Wheelhouse Action Alerts

Just got in the mail No Gender, Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards.  On first read through I'm stunned by the depth & warmth of this book--it is, as is edwards' work, a necessary read for anyone interested in anything.  Order it here from Belladonna Books, or here from Litmus Press; the two collaborated to co-publish the volume.  Here you'll also find Bharat jiva, edwards' last collection.  Another, longer post on this book as I get to know it more intimately.

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From the AFL-CIO & Students Against Sweatshops: Sign the Letter Here

"Justice for HEI Workers

On October 30, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the HEISheraton Crystal City hotel, alleging unfair labor practices including allegedly interrogating, threatening, and coercing pro-union workers and firing union leader Ferdi Lazo for his union activity. HEI has not yet answered the complaint, but will presumably deny the allegations, and the NLRB has set a January date for a hearing.  Students have joined workers in their fight because the owner of theSheraton Crystal City, HEI, receives hundreds of millions of dollars in university endowment investment. Send the message below to university administrators and HEI to stand in solidarity with Ferdi and his coworkers who are fighting for their right to organize!"

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Rob Halpern has just published his incredibly intricate essay on Baudealaire's late prose poems & the high capitalist commodity. Find it here.  CB's "poeme en prose" is generally considered one of the prose poem's "beginnings" - & here Halpern deconstructs this genre-history by delving into the form's transgressive import within the context of commodity & broadside.  Beyond the politics, density, & extraordinarily fine argument here, Halpern's question of poeme en prose's form circles around the status of (degraded) lyric in the era of high (& late capitalism).  Besides, one of my interests in writing a particular section of my forth. book, Occultations, is in whether and how the poem can matter, and uses as starting point the lyric masquerading as prose poem, & conversely--alternating & responding to one another (if that is possible) within the section of the book.  So, thanks to Halpern (#^&(*!&!!) I'm now having to entirely rethink this section.  Oh well, it was certainly worth the read.  This is an essay to teach if yr a teacher, now.