Cultural Center of Cape Cod

Cultural Center of Cape Cod... Where Hypocrisy Rules!

No response was ever received from the Cultural Center! 

 

From: George Slone <todslone@hotmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, April 2, 2016 10:28 AM
To: bnash@cultural-center.org
Cc: ahowes@cultural-center.org; lwolk@cultural-center.org; info@cultural-center.org; apiliavsky@gmail.com
Subject: Query for a potential art exhibit
 
To the Cultural Center of Cape Cod:  
        Besides vaunting “inclusivity,” as in “all the arts for all of us,” why not do something truly inclusive by not excluding “some of the arts for some of us”?   Why not exhibit the “Entartete Kunst” series I’ve been working on for the past several years?  It features art unlikely to be included, for example, in the inclusivity mantra of local arts centers because of its critical component (fond) regarding local arts centers themselves, as well as other “muzzlers” of the arts, one might call gatekeeper guardians of forme.  
The watercolor below (see also attached) is included in my “Entartete Kunst” series and features the Cultural Center of Cape Cod (i.e., you, Lauren Wolk, and Angela Howes).  Now, why would you reject such art?   Indeed, by rejecting it, you increase its validity and veracity.  
Well, hopefully, at least, this little missive might actually compel you to think a moment—just a brief, brief moment—out of the local arts box.  

Thank you for your hopeful attention.

Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone, PhD (universite de Nantes, FR) aka P. Maudit,
Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.

Barnstable, MA 02630

 

 

From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: ahowes@cultural-center.org
Subject: Query
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 2015 18:33:51 -0400

Hi Angela Howes, Publisher, Bass River Press (Cultural Center of Cape Cod):  
Am I perhaps unofficially excluded from all things Cultural Center of Cape Cod for having criticized the Center last year with regards its inclusion statement et al?  If not, I'd love to send a manuscript on poetry pertinent to Martha's Vineyard Island or something more critical.  Please let me know what subjects are taboo, besides the usual.   Please do respond.  Thanks!  
Sincerely,

G. Tod Slone, PhD (universite de Nantes, FR) aka P. Maudit,
Founding Editor (1998)
The American Dissident, a 501c3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy, and Dissidence
www.theamericandissident.org
wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com
todslone@hotmail.com
217 Commerce Rd.
Barnstable, MA 02630

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2015 20:03:30 +0000
> From: ahowes@cultural-center.org
> To: todslone@hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: Query

Good afternoon,

The submission process is open to all residents of the Cape or 
Islands. Are you a full or part-time resident of the Cape? If so, you 
are eligible to submit to Bass River Press.

All manuscripts that follow the submission guidelines and contain the 
$20 submission fee will be considered. Bass River Press utilizes a 
blind reading process, so all manuscripts will be reviewed anonymously 
and judged on their merit alone.

There are no restrictions on subject or style, and the poetry does not 
necessarily have to be about the Cape or Islands.

Thank you for your email!

Sincerely,

Angela
From: todslone@hotmail.com
To: ahowes@cultural-center.org
Subject: RE: Query
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 11:57:12 -0400

Hi Angela,
Thanks for your response.  Nothing personal here.  I do not know you.  BUT, as an artist and poet, I do overtly question and challenge.  I'd rather stand for truth, than get published.  Here's a few things for you to contemplate:  

1.  "Merit alone" really makes no sense.  What might the definition of "merit" be for a poem?  Who might the anonymous person or persons be to define the term?  Without a concrete definition, it remains vacuous.  Judging poems is entirely subjective.  But the term "merit" gives it some kind of vague, false objectivity. 

2.  "There are no restrictions on subject or style" is simply NOT true, so why make the statement? Examples of subject restrictions would likely include poems critical of pillars of the Cape Cod community, as well as cultural institutions, including the Cultural Center of Cape Cod from which Bass River Press was hatched.  They'd likely also include personal experience poems critical of the cultural scene on Cape Cod, which tends to abhor criticism and manifest apathy regarding democracy (e.g., issues of freedom of speech and due process).  Also, business and poetry have become far too intimately connected today and here on the Cape.  

3.  Why the $20 submission fee?  That seems quite unusual for a poetry journal.  I publish such a journal and never require a fee.  Besides, with your connections, surely you'd be able to haul in a bundle of taxpayer money from the Mid-Cape Cultural Council, which will NEVER accord my journal a dime because of its dissident stance.  

Finally, ”All the Art for All of US" is a hypocritical logo.  And "a democratic philosophy of inclusion" is downright Orwellian, especially coming from a cultural autocrat like Robert Nash, who has excluded all of my art from his Cultural Center.  How does that jive with that logo?  Most poets (99%) do not dare question and challenge people like Nash and institutions like his.  So when out of the blue a poet like me appears, the only reaction tends to be non-response.  After all, what could Nash possilby respond regarding, for example, criticism of the logo?  Questioning and challenging the Nashs clearly constitutes a hazardous risk to poetry and academic careers.  Sadly, most poets and academics prefer conformity and ladder climbing to bold truth telling.  Well, now you know who I am.  Anyhow, thanks again for the response.

G. Tod