Spring Break & Poetry Month: Recommendations
I said this newsletter would be periodic, so 7 weeks away is totally fine
Watch, Listen, Read!
DOCUMENTARY: Greatest Night in Pop (Netflix): This documentary is about the night that the US music industry came together to record We Are The World. For many Gen Xers like me, this was an iconic cultural moment, but I didn’t know that it was instigated by Harry Belafonte and Quincy Jones, and that Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson were leads in figuring it all out. The people that are missing are interesting (no Madonna, no Whitney Houston). I loved the section about whether or not to include Swahili - when Amharic is the language of Ethiopia, and stars trying to explain this to Stevie Wonder who was very invested - Waylon Jennings’ reaction, and then the “advice” of Bob Geldof — it’s A LOT.
PODCAST Limited Series: Three Million, BBC Radio Four Podcast: During World War II, an estimated 3 million British Citizens, died of famine in Bengal - many don’t know this, cause the British Citizens were Indian, not white. This famine was allowed to happen and made to worsen, all for the benefit of the British war effort and Empire, at the direction of Winston Churchill. This story was new to me about 10 years ago, and it’s relevant to those of us who care about telling history without whitewashing, and also to those of us who care about evergreen military tactics, like forced famine, that feel like "history” but are being used around the world today.
BOOK: Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia by Kate Manne: Again, I have to thank my fav Tressie McMillan Cottom who wrote about this book so much on her social media, that I had to read it. Manne has an engaging writing style and mixes individual stories, including her own, along with history and science. And IMO, Manne does an excellent job of centering voices and experiences of Black women in this conversation. I highly recommend it whether you consider yourself fat or not, struggle with how you judge and see (and others judge and see) your body, and especially if you judge fat people.
PODCAST Limited Series: Looking for Modi, ABC Podcast: Last week, India, the self-proclaimed world’s Largest Democracy (it has the most people technically voting in a Democracy…if they can keep it), started voting in national elections - it will take 42 days to complete the voting. Everyone agrees that it will result in a third term for the Hindu nationalist, authoritarian Narendra Modi. This brief podcast series on Modi is a good overview if you’ve never heard of him, or if you know a little. And it’s great if you have ignored my continued warnings and ravings about Modi and the rise of Hindu Nationalism and authoritarianism and are now ready to dig in! This is the Australian Broadcasting Channel ABC, not the US ABC network.
Just yesterday, the journalist who hosts this podcast, shared that her work visa was not being renewed by the Indian government, and that she was told specifically that it was her recent work on India’s targeting of Sikh separatists in Canada and even this podcast that resulted in her work visa being denied for renewal.
National Poetry Month:
Still in my poetry era, not tortured poetry - except for my first love, for sure tortured poet, Lord Byron. Here are some collections that have given me joy, comfort, and challenge in the past few months. And if you can’t get into poetry, take a few minutes to listen to the Poetry Month episode with my fav Vibe Check with host/poet Saeed Jones conversing with US Poet Laureate Ada Limón about how to get into it!
The Moon That Turns You Back: Poems by Hala Alyan: Palestinian-American Alyan has 4 poetry collections, this one being her most recent all of which I’ve read and enjoyed. I am convinced her job as a clinical psychologist makes her work resonate so strongly. Below is an excerpt from her poem “When They Say Pledge Allegiance, I Say.”
[…] by Fady Joudah: Joudah is a Palestinian-American poet, translator and doctor who I first encountered when I noticed he was often the translator for many of the the Mahmoud Darwish poems I have loved over the years. His 2013 poem Mimesis is short but packs a punch and was my first poetry intro to him.
[…] is a collection that Joudah wrote over the course of about 10 weeks in late 2023 during the current war on Gaza.
36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poet by Nam Le: Le is a new poet to me and I am so looking forward to more from them. This new and brief collection drew me in entirely! The word play alone is worth it - Dis place ment (see below!)
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World edited by Ada Limón: US Poet Laureate and one of my all time favs Ada Limón conceived this as the major project of her Laureate term. A collection of around 50 new poems from contemporary poets about their connection to nature. There will also be poems on picnic tables in seven national parks as part of this project. I love so much about this collection - first so many new poems from poets I already love, but also each had a different response to “write a poem about nature.” And I got introduced to more new poets! I loved poems from José Olivarez, Eduardo C. Corral, Jericho Brown, torrin a. greathouse, Jason Schneiderman, Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Ruth Awad in this collection.
Madwomen: The Locas Mujeres Poems of Gabriela Mistral, a Bilingual Edition: Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral was new to me; she was the first Latin American winner of the Nobel Prize in 1945 (before Pablo Neruda), and was a diplomat, world traveler, educator, and deeply involved in supporting and growing public education in Chile. She is said to have introduced Neruda to poetry when he was young and is having a resurgence of popularity in Chile especially as people (including me) reflect on why this first Nobel Prize winner of their country and continent has been long overshadowed by Neruda (spoiler alert: misogyny).
Pig: Poems by Sam Sax: This collection is the poet’s examination of “the contradictions of American life with a focus on queer and Jewish experiences.” I had never heard of Sam Sax until late last year, when the Poetry Foundation commissioned a review by Joshua Gutterman Tranan and then decided not to publish it because of the views of Sax and Tranan, both Jewish-Americans. The Poetry Project published the review instead. I’ll share Tranan’s own words here:
“This review was written before the massacre of October 7, 2023 and the following aerial bombardment of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the renewed ethnic cleansing campaigns by armed settlers in the West Bank. I have made minor edits to the review, but have kept the majority the same. As a critic, I do not believe it is ethical to make Sax’s collection respond to events that preceded it. Lastly, in a moment when Jewish anti-Zionist solidarity with Palestine is crucial, I encourage reading my criticism of Sax’s anti-Zionist politics as a dialogue between two anti-Zionist Jews—in the pages of this magazine, rather than a Beit Midrash—on how to interpret their shared history.” - The Hog is a Lonely Hunter: On Pig by Sam Sax
This collection is uniquely weird, it’s truly a lot about pigs, literally and metaphorical. took about two weeks to read it, because it really challenged me!