As I’ve mentioned, I spent the past couple days in Pittsburg, gave a reading at the very lovely The Big Idea Bookstore, gave a lecture at the University of Pittsburg and then lost my shit at Blue Moon bar, those bitches werk it out.
1.
Bill Scott, professor at The University of Pittsburg brought me out to guest lecture on the topic of the Occupy Wall Street Poetry Anthology and my involvement with the Peoples Free Library. We discussed free speech, poetry, activism and wandered amongst the various intersections. I even managed to bring porn into the conversation thanks to the hard work of” Occupy My Throat.” Link here:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B24RGAm86s1VWFg5S2o0anNfd2c/edit?usp=sharing
I meant to talk more about why I thought that porn was interesting from my personal angle as a poet… while living in Zuccotti Park I had written a poem called “Gangbang for Democracy“. I read it while living there but didn’t know about the video until after the park was closed down and I met David Sokolowski (one of its stars). I didn’t spend much, if any, time online while I lived in Zuccotti Park because wikipedia, for a moment, went into real time. Anyway, I thought it was a really beautiful gesture what they had done. I myself consensually fooled around a bit in Zuccotti Park and it was an extremely magical atmosphere bursting with human creativity. But I’m pretty sure it’s the most honest depiction of the hierarchy of the movement, a few walked away with royalties to a film and the rest got thrown some pocket cash.
The lecture went really well, surprisingly so, by the time I checked to see how long I had been talking already an hour had passed. And the students questions really broadened my understanding of what we had done. I walked away with a pretty positive outlook on what our time in Zuccotti Park had done, Occupy acted as the social justice cheerleader for a generation to get off of its ass for a moment and think about what is going on around the world. As long as were alive we’re part of what happens on this earth, and we have to admit to ourselves that our actions affect our surroundings and we must strive for harmonies, we must dream of new realities as we heal ourselves and everything we touch. It’s going to be very hard because we’re all totally insane but I think we can do it. Life in New York is rough and often much more mundane than the fantasies we believe we deserve, but the magic is stronger. The nights and lights never end here so everyone can have their 15 minutes to stretch into the infinite because there are so many people and everyone has an extremely busy schedule because we’re wizards. True change will only come through direct actions that can only happen by very focused and secretive groups which are committed to disrupting the status quo exclusively by peaceful means; like planting an edible plant or native species in a roadside garden full of invasive species and don’t forget to talk to the worms while you’re there with your secret group so we can figure out a way to solve our biggest problem… the 99%
*insert sarcastic just-after-sex grin* Continue reading
