“From Nowhere” – Marie Howe

I think the sea is a useless teacher, pitching and falling
no matter the weather, when our lives are rather lakes

unlocking in a constant and bewildering spring. Listen,
a day comes, when you say what all winter

I’ve been meaning to ask, and a crack booms and echoes
where ice had seemed solid, scattering ducks

and scaring us half to death. In Vermont, you dreamed
from the crown of a hill and across a ravine

you saw lights so familiar they might have been ours
shining back from the future.

And waking, you walked there, to the real place,
and when you saw only trees, come back bleak

with a foreknowledge we have both come to believe in.
But this morning, a kind day has descended, from nowhere,

and making coffee in the usual way, measuring grounds
with the wooden spoon, I remembered,

this is how things happen, cup by cup, familiar gesture
after gesture, what else can we know of safety

or of fruitfulness? We walk with mincing steps within
a thaw as slow as February, wading through currents

that surprise us with their sudden warmth. Remember,
last week you woke still whistling for a bird

that had miraculously escaped its cage, and look, today,
a swallow has come to settle behind this rented rain gutter,

gripping a twig twice his size in his beak, staggering
under its weight, so delicately, so precariously it seems

from here, holding all he knows of hope in his mouth.

“The Portrait” – Stanley Kunitz

My mother never forgave my father
for killing himself,
especially at such an awkward time
and in a public park,
that spring
when I was waiting to be born.
She locked his name
in her deepest cabinet
and would not let him out,
though I could hear him thumping.
When I came down from the attic
with the pastel portrait in my hand
of a long-lipped stranger
with a brave moustache
and deep brown level eyes,
she ripped it into shreds
without a single word
and slapped me hard.
In my sixty-fourth year
I can feel my cheek
still burning.

New Brooklyn Bookstore this April

Excerpt from Publisher’s Weekly Article, Dec 7 2016: “Emma Straub to Open a Bookstore in Brooklyn”

“A neighborhood without an independent bookstore is a body without a heart,” wrote Straub and her husband, graphic designer Michael Fusco-Straub, on Tuesday on her website to announce the store. The news that Books Are Magic is in the works came just moments after their neighborhood bookstore, 35-year-old BookCourt in Brooklyn, sent out an announcement that it will close on December 31.

“We’ve been working on [the bookstore] for a few months, Straub told PW. As soon as she learned in October that Mary Gannett and Henry Zook had sold the two buildings that house BookCourt in advance of shutting the store, Straub and her husband wrote to them to ask if they could take over BookCourt.

Although they haven’t signed a lease yet, Straub and her husband are close and anticipate opening Books Are Magic in April or May 2017 to serve the Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn Heights, and Columbia Waterfront area.

Continue reading full article by Judith Rosen here–> 

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/72216-emma-straub-to-open-a-bookstore-in-brooklyn.html

“Frosting” – Langston Hughes

Freedom
Is just frosting
On somebody else’s
Cake–
And so must be
Till we
Learn how to
Bake

“Cross” – Langston Hughes

My old man’s a white old man
And my old mother’s black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I’m sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.

My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I’m gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?

“jasper texas 1998” – Lucille Clifton

for j. byrd

i am a man’s head hunched in the road.
i was chosen to speak by the members
of my body. the arm as it pulled away
pointed toward me, the hand opened once
and was gone.

why and why and why
should i call a white man brother?
who is the human in this place,
the thing that is dragged or the dragger?
what does my daughter say?

the sun is a blister overhead.
if i were alive i could not bear it.
the townsfolk sing we shall overcome
while hope bleeds slowly from my mouth
into the dirt that covers us all.
i am done with this dust. i am done.

Drunken Library’s Grammy Wish – We Are King

One studio album that stood out to us this year was We Are KINGthe debut full-length album that emerged from Minneapolis and LA based group KING.

nsosbkinglprwm-40.jpg

Nominated for Best Urban Contemporary Artist, this all soul, all female group, has launched itself into the same category as Rihanna and Beyoncé. Two twin sisters, Paris and Amber Strother, and long-time friend Anita Bias, make up the dreamsicle pop-like trio who gathered much of their musical prowess and influence from Prince, which shouldn’t come as a surprise once you hear their music.

It was a tough year, they mentioned at their New Year’s Eve show at the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis on December 31st, 2016. To lose Prince wasn’t easy when he had been their mentor. They continued to say how Prince’s encouragement to continue writing their music their way was what got them to a grammy nomination. He guaranteed that we would be nominated if we kept doing what we were doing and sure enough we did. 

At the New Year’s show I found myself among an intimate crowd of friends and family, and the vibe couldn’t have been more ethereal or surreal. The warm spiritual sounds of synth-pop rose from the stage like tropical vapor. There was so much freshness, vitality, authenticity, and groove in the music. I lost track of time and danced slowly, swaying, child-like. Congratulations to KING for already making beautiful music and for creating a beautiful beginning for their artistry to soar into our ears.

Listen to our favorites:

Native Land

In the Meantime

Find out more at WeAreKing.com & check their tour dates.

Tune in for the Grammys on CBS Sunday Feb 12.

 

 

Top 10 Actions to #ResistIgnorance

1. Call Congress Everyday: 202-225-3121

People like Michael Moore, Actiongroups.net, 100daysofresistance.org, & Indivisible will share what to ask of Congress every day. Even if you don’t know who your member of Congress is, the operator will connect you – just give them your zip code. Call your state representative.

“Make this part of your new daily routine.” – Michael Moore

2. Join a Group.

Planned Parenthood. Sierra Club. Environmental groups. Maybe you have contributed, volunteered or supported a group – but now is the time to JOIN. Find a YOUR group.

3. Form Your Own Personal Rapid Response Team (PRRT)

Form a group of 5-10 family members or friends, the people you are going to call text or email on any given day when we have to move fast.

4. Take Over the Democratic Party

Participate and reform what is there. We need leadership. Find a way to be a leader in transforming the political party.

5. You Have to Run for Office

Even if you’re introverted. Maybe you assist your extroverted friend with their campaign?

Twitter: @ActionGroupNet
Facebook: Action Group Network

Excerpt from Clearing – Wendell Berry

From History:

What we eat is resurrection
of what we have eaten.
The flesh we had is changed
beyond any words we knew
into this unity we are:
woman, man, and earth,
each other’s metaphor.
I say this while the age
achieves its ruin, rain
falling hard in the night
into the swollen river,
a rage of lies in the air.
This weather is not spent.
But we have healed together
earth and eye and hand.
That is our sacrament.