of the gun in the hands of racist police. No more chance of we shall overcome. Now we rant, no justice, no peace. Thank you. I loved that the first time I heard it and I loved it even more this time. Thank you so much. Okay. I think the next person I'd like to hear would be Minnaz Benihin. Minnaz is an incredible international poet with many, many publications to her credit in more than one language and please welcome Minnaz. Please share your poem. Yes, hi everyone and good to be here. I will read one poem in Farsi, very a small poem and then one a small poem in English. So yeah. Gozashteem as kooche ho, yeh ho, liyeh sardh. As so yeh yeh mardumon etan ho, dar jaad dehag je jang zadeh. As kenaare de rakhdan e furu ofdadeh, as panjirehag ye shekasteh, ba darhag ye taratkhoreh. Mi gozarim, mi gozarim as kenaare kafshag ye gomshodeh. Rah mi ravim rughe pugs de sardh e shabh wa miandishim, be shabhi chinin deraz As so yeh ho, yeh chinin sardh. Awareness, our hands may be short to search those aching hearts. Our feet may be weak to explore those bloody lands, but our voice is loud and strong. Our heart is ready to accept the pain from the burning hearts of mothers. Let us pray to trees and rivers, to our children. Let us pray to the sun and the moon, to raindrops, not to the criminal nature of capitalism and kings. Thank you. Thank you, Manas. I think a good next person would be Bruce Isaacson. Bruce Isaacson has been a poet laureate of a city, has been a publisher, has put forward the voices of a lot of different people, has worked with some legends, and, well, Bruce Isaacson, please share your poem. Thank you, Kim. I'm really, I had to miss the first reading because I was running a reading at the same time, so I'm really glad to be part of a reading for this book. And I was thinking about the pandemic at the time, and I suppose that's what got me. Stanzas for heroes of our time. At the hospital where Walth Whitman tended and brought peach preserves to fresh war wounded men, they're dying again, doing it en masse this time. Ventilators pounding out a ritual rhythm to simulate the miracle of breath. Nurse and doctor stand on each side, work. Doctor, her hands move precise, careful, firm, or patient, not conscious, but not without hope. Sometimes it seems breath has been knocked out of the nation, but also there are heroes, the helping professions who've long quietly stood guard at the gates of despair, so many, so unassuming. Nurses, doctors, EMTs, others who risk all to establish some dominion for benevolence and courage. Let's not forget the courage of workers who walk into contagion with healing in mind. What the nation most needs they will offer, without fanfare, unpriced, unironic, under empty sky or God, under whatever belief you may have, they offer proof. Limitless and lasting, practicing their craft, but not crafty, without scent of guile or irony, they offer what most we need. The kindness of strength. Thank you so much. Gail Mitchell is kin to me and a very good friend. And for a while there, I wasn't hearing you read as much, and I'm so glad you're up in it. And please share your poem. You need to, yeah, there you go. The first one to say is, Jude, he started to make me cry, and then it just continued. So I will try to get through this. Photographs of American history to be. Not a scrapbook for children. Not photos for polite company. These photos define America. Woman running down the road naked, an napalm attack in Vietnam. From a book called a movement, three men, one woman, a group lynching. White audience, gathers, ready for a Sunday picnic. Young man poses for the camera. His hands resting on the shoulders of his girlfriend. Eye gouged, beaten, thrown into the Tallahatchie River. A cotton gin fan around his neck. Photo of a young boy, barely 14 in his open casket. His mother dared to let America see what they had done to her boy Emmett. Wounded knee, me lie, sow seeds of sorrow and regret. Embracing those feelings, do nothing for me. They've been replaced with unspeakable rage. Still, I speak them. We have witnessed your bloodlust, America. America, you cannot sink your sins deep enough to forget you are a bloodthirsty nation. We have seen your descendants calloused souls, unfettered by the deaths of others. Children dying in forced detention, mothers and fathers whose babies have been stolen. We have been broken down and remade. Cast not in your image, America, but in our own. And these are the photos that helped me to see you as you are. As always, wow. John Curl has been one of the people that I've kind of looked to for an example of being an organizer with an appropriately adjusted ego, which is probably a big thing to say. But we had an interaction in the first book that I helped edit that was just really generous on his part and I will always appreciate him for it. John, can you share your poem, please? Thank you, Kim. They shall not pass. It begins with a quote from Martin Luther King. Be loving enough to absorb evil and understanding enough to turn an energy into a friend. Downtown, I walked along a warm night, everyone out. It was bustling, women in colorful dresses, dogs sniffing each other, children hopping over the cracks in the sidewalk. Then the street collapsed at my feet. I staggered back, lamp posts, vehicles, people cascading down into a vast pit. Falling, they were all disappearing into darkness. I couldn't see bottom. From the shadows, belched fumes and smoke. I was choking. I knew that to breathe those toxic fumes meant death. Then I awoke, shaken. They say that the thoughts you have right after a dream are really part of the dream itself. I thought about my grandfather, an immigrant to America, of how his dreams collapsed into the Great Depression, fascism, World War II. Then suddenly I was downtown again, from down the block in the middle of the street, women, men, children, a long procession, all ages and descriptions, colorfully dressed, carrying banners and signs, chanting as they prayed it toward me. There were so many of them, they kept coming and coming. As they approached, I realized the signs and chants weren't in English, but sounded familiar. I'd heard that chant before, though I didn't recall from where. Then suddenly I understood the words, no, ha-sa-ran, they shall not pass. It was from the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s before World War II. It had been a rallying cry of the populace defending Madrid against Franco's fascists, brought back to America by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and other international brigades of volunteers fighting in Spain to stop fascism before it engulfed all of Europe and the world. As the line of marchers arrived at where I stood on the edge of the sidewalk, a woman at the front handed me a sign and without another thought, I stepped off the curb and was swept into the march. I felt exhilarated, striding side by side with them chanting, no, ha-sa-ran, they shall not pass. Then we stopped short. The intersection was blocked by men in black military gear with helmets, shields, guns, truncheons, and behind them, a group in white robes holding banners painted with rune-like symbols. And behind those were armored vehicles and uniforms as far as I could see. I wanted to get out of there fast, but I was fixated, I couldn't move. They started towards us, then I awoke again. I lay there a few minutes, thinking about my dream. I wondered what my grandpa would think of the world now. Thank you, John. Barbara Paschke, who is an incredible translator of work and has been part of just some really spectacular readings that I've attended. I can't wait to hear you, please share your poem. Thank you. This is a poem by a Colombian poet, Fernando Rendón. And I don't know if I should read it in both languages. Oh, yes, you think? Okay, okay. El hombre que leí tranquilo. El hombre que leí tranquilo esta mañana en las orgías del lago on Quiem en anoe, en tiempos de paz. Sabe que bajo sus risadas aguas duerme a la espada de Leloa, que hizo retroceder a los conquistadores en un tiempo difícil para el país. Lo sabe también el templo de la montaña de John, la dulce anciana que me ofrece soniendo a mi paso, una naranja amarilla como un pequeño sol. Sabe que los jam, los gemeres, los mongoles, y los japoneses ya se fueron y que los chinos que ocuparon sus tierras por mil años no regresaran. El hombre silencioso que habló esta noche en la guerrilla de arte de la capital, recuerda que un guerrillero vietnamita fue abatido por un tiro de pistola de un ocupante francés junto al muro de la casa de sus padres en la aldea Chua, donde los sembradores de arroz escriben poesía. El pescado arrojó ayer su asuelo al estanque en espera de un pez. Precerra en su memoria a que el mediodía de Abril, cuando le fang Juan derribó con su tanque la Puerta de Palacio de Saigon. Mientras caían de cielo racimos de asesinos que intentaban huir en helicópteros, entonces los habitantes del norte y del sur, de los separados por el enemigo, pudieron cruzar el puente de Yen Luang para abrazarse de nuevo y poner fin a su dolor. De esta manera, pudo reconstruir Reconstruizar el país. La sangre de Aramada revenecía en la memoria pues ha llegado al mundo para permanecer en él. Sobre la piedra viva su erige, la imagen de los siglos, pero el mundo no aprende la elección. Todavía no cree que puede terminar la pesadilla. Querido mundo, escuja de nuevo al corazón al lado con siglos de horror se paga el nihilismo. Un pueblo atraviesa los siglos para hablarte. Su leyenda se cura sin cesar las arterías del gran cuerpo. Comer vivir no se oblida nunca el lenguaje de los libres. Respira mucho más hondo que la muerte. Una nueva lengua reconquistará las posiciones perdidas. La siembra de colores se restaura con la sangre del sacrificio que los pueblos. Si el amor pudo reconstituir tantos desastres, asimismo recobrará en su antiguo esplendor al universo. So, this is called the man who calmly reads. The man who calmly reads this morning on the banks of Lake Huanquiem in Hanoi in peaceful times knows that beneath its wavy waters sleeps the sword of Lehua who made the conquerors retreat during a difficult time for the country. He also knows the Jade Mountain Temple. The sweet old woman who smiling as I walk by offered me a yellow orange like a little sun knows that the Ham, the Khmer, the Mongolians and the Japanese are already gone and that the Chinese who occupy these lands for a thousand years will not return. The quiet man who spoke tonight in the Capital's Art Gallery remembers that a Vietnamese soldier was taken down by a gunshot from a French occupier next to the wall of his parents' house in the town of Chuao where the rice farmers write poetry. The fisherman yesterday cast his hook into the pond hoping for a fish. He keeps the memory of that April midday when Névan Thuong with his tank demolished the gate of the presidential palace of Saigon while from the sky fell clusters of assassins who intended to flee in helicopters. Then the residents of the North and the South separated by the enemy could cross the bridge of Yanlong to again embrace and put an end to their sorrow. In this way, the country could rebuild itself. The blood spilled remains in the memory and it has come to the world to remain here. Top the living stone, the image of the centuries is raised but the world doesn't learn the lesson. It still doesn't believe that it can end the nightmare. Dear world, listen again to the soaring heart. Neilism pays the price with centuries of horror. People cross the centuries to speak to you. Its tail endlessly circulates in the arteries of the great body as it lives. It never forgets the words of the free. It breathes much more deeply than death. A new language will take back the lost locations. The planting of colors will be restored with the blood of the people's sacrifice. If love can reconstruct so many disasters in the same way, the universe can recover its ancient splendor. Let's hope. Thank you, Barbara. Torita, Torita McKell is a lot of wonderful things, an incredible storyteller, a great teacher, wonderful poet and a great performer of her own poetry. And I've been a fan for some years now. I won't tell how many. Torita, please share your poem with us. Okay. Oh, wow. It has been a time. Thank you, Kim, for inviting me and thank you, Barbara, that was beautiful. That was beautiful. I couldn't type it out. She was calling me up, so you know. But yeah, this piece I'm going to do is a play on words, a play on vision. Well, you'll get the idea, but I just feel that it's a repetition of what I've seen over the years and I do have some years. See, forgive me here. I'm trying to, it's easier to see it here. Okay. In, in, in augur, in augur, in augur, in augur rate, in augur, in augur, in augur rate, rate, rate, rate nation, the prophecy, rate, the frequency, the degree. Oh, say, can you see future inauguration, in augur, in augur, in augur, in augur, rate, nation, prophecy, foresee, president, swear in salami, swear, swear, salami, swear, swear, salami, swear, right hand, up, left hand, down on the Bible, Bible, by the bowl, the bowl. The bowl, he salami swears on the Bible, Bible, Bible. Swear, salami swear, swear, salami swear, swear, salami swear, swear in the president, set the precedent, swear in the president, set the precedent, swear, salami swear, swear, salami swear, swear on the Bible, the Bible, the Bible, go bullish, go bully, manifest destiny nation states my way or the highway in the name of my country tis up with liberty and justice for just who just ice for swear soundly swear swear soundly swear swear soundly swear to protect and defend just that poem up nice child don't want to hurt anybody for the in auger in auger in auger right right right nation the prophecy oh say can you see the dawn came early didn't it watch them swear solemnly swear watch them swear solemnly swear watch them swear solemnly swear swear solemnly and how well did you sleep last night huh how well how well were you thinking thinking thinking about the inauguration inaugurating the nation in auger rating nation in auger not see nation in a prophecy of one nation with liberty and justice for some the 46th inauguration in auger nation in auger prophecy oh say can you see did you see the bible in the bible the bully in the bible swear solemnly swear go bullish for the bible swear solemnly swear on the bible bible bible going bullish in america take back america giving back america what you thinking cousin cousin what you thinking going bully going bullish taking back taking back giving back to the original owners giving back to the indians right hand up left hand down on the bible bible setting precedent for presidents president for presidents for whom which hand swear pinky swear swear pinky swear swear on slaves obey your masters with fear slaves obey your masters with fear with fear with fear obey your master swear obey your master swear obey your master swear your master your master obey your master and before I be a slave swear obey your master swear obey your master swear one nation under dog one nation under god one nation god damn what's up that's my dog right there right hand up left hand down boy down bitch good doggy anybody get a dog for the president don't forget to get a dog to set the precedent for the commander and chief main temporary employee go between whisper because an effect can become a cause reinforcing the original cause producing the same effect with an intensified form infinitum until inborn inbred reborn 244 years in in in the in auger nation inauguration inauguration in augers the pp code prophet predicate god promise swearing in the president setting up president president president swearing in the president commander and chief temporary employee swear pinky swear swear pinky swear swear pinky swear swear men on the bible the bible go bullish the highway or sideways swear swear swear swear swear swear salami swear salami swear inimity and hate will be placed between the woman and i see swear swear swear take back america take back america go bullish buy bull go bullish buy bull buy bull buy bull swear slaves obey your masters swear slave obey your masters take back america go bullish go bully buy bull go bullish buy bull buy the bull don't buy what afflicts you see i don't know about you guys but i knew that was going to happen and that was still really physical for me thank you so much tarida uh i was thinking as this was coming up um one of the reasons that i i didn't put more people in the show is because i feel like each one of these things this particular book this particular one more than the other ones that i've read of of the revolutionary poets brigade anthologies is like every single poem is incredibly rich and one of the things that i've learned organizing poetry readings at least i think i've learned it is that you want to make sure that you stop before people's uh rear ends go numb but you also need to stop before the progress bar fills up in people's heads and um there this whole book for anybody watching who doesn't have a copy of it i haven't read one piece in here that wasn't really excellent so i recommend it very highly and it seems to me um i get asked all kinds of questions these days about how to organize poetry how to organize anthologies how to do this this is a master class this particular book it's really good and so i have a couple of questions i want to ask because we do have a couple of minutes which was absolutely built into my plan you never know how that's going to work though right it might fill up anyway but i was hoping we'd have a few minutes so i want to ask a few questions um first of all i want to ask john curl how do you as one of the people who uh who um edits anthologies how do you decide what pieces go in because it's almost it's almost never just an excellence question right at least i don't think it is anyway please well you know they're basically they're they're they're they're i look at poems that are submitted in two different ways one as poetry as it has to have a the the the music of the language it can't be it has to be a poem and then it has to be meaningful and politically meaningful and you know and towards our theme our theme is in the broadest sense you know we're uh we we don't take these things in very uh narrow political uh ways but uh but uh you know i mean this is planetary you know we're in a planetary crisis you know what what we think of is socialism is basically the solution the solution of uh of many many different things it has many many different uh aspects to it you know it's it's a humanity it's the best in humanity um you know when uh you know when um you know like i work with native people on the indigenous peoples committee and uh you know they uh native people often look to their to their ancestors for guidance well you know there's uh to some extent our ancestors are the people who were who have been struggling for social justice for thousands of years in thousands of places you know it's like a a worldwide uh movement and uh you know we sing songs about it we we are you know we rather than a you know killing you but back back in the old days you used to think that well you know to to create a more just world you just have to kill a few bad guys but it doesn't really work that way you know creating a more a just world is much more complicated so uh you know so we're working in a working culturally it's it's it's it's it's consciousness it's it's it's it's a raising a planetary a universal raising of consciousness and it's international and it's it's the voice there are many many different people and we just want to make a contribution to that thank you bobby you also edit anthologies how do you pick well just to clarify i'm not one of the editors of this particular none of this and i want to compliment those editors the uh the anthology i agree with you kim i think it's the best one that the that the brigade has produced um there have been many high points along the way there's a co-founder of the brigade uh in this in this uh zoom sarah menafee and who i was going to next actually without you know i was going to kick it over to her but i will say this that when the four of her when the four oh she's leaving i think it's the anthology i didn't know i was reading please continue um well sarah you know when when uh like you and jack and and tathleen williams um you know founded the brigade the dream was that we would have positive outreach and positive impact along the lines that john articulated and i think this anthology has advanced that so much and i'm really proud of the group for having done that and that's all i've got to say i hope sarah that you agree with that i didn't see my name on here so you're not i was going to ask you a question about about um picking things and then it's like that's okay it's my plan to have you feature at a different one but i wanted to ask you a question i just wasn't sure what you were okay i'm being cryptic it's fine i i just wanted to yeah i just wanted to know how um you know what but your um i knew that you were one of the founding members and i was wondering you know what what you thought when you start a thing sometimes it ends up not being what you thought it was going to be and i was wondering what you thought it was going to be when you got started i wasn't sure it just seemed like bringing poets together you know under the vision of being revolutionary meaning you know without vision the people perish and so so you know i think poets whether they define themselves that way or not are revolutionaries in in the sense that they're imagining a new healed transformed world and so um the idea of having a brigade where that was the that was a stated intent but in a very non-sectarian way that we were all going to just join voices and see where it went um um uh just it just absolutely took off um there are five in this country now and i'm maybe that many in italy uh jack hersman has done a lot of the ambassaduring with that with his travels and he's with the world poetry movement now but it's you know it's its own entity that really i think represents more than its membership it represents a vision i guess i keep using that word vision and to me this reading was really showing it as at its strongest what what it's brought out you know poetry is a lonely solitary business you know uh so this is we we joined together okay i'm just remembering now i want to i want to answer what sarah said to just add that um you know i've traveled the country and sometimes the um the idea of the revolutionary brigade just just bounces off audiences they're so thrilled to hear that such a thing exists especially in in places where these types of attitudes are not so ubiquitous and and they're not taken for granted when they hear about it it's encouraging and inspiring especially young people and especially in places like rural rural areas like where scott bird comes from and now scott bird is with us reading so uh and and what and one of our best you know no doubt one of our strongest voices and he's from a small town in colorado so um i think that it's kind of a dream come true in that sense and sarah sarah i couldn't agree with you more sarah it it comes from the collective heart thank you yeah thank you beautifully so the collective heart there's something right there hey lisbit i was wondering if you had something to add about the process of maid well um this is the first time i've done anything like this my first editorship and um it's a good experience and um i'm really pleased that so many are so many people are pleased with the with the outcome um but i'll say the the poems in the anthology have a really broad base there's all kinds of little niches that people write about and um to speak to something that i i kind of work on in another group um the revolutionary class is into all of those different things and what's wonderful about this anthology is that it collectivizes it um everybody's voice kind of coming together into one theme one overall volume and um so while the details on the stories and the perspectives of every poem may be different and diverse and all that fabulous stuff um it's really all about the same thing in a way so that's that's the you know that's the joy i find in it is that we're really doing something all together and pulling something together and that's that's a wonderful feeling thanks lesbeth that's that was really a good insight scott do you have something to say about working on these things well um last year i was the editor of the overthrowing capitalism anthology and this year i um kind of stepped out of that role to work on the graphic selections with agnetta fault and um so having been a little bit removed from the editor process of it to see this book kind of from the point of view of the reader and also part designer i just am i'm very very proud of this work collectively as a whole and and i think that uh you know lesbeth and everybody sara and uh you know john and bobby have spoken to this that it you know really has this collective voice feeling to it now i remember my brother uh he's also a poet he lives in sacramento he read the anthology last year and he just said to me brother all the poems they're so heavy they're it's i have a hard time getting through it sometimes because the poems are are so dense and so some of them are so sad and this year's i felt like was a mixture of rejoicing um and the grief and the sorrow of the revolutionary struggle but also the ultimate reward that we're all working for working hard for so that was so wonderful thank you guys for coming and sharing your words um uh i'm gonna do another reading from this anthology with a whole different group of people you could select people from this in all kinds of random ways and it's always it's always sort of random and that's i guess that's kind of why i asked editors how they pick things but it's just it's a remarkable piece i'm really grateful for it um there are a lot of people who read tonight who have new books out and i didn't really give you a chance to talk about that but um look them up they have new books thank you john smalley thank you san francisco public library judy's being pointed at did you have something to say money do you want to say something duty there you her raw her raw editors her raw for the poets wonderful wonderful poetry and it's a great book really really is all right guys give yourselves the hand audience poets posts everybody it's always a huge privilege for me to read in the loni territory thanks for everybody being here we'll see you next time thank you he's come again next month second uh thursday of each month thank you to a lot of viewers thank you oh that thanks to the youtube folks wonderful meeting thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you bye bye bye thank you everybody