Looking to Mythology and Legend: Join poet Dave Keali’i: The goal of this workshop is to utilize the rich tradition of world mythology and legend in poetry. While Greek and Roman mythology is a vast mine, there is a whole world out there that can be explored. Participants are encouraged to keep an open mind and respectfully consider what other pantheons, archetypes and legend may be discovered.

The second workshop meets on Sunday July 19 from  2-4PM and will specifically look at different pantheons to see what participants can come up with. In other words, think outside the Parthenon.

These programs are supported in part by a grant from the Worcester Cultural Commission, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, as well as Ballard Street Poetry Journal and Worcester County Poetry Association.

All workshops are free w/a suggested donation of $3-5.
This series is held at the Worcester County Poetry Association
1 Ekman Street, Quinsigamond Village, Worcester.
To register e-mail editor@ballardstreetpoetryjournal.com
Heather J. Macpherson, Editor
Ballard Street Poetry Journal
http://www.ballardstreetpoetryjournal.com





Bio: for the last 7 years Dave has been a part of the Massachusetts poetry scene, writing and reading his own work. He has spent 5 of those years as the co-host of two poetry readings. His poems have appeared in  Ballard Street Poetry Journal, The November 3rd Club, Breadcrumb Scabs and are forthcoming in ‘Oiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal and Mythium: Literary Journal. He is rumored to have gained political control over the islands of Tuvalu, Rarotonga, and Raiatea. He has yet to deny or confirm such claims.

Looking to Mythology and Legend: Join poet Dave Keali’i: The goal of this workshop is to utilize the rich tradition of world mythology and legend in poetry. While Greek and Roman mythology is a vast mine, there is a whole world out there that can be explored. Participants are encouraged to keep an open mind and respectfuly consider what other pantheons, archetypes and legend may be discovered.

The second workshop meets on Sunday July 19 from  2-4PM and will specifically look at different pantheons to see what participants can come up with. In other words, think outside the Parthenon.

These programs are supported in part by a grant from the Worcester Cultural Commission, a local agency which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, as well as Ballard Street Poetry Journal and Worcester County Poetry Association.

All workshops are free w/a suggested donation of $3-5.
This series is held at the Worcester County Poetry Association
1 Ekman Street, Quinsigamond Village, Worcester.
To register e-mail editor@ballardstreetpoetryjournal.com
Heather J. Macpherson, Editor
Ballard Street Poetry Journal
http://www.ballardstreetpoetryjournal.com





Bio: for the last 7 years Dave has been a part of the Massachusetts poetry scene, writing and reading his own work. He has spent 5 of those years as the co-host of two poetry readings. His poems have appeared in  Ballard Street Poetry Journal, The November 3rd Club, Breadcrumb Scabs and are forthcoming in ‘Oiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal and Mythium: Literary Journal. He is rumored to have gained political control over the islands of Tuvalu, Rarotonga, and Raiatea. He has yet to deny or confirm such claims.

UPDATE, 11:40 a.m. EDT:

We've just learned two things here in the hearing room: number one, Sonia Sotomayor would not be permitted -- under New York state law, at least -- to go get a gun during the next break and shoot Sen. Tom Coburn; and number two, if she did, Coburn might deserve it.

Once the Oklahoma Republican let his questions ramble from abortion to gun control, he started pestering Sotomayor about whether the Constitution allows people to defend themselves if they're under attack. "I think that's what American people want to hear, Your Honor, is they want to know, do they have a right to personal self-defense?" he asked.

That led Sotomayor into an explanation of her understanding of New York's self-defense laws. "Under New York law, if you're being threatened with eminent death or very serious injury, you can use force to repel that, and that would be legal," she said. "The question that would come up, and does come up before juries and judges, is how eminent is the threat."

And then the exchange got weird:

SOTOMAYOR: If the threat was in this room, "I'm going to come get you," and you go home and get -- or I go home. I don't want to suggest I am, by the way. Please, I'm not -- I don't want anybody to misunderstand what I'm trying to say. If I go home, get a gun, come back and shoot you, that may not be legal under New York law because you would have alternative ways to defend...

COBURN (channeling "I Love Lucy"): You'll have lots of 'splainin' to do.

Strictly speaking, of course, Ricky Ricardo (and Desi Arnaz, the actor who played him) was Cuban, not Puerto Rican, as Sotomayor is. But still. You'd think the GOP would want to avoid invoking old-fashioned stereotypes of Latinos during the confirmation hearings for the first Latina Supreme Court nominee. Then again, the main Republican strategy for not alienating Latino voters during the hearings seems to be to constantly bring up Miguel Estrada, a conservative whose nomination to be a federal appeals judge was blocked a few years ago, as if to say, "Look -- we like some of you!" So maybe the Ricky Ricardo moment was inevitable.

At any rate, Sotomayor skipped right past it. "I'd be in a lot of trouble" if she shot Coburn, she said. "But I couldn't do that under a definition of self-defense."

Originally published at x-post from loudpoet.com. Please leave any comments there.

2009 National Poetry Slam

Eleven years ago next month, in Austin, TX, I took one of the most life-changing thrill rides ever when I attended my first National Poetry Slam, as a member of the 1998 team representing the Nuyorican Poets Café that would go on to become their first (and still only) team to win the Championship. The victory itself was amazing, but what really struck me and lasted much, much longer was the diverse community of poets in attendance, and their passion for the event that brought them together every Summer.

The competition was fierce, and there were some who took it way too seriously (myself included!), but late at night, after all of the bouts were done and people gathered in groups of old and new friends to talk, drink and trade poems, the true spirit of the slam always shone through: “It’s not about the points, it’s about the poetry.”

I came back from that first NPS inspired and on a mission, and in September of 1998 added a regular slam series to my fledgling reading series, a little bit louder, and the rest is history.

Literally.

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