You were ambushed by a group of guerrilla poets, perhaps in transit, at a rally, or in Dupont Circle some random Monday.  This email tracked you by following a homing signal emitted by an electronic bug placed in your body by the Man.  

Consider this link your pill through which not to learn…but rather to speak the truth.  Break through the screen you're watching — we'll throw you a weekly calendar with all kinds of opportunities to resist injustice, from rallies and meetings to performances and workshops.  And you'll have the chance to encounter and explore the most loving, intense, (ethnically, generationally, occupationally, and vibrationally) diverse, random crowd you're likely to find.

Or take the other pill, hit delete, and go back to work.

Our Mother's blessings, regardless,
The DC Guerrilla Poetry Insurgency  

Want to know what happened at our last gathering?  What  the GPI are up to? Read on my friend……. (more…)

Our allies in Asheville, NC threw a party this Saturday that was unlike anything I'd ever encountered before.  Graham Hackett of Catalyst Productions organized the event as a fundraiser for an ongoing project sharing poetry workshops with at risk youth and juveniles in the prison system, and included a number of positively sick elements. Video is reportedly forthcoming….

Kim Kubicke, who first introduced us to Graham a year ago, bottomlined speaker liaising for a series of lectures on sustainable culture, and was a hospitable and fun host.  I traipsed around with her the day of the event, watching various pieces come together at The Wedge Gallery — which featured some insane pieces of industrial metal work art — and chatting up the small army involved in the production.

Dustin's heavily stencil-influenced visual art graced the walls; Raymond and others rocked out a video projection sequence from two ceiling-mounted projecters; poets spat during 3-4 separate sets from as many different places in the room, each spotlit while standing on a raised platform, appearing as if apparations hovering in the dark; and various DJs from the Evoke Community tribe played in between the poetry sets and then raged (with meat-beat sets worthy of any dance floor anywhere) until 3 or 4 in the morning.

I closed the lecture series with a 15 minute address about executive aggrandizement and fascism, dropped "The Baghdad Blues" and "Bumpin in My SUV" during the poetry set, and got down on the dance floor with enough gusto to leave me barely able to walk by 2am.  Jinx gave me an extended tour of a bio-diesel production facility next door, as well as his gallery of incredible metal sculpture, and I was especially happy to re-connect with Emily, an Asheville hip-hop wonder who's been rocking rhymes with the SF Collaborative Arts Insurgency (on which the DC GPI was originally modeled) over the past year. 

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ACT ONE 

Guerrila sends email: SUBJECT:  fucking fuckers
I have no other way to express myself – unless of course I missed The Washington Post's coverage of the rally on Tuesday to support palestine and lebanon..

please, please someone say I missed it ! 

ACT TWO 

Second Guerrilla sends email: posting the article title (below) and an email for the paper's ombudsman@washpost.com

Speakers, Backers Portray Conflict In Mideast as Part of Terror War

I did not know what ombudsman meant either.

ACT THREE 

Being Guerrilla One…I wrote the letter (below).

(scene)  Guerrilla two posts his letter as a comment to this post.

ACT FOUR 

Guerrilla Two recevied back the following from The Washington Post,

Thank you for writing. Could you tell me who were the sponsors of the rally that wasn't covered? I want to follow this up. Deborah
 

Guerrilla One Letter…. (more…)

We've all got one of these!  I don't consider my poetry best read from a page, but heard……however, I want to encourage more poetry posting!   FYI – you may reprint/perform (even just pieces), but cannot use it to make a profit!

RAGE IN NEW ORLEANS 

September 2005

Military resources deployed to Iraq     

country in need

deep fissures are showing

can you see the cracks?

The past two FEMA Directors

had no disaster management experience

appointed as friends

down graded cabinet position

absorbed by the

Department of Homeland Security with

millions of dollars while

people starved.

Do you feel safe?

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I represented the GPI last night at a meetingfor the US Social Forum. The outreach said Movement  Building in  DC so I had attended thinking it might be similar to past initatives attempting to bring together the DC Community. While that is true, it was also about bringing together people to 1) attend the forum in 2007 2) conduct activities as outreach leading up to the forum and 3) plan DC's engagement in the event. From their flyer, the US Social Forum will bring together 20,000+ grassroots organizers, workers, union members, people of faith, community members, immigrant and indigenous populations and displaced folks and evacuees.  Sounds pretty good, ey?  It's self-organized, so folks will get out what they put in- GPI could do a workshop maybe?? There were about 50 people attending at its largest point – representing lots of organziers – including several organizing to protect Franklin's Shelter. Jeff, fellow guerrilla, has been out there supporting that cause (maybe he should blog about it!).  The group broke out into small groups and I joined one about black-brown alliance building.  Lots of engaging conversation, and the group agreed to put together a community forum to open a dialogue.  One particularly interesting comment during our smaller discussion was to look at who benefits from keeping the groups divided–basically a hard look at the role of economics and capitalism.  It was a interesting dialogue and I'll definitely be learning more about the US Social Forum, which isa part of the World Social Forum – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Social_Forum.  Imagine people all over the world coming together to demonstrate the POWER OF THE PEOPLE!  I, for one, am ready to reclaim it from all these world leaders who wage war and kill innocent people.

Save Our Schools and others did a GREAT job bringing together groups and individuals looking to make a difference in education.  I performed True Evolution Revolution as part of a brief speak-out where individuals discussed their stories about shortages in the education system, as well as initiatives to make change by different groups/artists/educators.  We broke into working groups exploring issues such as race, music/arts education, charter schools and protecting public space.  If you haven't been to Al-Fishway – A People's Media Cafe it was transformed into a solid workshop space with easels, and break-out areas ready for discussion.  It was a great networking opportunity – even met a fellow poet, William Stokes who works with Empower DC!  I'm hoping he'll make it out!

How many playgrounds will you give me for this tank?

I've got a helicopter with cannons
for a school on a river bank.

We've got a lot of bullets
and a bunch of useless bombs;
Can I trade these in
to help out some single moms?

I can't really think
of a time that I'd need
a machine gun to kill
a thousand, indeed.

perhaps you could take
all this extra stuff,
and instead give the homeless
a life less gruff.

perhaps we could send
130,000 troops
into New York to feed
the hungry on their stoops.

With this much extra,
why stop there?
We could be feeding
everyone, everywhere!

And imagine all the children
playing with their toys,
rather than them screaming
from the bombing's noise.

If all of that is not enough,
I've got a nuclear submarine
to put up to auction
for the American Dream.

Food Friends Fun Fadi Forks Freedom Fires Feet Funk Fries Forests Football Frisbee "Fried Food"