Thank you, Courtney Gillette....

I did a search with the names
Grace Paley
Adrienne Rich
and this was not the first in the list,
but oh so worth reading & sharing.

I heard Adrienne Rich read once at RISD many years ago.
Mostly, I remember the collective joyful anticipation & some disagreement on how to pronounce, *Adrienne*.
Long A vs. short A...

My condolences to her family & all who knew and loved her...

"A wild patience has taken me this far..."

Grace Paley's Anti-Love Poem

♥…

Harold Rogovin and the Vince Lombardi Trophy

When Harold and Carol and the kids left New York City for New Jersey, it was a day of mourning for me.

Even without a car, we did go and visit them many times... They were first in Flemington, I think, and then in Califon....

During one visit, Harold held up something he was working on or had recently finished.

It was a Super Bowl. The actual Vince Lombardi Trophy. I remember how it shone brilliantly from across the room. Not being a football fan then (or now), it did not really impress me more than his chandeliers, and bedposts, jewelry and bowls, etc.
Harold was a tremendous metalsmith and artist.

I am wondering which year that was, and have the vague hope that someone who knows will chance upon this note. Speaking to Celia, she confirmed that it was not a joke on his part...She suggested 1978 or 1979.

Annotated on thursday after the 2012 Superb Owl, I hear via the Rogovin family: The Trophy Harold made was in 1981 and went to the San Francisco 49ers....

What does the Super Bowl trophy look like?

In 1967, Tiffany & Co. former vice president Oscar Riedner made a sketch for the design of the Super Bowl trophy and showed it to Pete Rozelle, who was then the commissioner of the NFL. Since then, the Super Bowl trophy has been handcrafted by Tiffany & Co. in Parsippany, New Jersey. The trophy weighs seven pounds and is 23 inches tall. It takes four months and 72 hours for the trophy to be finished. It is made completely out of sterling silver and the artists that construct the Vince Lombardi Trophy specialize in chasing, polishing, hand engraving, silversmithing, and spinning. The trophy has a stand with three concave sides. On top of the stand is a regulation-sized football that is in kicking position. Engraved on the trophy are the words "Vince Lombardi Trophy," the roman numerals corresponding to that year's Super Bowl, and the logo of the NFL. Details such as the winning team's name and score are engraved after the presentation of the trophy.

The description above is from this site.

Was Marsha Z. West a football fan ? If yes, I imagine her rooting for the Giants.

I understand that Rhett Jones was definitely a football fan, and rooted for the Patriots, despite his Illinois background...

and I have not the slightest idea whether Grace Paley paid any attention to football....

I can picture her responding to any right wing/religious commercials against health care for all..

How Grace Paley influenced one writer

I have just found this today, and greatly appreciate it.

Near the end, Summer Wood writes,

". . . the one time I met her in person I was overwhelmed with her warmth and kindness toward me."

That was precisely my experience & I have written those words almost verbatim. ! !

The internet has its failings & flimsiness, but I am grateful for the connections & awareness it offers....

LA ISLA DE SAN BORONDÓN: BATALLAS DE AMOR. GRACE PALEY

LA ISLA DE SAN BORONDÓN: BATALLAS DE AMOR. GRACE PALEY: "(...)Me han comentado cientos de veces que mi padre era un latino verdaderamente impresionante. Con mucho savoir-faire , jo..."


I have been searching for Grace Paley in Spanish for years.

Leora has sent me some information which I will be sharing anon.

Leora Skulkin-Smith's essay about Grace Paley

The “Legacy” of Grace Paley

When I first read this wonderful critical text, I thought: this writer would prefer that my blog and even DeeDee's not exist.

I nonetheless wanted to save it, to read again & to share.

Recently thanks to Facebook, I have begun to become friends with Leora. . .

It's a small world. Sometimes I misread people in a big way. Seems to happen despite demographic commonalities !

Leora, thank you for this excellent piece. I am going to share it with some of my English Teacher Friends.

Grace Paley and the Clamshell Alliance

Here is the beginning:
~ ~ ~

“What the hell are we doing here?” asks an old friend, who was young in years not so long ago, when I was only slightly middle-aged. “For Christ’s sake, we cut right through the fences at the Pentagon.” We were in Seabrook, New Hampshire, sitting in a parking lot outside the site of a proposed nuclear power plant along with 2,000 other protesters organized by the Clamshell Alliance.

“No! No!” says a young listener, full of the joy of common discipline.

“But look, it’s a goddamn parking lot!”

“Things don’t have to go the same,” I say. I am very tearful. “We don’t have to defend our lives by repeating them. Anyhow, the parking lot is the heart of America. You close down the parking lots and industry is wrecked. A decent car wouldn’t have any place to go. Of course, those bubbling asphalt lots will be hard to occupy in summer.”

Here is the Clamshell Alliance link to read the entire piece.


I am grateful to the Clamshell Alliance, and to activists and artists everywhere...

Still time to nominate for Grace Paley Award at UMass Boston

I have just discovered this award, but hope that if you know someone doing the work at UMass Boston, you can nominate until March 1.

Here's some of the information:

As part of our ongoing commitment to social and political engagement, The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences has established an award in honor of the late Grace Paley, activist and writer. Grace was one of the inspirational forces at the Center, her enthusiasm and commitment inspiring. It is in her spirit that we seek to award a like-minded UMass Boston student the Grace Paley Award in the amount of $500.00. There are no restrictions on the use of the award.

Eligible students must be nominated by a faculty, staff member, or fellow student familiar with the student’s contributions to his or her community, whether that community is on- or off-campus. Eligible students must demonstrate diligent work in the fields of social, communal, or political activism. These can include, but are not limited to: literacy and advocacy programs, Veteran services, rehabilitation programs and centers, elderly services, immigrant services and assistance, community centers and service, churches, cultural centers, shelters, and after-school programs. Both undergraduate and graduate students in good standing are eligible. A faculty, staff member, or student may nominate more than one student.

Nominations are accepted January 1- March 1, 2011. For more information, please contact the Joiner Center at 617-287-5850, or email joinercenter@umb.edu.

When I lived in Needham, Massachusetts, I knew someone who taught on that campus, but that was 26 years ago ! Here's the link to the William Joiner Center page with the Grace Paley award info, including past winners...

Solidarity with Rhode Island Janitors

Here's a little history:

In 2007, the Justice for Janitors campaign spread beyond Providence, and contracted Amica janitors in Lincoln went on strike for fair treatment and a voice on the job. Their courage, your support, and Amica’s intervention opened the door for hundreds of Rhode Island contracted janitors outside of Providence to get a voice on the job and better working conditions. 
Now, Amica is dishonoring the sacrifice of those contracted janitors by bringing in Martins Maintenance, which has already demonstrated its inhumane and repressive treatment of workers, and has made no effort to hire the long-time Amica subcontracted janitors. Come join us on Thursday to remind Amica that their courageous contracted janitors deserve to work for a responsible contractor that will retain them at the site and will honor the standards they have sacrificed so much for.

That's copied directly from the Rhode Island Jobs With Justice website.

N.B. Most of this blog's visitors do not live in RI or even New England, so please consider visiting the RI Jobs With Justice facebook page (the link is on the above site) or spreading the word to your friends and readers....

My friends, whose spirits and memories inspire this blog, would be supportive, I believe. Grace Paley and Rhett Jones and Harold Rogovin: definitely. Marsha Z. West, I am a tiny bit less sure of, but I think very likely, yes.

Sometimes she lives in Boston -- A Rhode Island Blogger, nonetheless.

I don't know Lydia Walshin or even which community in RI she lives in. Her blog looks yummy, and I have long been thinking that this one really needs more Food, recipes, and photos of such things.

Also we (haha, usually I !) have a fondness for promoting local Blogs,

Also, Grace Paley is famous for her baking. . .

Here is her post, Recipe for Coffee Cake with Espresso-Cocoa Swirl.

N.B. I added the capitals (capitols?).

Happy International Human Rights Day, Everyone !

"On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."

Here's The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I wouldn't mind if it were edited very slightly. Change "Man" to "Human" and add some words about sexual orientation, perhaps. But the section about marriage is not bad, really.

Article 16.

* (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
* (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
* (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has fascinating links.

Bruce Reilly had an article in Rhode Island Future two weeks ago....

I am grateful to Amnesty International and the War Resisters League although they might be missing an apostrophe.

Tomorrow is Grace Paley's Birthday. Thank you, Grace, for your wisdom and words and so much more.

¿ Secure Communities ? or War on Immigrants - RI AG-elect has a very bad idea.

I was hoping to post something light today or something about Elizabeth Edwards or a few lines from Grace Paley, but I heard this sad news on the radio.

Fingerprinting people who are accused of crimes ?

Here's the Providence Journal story.

By W. ZACHARY MALINOWSKI
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Attorney General-elect Peter Kilmartin plans to adopt a federal initiative that would allow law-enforcement officers to fingerprint people under arrest and have them automatically checked against an immigration database to see whether they legally entered this the country legally.

Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement said that Rhode Island is just one 1 of 17 states nationwide that has yet to implement the cross-checking program known as the Secure Communities Program. The government hopes to have the program up and running in all 50 states within two years.

If you read the article, take a few minutes and read the responses. They were overwhelmingly in support of this, and several were explicitly hostile to Steve Brown, of the ACLU.

I wrote a little comment of my own, but as of this moment, it is "awaiting moderation."

When I think of my family, friends,clients, neighbors and this issue, I sometimes get quite emotional. There was an amazing woman named Ilse Politzer who used to bicycle all over the city (Providence) to vigils and everywhere else. She had fled the Nazis and expressed concerns two decades ago, about the way this country was developing.

I found this quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt which is apt:

“Remember, remember always that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists”

The source might be: remarks before the Daughters of the American Revolution, Washington, D.C., April 21, 1938. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt,1938, p.259.

On a funny note, a client of mine was deported once, and he sent me a short letter to my workplace. He wrote that he was praying for my advancement to a director position within the agency. That was not in my prayers, but he meant well.

~ ~ ~




“Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world.”

~ Grace Paley

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts (Lilly Rivlin, Director)--Will be shown in Denver, Colorado

Lilly Rivlin's Documentary about Grace Paley is playing there this weekend.

Here is a link to the Film Festival site's description of the film.

If the link works, there is a clip of Grace, and people speaking about Grace, and, of course, it brings me to tears.

It is a very short youtube video.

I am very much looking forward to seeing this documentary.

Although I have not met Lilly Rivlin, we have exchanged emails, and she lives in the same building in New York City that my Aunt Sue and Uncle Peter live.

It's an enormous building for artists and so they may have never met, but then again probably entering or leaving .... And my relatives have lived there a long time, and I have visited, so perhaps I "met" Lilly once holding a door for me ( or vice versa )...

I love Small World stories.

Grace Paley's birthday is in one month and a couple of days.

Happy Birthday Grace Paley!

Today is Grace Paley's birthday and I am nowhere near my plan of organizing a reading of some of her work...

But here's an excerpt from,

The Poet's Occasional Alternative

from Begin Again: Collected Poems © Farrar Strauss & Giroux.

I was going to write a poem
I made a pie instead it took
about the same amount of time
of course the pie was a final
draft a poem would have had some
distance to go days and weeks and
much crumpled paper

The full poem can be found here

Happy Chanuka! Happy Hanuka! Happy December 11...

Rhode Island Gets Good Press

The powerful blog, GRACE PALEY: Pressing The Limits of Action has posted the text of the Providence Journal article from yesterday, and the accompanying photo.

This blog is followed and discovered by readers of Grace Paley's poetry and fiction, and by her many students and friends and family members.

Carcieri's veto was publicized by Stephen Colbert, PZ Myers, and many others.

Thank You Ninja Nurse, Democommie And Patient Friends

I have been a deeply dormant blogger, but the encouragement of the NinjaNurse, and Democommie and the famous bloggers of Newport and Other Mysterious Settings is waking me from the slumber.

This past Saturday at a wonderful Halloween event in my neighborhood, I had the great fortune to see Alex Svoboda, my friend whose knee was so harmed by the authorities in Pawtucket and who works joyfully with the Wobblies. Incredibly there are still charges pending against her ( and one or two others ).

Grace Paley's Birthday is approaching.

Rhett Jones' spirit is, I'm sure, following this Obama Administration and football and theatre and Civil Rights.

Marsha Z. West is Dancing and somewhere laughing about silly people blogging in her Memory.

And Harold Rogovin? Somewhere making jokes in Yiddish and reflecting on Sacco and Vanzetti.

Passover For Peace And Justice ( Grace Paley)

For Passover, why not visit the powerful blog, GRACE PALEY: Pressing the Limits of Action

Check out Jewish Voice For Peace,

Tikun Olam


Johnny Pez is throwing a Carnival.

Thank You, Anonymous: Grace Paley: Pressing the Limits of Action

One of the enormous joys of blogging, and the internet more broadly, is finding kindred spirits who may live far away, but who are so clearly connected to oneself and who inspire, encourage and challenge.

"Anonymous" left news of the above blog, Grace Paley: Pressing the Limits of Action.

Beth Schwartzapfel whose article is the post from yesterday happens to be my former neighbor, literally. I would find her walking her dog (dogs?) when she lived in Providence. Before that we met when she worked at Miriam Hospital (or for some of the doctors there) and I worked with people living with HIV and Hepatitis C (B, etc.).

Dear Anonymous, Thank you for letting me know about this wonderful site. After I finish this post, I will add it to one of my blogrolls--either extended family or the list at the bottom. Also I will be promoting this blog on facebook or supporting its existing network.

My understanding is that Grace, herself, was not a big internet user, but perhaps I'm wrong. No matter, I believe she would support many actions on behalf of justice, peace, civil rights, libraries and Love.

The Transatlantic Short Story: The Grace Paley Celebration

Here is news of an event which I will miss, but am thrilled to learn about...

Matthew Zapruder: Poem (For Grace Paley) an Excerpt

Below is an excerpt from a poem

I placed thousands of
sweet tarts into my mouth. Five years
later someone said they saw Diane P.
kissing a girl in a car, and they punched
the window on the passenger side
in and I laughed, and it’s all been as
people say downhill from there, meaning
until this moment I have been coasting,
but from this one forward Grace I vow
I shall coast no more.

The Winter 2008 issue of The Massachusetts Review is devoted to writings by and about Grace Paley. I am going to look for it today!