On April 28, 2005 poets will gather at the
Langston Hughes Institute for a historic event sponsored by Housing
Opportunities Made Equal and the Langston Hughes Institute. “Across the
Lines: Poets Respond to Discrimination” is the first event to link
National Fair Housing Month and National Poetry Month. Poets from all
walks of life are invited to give voice to the pain of discrimination
and the hope for a community without barriers. As captured in the
mission statement of ArtAlive, a local group of artist/activists, “The
tool of the artist is imagination and imagination is the first step in
making a better world.”
April is National Fair Housing Month—a
month in which people across the nation commemorate the passage of the
Fair Housing Act and recommit themselves to working for communities free
from the scourge of discrimination. At the urging of the National
Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission), the
National Fair Housing Act which gave to many Americans the right to
housing free from discrimination was finally passed in April of 1968 one
week after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.
April is also National Poetry Month. Since
its inception 10 years ago by the Academy of American Poets, the goal of
National Poetry Month has been to increase the visibility, presence, and
accessibility of poetry in our culture. The academy was founded to
encourage poets at all stages of their careers and as such has
established awards, tours and readings, and the important program “Poets
in the Schools.”
Poets have often lent their voices to the
struggle for civil rights. It is only fitting that the Poetry Jam will
be taking place in a center named for one such writer: Langston Hughes.
His poem Harlem Nocturne is one of the most well known poems in
America and served as the theme for HOME’s 41st Annual
Meeting: “A Dream Deferred.” The theme for this year’s Annual Meeting
“Living History: No One Simply Passes Through” is from a narrative poem
by Irena Klefisz.
The Poetry Jam will be an open reading
which will feature performances by Celeste Lawson, David Butler and
members of the poetry /performance group ice9. All kinds of poets and
styles are welcome. The only requirement is that the work center on the
theme of discrimination. To reserve a slot early, contact Anne Huiner
at 854-1400. The event is free and open to the public.
