POETS' SECURITY FORCE || Come to our office party tomorrow.

[Cassie Thornton]

Dear Fellows of all Forms,

I'm writing to invite you to the opening reception for a new security firm called the Poets' Security Force.

Hosted by the Elizabeth Foundation Project Space, the Feminist Economics Department (Byron Peters and I) have opened a temporary headquarters for the POETS' SECURITY FORCE.

As it is associated with an art institution, we will be having a reception this Thursday from 6-9pm at 323 W. 39th St., on the 2nd Floor.  

You can come witness the growing securitization of everything, and get a feel for the vastness of poetry.

You may also fill out an application to become a poet and/or guard, or get information about how to submit works related to security for our archive.

What does the PSF do?

1. We pay security guards to write poems while they are at their job.  

2. We hire security guards and poets to protect unprotected sites or ideas in NYC.  They write incident reports about this.

3. All the writings we collect will be put together into a publication which will be redistributed to security guards.

4. Protect the unknown.

If you haven't had the opportunity to deconstruct the meaning of security/security industry, just begin by imagining the gap between what a security guard does and what makes you feel secure.  There are 47,000 security guards acknowledged by their employers, to the Department of Labor, in the NYC area.  Most of them are not unionized, and their work is to act as a symbol of authority, while they protect the assets of the property owner they work for.  For $8-$12/hr.  There is very little job security, so this is a force of precarious workers who are trained to securitize the city-- from who?  Other people just like them.  To be a security guard is to inhabit a peripheral place between the inside and the outside of power.  It is within this zone that it seems vital for poetry to explode out.  

We'll be in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 1-8pm through the end of July.  If you have interest in 'work', we pay $15 per hour.  You'll need to fill out an application to get started, which you can do online at www.poetsecurity.net or there will be applications available at the opening or office hours.  

I'm really excited to see you, and hope to get a chance to spend time with you while I am in NYC this summer!

Yours,

Cassie

www.poetsecurity.net