And more. The diary title wouldn't accommodate everything, so let me alert you here to the fourth, fifth, and sixth topics covered in the diary: #4 is an announcement about a forum on Proposal 1 (sales tax/gas tax changes on May ballot); #5 is about a petition in protest of a million-dollar grant from the Dow Foundation to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy ; and #6 is a request to get your local booster caps on for next Wednesday in the Open Thread. More on all to follow.
Motor City Kossacks Meetup(s)
There are several special events taking place in the Metro Detroit area this spring and summer that would be good excuses for a meetup.
First, chronologically speaking, is the showing of She's Beautiful When She's Angry, the new documentary about Second Wave Feminism, which will take place on Sunday, March 8th, at 4;30 PM at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield Hills. Seats are still available, though the tickets are likely to sell out before the day of the screening. Go to the theater website to buy advance tickets. If you're interested, you can join some of us after the show so we can mull it all over.
The movie will also be screened at Cinema Detroit, the week of March 13, and at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, on March 22 & 23. I'll likely attend another showing of this with my daughter(s), so do keep your sister and brother Kossacks in mind if you want to make this a group outing.
In case you missed it, Denise Oliver Velez wrote a great review of the movie a few months back, right after it was released. She herself is one of the activists interviewed in the movie; how cool--and fitting--is that?! We're lucky that we do have a chance to see it, and I intend to savor every minute of each showing I get to attend.
Second would be the rescheduled meetup at Taqueria Mi Pueblo that we bumped to March, hoping for better weather. Discussion in last week's diary pointed us to the last weekend of the month, the 28th or 29th, as best choices for everyone expressing an interest. So, tonight's poll will reflect those two options only. We'll get it together, I'm sure of it!
Third, and stretching into the summer, is the special exhibit at the DIA: Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in Detroit. The exhibit opens on March 15th and closes on July 12th, but don't let that 4-month span fool you; I suspect tickets, which are required, will go fast. Let's start talking now about a group outing. If we have 15 or more, we can get a discounted admission. When would be a good time to aim to go?
Please join me after the interlocked hands for the rest of today's busy report.
RIP Philip Levine
Philip Levine, the distinguished poet who was known for putting Detroit and Detroiters at the center of his work, died on Valentine's Day at the age of 87.
Levine won the National Book Award twice, for Ashes: Poems New & Old in 1980 and for What Work Is in 1991, and the Pulitzer Prize once, for The Simple Truth in 1995. He was also the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2011-2012, a capstone honor for a long and brilliant career of writing and teaching poetry.
Levine was born in Detroit to Russian Jewish immigrants in 1928, and spent his early years in poverty. He started to work in factories when he was still in his teens, helping to support the family as soon as he was able to do so after his father's early death, yet he still managed to attend high school and impress his teachers with his potential. They encouraged him to go to college, and he graduated from Wayne University (as it was known then) in 1950. From there, he went to the Iowa Writers' Workshop to practice his craft; he earned an MFA there in 1957 and simply kept on writing.
Soon after completing his MFA, Levine went to Stanford on a fellowship. He obtained a job at the Fresno campus of the California State University system in 1958, and though he was a visiting professor at several other universities across the country in the decades to come, Fresno remained his home base professionally until his retirement in 1992. The Poetry Foundation has a fine profile about him that is worth consulting. According to the New York Times obituary, he leaves a widow, three grown sons, five grandchildren, and one great-grandchild, in addition to two surviving brothers (one, his twin).
Almost all of the comments in response to his NYT obituary are worth reading, too. I especially appreciate this one, by Mark Arax:
Like Saroyan, Phil split his time between here and afar. Fresno, with its most concentrated poverty, worst air pollution and more gang members per capita than any other city in the country, isn't an easy place to do time. But it is a place to find the human race without a lot of veneer. That's what Phil loved about our town. When Phil wasn't in Brooklyn, I'd find him three days a week at our gym on Blackstone Avenue. He was one of the fittest 87-year-olds around. He'd lift real weights and then ride the stationary bike, his head down in a book of Keats or William Carlos Williams. Only a handful of folks at the gym knew who he was. To them, he was just a fit older man. If they didn't know he was one of the finest poets in America, he saw no need to inform them. That said, he did have an ego, and it made him a great storyteller. You'd be surprised what he would tell you in between sets. He was a first-class listener, and his B.S. detector was one of the most acute I've ever encountered.... I'm going to miss him.
Another
moving testimonial worth readingwas written several years ago by one of his students, Mark Levine (no relation). It's a lovely account of what Mark discovered in a poetry seminar with Philip in 1985, experiences which in sum transformed Mark's life.
The best way to appreciate Philip's body of work is, of course, to read and listen to it. One of my favorites is Among Children, a poem that resonated with me even though my students were young adults. The title poem with which he closes one of his more recent books, The Mercy, is also a stunning work. As a tribute last Monday, NPR rebroadcast a portion of an interview he did in 1991 on Fresh Air, the segment in which he read the title poem from his second National Book Award-winning book, What Work Is. The audio clip is at the beginning, and the text of the poem is printed below it. I may go look for that Fresh Air interview next.
I'm going to miss him, too.
Michigan Democratic Party Convention Report
To my surprise, a relatively new Kossack named ezioaltair12 piped up and wrote three diaries earlier this week on the Michigan Democratic Party Spring Convention that took place in Cobo Center last Saturday. I may quibble with the diarist over some details, but in general I thought his points were legitimate, and they're certainly worth discussing. So, if you don't mind, I encourage you to take a look at one, two, or all three in his series:
A Look at the MDP Convention - Part 1: Summary
A Look at the MDP Convention - Part 2: Of Caucuses and Candidates
A Look at the MDP Convention - Part 3: State of the Party
And then come back here and tell us what you think.
Forum on Proposal 1: the May ballot issue on a 1% sales tax increase for the sake of schools and roads
Details of this forum in Washtenaw County are yet to be finalized, but at present it looks like there will be a public forum on Saturday, March 7th, starting at 10:00 in Ypsilanti. Once the exact location and speakers are confirmed, I'll post the full description; meanwhile, you have this heads-up.
Petition to the Dow Foundation to urge reconsideration of their "Education Research" grant made to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy
Speaking of a heads-up, ShoshannaD passed one along to me regarding a recent post by Eclectablog on a disappointing grant in the amount of $1 million just made by the Dow Foundation to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in support of their "education policy research." As you probably already know, we have the Mackinac Center to blame for many right-wing attacks on labor and education, so it is somewhat surprising that anyone, let alone a relatively moderate philanthropy like the Dow Foundation, would think it appropriate to bestow this large amount of money on an organization that is fundamentally opposed to public schools. Eclectablog's discussion of the issue is here. The petition, started by Chad Phillips of the Michigan Populist Blog, is here.
Conversation about which Michigan cities provide the most bang for the buck, in next week's Open Thread
Please come prepared to next Wednesday's Weekly Open Thread with reasons why YOUR city or town in Michigan is where people should move to, if they are looking to relocate. Kossack peptabysmal is considering a move to Michigan with her twenty-something daughter, and she needs some honest information about the good, bad, and ugly about Michigan cities and towns (in the Lower Peninsula, I'm guessing). So let's hear about education; mass transit; jobs; housing; anything else relevant you can think of. Next week, here.
And remember, we have another installment of the Thomas Sugrue bookclub coming up at 7:45 PM. I'll be back and forth.
Meanwhile, the floor is now open! Thanks for being here and sharing your perspectives.