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Stand Up for the Earth with Poetry and Music

"Purposeful Togetherness" at the Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival

by Richard Silberg

21st Annual Watershed Poetry Festival
Saturday, October 1, noon to
Civic Center Park, Berkeley, California
> complete festival information

THIS YEAR'S WATERSHED Environmental Poetry Festival, rolling towards us on October 1, noon to in Berkeley's Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Way at Center Street, beside the Ecology Center's bustling, treat-filled Farmer's Market, will be the 21st annual, beginning our third decade of standing up for the Earth. It's become a kind of holiday, a holy day, in Berkeley, to celebrate the healing power of poetry and music, of mindfulness and purposeful togetherness touching back to our troubled mother planet.

Headlining, as he has done for most of these festivals going back to the beginning of his co-founding of the festival, is Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner Robert Hass. He has been one of our main collaborators throughout, and the festival began as his conception during his term as U.S. Poet Laureate, , the name 'watershed' coming to him out of his reading of Gary Snyder's bioregional ideas in his book A Place in Space. His own recent books include The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems and What Light Can Do: Essays on Art, Imagination, and the Natural World.

Jane Hirshfield will be returning to Watershed with two powerful new books, Ten Windows: How Great Poems Transform the World, her second collection of essays on poetry's inner workings, which won this year's Northern California Book Award in Creative Nonfiction, and her own new book of poems, her eighth, The Beauty:

My Species

even

a small purple artichoke

boiled

in its own bittered

and darkening

waters

grows tender,

tender and sweet

patience, I think,

my species

keep testing the spiny leaves

the spiny heart

W

When the Lincoln Theatre opened in on U Street, it was one of the jewels of &#;Black Broadway.&#; But with money running out, the historical landmark is at risk of closing.

&#;They say, &#;Before Harlem, there was U Street,&#;&#; said Rahim Muhammad, who grew up in the area. &#;So to me, the Lincoln is more important than the Apollo.&#;

During a Thursday afternoon press conference in front of Lincoln Theatre, board members blasted Mayor Vincent Gray for not answering their calls to hold a meeting to discuss saving the theater. Gray has said the theater&#;s business model is &#;not sustainable&#; and that the city couldn&#;t &#;pour money&#; in it.

Without a $, boost, board members said the theater could close by the end of the year.

The possible closure of the Lincoln Theatre may be a sign of bad economic times. But some say the theater, on a now totally-gentrified corridor, holds a special place in D.C.&#;s black history and it should be preserved.

Rick Lee, a Lincoln Theatre Board member, criticized the city for giving money to other theaters such as Ford and Arena Stage, and yet failing to allocate anything to the Lincoln Theatre in Fiscal , which begins Oct. 1. They have received $, in past years.

&#;Even though the mayor is black, I almost feel like it&#;s a racial thing because I don&#;t see why you would have this theater, as beautiful as it is with all of this potential, and nickel and dime it,&#; Lee said. &#;I&#;m offended.&#;

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pm       PANELS, WORKSHOPS, AND THEMED READINGS

Voices of the Next Generation: Youth Open Mic
YaYa Bey, Carlos Andres Gomez, Pages Matam, and Jonathan B. Tucker
Thurgood Marshall Center, Heritage Room

The DC Youth Slam will host a youth-focused, youth-led open mic. This is the perfect setting to hear the next generation of young up-and-coming poets roar on stage as the voice of the new generation speaking for justice. Whether you have just begun to write or you have been putting together words and rhymes since you were first able to grasp a pen, all youth (under 20) are welcome to share their poetry of triumph and laughter, conscience and critique, moments of sadness and weakness and everything in between. We provide a space where the youth can feel safe to offer their words, inspire the audience, and be inspired. Special guest adult poets (who all work with young people) Carlos Andres Gomez, Pages Matam, YaYa Bey, and Jonathan B. Tucker will also perform.

(We) Who Would Be Free***
Homero Aridjis, Michelle Courtney Berry, Sherwin Bitsui, Wang Ping, and Melissa Tuckey
Thurgood Marshall Center, Conference Room 1

A discussion about poetry and environmental justice. In June Jordan's poem titled after a quote from Frederick Douglass, "who would be free must strike the first blow," Jordan makes a connection between our silence in response to environmental atrocities and Douglas' call to action. Jordan's poem is a call for justice and a call to voice. In a time of environmental crisis, oil spills, nuclear accidents, genetic modification of foods, who will speak for the river? The cow? The milk? Who will speak for future generations? How can poetry/ art contribute to the cultural shift that's necessary to sustain healthy lives? Panelists bring to the discussion poetry, ideas for action, international perspective. Participants will be invited to join th