Poetry of Witness

Mother of the term "poetry of witness," Carolyn Forche has long maintained her position as one of America's (and perhaps one of the world's) most aware poets. She dares to delve into global political and social issues, presenting storylines based on her own experiences as well as those of others to whom she has spoken.

Her 1978 poem "The Colonel," found below, is known for "centering on her now-famous encounter with a Salvadoran colonel who, as he made light of human rights, emptied a bag of human ears before Forché."

"'At their best,'" remarks one critic, "'Forché’s poems have the immediacy of war correspondence, postcards from the volcano of twentieth-century barbarism.'" Forche has done an impeccable job of melding her talent, profession, and concern for the condition of humankind into pieces like this:

The Colonel

What you have heard is true. I was in his house.
His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His
daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the
night. There were daily papers, pet dogs, a pistol
on the cushion beside him. The moon swung bare on
its black cord over the house. On the television
was a cop show. It was in English. Broken bottles
were embedded in the walls around the house to
scoop the kneecaps from a man's legs or cut his
hands to lace. On the windows there were gratings
like those in liquor stores. We had dinner, rack of
lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for
calling the maid. The maid brought green mangoes,
salt, a type of bread. I was asked how I enjoyed
the country. There was a brief commercial in
Spanish. His wife took everything away. There was
some talk of how difficult it had become to govern.
The parrot said hello on the terrace. The colonel
told it to shut up, and pushed himself from the
table. My friend said to me with his eyes: say
nothing. The colonel returned with a sack used to
bring groceries home. He spilled many human ears on
the table. They were like dried peach halves. There
is no other way to say this. He took one of them in
his hands, shook it in our faces, dropped it into a
water glass. It came alive there. I am tired of
fooling around he said. As for the rights of anyone,
tell your people they can go fuck themselves. He
swept the ears to the floor with his arm and held
the last of his wine in the air. Something for your
poetry, no? he said. Some of the ears on the floor
caught this scrap of his voice. Some of the ears on
the floor were pressed to the ground.

Biographical information courtesy of http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/carolyn-forche
The above poem was pulled from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-colonel/

Women Are Heroes: Global Artwork

JR, founder of the "Women are Heroes" project, travels throughout South America, Africa, Asia, and the United States in search of ordinary women who have exhibited laudable strength, leadership, and resilience when staring unfathomable hardship straight in the face. He photographs their faces and eyes up close and then recreates these snapshots as murals on public walls, bringing "a haunting human presence to harsh environments of social conflict." The results are striking.

View the full gallery online at http://www.jr-art.net/projects/women-are-heroes-brazil

Putting The Arts First

Schools everywhere are making cuts to save money, all too often at the expense of the arts. Below is an excerpt from the website of an organization that believes "arts education is essential to children's academic and social success." Spreading its impact to three different continents, ASTEP continues to expand on its mission to teach kids to use creativity as a tool to improve their lives.

"ASTEP was conceived by Broadway Musical Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell and Juilliard students to transform the lives of youth using the most powerful tool they had—their art. Today, ASTEP connects performing and visual artists with underserved youth in the U.S. and around the world to awaken their imaginations, foster critical thinking, and help them break the cycle of poverty.

From improving reading comprehension to advancing creative thinking, from teaching problem solving to fostering collaboration, arts education brings about significant improvements in children’s educational and social development.


We collaborate with our partners to tailor each program to address the specific risks youth face in their communities, such as substance abuse, gender inequality, HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, gang violence, and teen pregnancy."

More information at www.asteponline.org

A Need For Peace: the Human Dimension of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

In a time where political discord is a basic component of everyday life, we each see the world from our own corner. We gain one perspective but lack all the perspectives that are not synonymous with our own. But when art as painful and powerful as the photography depicted below emerges, perhaps we should listen. Perhaps we should acknowledge the need for a wake-up call. Perhaps we should all step into line with one another instead of off to the left and right, so we can see these real world conflicts from the uninhibited human perspective: people are suffering and people are dying. Something must be done to save lives.

by Majed Hamdan

by Ali Ali

by Mahmud Hams

by Mohammed Saber




Focus Forward Winner Massoud Hassani Turns His Childhood Dreams into Reality

Check out this stunning video that shows the amazing power of innovation and learn about the thought process behind one designer's creation of an economical solution to landmine clearance in Afghanistan.

Teach A [Wo]man to Fish and You Feed [Her] For A Lifetime

Living in Rwanda with her husband and five children, Jacqueline worked as a schoolteacher and her husband was a soldier. But then everything changed. Jacqueline's husband was killed and she lost her job, all in a matter of days. Suddenly, Jacqueline became a widowed, unemployed mother of five with no way of providing for her children. Then she heard about World Vision Micro, a microfinancing organization serving many countries around the world. Once she was approved for and granted a loan, Jacqueline joined her two widowed friends and established a local restaurant. Now, she can provide food for those in her community as well as the little ones living under her own roof, an achievement unfathomable to her prior to World Vision Micro's arrival. Here is how the microloan process works according to World Vision Micro's website:

1. Our Local Lender Approves an Entrepreneur

A World Vision microfinance institution approves the borrower. Typically, they are women in developing countries who do not have collateral or a credit history to secure a traditional loan. The local institution then gives the entrepreneur a loan.

2. The Entrepreneur Appears on Micro

After a borrower has been approved for a loan, their name, story, and business idea are uploaded to Micro for you to review and follow. While World Vision initially fronts the cost of the loan, donations are tracked such that they underwrite the exact entrepreneur of your choosing.

3. You Choose an Entrepreneur

Read their story. See their business idea. Donate to help. With one in five people worldwide surviving on less than $1.25 a day, the need is great.

Visit www.worldvisionmicro.org to loan $35 - $350 to the aspiring businesswoman of your choice. Every penny counts.

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty: One Woman at a Time

Leading economists across the globe all believe that their is an answer to ending the cycle of poverty which plagues so many communities: women. This is because women invest 90% of any income that they make directly back into their families. And yet continually, indigenous women are last to find jobs in their local villages due to both racial and sexual discrimination. Mercado Global works everyday to change this. Started by two college students in 2004, Mercado Global targets and helps artisan women across the world who would like to sell their goods in large international markets. Although first small, this program through their motto of "Empower, Educate, Connect" has actually changed the lives of many women all over the globe.

This short excerpt from their website (mercadoglobal.org) explains just how stunningly their programs have worked:

In a region in which the average child attends school for just 1.9 years , 100% of our original partner artisans’ elementary school-aged children are in school for the third consecutive year.

Food security has more than doubled in the communities in which we work, and nearly 100% of our partner artisans now report having access to electricity and potable water. The role of women is changing, too: artisans report increased participation in household financial decision-making, and nearly half have held leadership positions in their communities.

With results like these, we can only feel inspired. Join the cause by supporting these artisans' work. We love these earrings, this tote, and this pillow!

EcoFuel Africa: Made By Locals, For Locals

 

Walking home one day, Moses Sanga passed his twelve-year-old sister on a road near their home. She was sobbing, incredibly disappointed at having missed school to walk twelve miles and collect firewood for the family's stove.

About eighty percent of Uganda's citizens use firewood as fuel. This has led to a myriad of social and environmental problems: rapid deforestation, death from smoke inhalation, and education deprivation for the women and girls who gather the wood. So Mr. Sanga took action. He left his job, sold all his belongings including his bed, and invested his life savings in his own project that ultimately culminated in the development of something superb. The technology Mr. Sanga created allows families to convert farm and municipal wastes into a revolutionary fuel that burns longer, cleaner, and costs far less than firewood. As a result, the forests have a chance to recuperate and the girls a chance to learn, uninhibited by the dire need for such a harmful source of energy.

Local man turned incredible innovator, Moses Sanga's business endures: EcoFuel Africa. Learn more details about this amazing story at www.ecofuelafrica.com.

(We apologize that this website is currently down. You can, however, find many stories detailing the organization online at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/30/arts/design/cleaning-up-the-african-kitchen.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 or http://fellows.ted.com/profiles/sanga-moses).

Born, Married, and Divorced, All in One Decade

This Yemeni girl's autobiography conveys the misery of forced early marriage, an all-too-common occurrence in many parts of the world. In a rural village where women with voices, much less girls with voices, is an utterly foreign concept, Nujood moves for a legal divorce, hoping to be liberated from the custody of her terrifying and abusive husband. Resilience seeps through every word of every page of this story.

Goods for Good

Trends, your wallet, and your conscience may not always agree. But NationWares, founded by Amie Mariana Sider, aims to provide consumers with socially, environmentally, and economically conscious goods. Meet the artisans who create and profit from the beautiful handmade bags, shoes, belts, and more that you purchase online at www.nationwares.com.

Gender Preference in India: An Implicit Custom

           Though no longer endorsed by the government, gender preference (and subsequently female infanticide) has its roots deep within the foundation of India's culture. A small and fairly new non-profit, The Shanti Project is composed of a nickel's worth of activists doing a world's worth of good, fostering the empowerment of marginalized Indian women and children through community meetings and discussions. Get a taste of their work through this excerpt from their website, and visit them at theshantiproject.org.

Female Infanticide in Jaisalmer

   Pinkie, a month old, lies out in her crib in the sun for eight or so hours a day. She has scabs on her head and a rash on her entire body. Upon offering to help take her to the hospital, we were informed that the government hospital has horrible conditions. Bimla (Pinkies mom), said she wouldn’t take her there. So we went to investigate the hospital conditions.Once there we saw Bimla’s reasons for not wanting to visit. The hospital was overcrowded and understaffed. To get medical attention most have to wait hours or even days.We were told that another baby is another mouth to feed and Bimla said when we were holding her daughters: “You take home with you, I already have two girls.”

          We gathered this is the general attitude many young moms have towards giving birth to girls. With this, female infanticide in Jaisalmer is on the rise. In a July report, The New Delhi Times cites there have been 38 female infanticides in Jaisalmer in the last 3 months; and this is only the reported deaths. There are numerous others that may be unreported. The 2012 international male to female ratio at birth is 1.07 males per female. The rate in India, according to a 2009 report is 1.12 male(s)/female.
           In the villages surrounding Jaisalmer the situation is worse because of lack of governance. A week ago the leg of a newborn was found after being picked by a dog. The body was found near the village being eaten by dogs. Then another July incident found the body of a newborn girl thrown in the open. Both of these cases were unreported “According to unofficial estimates, nearly 2,500 cases of female foeticide or female infanticide take place in the state of Rajasthan everyday and it does seem that an apathetic government is standing by and watching the story of this silent genocide. According to the central scheme, the Janani Suraksha Yojana, a sum of Rs.1400 is given for every baby delivered in a government hospital. Introduced four years ago, this scheme has gone horribly wrong in this district, where women deliver daughters in hospitals, take their entitlements and go home. Within days the newborns disappear.” (Preeti Choudhry for India Times) In villages where there is the most infanticide the youth are told: “The water from our wells only produces boys.”
           Fortunately, there is a government sponsored program called “Save the Girl Child” that is taking preventative measures. The Shanti Project is working towards providing resources and access to education and tools that will lessen the infanticide in the community.

Hand Me Downs

Sarah Kay, a spoken word poet, shares her thoughts on the futility of inherited racial anger.

(Below is the transcription of the above video)

Hand Me Downs

I know

you’ve taken to wearing around your father’s hand me down anger,

but I wish that you wouldn’t.

It's a few sizes too big and everyone can see it doesn’t fit you,

makes you look silly,

hangs loose in all the wrong places

even if it does match your skin color.

I know

you think you’ll grow into it – that your arms will beef up after all the fighting

and it will sit on your shoulders if only you pin it in the right places with well-placed conviction.

The bathroom mirror tells you “you look good in it,”

that it makes your fists look a lot more justified

and when you dig your hands deep into the pockets you’ll find

stories he left there for you to hand out to the other boys

like car bombs.

And on the days when everything else is slipping through your fingers,

this you can wrap yourself inside of.

This will keep you warm at night, help you drift off to sleep with the certainty that

no matter what, it will still be there when you wake up.

And the longer you wear it, the better it starts to fit.

Until some of those stories are your own.

Maybe the holes in the sleeve are from the bullets you dodged yourself

so when it rips, snags on a barbed wire fence or someone else’s family,

don’t worry, because your mother and your sister will help mend it –

patch the holes, sew the tears, replace a button or two,

help you back into it and tell you

how proud they are of you – how good it looks on you – the same way it looked on your dad

and your granddad too

and on his dad before him

and on his father before him,

but back then – back then there was only sand.

Until someone drew a line.

Someone built a wall.

Someone threw a stone,

and the crack in the skull that it hit fractured perfectly outward like twigs on the branches of the limbs of a family tree.

So someone threw a stone back,

and each fracture, each tiny break,

wound itself together into thread.

The thread pulled itself around him, around your great, great, great, great somebody

and on the other side of that wall, they were knitting

just as fast and theirs fit them

just as well

but only in a slightly different shade.

So I’m asking, when the time comes, who’s gonna be the first one to put down the needle and thread?

Who’s gonna be the first one to remember that their grandpa suffered just as many

broken windows

broken hearts

broken bones,

and the first time you come down to dinner and your son is sitting at the dining room table with your hatred on his shoulders,

who’s gonna be the first one to tell him:

it’s finally time to take it off.

Crayola True Life

Kids color with crayons, but we could all use these. 

The Child: Desperation, Reflection, Spirit

Peru

Cambodia 

Ethiopia

Photos courtesy of Steve McCurry

"The iron in our blood was formed in stars, billions of years ago, trillions of miles away."

As human beings, we are not all acquainted with the same Earth. We do not all wake to the same walls of the same room or have the same two hands tuck us in at night. But when cut, we bleed. We all bleed.  And although it sounds strange, we bleed stardust.

The iron that governs our red blood cells is composed of the same atoms that once burned in stars, meaning every human being can be traced back to the very same place. In today's world, it is incredibly easy to see the differences between us because we are so distracted by labels and media and stereotypes, but we must remember that we all need iron to live; what is essential to each of us is the same.

So in case you ever forget, we are here to guide you through the differences of our skin and into the samenesses beneath. We are here to remind you of the iron in our blood.

Send questions or comments to theironinourblood@gmail.com