"The poet today must be twice-born. She must have begun as a poet, she must have understood the suffering of the world as political... and on the other side of politics she must be reborn again as a poet..."
Adrienne Rich, in 1974

In 1993 she amended this to say: "...But today I would rephrase this: it's not a matter of dying as a poet into politics, or of having to be reborn as a poet 'on the other side of politics' (where is that?) but of something else --- finding the relationship."

"What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who has only eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician, or a lyre in every chamber of his heart if he is a poet, or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time, he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image. How could it be possible to feel no interest in other people, and with a cool indifference to detach yourself from the very life which they bring to you so abundantly? No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war."
Pablo Picasso

"The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative."
Paul Robeson

"We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers
The judge said five-to-ten but I say double that again
I'm not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown.
Kick over the wall, cause governments to fall
How can you refuse it.
Let fury have the hour, anger can be the power
D'you know that you can use it?
-- The Clampdown, The Clash

Joe, we will never forget you

"While the Reichstag burns, I see the public buy it
I see the profilin, see the media compliant
Hope you understand the time, brother
Cause it's getting late...
If you knew all the things we knew,
Would you stand up for true
Or would you turn and walk away..."

-- PARIS, new track from hip hop artist
To hear it: http://www.daveyd.com/paristrack.mp3

"It's very frustrating because as artists our role in society is to fantasize, to imagine things. In Palestine you keep on banging against reality and the situation which is the overcloak of everything. It is always there. You can't escape it; you can't fly too high. You start shaking your wings and you bang into a checkpoint. It is very frustrating because you keep on banging against walls, walls like the political situation, our conditions and the war. But it's rewarding because of the few times you do fly. You are stronger than the situation and the reality and you just take them and swallow them inside you and use them as your raw material and fly. That's a victory. This is what keeps me working and moving until now."

-- Nizar Zubi From an amazing INTERVIEW with Nizar Zubi and George Ibrahim, directors of AL-KASABA, a theater group from RAMALLAH which recently toured the US. "Alive from Palestine: Theater from Occupied Territory" by Michael Slate, Revolutionary Worker

"And I always thought:
the very simplest words must be enough.
When I say what things are like everyone's heart must be torn to
shreds.
That you'll go down if you don't stand up yourself.
Surely you see that."

- Bertolt Brecht, 1956 (his last poem)

"I think a play can put a drop of acid in the water and it can spread through the system and wash away a lot of rust."

- Arthur Miller, playwright
("The Crucible", "Death of a Salesman" etc)
May 26, 2002-- NBC TV
Arthur Miller Accuses Bush of Abusing and Curbing Civil Rights
"...and we hold these truths to be self evident:
#1 george w. bush is not president
#2 america is not a true democracy
#3 the media is not fooling me
cuz i am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
i've got no room for a lie so verbose
i'm looking out over my whole human family
and i'm raising my glass in a toast..."

- from 'Self Evident' a poem by Ani DiFranco
Have you thought about it too?
Because we are here for you.
When you have nothing to lose,
All the people feel it too.

You do have a way out baby
And together we can breathe free air.

I know they wanna isolate you
Give you nothing to relate to
we're gonna have to break this whole muthafucka down
so loneliness
don't let it overtake you.

When you feel so all alone
Know you have a home.

"Thought About It 2," words by BOOTS,
sung by Martin Luther on THE COUP'S album, "Party Music"

More on Boots and The Coup

"The designation terrorist is produced by the one-way gaze of power. Only one point of view, one vision, one story, is necessary and permissible, since what defines the gaze of power is its absolute, unquestionable authority. "To label an enemy a terrorist confers the same invisibility a colonist's gaze confers upon the native. Dismissing the possibility that the native can look back at you just as you are looking at him is a first step toward blinding him and ultimately rendering him or her invisible. Once a slave or colonized native is imagined as invisible, the business of owning him, occupying and exploiting his land, becomes more efficient, pleasant..."

John Edgar Wideman, from "WHOSE WAR: The color of terror ", Harpers Magazine, March issue

"What is happening to the world lies, at the moment, just outside the realm of common human understanding. It is the writers, the poets, the artists, the singers, the filmmakers who can make the connections, who can find the ways of bringing it into the realm of common understanding. Who can translate cash-flow charts and scintillating boardroom speeches into real stories about real people with real lives. Stories about what it's like to lose your home, your land, your job, your dignity, your past, and your future to an invisible force. To someone or something you can't see. You can't hate. You can't even imagine."

Arundhati Roy, "The Ladies Have Feelings, So... Shall We Leave it to the Experts?" A Talk, February 2001

"The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who in a time of moral crisis maintain their neutrality."

Danny Glover quoting Dante on MLK Day


"I think people like the Howard Sterns, the Bill O'Reillys, and to a lesser degree, the bin Ladens of the world are making a horrible contribution."

Sean Penn, Talk Magazine, February 2002

Sean Penn takes on Bush over Iraq