After the recent suicides of poets Sarah Hannah and Liam Rector, I post this poem, by Brazil’s Carlos Drummond de Andrade, with some urgency. And deep sadness. DON’T KILL YOURSELF Carlos Drummond de Andrade Carlos, keep calm, loveis what you’re seeing now:today a kiss, tomorrow no kiss,day after tomorrow’s Sundayand nobody knows what will happenMonday. […]
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAMES BALDWIN
“Any honest examination of the national life proves how far we are from the standard of human freedom with which we began. The recovery of this standard demands of everyone who loves this country a hard look at himself, for the greatest achievements must begin somewhere, and they always begin with the person. If we […]
All depends on the skin. All depends on the skin you’re living in. All depends on the skin. Sekou Sundiata: 1948 — 2007 July 21, 2007 — NEW YORK Sekou Sundiata, a poet and performance artist whose work explored slavery, subjugation, and the tension between personal and national identity, especially as they inform the black […]
For a couple of years during my twenties I carried a certain book with me nearly everywhere I went: The Orphic Voice by Elizabeth Sewell. I have no idea how I came to have it (I am an inveterate browser and believer in the serendipity of bookstores, especially sprawling used bookstores, and even then I […]
This poem, along with visual art by Lisa Sette, is the latest offering from Broadsided Press. (See links.) The Car Covenant O give us individual mobility and daily we will embrace death.Give us miles to the gallon and things made small by moving swiftly away.We will sacrifice certain teenagers to the oak tree. Make the […]
My friend the poet Mario Noel Rodriguez of El Salvador sent me the following statement, signed by many of Colombia’s writers, artists, and intellectuals, addressing the intractable bloody civil war there. I have brought it over into English as best I could, but I include the original also for those who can read Spanish. For […]
Eduardo Galeano Uruguayan essayist, journalist and historian. Galeano’s best-known works include the trilogy Memoria del fuego (1982-1986, Memory of Fire) and Las venas abiertas de América Latina (1971, The Open Veins of Latin America), which have been translated into some 20 languages. Galeano’s work transcends orthodox genres, and combines documentary, fiction, journalism, political analysis, and […]
RICHARD HOFFMAN 
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