“Workingman’s Cottages” built by philanthropist Alfred Tredway White as low-cost housing in 1876 (2009) / Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn / photograph released into the Universal Public Domain
“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Another one of those events that not only sounds like great fun but similar events could easily be organized in any community anywhere in the world.
For the fifth season, PEN America is presenting its Lit Crawl NYC: Where Literature Hits the Streets on Saturday, October 12. This vibrant festival of books and culture will wind its way through Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill this fall, featuring lively conversations and events staged at local businesses throughout the neighborhood. This pub crawl style festival this year includes Monique Truong and Dr. Jessica Harris, and events curated by local literary organizations.
All events are free of charge:
LIT CRAWL NYC SCHEDULE OF EVENTS – SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12
6:00 to 7:00pm A Multilingual Most Exquisite Corpse
Warby Parker, 55 Bergen St.
Words Without Borders and SLICE Literary present a Multilingual Most Exquisite Corpse. Join four international writers who, along with their translators, will stitch together a story in multiple languages.
Words Without Borders (WWB) is an international magazine opened to international exchange through translation, publication, and promotion of the world’s best writing and authors who are not easily accessible to English-speaking readers.
7:00 to 8:00pm Queens Lit in Brooklyn
Bien Cuit, 120 Smith St.
Out boroughs unite! Queens is the most diverse county in the country—and the writing produced there reflects the voices of many races, religions, ages, gender identities, and sexualities, as well as those with dis/abilities and immigration stories. Newtown Literary, a nonprofit literary organization, publishes and nurtures the voices of Queens poets and writers through the publication of a literary journal and free writing classes. Come and hear poetry and prose from some of the organization’s volunteers and participate in a Queens trivia contest. Featuring Tim Fredrick, Jackie Sherbow, Malcolm Chang, and Sokunthary Svay. Presented by Newtown Literary.
2018 Queens Pride Parade: Caribbean Equality Project
Queens is a borough of New York City, coterminous with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest borough geographically and is adjacent to the borough of Brooklyn at the southwestern end of Long Island. To its east is Nassau County. Queens also shares water borders with the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The borough of Queens is the second largest in population (after Brooklyn), with an estimated 2,358,582 residents in 2017, approximately 48 percent of them foreign-born. Queens County also is the second most populous county in the U.S. state of New York, behind Brooklyn, which is coterminous with Kings County. Queens is the fourth most densely populated county among New York City’s boroughs, as well as in the United States. If each of New York City’s boroughs were an independent city, Queens would be the nation’s fourth most populous, after Los Angeles, Chicago, and Brooklyn. Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.
8:00 to 9:00pm Literary Appetites: Women on Food
Malai Ice Cream, 268 Smith St.
Charlotte Druckman’s Women on Food is a “variety show of previously unpublished essays, interviews, and ephemera from women working in the world of food.” We bring the show to life with Charlotte and two of her contributors who will discuss their roles in the book, and chat about the literary aspect of food writing and the impact gender, race, and socioeconomics have had on that tradition and in shaping their own work. Moderated by Sabrina McMillin of Grey Horse, and featuring Charlotte, novelist and food writer Monique Truong, and author, journalist and culinary historian Dr. Jessica Harris. Presented by Grey Horse.
October 29, 2010 publication date
Literary Appetities
Women on Food unites the radical, diverging female voices of the food industry in this urgent, moving, and often humorous collection of essays, interviews, questionnaires, illustrations, quotes, and ephemera.
Edited by Charlotte Druckman and featuring esteemed food journalists and thinkers, including Soleil Ho, Nigella Lawson, Diana Henry, Carla Hall, Samin Nosrat, Rachael Ray, and many others, this compilation illuminates the notable and varied women who make up the food world. Exploring issues from the #MeToo movement, gender bias in division of labor and the workplace, and the underrepresentation of women of color in leadership, to cultural trends including food and travel shows, the intersection of fashion and food, and the evolution of food writing in the last few decades, Women on Food brings together food’s most vital female voices.
This post is courtesy of Pen America and Wikipedia.
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. It champions the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Its mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible.
Jamie Dedes. I’m a freelance writer, poet, content editor, and blogger. I also manage The BeZineand its associated activities and The Poet by Dayjamiededes.com, an info hub for writers meant to encourage good but lesser-known poets, women and minority poets, outsider artists, and artists just finding their voices in maturity. The Poet by Day is dedicated to supporting freedom of artistic expression and human rights. Email thepoetbyday@gmail.com for permissions, commissions, or assignments.
The Poet by Day, Wednesday Writing Prompt will return on January 16. Meanwhile, here is a reading challenge for 2019.
The very title of Words Without Borders (WWB) suggests an exciting and elegant theme for 2019 reading, for anytime and anywhere really, but let’s concentrate on this year and challenge ourselves to read poets and writers from cultures about which we know the least. My focus is going to be Catalonia and Pakistan, inspired by Catalonian Marta Pombo Sallés (Moments) and Pakistani Anjum Wasim Dar (Poetic Oceans). With regard to the later, I’ve started with An Anthology of Modern Urdu Poetry, edited and translated by M.A.R. Habib.
“And the second [is like the first], ‘ You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” The Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The injunction in the Abrahamic traditions is to love (respect) our neighbor. In tribal times our neighbors generally looked like us, spoke the same language, ate the same food, and subscribed to the same scriptures. But things change.
Today technological advances have made the world small, too small for tribalism. Too small for provincialism. Through air travel and The World Wide Web we are brought close. Visits to other parts of the world that would once have taken months by land or sea can be done in a few days by plane. Through blogging and social networking we make friends everywhere, no passports or visas needed. Sometimes we are able to carve out the opportunity to meet with our virtual friends in person. Immigration and regional conflicts have had an impact as well. On a daily basis we rub elbows with people who are on the run in the search for safe harbor or have settled in our countries when their countries of origin are no longer viable. In our time our neighbors come in many hues and engage in diverse cultural traditions. In this small, small world, everyone everywhere is our neighbor. Understanding not fear, books not bombs, are needed if we are to heal the crises of our day.
Words Without Borders facilitates cross-cultural understanding through the publication in English translation of works from writers representing the world’s literary wealth. As of this post, WWB reports that it has published in books and magazine some 2,200 writers from 124 countries. The site also hosts WWB Daily, a blog.
WWB’s submission guidelines for works in translation are HERE.
I appreciate World Without Borders because it helps us expand our reading, taking us beyond the familiar, obvious and/or habitual. It gives us a better quality reference than the best-seller lists.
Another engaging site – a poetry site that crosses borders – is The Poetry Translation Centre, which offers translations into English of contemporary poems from African, Asian and Latin American poets. It was founded in 2004 by English poet and translator Sarah Maguire who died in November the year before last.
Both Words Without Borders and The Poetry Translation Centre seek to expand our understanding and to celebrate the finest writers and literature from around the world. As you read the literature of the country on which you decide to focus for 2019, don’t forget to research its history and current events so that you understand the work and the author in context.
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read byNorthern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Thank you for sharing your love of words. Comments will appear after moderation.
Jamie Dedes. I’m a freelance writer, poet, content editor, and blogger. I also manage The BeZine and its associated activities and The Poet by Day jamiededes.com, an info hub for writers meant to encourage good but lesser-known poets, women and minority poets, outsider artists, and artists just finding their voices in maturity. The Poet by Day is dedicated to supporting freedom of artistic expression and human rights. Email thepoetbyday@gmail.com for permissions, commissions, or assignments.
cultural traditions. In this small, small world, everyone everywhere is our neighbor. Understanding not fear, books not bombs, are needed if we are to heal the crises of our day.
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 