political

The Curious Case of the Communist Jell-O Box: The Execution of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg

gwen — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

What could possibly be the connection between imitation raspberry Jell-O, communism, and the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? I was intrigued. After all, what self-respecting leftist would not be interested in the case of the Rosenbergs, who at the height of the Red Scare were convicted of smuggling secrets to the Russians? The Curious Case of the Communist Jell-O Box (CCCJB) is a political zine by Michael Hoerger and Mia Partlow, which folds out into a full-sized poster, but for maximum enjoyment you have to read it as you unfold. In other words, the story unfolds as you do.

The authors use the theme of the Jell-O box to great effect. This seemingly innocuous product and its unlikely association with communism initially lighten the darker themes of espionage and subsequent execution. The ubiquitous gelatin dessert box then takes on a more sinister significance when presented at trial as a sophisticated communications device. Yet this evidence, which was central to the prosecution’s case, was never recovered, and unsurprisingly when shown a replica under cross-examination and asked whether they recognized the box, the witnesses all answered “yes.”

In CCCJB, Hoerger and Partlow write that the show trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were used to fuel public paranoia about communists and lefties in order to give the FBI and its leader, J. Edgar Hoover, greater powers to infiltrate and use extralegal means to quell any real or apparent leftist threat. If you read closely, you’ll see that the writers do raise the possibility of our late-defendants’ guilt, but it seems there’s a larger message in this zine—the unnecessary demonizing of the left or anyone who dares to raise the virtues of truth and justice.

Your inner geek will be tickled pink with reproductions of the now-declassified transcripts from the 1950 Grand Jury trial and a declassified CIA memo that supplies background material on how to counter pro-Rosenberg propaganda. The collage of period newspaper clippings and sensational headlines from both sides of the political spectrum with their scratchy and at times illegible letters give the zine a genuine 1950s look and feel.

CCCJB left me wanting to find out more about the Rosenbergs and the two children they left behind, and a link to further reading about the case would have been appreciated. But overall this was a well-planned undertaking and a lot of entertainment for just two bucks. I checked out the authors’ website, and they have other food-related political zines with their own declassified documents… excellent… excellent!

Written by: Heather Leighton, December 21st 2010

Raging Grannies: The Action League

priyanka — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Directed by Pam Walton

Pam Walton Productions

If you’ve been to a demonstration during the last two decades you’ve likely seen them: Bold, sassy, elders calling themselves The Raging Grannies. Mixing street theatre with costuming, their zany hats, political buttons, and boisterous, if often off-key, singing sets them apart from other protesters. They’re fun—and they defy stereotypes about what old women can and should be doing.

Whether the grannies are reliant on motorized wheelchairs or are healthy enough to dance in the streets, these feisty dames have not only captured media attention, but have become an irrepressible presence at rallies and political events throughout the U.S. and Canada. Since the founding of the first Raging Granny group in 1987, they’ve opposed war and challenged the isms that stymie human progress. Sometimes, this involves writing new words to such familiar songs as "When The Saints Go Marching In." At other times it involves militant resistance and many of the grannies have risked arrest to assert their will.

They’re a great subject for a documentary.

Pam Walton’s thirty-minute film starts off well, zooming in on an all-Caucasian band of rebels from California’s Bay area. In fact, the film opens with a shocking revelation: The National Guard Surveillance Unit spied on the Grannies during a Mother’s Day protest at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. Although we’re not told the year of this monitoring—or if the group sued the government to stop it—the Unit’s 2005 dismantling is championed. As viewers take in this information, however, it quickly becomes clear that the film is flawed, giving us a glimmer into something that transpired while, at the same time, not providing enough information to fully explain what took place and why.

This happens repeatedly and makes Raging Grannies less inspiring than it should be. While the film introduces numerous intrepid women—some of them activists for fifty-plus years and others who are new to political organizing—the interviews are rushed and we get little sense of the participants and what motivates them. It’s a question of scope. The film simply tries to cram too much into too short a time frame. We see the Grannies marching in DC, sitting-in at the local office of Congressman Mike Honda, being interviewed by FOX Television’s Bill O’Reilly, picketing at the Romic Waste Disposal Plant in East Palo Alto, and demonstrating at the California offices of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration. Rather than an in-depth analysis of strategies and tactics—or a look at the ageism and sexism endemic to all-too-many social change efforts—the camera sprints from subject to subject.

This limits the film’s usefulness, especially if it is shown to people who have never been to a demo or seen the Grannies strut their stuff. Indeed, viewers unschooled in the day-to-day machinations of community resistance will need an expository supplement to Raging Grannies—perhaps a speaker or book list—so that they will be able to make sense of the women’s activities. That may be okay, but had the film said more about less, a wider audience would have been able to benefit from seeing the Grannies in action.

That said, by turning the spotlight on elderly women who refuse to be quiet and docile, Raging Grannies reminds us that Margaret Mead was right: Sometimes small groups of people acting together can make a real difference. As Granny Ruth says, “We take a licking but still keep ticking.” And they do—ticking off the powerful and having lots of fun as they challenge authority and shake-up the status quo.

Written by: Eleanor J. Bader, December 8th 2010

Universal Women: Filmmaking and Institutional Change in Early Hollywood

admin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:01:00 +0000

By Mark Garrett Cooper

University of Illinois Press

In Universal Women, Professor Cooper launches a multidisciplinary investigation into the mystery of why it was that Universal Film Manufacturing Company broadly supported women directors during the 1910s before abruptly reversing the policy. Drawing on philosophical, sociological, historical and structuralist interpretations of gender, culture, power, and institutions, Cooper’s study is positioned to show the interrelationship between art and the development of social norms, aesthetics, and political upheaval, and culture and epistemology in the United States.

However, readers looking for a narrative account of women director’s success and subsequent exile from Universal should look elsewhere. Cooper sets up his project by describing a confluence of events and personalities, some of which appear to be only distantly related, that played varying roles in this drama of gender. Some of these are not clearly explained, as when Professor Cooper explains the etymology of a word but does not clearly tie his explanation to the relationship he is trying to describe and defend.

His definitions and explanations take the following pattern: first, Cooper defines a word like “institution” or “organization” with an appeal to the Oxford English Dictionary. He appeals to the historical use of words to explore the concepts that fall under the definition and to point to a kind of etymological necessity: the word organization brings with it an inheritance from biology and so organizations are implicitly naturalized. Then he describes the word in its social development and practical usage. In the case of “organization” Cooper describes different sociological invocations of the word-concept.

Although in the next section, Professor Cooper describes the bi-coastal organization of Universal Film Manufacturing Company, he does not tie this historical description to the linguistic, historical and sociological discussion that preceded it. It seems that the reader is meant to intuit his purposes in such places and to develop the claims herself. I am not opposed to writing styles that foster critical thinking. But Cooper doesn’t make clear his purposes in so defining and explaining (for example). That is to say, I can look up definitions. I have access to the OED. I can read Durkheim and Weber. But I can’t get inside Cooper’s head to figure out what it is he intends by these things.

Reading Cooper’s book is a bit like watching someone’s film depicting a movie being made: it is interesting to see all the “extras” around the set–the camera crew, the lighting, the onlookers, the caterers, the director and producers and the landscape behind the backdrops and facades–but it is difficult to follow the plot of the movie being made.

The book is directed toward an academic audience; readers should be advised to plant their pinkies in the endnotes for quick reference. It will be most intelligible to those trained in film studies or who are such avid consumers of early Hollywood films and trivia that the characters are familiar–I had a hard time keeping track of names. The study is an interesting one, stressing the role that Universal played in interpreting and then enforcing what it means to be gendered as a man or as a woman. It would be interesting to see a slightly more narrative treatment of the subject–even a narrative that made clear the difficulties of narrative for such a diffuse phenomenon as the shifting meanings of gender–in order to appeal to more non-specialists.

Written by: kristina grob, July 6th 2010

Pendant: Mr. President, How Long Must Women Wait for Liberty

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:24:00 +0000

By 2-Mile Jewelry

Canadian artist Viki Ackland's handmade jewelry uses pop art, found art, and ransom-note style letters to create a visually appealing cut-and-paste aesthetic from 2-Mile Jewelry. Female pop icons such as Betty Boop, Marilyn Monroe, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer adorn her works (mostly necklaces), as do floral prints, pictures of seemingly random items such as pliers, and simple statements such as "Delectable," "Coffee," and "Heard of Me?" Among these declarations is a stylistically spartan piece adorned with Inez Milholland's famous battle cry of the women's suffrage movement: "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?"

There is no question mark at the end of this ostensibly interrogative statement on Ackland's pendant, rendering Milholland's appeal to then-President Woodrow Wilson a declaration rather than an inquiry. The text is simple black block lettering on a gray background, and the skewed edges of the piece, when viewed closely, reveal it to be a photograph in miniature of a protest sign. The back of the pendant displays a silver heart over more pieced-together text, which appears to be from a newspaper article, but does not cohere into a decipherable statement; it is purely for visual appeal. The metal loop at the top of the pendant will allow for a relatively thick chain or other necklace on which to string the drop.

Most of the pieces on 2-Mile Jewelry are priced at $20 to $25 (Canadian dollars) and come with a choice of wire or leather chain with a default length of 15". Longer lengths may be chosen, if specified at checkout. 2-Mile Jewelry will ship outside of Canada, with special shipping rates applied.

Written by: Natalie Ballard, October 13th 2009

Who's to Say What's Obscene?: Politics, Culture, and Comedy in America Today

admin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:30:00 +0000

By Paul Krassner

City Lights Books

I've long been a fan of Paul Krassner's more illustrious friends like Lenny Bruce and Abbie Hoffman, but until now I'd never gotten around to reading Krassner's own work. Who's to Say What's Obscene? appears to be a collection of random essays. I say "appears to be" because for most of the book, I had no idea what was going on.

The stories were interesting, but would just go from one to the next with seemingly no connection. I'd be reading about Don Imus, Michael Richards, and media censorship, and then the next thing I knew, I'd be reading about Walt Disney's death. Breaking the book down into chapters, as Krassner does here, is useless when each chapter is a random collection of essays that aren't even identified as separate pieces, and it left me scrambling. When I complained to my boyfriend, he replied, "That's what happens when you do a lot of drugs," which makes sense, as a lot of the book involves various scenarios where Krassner is about to go on a big interview, but then decides to do mushrooms beforehand to "enhance the experience."

By the middle of the book, I decided to just take each individual piece as it was and stop trying to make sense of everything. Eventually, I found the writing enjoyable. Krassner has lived a very rich life and raises good questions about what is actually obscene in our culture, based on his own opinions and experiences. As is to be expected, Krassner has a very liberal attitude towards most of the issues he raises in his book, like censorship in all its forms (he's against it) and legalizing drugs (he's for it). I do like reading viewpoints I agree with, but at times even I felt that Krassner took his opinions to the extreme.

Who's to Say What's Obscene? is a good book for people with short attention spans and far left-leaning views. Me personally, I'll keep it—but it'll lead a life doomed to the bathroom for short, mentally uninvolved reads, one to two times a day.

Written by: Jen Klee, October 9th 2009

Swarm

admin — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 12:01:00 +0000

By Andrea Gibson

Faux Pas Productions

If you love poetry—scratch that—if you love powerfully articulate, passionate prose meant to stir up your inner emotions and inspire you to stand up and create change, then you’ll love the brilliance that queer poet/activist Andrea Gibson serves up aplenty in Swarm.

Primarily recorded in a bedroom, Swarm also contains a handful of live tracks that allow the listener to taste the raw energy of her live performance.

The self-released album came out in 2004, yet the poignant words, occasionally accompanied by a backdrop of acoustic guitar, cut into you like knives and remain just as relevant today—particularly today. Gibson takes it all on—patriarchy, ignorance (the angry, powerful “Wal-Mart”), gender norms (the comedic “Sidewalk Chalk”)—without a bat of the eye, and takes you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions in just one piece.

Check it out, if not just for the jaw-dropping live track, “Dive,” a brutally honest peek at life and what Gibson pens “the most honest poem I’ve ever spoken in my life.” She speaks passionately of the horrors of life—the stuff that doesn’t make sense, “doesn’t rhyme”—from patriarchy and hate to anti-gay violence. Another gem is “Blue Blanket,” a fierce portrait of patriarchy: “I am generations of daughters, sisters, mother/our bodies battlefields/war grounds/beneath the weapons of your brother’s hands.”

This album will not disappoint. It will change your life.

Written by: Amy Wooten, June 23rd 2007

The Trucks

admin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 12:41:00 +0000

By The Trucks

ClickPop Records

The Trucks’ self-titled album is a consciousness-raising, therapeutic jam session that sounds like the musical lovechild of riot grrrls Sleater-Kinney and gay glam-rockers Scissor Sisters. The foursome’s first outing makes the personal political by letting off steam about subjects as varied as emotionally distant lovers, the politics of neighborhood bullies, sexual assault and concepts of beauty. No single song sounds like the next, showing off the band’s ability to be creative and engaging.

The song “Zombie” gets you on your feet with the girls asking: “If this is the end, would you die not dancing?” and “Man Voice” is an eerie ballad reminiscent of Lolita’s captivity in Nabokov’s classic novel. Despite the often-heavy topics, their good humor is evident in their wardrobe (often corsets and fishnets) and their lyrics (“You’re always talking shit/Your mouth just never quits”).

This band that began in response to a music festival’s conspicuous lack of women performers could be the cool older girls who grew up next-door to you and who you always wanted to be more like.

Written by: Jaclyn Barbarow, June 5th 2007

Make Believe Not War Tank

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 18:33:00 +0000

By No Star Clothing

My favorite new tank top comes from No Star Clothing. It is black with the slogan “Make Believe Not War” printed on a military helmet - a helmet that holds crayons. Swoon. All of my academically-inclined, left-leaning coffee-shop customers loved this tank top. One cynically suggested that the only way to make any sense of our current military endeavors is to, in fact, make believe. I think this tank top brought me bigger-than-usual tips and even bigger smiles. Certainly it doesn't hurt that it fits me perfectly, washes well and doesn't show stains. Like I said, I am in love.

The other t-shirts offered by this cool company are equally smart and sassy. They are a welcomed alternative to other “funny” women's t-shirts, many of which have recently come under heavy feminist critique. So far No Star appears, with few possible exceptions, to be funny and critical without being needlessly offensive or sexist. Nice!

Written by: kristina grob, June 4th 2007

Live at Club Europa (4/12/2007)

admin — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 01:40:00 +0000

By Panthers

Vice Records

You're not fooling me, Panthers. Despite your new, more marketable album The Trick, I know you're still the kind of absurdist intellectual revolutionaries who want to think things over and then go fuck them up--just with a little more focus on style this time round.

Front man Jayson Green's voice, more a hybrid of punk-50s, screamo-wail than a grating hardcore rasp, packs a whopping punch into a single verse. This megaphone is housed in the body of a corpulent, charismatic preacher with a charmingly sardonic onstage personality, and what I have reason to suspect is really a “nice guy” demeanor beneath it all. Panthers filled Polish dance Club Europa for their record release party, and Green’s playful sarcasm was on heavy rotation. “Someone told me to turn my vocals up, but I don’t want to melt anyone’s face off,” he said in a light, self-mocking tone. But when they started to play, it was obvious that face-melting was what they were aspiring towards even if not quite achieving it like their former hardcore outfit Orchid did regularly.

After feeling pretty rocked out, Green introduced his next song with “Here’s a slow jam for all you lovers.” I imagined Panthers were going to crank out a Yo La Tengo-ish shoegaze tune. Wrong. This band doesn’t do slow jams, and for good reason. They then burst into an only slightly less furious three-minute punker, which is one example of how conventionally hardcore punk their songs are – very short and very simple song structures.

Jeff Salane’s drum playing was nice and crisp, Justin Chearno’s guitarwork was a careful study in concentrated fury, and Geoff Garlock possessed a mean, consistent power on his Fender Jazz. Garlock also has the hair of Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale on top of a tough, stocky bass player’s build, which only serves to add to his appeal. These boys didn’t have a shitload of pedals or any special effects going on: just some nice big Orange cabs, some old guitars, and some talented, been-around-the-block musicians playing politically-focused hard rock. Dare I say the Panthers might be a political reference to the Black Panthers? This group isn’t explicitly feminist, but they are downright radical.

“Goblin City” is the obvious centerpiece of the new album and live repertoire: a catchy, little anthem that really cranked the crowd up. With the Panthers sounding more melodic than on previous albums, Green belted righteously about a "culturally bankrupt" city, then kicked in with a chorus contrasting the blind population with their role as political clairvoyants: "The city is right here and we can see right through it. The city is right here and you won’t look right through it." You could just rock out to this steady rhythm and love this music without recognizing its political element, but upon a careful listen, it’s evident how central a libretto is to this band’s oeuvre.

These are liberally educated sons, and I wondered if they thought of Christina Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market”: a warning against a corrupt, desire-fraught society where goblins lure innocents into their trap. In Panthers’ songs, the goblins are hell-bent-on-consumption capitalists. On the highly theoretical end, past songs have included “Thanks for the Simulacra,” “Panthers Vs. the Automaton,” “My Commodities Have Been Fetishized” and “Post-Fascist Fantasies”; and on the lowbrow, Vice humor-approved end, little ditties like “Don’t Be a Dick” and “Stroke My Genius.”

Old fans seeking Orchid glory days may be disappointed by this move toward more melodic songs, but Panthers still put on a good show with substance. You won't be disappointed if you waver near the boundaries of hardcore and hard rock. Just skip the three hardcore bands opening for them unless you hear otherwise.

Written by: Onya Lamoureux, June 3rd 2007

The Butterfly Effect

admin — Sun, 27 May 2007 19:06:00 +0000

By Susan Hawthorne

Spinifex Press

While reading the first half of Susan Hawthorne’s newest collection of lesbian poems, The Butterfly Effect, I found myself lost in footnotes. Each poem reads on the right page, while footnotes to the poem fill up the left page. Most of the time, the footnotes are as long as, if not longer, than the actual poem. At first, I thought this was a brilliant idea. Then I started to get slightly annoyed by the footnotes and felt that they were a little pompous and unnecessary. How dare Hawthorne interrupt the poetic flow with a useless footnote!

But I re-thought this assertion, and wondered if there are readers out there who are not aware of Sappho, lesbian bar culture, the history of lesbian literature, the lesbian prisoner stereotype or the importance of pool in lesbian culture. My final conclusion of the footnotes is one of intrigue: either Hawthorne uses the footnotes to educate the reader to the purpose of every image that she used. She also uses the footnotes to create a steady pause between each image, giving the reader more time to really think about what she is trying to create.

Either way, footnotes or not, each poem is breathtaking in its imagery, emotionality, creativity and political conscious. The second (and footnote-less) half of The Butterfly Effect stems from the tumultuous emotions brought on by her mother’s death. Hawthorne invites the reader into a twenty page “Dialogue With Death,” recounting the situation surrounding her mother’s death and the aftermath of grief and loss. Hawthorne executes each poem with great style and courage. As a whole, this book of poetry is intended for the smart reader, the emotional reader, the relentless reader and the lesbian who wants to understand the depth of her herstory. The Butterfly Effect is an enchanting collection of profound poetry.

Written by: Chelsey Clammer, May 27th 2007

Aman Iman

admin — Fri, 25 May 2007 02:18:00 +0000

By Tinariwen

World Village

In an age of over-produced, mass-marketed tripe, Tinariwen is a beacon shining from the Sahara. Their 2007 Aman Iman relies heavily on the rare sound of raw, straining human voices and features handclaps as primary percussion. Foremost, there is a voice singing against isolation and violence in favor of a solidarity so desperately needed to improve the station of the Touareg people. Although the lyrics are in Tamashek, the English translation included with the CD confirms that much of the songs’ essential meanings are communicated. The group’s vital, driving rhythms ensure that this cry is one of hope, not of desperation.

Tinariwen has mastered mixing commonplace and innovation to avoid one of the shortcomings of much music that is categorized as “world” - that vanilla, please-everyone blandness that ends up putting one to sleep. The group skillfully sets familiar western instruments to a uniquely African rhythm and also have a skill for improvisation on a theme. Especially on track four, “Ahimana,” where Japonias (whose wordcraft is respected throughout Africa) takes the lead, breaking down a traditional folk song and making it his own. Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, the group’s most frequent lead singer, often passes the mic to one of the group’s 8+ other members, who constantly improvise, and switch again. That is the beauty of Tinariwen, a band whose music-making mirrors their politics of inclusion and is ultimately the sound of celebration. It's the sound made when family gets together, relaxes its internal defenses and remembers what makes them a family.

Written by: H. V. Cramond, May 24th 2007

Bamako

admin — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:48:00 +0000

Directed by Abderrahmane Sissako

New Yorker Films

Bamako is a largely unscripted political film which centers on a trial of the Malian people against the World Bank and IMF. Filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako chose to shoot the trial in a courtyard that represents his family home in a poorer neighborhood of Mali’s capital city, where he has memories of passionate discussions about Africa. The courtyard in the film is likewise a setting for passionate testimony about the devastating effects of western economic domination over Africa.

Although these testimonies were eloquent, heart felt, informative and true, they weren’t solidified by strong cinematic techniques to inspire an emotional connection or impact on the viewer. The film essentially comprises a series of monologues interspersed with mere visual aids of everyday life, thus lacking any substantial character development or contextual demonstration. Sissako even said that his initial concept for the film was to limit the setting and characters to the trial itself. He decided to “develop the secondary plots because [he] wanted the lives of the people living in the courtyard to echo or interfere with the speeches delivered at the bar,” and he wanted “the sophisticated statements be put into perspective.” However, the “secondary plots” weren’t developed enough to work. Instead of serving as effective emotional context, they don’t go beyond weakly and vaguely representing the issues. Some examples include a married couple having problems because the husband is unable to find work, a man suffering from an illness who cannot afford healthcare, a metaphorical western flick starring Danny Glover that some kids watch on a TV set and other various everyday activities - such as women dying fabrics and children playing. The details and meaning behind these various semi-subplots were so subtle that you might not catch them by merely watching the film once, or even twice.

This could have been quite an effective film if there were a better balance between intellectualizing the issues and poetically demonstrating them. The music was truly beautiful. Mali’s six-century deep musical heritage has become internationally adored and respected, and this could have played more of a role. In fact, watching the trailer or reading the synopsis might lead you to believe this is a film about Melé, a lounge singer with a shockingly beautiful voice, but she is one of the many awkwardly and sparsely placed attempts at providing concrete context for the film’s agenda.

Written by: Suhaila Aboulhosn, May 16th 2007

Despite Our Differences

admin — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:34:00 +0000

By Indigo Girls

Hollywood Records

Despite Our Differences is Emily Saliers’ and Amy Ray's first release on their new record label, and it shows on an album that feels like a new beginning for Decatur’s own.

Taking a slight upward turn in sentiments from some heavy themes on All That We Let In and the acoustic, earthy Become You, fans should be advised not to live without this one. "Lay My Head Down" makes introspection fun with its Dylanesque lyrics, visuals, sardonic twists and rolling sound is the highlight on this album of consistently strong material. Emily is at her very best here, topping the solemn and beautiful "All That We Let In" and rivaling Amy’s confrontational masterpiece, "Become You."

Amy Ray never ceases to amaze with her diversity of styles, and "Little Perennials" is no exception. "Little Perennials" deals with her plethora of blood kin and the question of identity asking, “Where’d you come from?” It includes a fun chorus, “Wee oh…,” is very Southern in sentiment, could be a children’s song and sounds like a radio single. "Rock and Roll Heavens Gate" is about several punk bands that recently broke up and features backing vocals by Pink.

"Pendulum Swinger" makes activism fun as it takes swipes at our misleaders, “It doesn’t come by the bullwhip.” Saliers’ wish to “make the pendulum swing again” turned out to be timely in light of the midterm elections. "Pendulum" is a diatribe for the strong woman and features an attention grabbing "F--- It!" "Three County Highway" is a sleeper favorite, a slow ballad with deep sentiments about the saving power of love. On "Fly Away," "All the Way," "Run" and, especially, "Last Tears" the gentler Indigo Girls again explore existential nature and succeed. "Dirt Ends" and "They Won’t Have Me" are very interesting in content and feature a strong beat with an American Indian flair. "Dirt Ends" is about the encroachment of development on the lives of rural dwellers, ending their sense of belonging and the privacy that nature provides.

The placement of the sheer variety of the songs on this album can be a bit jarring. That Emily and Amy are still driven to their song craft and hard touring after so many years is a testament to their strong work ethic and dedication. They still agonize over love; they still care about the world, and we still care too.

Written by: Katie Klemenchich, April 19th 2007

The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser

admin — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 14:23:00 +0000

Edited by Janet E. Kaufman, Anne F. Herzog

University of Pittsburgh Press

Before there was Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath, there was Muriel Rukeyser. Before there were the Beats, there was Muriel Rukeyser. As Anne Sexton once pointed out, Rukeyser was the “mother of us all.” This is why a collection of her work is so important. Despite Rukeyser’s stature, and her prodigious output, she is not as often read or taught as her better known literary progeny. Furthermore, some of Rukeyser’s prime writing years were during the era of New Criticism, when politically charged poetry was not in vogue. Not only that, but according to the editors in their introductory note, the FBI had a file on Rukeyser that was over one hundred pages long. It wasn’t just the new formalist poets who turned a wary eye on her.

Even if Ginsberg, Plath, and Sexton are her inheritors, Rukeyser is different from them in that she is concerned with placing the self within a larger political, and more emotionally distanced, framework. A modernist with an obvious debt to Walt Whitman, she believed in the power of poetry to create positive political change. And if she has been somewhat overlooked, I think her time has come. Living as we are in the midst of a dangerous war, Rukeyser has the power to speak to us now. In her autobiographical poem, “Kathe Kollwitz,” her first lines are, “Held between wars/my lifetime/among wars, the big hands of the world of death.” Her concern with war resonates. Her poems “What Have You Brought Home from the Wars?,” “One Soldier,” and “Welcome from War” have something very personal to say to our time.

Rukeyser was also a feminist poet, and she is deeply concerned with what it means to be both a woman poet, and a woman in the world. And long before the Civil Rights era, Rukeyser was all-inclusive. Her poems “The Young Girl of the Mississippi Valley” and “Martin Luther King, Malcolm X,” evidence her interest in transcending her own experience as a white woman. In truth, Rukeyser is every type of poet—she wrote about sex, love, death, race, war, suicide, lesbian love, children, motherhood. Her breadth was profound. This collection of Rukeyser’s work should ensure her life within the canon. This she deserves.

Written by: Susan Melinde Dunlap, March 23rd 2007

Remembering Tomorrow: From SDS to Life After Capitalism

admin — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 18:30:00 +0000

By Michael Albert

Seven Stories Press

The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past. –William Faulkner

Michael Albert writes an in-depth political memoir, offering a formidable defense of the project to change global inequality. Albert is a veteran anti-capitalist and visionary leftist thinker. In his memoir, he retells his past of devotion, commitment and the struggle to bring forth social change, however difficult the journey, a small step at a time.

Albert separates his memoir into five intriguing parts. He begins with his college years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). An aspiring physicist, Albert seemed destined for a career inside laboratories and research facilities until politics seduced him away. Gradually, he began campus organizing, rallying and protesting. His political involvement began to shape his being as he later goes on to fight in the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and other vital American movements.

He recounts many tales from his friendship with Noam Chomsky, which has spanned their lifetimes. Chomsky’s personal and professional perspectives, complicated through his belief in the political world, strongly affected Albert’s way of interacting with others.

Albert explores various topics, both personal and professional. Whether commenting on marriage, racism, class, drugs, rock and roll or sexism, he qualifies his opinion with the personal experience to back up his view. Throughout his memoir, he reaches points of evolutionary thought and maturity. For decades, Albert has spent his time not only striving for social change, but also achieving it.

Written by: Mona Lisa Safai, February 17th 2007