eviction

[John Beer]

Hey everyone,

Thanks, Allison, for that evocative picture of the encampment tonight.
It certainly does sound as though the axe is falling tomorrow.
Although the messages seem (unsurprisingly) mixed, my understanding is
that the GA of OccupyPortland has voted in favor of continued
occupation in the face of the city's eviction notice. So I'm going
down there tomorrow night, even if it disrupts my kick-this-cold
program, in the hopes that more bodies will dissuade the kind of
police violence suffered in Oakland and Berkeley. Let me know if
you're also planning to be there; I'd be very glad to meet up around 9
or 10ish.

All best,
John

[Allison Cobb]

Hi John. You're right, they voted last night at the GA to stay. I
changed the title of my post to reflect that. I plan to go to the
early part of the evening, the Occupotluck, to support them.

Allison Cobb
ac...@allisoncobb.net

[Allison Cobb]

Hey all. Just so you know, the mood down at the Occupy Camp tonight
was great. The rain lifted and lots of people came out!

[Kaia Sand]

I second that, Allison. I was very moved by how people responded Saturday night with such eloquence and festivity.

Now, I keep thinking--what can we do as poets to help in this next stage?

http://www.pen.org/members/sand/

http://www.archiveofthenow.org/authors/kaiasand/home.html

http://www.oregonauthors.org/authors/author.php?author_id=317

[Kaia Sand]

This in Salon:

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/13/its_time_to_occupy_poetry/

[Standard Schaefer]

Hi Folks,

Probably you guys are more dialed in than I am so can better respond
to Kaia's important question: what is to be done? As I understand it,
though, we can still go to the park or perhaps Pioneer Square and read
poems. Maybe we could have a mock eulogy for the first wave off
Occupy. Or bill it as a "report" on the occupation. Could we get an
actual mic, you know, with electricity? I'd like to see a group of
poets doing a marathon reading of politically appropriate poems, and
of course it should be open to anyone, although with strict time
limits. (I might prefer that we balance the anti-cop poems with some
about them as our brothers/sisters in struggle, you know what I mean?)

I would basically propose we issue a "report on the occupation" and
denounce the closing of the park, both on moral and aesthetic grounds.
I'm being slightly cheeky here, but surely forcing it closed is
unpoetic by a mile. Poetry is little more than using language to
convey and enhance imagination, and this movement seems most promising
in its ability to imagine a world run differently than this one.

Maybe we need a big public celebration of the imagination in general,
making it clear that we feel it is just as important as ideology and
more important than abstractions like "the economy" which you all
realize is something other than jobs, housing, and food.

I guess what I'm saying is that poets have at least one thing they can
contribute to helping the movement advance: we can show that
opposition can also be celebration. It can involve eulogy too, but it
can demonstrate lots of peaceful forms of saying no to power.

I would be willing to help edit, publish, and even finance a
collection of Occupy Portland poems that might arise out of such an
event (but I would like some help). People like to have a physical
memento of their belonging to something important. At least this
seemed to be true when we did a similar event in Los Angeles with
poets/poems opposing the second Iraq War. If we include poems from
the Occupy workshops, or from any future workshops, it would serve as
a kind of physical reminder that we were there putting all our voices
forward. New poets might feel emboldened.

I would also like to see us as a group print some broadsides,
postcards, etc with apt political poems that could be handed out at
future demonstrations. I think this could include new poems by anyone
but also perhaps one of Brecht's poems that deals with economic
justice.

Just thinking out loud here. But it does sound like the
demonstrations will continue if more spread out than before.

In Solidarity,

Standard Schaefer

[Kaia Sand]

I really like that approach of creating a public celebration of the imagination. I agree that that Occupy Movements have been showing us that so much more can be imagined--

So many good ideas here, Standard. 

You know, it might be powerful to have the poems amplified by human microphone. So that each line is repeated by chorus. 

Perhaps this could be an event that could be in solidarity with Occupy, in one of the parks. Maybe it would precede a General Assembly meeting? It seems like it would be great to have many people involved ... and creating a book out of it is a fabulous idea... 

Kaia

[Sam Lohmann]

Really like both these ideas (anthology and human mic reading), and would love to help. I'd be into printing some letterpress covers, broadsides or cards, though I can't promise to do them fast. 

Have any of you seen the painted wood sign somebody put up on the phone pole at 28th and Stark? It's the last stanza of Shelley's Masque of Anarchy:

Rise like lions from your slumber

In unvanquishable number

Shake your chains off like a dew

That in sleep hath fall'n on you

Ye are many, they are few!

[sandy]

I love the idea of engaging the human microphone!

[Nicky]

Hey All,

Great ideas all around! Running with them, here's my thoughts on
moving forward:

Post-eviction, we're at the same crossroads the Occupation as a whole
is: where to meet, how to go on. Tonights GA was held at Pioneer
Square and addressed these topics. Didn't stay for the whole thing so
will double check but I believe Pioneer Square @ 7pm daily will
continue to be the new GA meeting space. While us meeting as a group
to write/read/workshop before the GA makes sense in terms of engaging
Occupiers and the general public, there's an impracticality to writing
outside in the rain. I propose we find an indoor workshop/meeting
space and use Pioneer Square before the GA as a time/place to host
readings. Thoughts on this?

Towards moving indoors, the Library/Education committee (apparently
comprised of mainly students) is talking with PSU about becoming a
student club as a way to secure a meeting space, which would therefore
be on campus (but I hope open to everybody not just students). This
committee is committed to being a sort of critical think-tank for the
movement and they are or want to make an Occupation newsletter.
They're meeting tomorrow to discuss this stuff and I'll be attending
(if I can find out where it is!) as a sort of informal liaison for us
to see if we can work together/share space, because our ambitions have
so much in common. This is at least one option to consider.

I propose we pick a date to host our first reading before the GA and
make (letterpressed) flyers for it, which could also serve to
introduce us as a group? Could such a document also work within
Standard's call to be a "report on the occupation"? And Sam I'm down
to help you make broadsides. Certainly that Shelley verse is one ppl
can get behind...

Would also like to add how pleased I am we're having these
conversations! I really think it's important we hold and cherish this
online space along with pursuing real life ones, to maintain channels
for intellectual discourse and artistic collaboration. Would also like
to say, in terms of what poetry can do for the Occupation, is provide
gateways to alternative forms of communication that can engage ppl in
ways the GA can't, and that can help us re-narrate oppositional
binaries (Us vs Them speak) locking us in a slave-master bondage w/
the State, that to a certain extent any rebellion plays into. Thinking
here of what Evergreen faculty member Elizabeth Williamson said to me
(regarding how the eviction simultaneously undermined the movement and
in doing so regalvanized support for it): "such a paradox—the level of
brutality sustains the level of the movement." At any rate I see
poetry as most suited to speak of such paradoxes!

xo
Nicky

[Nicky]

This from Occupypdx.org site:

11/15 7PM Spokes Council Meeting
November 15th, 2011 · occupypdxer · General Assembly No comments

We have an indoor location for the Spokes Council tomorrow night. It
will be at 7:00 PM at the First Congregational Church (1126 SW Park
Ave). This will be a very important meeting for the committees,
working groups and caucuses to re-connect and begin thinking about
the next steps for our movement. Please spread the word as widely as
possible so that as many people from groups can attend and begin the
discussion and planning for what comes next.

*

Anyone interested in showing up as a working group to (re)connect with
the Library/Education peoples and/or generally put ourselves out
there?

> >http://www.pen.org/members/sand/http://www.archiveofthenow.org/author...

[Alicia Cohen]

All of this is really inspiring.  I love the human microphone idea; the broadsides; Standard's sketch for a reading...

And the reflections here-- esp. that Occupy has vitalized our ability to imagine a different world and that this aspect of the movement is particularly relevant to us poets.  Too, that we poets might participate in breaking down constructions of us/them (e.g., the project of collecting the thoughts/words of the police).

And the news!  I will try to go see the Shelly poem...

Would setting up a reading be a good place to start?  Or perhaps, more modestly, a meeting?  Perhaps this e-group is our meeting?

Alicia



 

[Nicky Tiso]

Hah, this kinda does feel like we are already meeting. But I'm also open to meeting/reading at Pioneer Square, doing some human mic verse, say! Could we schedule something like that for this weekend? Before the GA?

Sam, I'll be at the IPRC letterpressing something for myself this Thurs if u also wanted to bstorm about broadsides...

Nicky

Sent from my iPhone

[sandy sampson]

Hi all, I am new to your group so please excuse any confusion I have about this interface.   I just want to put out that  I am totally down with collecting words from the police, but I would love an actual poet to collaborate with on putting those words into a meaningful form to share  (remember I confessed that I am not a poet!)  Or another idea is that I could transcribe and pass those words on to you... I must admit this feels a little scary as I haven't met you and words are delicate.  

Which brings me to my last point.  Some human mic verse at pioneer square this weekend is a great suggestion.  If you all do this, and at a time I can come I look forward to meeting you in person.

Thank you for being so inclusive!

Sandy

sa...@sampson.org

http://www.parallel-university.org/

http://www.growinginalldirections.org/

[Nicky]

The OccupyLibrary group put out this call for any interested in
hosting Workshops/Trainings/Lectures as part of Occupy Portland
University's budding Education services program. Given there was
already intent to do workshops before the eviction happened I just
threw out to them that we were interested.

http://groups.google.com/group/pdx99library/browse_thread/thread/e66154ee17828980#

On Nov 16, 1:53 am, sandy sampson <sa...@sampson.org> wrote:
> Hi all, I am new to your group so please excuse any confusion I have
> about this interface.   I just want to put out that  I am totally down
> with collecting words from the police, but I would love an actual poet
> to collaborate with on putting those words into a meaningful form to
> share  (remember I confessed that I am not a poet!)  Or another idea
> is that I could transcribe and pass those words on to you... I must
> admit this feels a little scary as I haven't met you and words are
> delicate.
>
> Which brings me to my last point.  Some human mic verse at pioneer
> square this weekend is a great suggestion.  If you all do this, and at
> a time I can come I look forward to meeting you in person.
> Thank you for being so inclusive!
> Sandy
>

> sa...@sampson.orghttp://www.parallel-university.org/http://www.growinginalldirections.org/

>
> On Nov 16, 2011, at 1:25 AM, Nicky Tiso wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Hah, this kinda does feel like we are already meeting. But I'm also
> > open to meeting/reading at Pioneer Square, doing some human mic
> > verse, say! Could we schedule something like that for this weekend?
> > Before the GA?
>
> > Sam, I'll be at the IPRC letterpressing something for myself this
> > Thurs if u also wanted to bstorm about broadsides...
>
> > Nicky
>
> > Sent from my iPhone
>

> > On Nov 15, 2011, at 12:32 PM, Alicia Cohen <cohenali...@gmail.com>