Curriculum Mortae

 Curriculum Mortae

—A Dissident Citizen Poet Professor’s Resume—

G. Tod Slone, PhD

todslone@hotmail.com — www.theamericandissident.org 

Dissidence:  If there is no risk when speaking rude truth, there is really no dissidence.  It is for that reason that dissidence really implies, at least in America, criticism on the local level.  Evidently, there is no risk at all criticizing an American president, thanks to democracy’s legal framework.  Examine my two essays:  “The Cold Passion for Truth Hunts in No Pack” and "Notes on RISK and Writing."  

By openly criticizing the academic/literary/art establishment administrators, I personally risked jobs, promotions, invitations, grants, publications, and general blacklisting.   As for  the latter, the Cape Cod Times, for example, will not include me in its list of Cape Cod authors because I’ve dared criticize its editors.  The Academy of American Poets, Poets & Writers, Poetry Foundation, NewPages.com, Arts & Letters (Chronicle of Higher Education), Publishers Weekly, American Libraries Magazine et al have essentially blacklisted The American Dissident (see below), the journal I publish.  The very term, dissident, stems from opponents of socialist/communist authoritarian regimes and requisite in-lockstep groupthink.  It needs to be applied more frequently in America because such authoritarianism has become an integral part of the nation.  Those who toe the line—the bulk of so-called professionals—will automatically detest somebody like me.  Indeed for a summary of the ad hominem (kill the messenger/avoid his message) hurled my way, examine 

Dissident Objectives:  “Go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways” (Emerson); let my life “be a counterfriction to stop the machine” (Thoreau), “write because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention” (Orwell), and teach students and others the importance of individuality and dissidence in a democracy, and open their hearts to hardcore criticism, while encouraging them to learn and create from it.  

Dissident Formation and Experience:  (For a number of other examples of my dissidence, examine “Testing the Waters of Democracy” on The American Dissident website.

—The Sixties.  While the Sixties perhaps sensitized me to ubiquitous corruption, it also pressured me to de-individualize, groupthink, and group behave, in essence, prerequisites for a successful career as a university professor or other such “professional.”  

—Université du Maine (1980-82) and École Nationale de Mécanique (1982-88). While a lecteur de langue anglaise in France, I became interested in reprobates Villon and Céline, as well as other French authors.  There, I also read Bukowski for the first time and in French and consequently wrote some of my first poems in French.  

—Elmira College (1989-1991) Faculty/administrative corruption/apathy transformed me into a firm dissident (i.e., truth-speaking individual, as opposed to careerist ladder climber).   Deans sided with a handful of students, who complained now and then that I’d offended their sensitivities.

—My first truly critical essays and poems were published in The Octagon, the student newspaper. They criticized students and my so-called colleagues, as well as administrators.

—I created and disseminated my first critical newsletters, “Purple Marasmus,” which I distributed mostly to the Humanities faculty, who I harshly criticized in them.  Elmira’s color logo is purple.  

—Fitchburg State College (1991-1996). My eyes were further opened to academic corruption (e.g., a closet homosexual department chair wanting me to visit him every weekend at his home, highly whimsical faculty evaluations, nepotism, eviction mid-semester from my office w/o due process, a prevaricating dean and apathetic faculty). The American Association of University Professors and the ACLU of Massachusetts remained silent regarding my grievances of state-college corruption.

—Eviction from my college office (McKay Campus) mid-semester due to one complaint by a colleague that she was afraid of me, despite my having no criminal record.  To this day, I could be arrested if I stepped foot on McKay Campus.

—Received a year’s salary as settlement payment after a lengthy in-house hearing.  The college never admitted wrong-doing.

—The student, local, and state newspapers (Boston Globe), as well as The Chronicle of Higher Education, refused to publish my accounts of corruption at Fitchburg State, which provoked me to begin publishing a newsletter, Corruption Magazine, which morphed into Corruption Massachusetts.

—Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (1998).  My experience at this so-lauded “blue-ribbon” high school, as a full-time substitute babysitter, resulted in a few highly critical published op-eds in the local newspaper, as well as a non-fiction novel, Total Chaos (People’s Press—2001).  

—The American Dissident (created in 1998). A 501 3c nonprofit journal of literature, democracy, and dissidence places rude-truth telling and risk above team-playing, networking, and turning a blind eye.  Sadly, it is rare for poets, writers, artists, editors, and journalists to engage in such a modus operandi.  

—Walden Pond State Reservation (1999).  Arrest and incarceration in a Concord jail cell for a day.  I was solo protesting the absence of free speech at Walden Pond State Reservation.  Both the local media and Thoreau Society were pathetically apathetic.  The judge dropped the case against me at the Concord Court House.  

—Bennett College (2001-2003).  Numerous highly critical op-eds were published in the local and college newspapers.  

—Festival International de la Poésie de Trois-Rivières (Québec—2001).  The only invited and remunerated poet out of 150 who dared criticize the hands that fed in the form of poems I’d written in French.  Never invited back.    

—Eastern Connecticut University (2002). Wrong skin color (and who knows how many other institutions I’d applied to rejected me for the same reason). Agustin Bernal, Dept. Chair:  “The search for the tenure-track position in Spanish/French was declared ‘failed’ by the administration, after three equally acceptable finalists (you among them) were submitted to them for campus interviews. The entire pool of candidates was reviewed and they concluded it wasn't ‘deep’ or ‘diverse’ enough to be satisfactory.”

—The Concord Poetry Center (2004).  Director Joan Houlihan stated:  “The idea of your teaching a workshop or delivering a lecture on the art of literary protest or poetry protest, or simply protest (Concord is where it all started!) occurred to me even before you mentioned it, so, yes, it’s something I will consider as we progress (this is only our first event).  However, I must say I don’t favor having you teach at the center if you protest the reading.”  Evidently, I chose to protest the reading.    

—The complete silence of PEN New England (“defending freedom of expression”), regarding impediments to my freedom of expression and the likely influence of poet Joan Houlihan on PEN director Karen Wulf, both comfortably installed at Lesley University, further provoked my questioning and challenging of such organizations.

—The silence of some 500 college English professors regarding my attempts to interest them in radically altering the academic culture of sycophancy, turning a blind eye, careerism, PC, and prevarication confirmed my observations that college professors tended to be apparatchik careerists first, while truth tellers last.  

—geocities.com/enmarge.  That was my first website URL, which was removed sometime in the mid 2000s due to one anonymous complaint.  Geocities refused to respond to my protest with that regard.  Vice notes, “Geocities was one of the first places your average person could make a website for free.”  Yeah, well, it was also one of the first places that began censoring websites!  

—Grambling State University (2005-2007).  This was my second experience at an all black (HBCU) college.  There I found the same intellectual corruption, as I’d found at Bennett College,… and wrote a number of highly critical op-eds published in the student newspaper.  

—Watertown Free Public Library (2008).  The director issued a six-month no-trespass order with my regard without due process for my attempting to interest its reference librarian in subscribing to The American Dissident.  

—Academy of American Poets (2009).  My comments on the Academy’s website were censored and I was banned from participating in its online forums.  No reason was provided for the banning.

—American Public University (2010-2017).  Online instructor of English.  This was my very last teaching job… because I disobeyed the Chair’s order that I cease expressing myself… regarding criticism lodged against me.  

—Sturgis Library (2012).  Permanently banned from my neighborhood library w/o warning and w/o due process.  The reason:  “for the safety of the staff and public.”  Five days prior to the banning I’d sent to the library directors of the Clams Library System of Cape Cod a critical essay of their collection development policy, which states, “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view.”  Also, prior to the banning, the Barnstable Patriot interviewed me.  

Dissident Publications. Numerous critical letters to the editor of student newspapers at colleges employing me confirmed professor indifference to matters of corruption, free speech, and vigorous debate.  A number of those letters can be viewed on my blogsite.  Numerous publications of poetry, essays, satirical cartoons, novels, and plays.  Some of those publications can be viewed on my website and at globalfreepress.org/contributors/usa/g-tod-slone and globalfreepress.org/cartoonists/g-tod-slone. 

Dissident Art Exhibits.  Critical art exhibits at the Concord Free Public Library (2008) and Sturgis Library (2011).

Solo Protests.  Staging of various solo protests critical of state-sponsored poets at the Concord Poetry Center, Concord Free Public Library, Robert Creeley Prize in Acton, and elsewhere confirmed poets were largely indifferent to questions of free speech and vigorous debate.  

Foreign Languages Spoken and Written:  French (near-native fluency—Parisian and québécois), Spanish (fluent), Italian (intermediate fluency), German (reading fluency)

Professional Formation & Experience: 

Doctorate in English (Université de Nantes, Nantes, France), 

M.A. in French (Middlebury College), 

B.A. (Northeastern University).

Online adjunct English/Spanish instructor, American Public University System; English instructor, US Navy (Central Texas College),Visiting professor of French and Spanish (Grambling State University), Online writing instructor (Davenport University), Assistant professor of French and Spanish (Bennett College) and (Fitchburg State College), Assistant professor of Humanities (Elmira College), Lecteur de langue anglaise (École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique, Nantes, France) and Université du Maine (Le Mans, France), Adult Education instructor of Spanish (Concord-Carlisle Adult & Community Education, Concord, MA), High school mid-year replacement teacher of Spanish (Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, MA), Community college instructor of Spanish (Mount Wachussetts Community College, Gardener, MA), Language program director in Martinique, France (ASA International Adventures, Amronk, NY), Lecturer of French (Northeastern University, Boston, MA), High School teacher of French (Nazareth Academy, Wakefield, MA), Shipyard welder (General Dynamics), radiation monitor (Groton submarine base), FDIC bank examiner (South Dakota), interpreter/translator (Le Mans auto race—11 consecutive years), census taker…

Publications See http://theamericandissident.org/g_tod_slone_books.html. 

This CM is a work in progress…

Corey Farrenkopf

 

Larry Brown Cape Cod Times

The following cartoon and counter-essay were not permitted in the pages of the Cape Cod Times.

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White Bad, Black Good

First, the term “liberal” ought to imply real belief in free speech, vigorous debate, and equality.   Unfortunately, today, the term “liberal” has come to mean left-wing Democrat-Party partisanship against free speech, vigorous debate, and equality.  True liberalism has been replaced by the faux-liberalism of diversity, inclusion, and equity, Orwellian code for unity of thought, exclusion of unwanted ideas, and racial inequality of opportunity.  Thus, the term left-wing ought to be separated from, not equated with, the term “liberal.”  Second, differences, including height, attractiveness, sex, intellectual capacity, physical strength, skin color, wealth, etc., actually do exist… and to judge is natural… but to stereotype on the basis of any of those differences inevitably defies reality.  Humans do have the capacity to weigh their judgments in accord with reality.  Sadly, many do not do that.  

Critical Race Theory teaches the white bad/black good (victim) stereotype falsity, which supports the adoption of double-standards falsity, including all whites are racists, while all blacks are not.  Falsity only ends up harming those who propagate it, who do so in an effort to somehow protect and empower.  Columnist Larry Brown and his Cape Cod Times have evidently embraced, rather than question and challenge, falsities pushed by CRT.  

Brown’s column, “I’m not racist, but …,” begs to be critically examined.  But those like Brown and the Times are opposed to questioning and challenging of their left-wing—not liberal—narrative.  The Times over the past decade, for example, has absolutely refused to publish anything I’ve sent it, including an account of my being permanently banned without warning or due process from my neighborhood library, Sturgis Library, for merely questioning and challenging the de facto policies adopted by its library director, Lucy Loomis, which, in particular, contradict its written policy that “libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view.”  For the Times, I illustrate “wrong think” and thus simply do not exist.

And so Brown begins his column by admitting to his white privilege, though doesn’t quite put it that way: “When I was a boy, we had Black maids come in once a week to help my mother.”  Well, when I was a boy, my family never had maids, black or white.  And indeed, white maids do exist, though perhaps not in Brown’s fantasy world.  Evoking that fact clearly is harmful to his left-wing narrative.  Now, I wonder how many maids the Obamas have on the Vineyard.  Are they white or black or both?  To pose that question could, however, be damaging to the stereotype adopted by Brown and the Times.  

It is intellectually belittling for Brown to evoke one convenient example of his white mother sending a get-well card to one of her black maids, who purportedly stated that to be “the only deliberate act of kindness she had experienced from a white person in her whole life.”  In other words, white bad/black good.  Now, as mentioned, when I was a boy, my family never had maids.  But to state that would be an affront to the white-privilege stereotype, espoused by Brown.  Just the same, I wonder what the three black youths might have said to each other after they beat and robbed me in Baton Rouge one morning.  The only deliberate act of kindness they’d experienced from a white person in their whole lives?  After all, they went on a shopping spree with the credit card they stole from me.  Brown states regarding the maid:  “Think for a moment what that means. Minorities tell us all the time that they experience life in America differently.”  Evidently, my experience contradicts Brown’s stereotype.  In essence, one example (one experience) should never be used to stereotype entire races.  How can Brown, a Cape Cod Academy humanities teacher, not comprehend that?  Well, I certainly made sure my experience didn’t; sadly, Brown made sure his did.

“There’s more than one kind of racist,” argues Brown.  Yes, there are black racists and white racists.  Ah, but he does not state it that way at all.  After all, he has been indoctrinated that blacks cannot be/are not racists.  Imagine if the Times had published an op-ed on black racists.  Pipe-dream?  You bet!  Brown argues that “Class One racists react viscerally to people of color, often to gays, mixed-race couples, mixed-race ads on TV.”  What I am against is the undemocratic (authoritarian) social engineering effected behind the scenes by societal elites.  Clearly, “mixed-race ads” form an integral part of such social engineering, which seeks in the long run to terminate nations by mixing populations via population importations and to eliminate, in a racist endeavor, the white race (consider the “tanning of America” ideology as propagated, for example, by Tracey Ross in The Root blog on Washington Post).  Brown argues without an iota of proof of assertion:  “They’re angry when issues of slavery are taught in school, ‘dragging our country through the mud’.”  Well, I’m angry because in general the truth, the whole truth regarding slavery is rarely if ever taught in government schools (see, for example, “1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project").  

Sadly, Brown’s entire piece is one-sided.  Whites are racist, while there is no mention of racist blacks.  White supremacy is mentioned, while black supremacy (e.g., Black Panthers and Nation of Islam) is not mentioned.  Brown argues, “It’s precisely the failure to recognize the harm in supremist [sic] thinking that the left wants to address.”  The reality, however, is highly political, which is why the left actually wants to promote a sort of POC supremacy aka CRT, which will increase its political power… or so it hopes.  

Brown argues that “A humane and law-abiding society should want to isolate and contain its most violent members.”  Well, we agree on that point, but is it not the left-wingers, who chose to do  nothing regarding the violent Antifa/BLM rioters?  In fact, did they not seek to release more such violent persons from the nation’s jails, as well as eliminate bail requisites and permit many of those arrested to walk free?  

Brown’s left good/right bad essay concludes:  “After half a century, liberals have failed to shame racists out of their racism.  We have to argue them out of it with the love and faith decency demands.”  And yet “love and faith” are certainly NOT what the left-wing has been pushing, but rather anti-white racist hatred, reparations, severe school indoctrination, and Marxist ideology.  Sadly, in America today truth is not rewarded, whereas ideological adherence is rewarded…

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NB:  Brown’s email address is not available on the Times’ website or on that of Cape Cod Academy.  Cocoon buffered!

 

Doug Lederman

The following aquarelle was created in 2009 by P. Maudit (G. Tod Slone). 

Cultural Center of Cape Cod

For the unsurprising reaction to the broadside below, read the account of my protest at the Cultural Center in celebration of National Poetaster Month, "Nasty: Notes from a Protest and an Encounter with the Executive Director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod," here:   https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/nasty-notes-from-a-protest-and-an-encounter-with-the-executive-director-of-the-cultural-center-of-cape-cod/. 

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An American Dissident Free-Speech Broadside (April, 27, 2022)

The American Dissident, a 501 (c)3 Nonprofit Journal of Literature, Democracy & Dissidence (Publishing Biannually since 1998)

G. Tod Slone, PhD and Founding Editor  todslone@hotmail.com   www.theamericandissident.org   wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com

217 Commerce Rd., Barnstable, MA 02630

“Some of the Arts for Some of Us”

the Castration, Cooptation, and Corralling of Cape Cod Poets

(A “Dangerous” Poet’s “Dangerous” Statement to the Cultural Center of Cape Cod)

Estoit-il lors temps de moy taire? 

—François Villon, “Ballade du Guichetier Garnier”

 

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION is in serious danger of extinction when poets do not give a damn if another poet is ostracized, censored, and/or banned!  That is the sad reality here on Cape Cod, where local poets are far more concerned with government grant money, invitations, publications, tenure, and curatorial/censorial positions, than with FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.   

     The Cultural Center of Cape Cod—its Learning Director Diane Giardi—refused to accord me permission to read at its National Poetry Month “Poetry Marathon.”  Why?  Quite simply, the apparatchiks at the Center are unable to brook hardcore criticism—my criticism! Its motto, “All the Arts for All of Us,” embodies their grotesque hypocrisy. My art and my poetry have been excluded from its Orwellian realm of  INCLUSION IS EXCLUSION. “Join us for an all-day Poetry Marathon in celebration of the beauty and power of poetry in all its forms!”  But certainly not the power of poetry in my form!  

      Why should culture and its apparatchiks be exempt from criticism?  As editor of a poetry journal, I openly ask for criticism and publish the harshest received in each issue.  And I do NOT ostracize and ban!  If my criticism is not on target, then it is up to the Giardis and Demeulenaeres to prove it.  And if they did, I’d have no problem issuing an apology and correction.  How is the Center’s motto not hypocritical?!  Well, the cultural apparatchiks have yet to respond!  And so, as a rejected poet and artist, I stand outside today in protest. 

    In the beginning of this month, April, I wrote the Center’s PR Coordinator, who inspired a poem. Too bad I can’t read it at the “Poetry Marathon”! The PR-Apparatchik chose not to respond.  Imagine, a PR-Coordinator for poetry! On Cape Cod, the Chamber of Commerce has coopted, castrated and corralled the poets!    

To Becky Renaud, PR Coordinator, Cultural Center of Cape Cod:  Well, nothing personal here—I don’t know you.  But my request to read a couple of poems like the ones below at your April open-mic event was simply ignored (i.e., no response) by your Learning Director Diane Giardi.  Sadly, it really does seem that criticism of culture is strictly verboten on Cape Cod.   Please do at least contemplate that thought and what it implies for the state of democracy here in the midst of the tourist industry.  Fear not!  I am neither violent, nor do I ever make threats.  However, I am an ardent critic, especially regarding that which is taboo in the realm of establishment critics.  Finally, perhaps you might convince Mme Giardi to open her closed doors and permit me to read some of my poetry… 

     Oddly, my last solo protest was precisely two years ago on April 27th in front of Sturgis Library in Barnstable, which was celebrating Kurt Vonnegut.  On the sidewalk, I stood with a sign and handed out flyers.  If I had stood on library property, director Lucy Loomis would have called the cops.  Why?  Well, in 2012, she’d permanently banned me from her publicly-funded library w/o warning, w/o due process.  Since she refused to provide a written reason, a poet friend in Georgia, Russell Streur, who has a certain expertise in dealing with corrupt organizations, contacted the Massachusetts State Secretary of Records, which nine months later forced Sturgis to open its records (see sturgisbansdissident.blogspot.com). Only one short email from Loomis to the trustees revealed the reason for the banning: “for the safety of the staff and public” (see theamericandissident.org/orgs/sturgis_library.html).   In vain, I contacted every pertinent organization on Cape Cod, including Cape Cod Poetry Review, Cape Cod Writers Center, Barnstable County Human Rights Commission, Cape Cod Times, Barnstable Patriot, Provincetown Arts, Provincetown Banner, Town Counselors of Barnstable, Arts Foundation of Cape Cod, and the 25 library directors of the Clams Library System (see wwwtheamericandissidentorg.blogspot.com/2017/10/free-speech-organizations-apathetic-and.html).  Not one person gave a damn!  Not one Cape Cod poet, artist, or writer gave a damn!  And yet my very civil rights are still being denied today because I am NOT permitted to attend any cultural or political events held at my neighborhood library, where the “Generative Poetry Workshop” is being run by.paid-poet hacks Bellinger, Miller, Bonanni, and Chen.  Do they care?  Of course not!  Is there one poet here who cares?  Likely not!  Curatorial censorship of expression IS NOT FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION!

Vive la liberté de parole, câlisse ! ! !

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Experiments in Free Speech & Democracy

University of Pennsylvania Open Letter to the Professors of the English Department The American Dissident, a 501 c3 nonprofit journal of literature, democracy, and dissidence, would like to know what you think, as individuals and, even moreso, what your students think. The journal believes that all icons and institutions should be open game for hardcore criticism. Oddly, or rather conveniently, however, the large majority of established-order poets seem to think that poetry organizations, celebrities, prizes, and journals should be off limits. And indeed, established-order poets tend to live in protective cocoons of incessant praise and funding. It is next to impossible for outsider organizations like The American Dissident to get satire to penetrate those buffered cocoons. The American Dissident is a firm believer in free speech and vigorous debate, democracy’s cornerstones. Yet how can debate be vigorous when, for example, the Academy of American Poets censors opinions it does not like and its professor chancellors respond with indifference (see http://www.theamericandissident.org/AcademyAmericanPoets.htm). And when most college professors seem to favor censorship (either turning a blind eye to it, preferring euphemisms like moderation, civility, and good taste, and/or proferring to be too busy to be concerned), democracy itself is in peril. What do you think? Have you perfected excuses as part of rationalizing your silence? The cartoon above, inspired by a brief review appearing in Entertainment Weekly, which normally critiques the love-life and attire of Hollywood celebrities, satirizes your colleague Charles Bernstein. Yes, yes, we all know that he is revered by the academic/literary established order and has climbed that ladder, wearing blinders wherever necessary. But should criticism of Bernstein be taboo? What do you think? For more unusual critique of those who are rarely if ever criticized, examine The American Dissident, which firmly believes that poetry should be more than mere intellectual ENTERTAINMENT and diversion or bourgeois past-time. In fact, why not subscribe to the journal (only $20/year) to help expose your students to alternative negative viewpoints regarding literature and the literary establishment. Are the doors of the English department at the University of Pennsylvania like those of so many other universities hermetically sealed against uncomfortable outside critique? Do you help your students create and fortify “mind-forged manacles” like those observed by William Blake? Your SILENCE will certainly support that hypothesis! Thank you for your cordial attention. N.B.: Notice of this blog was sent to The Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper and the following English instructors and professors: eng111@mailman.ssc.upenn.edu, charles.bernstein@english.upenn.edu, nauerbac@english.upenn.edu, rbarnard@english.upenn.edu, hbeavers@english.upenn.edu, nbentley@english.upenn.edu, tbowers@english.upenn.edu, bushnell@english.upenn.edu, cavitch@english.upenn.edu, pconn@english.upenn.edu, rcopalan@english.upenn.edu, tcorriga@english.upenn.edu, davistm@english.upenn.edu, degrazia@english.upenn.edu, dcherney@english.upenn.edu, deng@english.upenn.edu, jenglish@english.upenn.edu, esty@english.upenn.edu, afilreis@english.upenn.edu, mgamer@english.upenn.edu, jajii@english.upenn.edu, amkaplan@english.upenn.edu, kaul@english.upenn.edu, kazanjia@english.upenn.edu, zlesser@english.upenn.edu, loomba@english.upenn.edu, loveh@english.upenn.edu, cmazer@english.upenn.edu, amparo@english.upenn.edu, jnpark3@english.upenn.edu, perelman@english.upenn.edu, jmrabate@english.upenn.edu, prackin@english.upenn.edu, psain@english.upenn.edu, sanchezm@english.upenn.edu, pstally@english.upenn.edu, steinerer@english.upenn.edu, wsteiner@english.upenn.edu, stillet@english.upenn.edu, dwallace@english.upenn.edu, cmyang@english.upenn.edu, madams@sas.upenn.edu, rallen@ccat.sas.upenn.edu, janthon2@english.upenn.edu, maxapple1@verizon.net, azzolina@pbox.upenn.edu, psethbauer@hotmail.com, beckmank@sas.upenn.edu, benamos@sas.upenn.edu, blochj@english.upenn.edu, broussard@writing.upenn.edu, kbrownie@sas.upenn.edu, dburnham@english.upenn.edu, lcary@english.upenn.edu, ADeCurtis@aol.com, kathydemarco@writing.upenn.edu, tdevaney@writing.upenn.edu, djanikia@writing.upenn.edu, edwards@english.upenn.edu, despey@english.upenn.edu, marciaf@english.upenn.edu, dfox@sas.upenn.edu, lf@lisefunderburg.com, funkhauser@adm.njit.edu, agaedtke@gmail.com, pgaffney@sas.upenn.edu, gautsche@writing.upenn.edu, kg@ubu.com, devin.griffiths@rutgers.edu, adhall@english.upenn.edu, sharzews@english.upenn.edu, khellers@sas.upenn.edu, phendric@english.upenn.edu, mjens@sas.upenn.edu, jjossely@writing.upenn.edu, mkant2@english.upenn.edu, iamblel@aol.com, adlevy@english.upenn.edu, mlotto@english.upenn.edu, rmalague@english.upenn.edu, jmalcolm@english.upenn.edu, maxwellr@sas.upenn.edu, mmazaj@sas.upenn.edu, cmcgrath@uchicago.edu, dianemw@sas.upenn.edu, mamills@sas.upenn.edu, lizmoore1234@gmail.com, susan.murray@nyu.edu, michols@phillynews.com, cristinp@english.upenn.edu, polman@writing.upenn.edu, tipowell@sas.upenn.edu, jrezek@sas.upenn.edu, riebling@english.upenn.edu, krile@writing.upenn.edu, vross@writing.upenn.edu, rydel@sas.upenn.edu, schlatt@english.upenn.edu, rebecca@sas.upenn.edu, a.shonkwiler@gmail.com, scottstein@verizon.com, tarr123@gmail.com, vtodoroz@sas.upenn.edu, traister@pobox.upenn.edu, tricia@pointedpress.com, catumer@sas.upenn.edu, valterza@sas.upenn.edu, wahlert@english.upenn.edu, kwatters@english.upenn.edu, lweissbe@sas.upenn.edu, emilyw@sas.upenn.edu, abrahams@english.upenn.edu, curran@english.upenn.edu, rlucid@english.upenn.edu, vmahaffee@illinois.edu, randkregen@juno.com, jrichett@english.upenn.edu, gweales@english.upenn.edu, swenzel@english.upenn.edu

Carl Phillips Jackson Poetry Prize

 

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Above is the back cover of issue #42 of The American Dissident.  It features the Jackson Poetry Prize recipient (see last paragraph of the editorial with its regard).  Below is the editorial for that issue.  I post this today because I am in the midst of writing an essay on the new Jackson Poetry Prize winner, 

Sonia Sanchez.  

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The American Dissident’s prime purpose is NOT poetry for the sake of poetry, nor is it to help spread poetry as a form of intellectual entertainment—a highbrow game of words.  Its prime purpose is to serve as a rare—very, very rare—platform for hardcore criticism against the academic/literary establishment—friend of the chambers of commerce—, including Poets & Writers magazine, Poetry magazine (run by Poetry Foundation and its $200 million Eli Lilly drug—money donation), the Academy of American Poets, laureate and inaugural icons, Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim, MacArthur Foundation, the nation’s college English departments, etc.  When poetry fails to question and challenge that which promotes it, then it becomes a palatable part of the ruling-class machine of castration, cooptation, and corralling…  

Editorial

A Metastasizing Cancer

But you can’t turn literature into a business.  But without business, there won’t be any more literature.

—A Business Affair (1994 film)

 

The front cover of this issue features the Freedom Forum Institute… with a touch of satire, of course. For the critical essay I wrote on that organization, “The Fake (Free) Expression Institute,” see www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm?frm=190705&sec_id=190705.  The Institute constitutes a pro-censorship organization, backed by the Democrat Party.  To proclaim an opinion as “misinformation” and thus eliminate it constitutes an egregious act of censorship, a shallow justification for the reduction of freedom of expression.  Democrat-Party-aligned Big Tech (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google) have radically increased de-platforming. The former President of the United States has been censored, as have critics of autocrat-vaccine mandates, critics of Critical Race Theory, critics of Black Lives Matter, critics of the Hunter/Joe Biden scandal, etc. Communism and socialism do NOT embrace freedom of expression! Autocrats do NOT embrace freedom of expression! White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared in typical hack-circular reasoning:  

Our view continues to be though that every platform, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, any other platform that is disseminating information to millions of Americans has a responsibility to crack down on disinformation.

“Crack down on disinformation” is, of course, simply a convenient euphemistic term for censorship! Psaki fails to address the fundamental problem with Democrat-Party encouragement for increased censorship: the politically-tainted subjectivity inherently involved in determining what is and what is not “disinformation.”  Roman poet Juvenal evoked another fundamental problem:  Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?  In essence, who will watch over the gatekeepers of information?  

Psaki’s statement incarnates the metastasizing cancer in the heart of freedom of expression, the very fundament of democracy.  Power elites like her hate freedom of expression with a passion and always have and always will!  

The back cover of this issue illustrates the sad state of establishment poetry in America. The verse spewed by poet Carl Phillips in the aquarelle somehow earned him the Jackson Poetry Prize ($75,000).  In elite poetry circles, innocuity rules!  Why?  Because innocuity evidently does not threaten elites at the academic/literary helm.  It assures absence of accountability…