Social justice has a very loyal friend that goes by the name of Poetry. From ancient cultures to modern-day society, poetry has been a form of political awareness and calls for action. In the history of Washington DC, poets Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes are just two of many examples of poets who used their craft to fight for social change.
So Perhaps it is no coincidence that Split This Rock is a Washington DC-based organization.
While Split This Rock understands the vital role of policymakers, it believes poets "have a unique role to play in social movements as innovators, visionaries, truth tellers, and restorers of language." Split This Rock believes poets and their craft can bridge differences in the local community as well as the literary establishment, no matter what their diverse backgrounds are, no matter how they identify themselves. Split This Rock supports poets both of the printed page and the performance stage.
According to its Web-site, the two-fold objective of Split This Rock is simple:
- To celebrate the poetry of witness and provocation being written, published, and performed in the United States today.
- To call poets to a greater role in public life and to equip them with the tools they need to be effective advocates in their communities and in the nation.
As the organization is quick to point out, it gets it's name from the poem "Big Buddy" by Langston Hughes.
Don’t you hear this hammer ring?
I’m gonna split this rock
And split it wide!
When I split this rock,
Stand by my side.
The organization believes splitting open injustices in society is an act of community.
But it calls on the community to be advocates for the importance of poetry in general as well. Recently, the organization began a campaign to ask Washington DC area residents to contact The Washington Post or any other local paper and ask for more poetry book reviews. Examiner.com first learned about the campaign, spearheaded by poet and Split This Rock activist Yvette Neisser Moreno, at the 2011 AWP conference in early February, and it appears there has already been a positive response from the Book World editor. Examiner.com has asked Split This Rock just a few questions about the campaign.
Examiner.com: Why do poetry books require this type of campaign?
STR: The audience and readership for poetry is growing rapidly in our area and in the country as a whole. It’s possible to go out to a poetry reading or performance just about any day of the week all year round in the DC area. Young people especially are returning to poetry, in search, it seems to me, of authentic voices at a time of the absolute explosion of mass culture. But newspapers such as The Washington Post seem unaware of this. Poetry events are rarely covered in the Post and books of poetry are almost never reviewed.
The immediate catalyst for the campaign was a year-end list in the Book World section of the Post recommending editors’ favorite books of “Fiction and Poetry.” Unfortunately, while 46 works of fiction were recommended, only two books of poetry made their list. Two! By contrast, Split This Rock came up with 29 books, including an anthology of poems about Washington, DC, and several excellent collections by DC-area poets. The list also includes new books by Alice Walker, 2010 National Book Award winner Terrance Hayes, and Elizabeth Alexander, the poet who read at President Obama’s inauguration in 2008. How is it that none of these books made it onto the radar of the Post’s reviewers? Readers can check out our suggestions here:http://blogthisrock.blogspot.com/2010/12/split-this-rock-holiday-gift-list-books.html
Examiner.com: What kind of response are you getting from the local community?
STR: The response has been terrific. Scores of Washington Post readers have written to the Book World poetry editors asking for more reviews. And 10 prominent poets in our area signed on to Split This Rock’s initial letter.
Examiner.com: What are your specific goals for this campaign?
STR: Split This Rock has asked the Washington Post to review at least one book of poems each week. Failing that, a monthly review would be a huge improvement over the current situation, in which perhaps half a dozen poetry reviews are published, at the most. We’ve also requested a special Book World issue each year for National Poetry Month, which is April. We’ve also asked that the majority of reviews be of contemporary poetry, rather than the poetry of the past, since poetry is a living, thriving art form.
Overall, Split This Rock’s goal is to build the audience for poetry, to integrate poetry into public life, to let people know that we live in a great era for poetry: Poets from all racial and ethnic backgrounds, of all ages, are writing, publishing, and performing work in a huge variety of styles and taking on the pressing issues of our time, helping us wrestle with our difficult and contradictory world. We know that more residents of our area, including many Washington Post readers, would benefit from exposure to these voices, the poets who are telling the true stories of our times.
Examiner.com: How can the local community help? Where on the Internet do they go to help?
STR: Everyone is urged to write to the Washington Post Book World to demand more reviews of poetry books. Split This Rock has posted a sample letter and more background on the campaign on our website at: www.splitthisrock.org. We also recommend some terrific local websites that review poetry here:http://www.splitthisrock.org/links.html#poetryreviews. And if you have a book of poems coming out from an established press, do send it to the Book World editors for their consideration. (Unfortunately, they won’t review self-published books.) They prefer to receive books “several months in advance of publication.” Let’s keep the pressure on!
For more information on the Washington Post campaign, contact Yvette Neisser Moreno at yvettenm@verizon.net.
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