Just a quick update:
Continue reading “New Newsletter + Three Summer Workshops”Resource
All the Threads Between Us: The Power of Poetry Clubs, Writing Circles, Open Mics, and Other Collective Efforts (Zine)
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I basically decide to make a zine when I’ve had so many conversations about a topic that a shortcut would be useful. Not that the conversations aren’t fun; I just want to make sure people can share these resources/ideas beyond the conversation. The newest zine in my library is maybe a little more niche than the others—it’s a collection of resources for people who are looking to start some kind of creative-writing based group: like a high school poetry club, a writing circle, etc.
As always, there’s no one way to do that, and not everything in this zine is going to apply to every person in every situation. But my hope is that there’s something useful in there, at least as a starting point.
One brief note: This is a traditional, 8-page, “z-fold” zine. If you want to print/cut/fold some yourself, here’s a PDF (note that it’s formatted for 11×17 paper). I have a different 8-page zine that’s all about getting involved in spoken word for people who are new to it. I have also, however, combined the two 8-page zines into a single 12-page zine (cutting some of the overlapping content), that I will have with me at shows/events for the foreseeable future. If you’re a teacher, event organizer, etc. who might be interested in a bulk order, feel free to get in touch using my booking form.
As always, here’s the full text of the zine:
Continue reading “All the Threads Between Us: The Power of Poetry Clubs, Writing Circles, Open Mics, and Other Collective Efforts (Zine)”National Poetry Month 2024 Links
onSome upcoming opportunities, food-for-thought, and resources:
1. First, to contextualize everything else here, a few thoughts on what it means to recognize National Poetry Month during a genocide. What are the role(s) of poets in times of crisis? What are some concrete, specific things we can do, in the spaces we move through, with the audiences we have access to? A few tactics and resources in the link (it goes to a nine-slide IG carousel). Related:
- The piece I wrote back in November for Racket, For Artists and Musicians Who Want to Speak Out About Palestine But Aren’t Sure How
- A Handful of Poems as Doorways into Dialogue About Palestine
- Palestinian Poets on the Role of Literature in Fighting Genocide
2. Second: A few local appearances, online opportunities, and more coming up. So much of my work is on-the-road, at schools, colleges, and what basically amounts to “private” events. But these are ones that are more open. Details below:
A Handful of Poems as Doorways into Dialogue About Palestine
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Kind of a National Poetry Month post. I’ve written about this before, so I’ll keep it short: it times of great crisis, I think poets have more to offer than poems. We should still write the poems, of course, but we can also “be mobilizers. We can be movement-builders. We can use our networks to spread information” and on and on. One way this plays out in our everyday work, for me at least, is the practice of kicking off events and performances by bringing someone else’s voice into the space.
I’ve done this here-and-there through my whole career, but it’s felt like a real necessity over the last five months. If I have 20-60 minutes of stage time at an event, I’m not really interested in just jumping into my own material. I want to acknowledge context. I want to acknowledge that the audience’s hearts might be in two places at once. Opening a show with a poem from a Palestinian poet is a small thing, a tiny thing, but I think it matters. A big part of my own pedagogical approach has been the idea that poems are excuses—they have value on their own, of course, but beyond that, they are footholds, opportunities for us to look at something we weren’t already looking at, to think deeply about something that would otherwise be ignored. If we’re not doing that as a bare minimum, what are we doing?
This post is just a list of links—both to short poems I’ve been returning to, over and over recently, and some articles/interviews on how poetry can be used in this moment. I use that word, used, intentionally. It’s not just about what we can say via poetry; it’s about what the process of writing and sharing poems can help build. Hope these can be useful:
A FEW POEMS
A note on the selections: Any time I make a topic-based list, the list is not exhaustive. This one does not feature every great Palestinian poet, or every poet who has written about war and peace (indeed, the ones listed here are not all by Palestinian poets, and they are not all from the last five months). The list is, very specifically, a small sampling of poems on this topic that have been useful to me in my work as a performer, educator, and facilitator. I’m less interested in the “best” poems, and more interested in poems that can be generative, that can lead to good conversations, and questions—poems that can open doors. There are so many others, and I’d encourage all of us to make these kinds of lists and share them.
- What I Will by Suheir Hammad
- If I Must Die by Refaat Alareer
- Picking up Rocks by Rasha Abdulhadi
- A poem (via Palfest) by Haidar Al-Ghazali
- What is Home? by Mosab Abu Toha
- Naturalized by Hala Alyan
- Mismarked by Tariq Luthun
- Don’t Step on My Feet Again by Basman Aldirawi (via the book, Light in Gaza)
- Birthright by George Abraham
- Antizionist Abecedarian by Sam Sax
- Red Sea by Aurora Levins Morales
- Habibi Yamma by Fady Joudah
- We Teach Life, Sir by Rafeef Ziadah (hat-tip to @missteatree on IG)
- Pocketful of Warding Stones by Rasha Abdulhadi (hat-tip to UTM)
- Poem (For Palestine) by Danez Smith
- On the Eve of yet another Nakba, a Dream by George Abraham
Also, while there are a ton of books I could include here, I want to specifically shout out this anthology featuring multiple voices: Heaven Looks Like Us: Palestinian Poetry (edited by George Abraham and Noor Hindi)
A FEW OTHER LINKS
- Palestinian Poets on the Role of Literature in Fighting Genocide
- How Poetry Became a Tool of Resistance for Palestinians
- Mizna: The Palestine Issue
- For Artists and Musicians Who Want to Speak Out About Palestine But Aren’t Sure How
- Zine: Recommended Reading on Gaza and the Struggle for Justice in Palestine
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Zine: Recommended Reading on Gaza and the Struggle for Justice in Palestine
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New zine: Collecting some of the writing that has been useful or meaningful to me over the past months. I’ve already shared some of my own thoughts; this zine is about signal-boosting voices that I think we should all be listening to in this moment, as well as being a concrete thing people can share as a doorway into taking action.
- NOTE: I shared this zine in January 2024, and have since updated/revised it. The text/links later in this post share the quotes and articles from *both* versions.
The cover is a design by Natalie Hinahara, which is part of this fantastic folder of “Palestine Art for Protests.”
PRINT YOUR OWN: Here is a link to the PDF, in case anyone out there wants to share (just make sure to print on 11×17 paper; here is my favorite “foldy zine” tutorial for how to cut and fold them).
Below, you can view the page-by-page version (click on it to move to the next page), and below that, you can find the full text, including links to sources.
Palestine Zine Web Version Continue reading “Zine: Recommended Reading on Gaza and the Struggle for Justice in Palestine”New writing at Racket: For Artists and Musicians Who Want to Speak Out About Palestine But Aren’t Sure How
onAs people with platforms, especially here in the U.S., we have a chance to share more than thoughts and prayers.
11/18/23 Update: Editing this post to be a hub for a few things I’ve been sharing:
- Here’s the piece I wrote for Racket, “For Artists and Musicians Who Want to Speak Out About Palestine But Aren’t Sure How”
- Part of that piece is affirming that it’s less about sharing our own hot-takes and opinions, and more about lifting up the calls-to-action of organizations. For example, here is the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights’ “call your reps” tool, and here is Jewish Voice for Peace’s “take action” page. Both are good starting points.
- Still regularly sharing must-read resources and writing about Palestine as part of my “recommended reading” list here.
- Here is the MN Artists 4 Ceasefire website, with over 2,000 names, a form to sign it yourself if you’re a MN artist, and a very useful, MN-focused, action toolkit. Here’s a short video of me talking about why I chose to sign on:
And here’s an update (2/8/24): a video version of the Racket piece:
Gaza, Media Literacy, and What We Can Learn from Solidarity Statements
onJust wanted to share a few good links and a specific thought about how they’re all connected. For more background (especially if you’re looking for more foundational info/context about Gaza), you can also check out the bundle of links I’ve shared on my “recommended reading” page.
The focus of this post is solidarity statements. Check out this guide from Building Movement Project that talks about what they are, why they matter, and questions/variables to consider when writing one.
That being said, it’s always important to first acknowledge and center statements (and specific calls to action) from groups representing, and/or connected to, the people most directly affected by an issue. In this case, that might mean looking to orgs like US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Students for Justice in Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine, Palestinian Youth Movement, Palestinian Feminist Collective, etc.—not necessarily as absolute authorities, since no one group speaks for all of the Palestinian people, but as crucial starting points. What news are they sharing? What are their calls to action?
As of this writing, those calls to action might include contacting elected reps to support a ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian aid corridors, attending a local march or protest to show solidarity and gain media attention, and doing more in-depth political education and narrative-shifting work in your community. Another call to action, especially for those of us connected to organizations, might be to write a solidarity statement. A few examples:
Continue reading “Gaza, Media Literacy, and What We Can Learn from Solidarity Statements”Of What Future Are These The Wild, Early Days? (Resources for Emerging Movement-Builders)
onOver the last decade that I’ve been traveling and performing, a big pet project of mine has been finding ways to invite people into activist work. Even when I’m brought in to facilitate conversations specifically about masculinity, or consent, or whiteness or whatever, I try to help those conversations “land” in a space of agency and possibility—yes, the problems we face are big and intimidating, but they’re not inevitable or insurmountable.
That’s a simple idea, but in this historical moment, it’s easy to lose sight of. I think more people than ever are fired up and want to do something, but there are also more “off-ramps” for that energy than ever before. Our outrage can get channeled into performative social media posting, into passively ingesting hyper-online leftist podcaster/youtuber content, into voting and nothing beyond voting, into cool-kid doomer cynicism, into anxiety around being the most politically-tuned-in individual we can be, and on and on.
So many of the young people I work with today have incredible politics, light-years ahead of where I was at their age, but not a lot of experience with, or exposure to, perspectives on organizing. And to be clear, I’m not any kind of expert, or even a full-time organizer. I’ve just had the privilege of having some great mentors and being plugged into powerful movement spaces, so I’m trying to use what platform I have to pass along some of what I’ve learned.
This zine (what’s a zine?) is the synthesis of a bunch of conversations related to all that. It mixes some foundational perspectives with some really recent ones. Something that should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway because we’re on the internet: it’s not comprehensive. It’s not “everything you’ll ever need to know about activism.” It’s just a 12-page zine. The idea is that it’s a sampling, a small collection of potential starting points, doorways into movement work.
Because crisis often happens (or feels like it happens) all at once; preventing crisis is longer-term, all-the-time work. This is about how we might step into that work.
Multiple ways to view/read:
- The carousel below is the page-by-page version (click it to move to the next page)
- Below that, you’ll find the full text, including bonus content that didn’t fit into the 12-page version, plus links to sources.
- Here is an Instagram carousel version for sharing there.
- I have physical copies that I give away for free at my events/performances.
- Finally, here is a link to a shorter, 8-page version for people who want to print/fold/share their own copies (directions here).
New Reproductive Justice Zine from the UMN Women’s Center
onHonored to contribute a poem; check it out, along with all the other contributions too.
![Cream background, three art panels in the bottom 3rd of the image with a tree, a mountain, and sun reflecting on water. Text from top to bottom reads: Pick up your zine copy! / Come to the Women's Center lounge in Appleby Hall Room 65 during one of the following times to pick up your copy!* / [In bold] Tuesday May 2nd, 11:30AM-12:30PM and 2:30PM-4:30PM / Wednesday May 3rd, 11AM-12PM and 1PM-4PM / Thursday May 4th, 11AM-12PM and 2�PM-3:30PM / [in italics] *Limit 1 copy/person. While supplies last. We will offer second round print delivery and pickup in a couple weeks based off demand!*](https://i0.wp.com/guante.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/5.png?resize=720%2C720&ssl=1)
What is Reproductive Justice? I’ve always appreciated SisterSong’s framing:
SisterSong defines Reproductive Justice as the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. We believe that Reproductive Justice is…
- A human right. RJ is based on the United Nations’ internationally-accepted Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a comprehensive body of law that details the rights of individuals and the responsibilities of government to protect those rights.
- About access, not choice. Mainstream movements have focused on keeping abortion legal as an individual choice. That is necessary, but not enough. Even when abortion is legal, many women of color cannot afford it, or cannot travel hundreds of miles to the nearest clinic. There is no choice where there is no access.
- Not just about abortion. Abortion access is critical, and women of color and other marginalized women also often have difficulty accessing: contraception, comprehensive sex education, STI prevention and care, alternative birth options, adequate prenatal and pregnancy care, domestic violence assistance, adequate wages to support our families, safe homes, and so much more.
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