Thanks to a recommendation from Mateo Quispe, I’ll be reading at a benefit for the 34th District Democrats, Saturday, September 12 at 3pm PDT at the Seattle Machinists Hall, 9125 15th Place South in South Park.
Rachel Glass, 34th LD Democrats, 1st Vice Chair, said:
I was inspired by the 25-hour marathon speech that Senator Cory Booker gave on the Senate floor last year. His goal was to uplift and highlight stories from Americans and talk about how communities are being impacted by the dreadful policies coming out of the White House. I decided I wanted to do that in my community, but instead of one person speaking for 25 hours, I wanted the community to speak for 25 hours…personal stories from the well-known to the traditionally unheard, lived experiences, facts, statistics, and reports from field experts hailing from every corner of the community and speaking on a wide variety of topics. There was also music, poetry, spoken word, and much more at last year’s event! We also livestreamed the entire 25-hour event (as Senator Booker had done for his speech to allow the whole nation to watch it)! And so, BEND IT LIKE BOOKER was born!
The event was celebratory, sobering, eye-opening, informative, joyful, and inspiring! We had folks who tuned into the livestream from all across WA State as well as from *eight* states across the nation! Our audiences came together, learned that we are not alone in our fear, rage, frustration, and determination to persist, we shared resources on how to take care of our neighbors, and were inspired to resist the jaws of fascism as we understand our power to show up and fight to restore democracy in our country!
After I agreed to a time to read, expressing gratitude for being invited, she said:
I love the quote on your website “Paul Nelson’s ongoing honing of the Day Song poetry event has produced some of the most lively and consequential verse of our time…Truly a praxis of proprioception” Can you include some of that lively and consequential verse in your set?
& my first thought was to read the Another DaySong (1980) because it contrasts what was happening in 1980 with what was happening when I wrote that daysong a couple of years ago, but as the kids say: “NEW SHIT” so I’ll more likely be reading from The Singing Bullets of Soft Secession: & Other DaySongs. That book may be out by Sept 12. I am unsure at this point. And since many readers of this blog are not residents of the Puget Sound region, the fact that this event is being streamed is a huge bonus: https://34dems.org/bilb/
I hope you can attend, or at least hear my reading via the stream. It is a rare occasion to be able to read a whole daysong and I am grateful to Rachel & the 34th District Ds to invite me and for Mateo to recommend me.
Oh and I took Pam Carter’s advice and changed my promo photo:
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