This, though, is a lit blog, so I want to say something about the literary culture at a conference of revolutionary socialists. Many might think there's no such thing. Ah but there is. This weekend it included:
- spoken-word performances that opened and closed the conference. The poets in question, Miya and Mike,
are some seriously talented word workers. They work those words in remarkably original, creative, politically sharp and delightfully outrageous ways. The piece that Miya performed Saturday morning was structured as a dialogue with Langston Hughes' 1938 poem "Let America Be America Again." Mike's closing piece Sunday afternoon was sort of a catalogue of the life of a young revolutionary. Both were very much of the here and now yet also very much aware of what has come before and what's ahead. It was a conversation between two young activists/artists of color and history. I felt privileged to listen in. (That's Miya at the podium and Mike right behind her.)
- talk of books about the German revolutionary movement of the early 20th century. I was told about what sounds like a fascinating memoir by a woman who participated in that movement. Perhaps the friend who just read this book will follow through on his threat--I mean offer--to write something about it for this blog. Hearing about it reminded me of a book I read some years ago: 1918, a magnificent novel about the failed German revolution by Alfred Doblin, who also wrote the better-known Berlin Alexanderplatz, later (1980) made into a film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
- conversation about literary magazines based in university writing programs and how, unknown to most of us, some of them are partially funded by grants from reactionary foundations. I'm still mulling over what this means and whether it has any bearing on how the journals function, whether it puts a chill on their artistic choices. My initial thought is that a grant of this sort is more about making the foundation look good--look as if it's a supporter of the arts, which to most people equates with some sort of progressivism, so that it's effective PR for the foundation and diverts attention away from its fundamental loathsomeness--rather than serving as a means for direct right-wing intervention in the arts. I'm sure they also do that, intervene directly, but probably in other settings.
- lots more, including tables brimming over with sale offerings from leftbooks.com, which I unfortunately had to pass up as I had no spare cash.
