Plus: First Lady Of The Black Press & Improbable Libraries
For the third consecutive year, @kuumbalynx won Louder Than A Bomb. You can see why.
Posted on March 31, 2015
Newspapers Dumber Than Readers, Internet
By Steve Rhodes
“The effort to insinuate more serious standards into the instruments of mass culture was always difficult, even when a rising middle class made possible the notion of increasing cultural sophistication,” Steve Wasserman writes for The American Conservative.
“A single story from the near-decade I served as literary editor of the Los Angeles Times tells the tale:
Posted on March 26, 2015
Local Book Notes: Chance The Bomber
Plus: The Beauty And Decay Of Pilsen
Over the transom and through the news.
1. LTAB15.
“Chance the Rapper, a Chicago native and an alumnus of Young Chicago Authors’ workshops and performer at 2012’s festival, will appear during half-time of the Team Finals at the Arie Crown on March 28.”
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March 1st benefit celebrating LTAB’s 15th anniversary:
Posted on March 20, 2015
Youth Poetry Out Loud 2015: They Do This Better Than You
By The Poetry Foundation
Think poetry and competition don’t mix? Nearly three million students and 9,500 schools would disagree with you. That’s how many have participated in 10 years of the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest – and the 2015 National Finals will take place on April 28 – 29 in Washington, DC.
Poetry Out Loud is the nation’s largest youth poetry recitation competition, and next month, high school students who advanced from a field of more than 365,000 students nationwide will gather in Washington, DC to match skills in reciting classic and contemporary poetry from Shakespeare to Maya Angelou.
The top finalists and their schools will receive $50,000 in awards, including $20,000 for the National Champion. Award-winning poet Taylor Mali will host the Finals, and the roster of judges includes poets Richard Blanco and Nikky Finney, writer and critic Maria Popova, novelist Brando Skyhorse, and educator Carol Jago. The National Finals will also feature a performance by composer and multi-instrumentalist, Gabriel Kahane.
Posted on March 19, 2015
Local Book Notes: Solitary Confinement Is Torture
The ‘Marionization’ Of America
Over the transom and through the news. All links added.
1. The Marion Experiment.
“Taking readers into the darkness of solitary confinement, this searing collection of convict experiences, academic research, and policy recommendations shines a light on the proliferation of super-maximum-security prisons and the detrimental effects of long-term high-security confinement on prisoners and their families,” SIU Press says.
“Stephen C. Richards, an ex-convict who served time in nine federal prisons before earning his Ph.D in criminology, argues the supermax prison era began in 1983 at USP Marion in southern Illinois, where the first ‘control units’ were built by the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
“The Marion Experiment, written from a convict criminology perspective, offers an introduction to long-term solitary confinement and supermax prisons, followed by a series of first-person accounts by prisoners – some of whom are scholars – previously or currently incarcerated in high-security facilities, including some of the roughest prisons in the Western world.
“Scholars also address the widespread ‘Marionization’ of solitary confinement; its impact on female, adolescent, and mentally ill prisoners and families; and international perspectives on imprisonment.
Posted on March 10, 2015
Local Book Notes: Voices Of Protest, Drawbridges
City Of Refuge, Crossings
Over the transom.
1. Voices of Protest.
“In September 2014, the Guild Literary Complex sent five Chicago writers to the 2014 Kapittel International Festival of Literature and Freedom of Speech in Stavanger, Norway,” the GLC says in a press release.
“The trip was part of ‘Voices of Protest,’ a continuing Guild series that highlights the plight of persecuted authors and foregrounds the importance of protecting free speech globally.
“Now, for the first time since their return, the authors will give a special reading of creative work inspired by the trip and lead a community dialogue on free speech issues.
“The program, called Voices of Protest: Home Edition, will take place on Thursday, March 12, 7:30 p.m., and will be co-presented with 826CHI at 1276 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago. The program is open to the public and free of charge. (Donations will be accepted.)”
Posted on March 3, 2015