World Human Rights Day

Dear Friends,

As we get ready for the readings on Sunday, December 10, we wanted to get one more message prior to Human Rights Day.  There are several reading lined up this year and we look forward to getting our planning done in January to start the ball rolling for next year. So no dismay if you were not able to put anything together, we will be pulling out the big guns next December!

If you would like to help out on creating the readings for next year please write to Stazja or myself. We would love to have you aboard.

In our next issue we will feature the winners for the Anita McAndrews Award Poetry Contest and the Alexander Youth Award Poetry Contest, sponsored by Poets for Human Rights.

We will soon have Poets for Human Rights Gear - caps, shirts etc. I should be able to announce this in the next issue of Rope.  We are hopeful you will dress yourself for human rights, it should certainly put you on the best dressed list for activist poets. The proceeds from sales will be used to help fund Poets for Human Rights.

Founding Chapter Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Stazja McFadyen

Date: December  10th, 2006
Time: 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Location: Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida

The program will include featured poet Larry Jaffe, recognized internationally for human rights poetic activism. Also reading will be Renee Duke, Venus Jones, Alicyn Lopez, Stazja McFadyen and Wayne S. Williams. 

Guest Speaker Rodrick Colbert will do a presentation on Amnesty International. Mr. Colbert represents the AI Tampa Bay group 240.

Winners will be announced for the Anita McAndrews Award Poetry Contest and the Alexander Youth Award Poetry Contest, sponsored by Poets for Human Rights.

Anita McAndrews (1924-2005) was a poet, writer, award-winning investigative journalist and prolific artist. She lived in Panama City, Panama for thirty-five years, where she taught English as a second language to inner-city children, hosted her own weekly radio program, served on the board of the National Museum and was a founding member of Panama’s Art Museum.  Her last fifteen years were spent in Clearwater, FL, where she advocated for human rights and tutored at the Community Learning Center.

Alex Popoff (1978-2002) was a young man whose life was cut short by complications due to cystic fibrosis, his impact on people reached beyond his immediate sphere of influence. Deeply concerned by the capacity of humans to harm one another, he signed the 9/11 Memorial in New York City, just months before his death. “The Popoff family has kept human rights and unity as core values for generations,” explained Alex’s sister Georgia Popoff, a poet and human rights advocate from Syracuse, New York, who established the Alexander Popoff Youth Award Contest.

Both contests have drawn entries from across the United States, and from other countries including Canada, India and Indonesia. The winning poem in each of the contests will be awarded a cash prize of $100.

The program will close with a reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Chicago Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Francesco Levato

Date: December  9th, 2006
Time: 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Location: Acme Art Works, 1741 North Western Avenue, Chicago, IL

On December 10, 1948, in response to the tragedies of World War II the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Fifty eight years later, on May 18, 2006, a resolution was submitted in support of a national day and week honoring human rights—this, fifty eight years late and to the same congress that legalized torture and immunized torturers against prosecution for war crimes. Where our congress refuses to speak out against the injustice committed in our name we must.

Speak out against injustice  with Poets for Human Rights: an evening of social engagement featuring the poetry of Robert Archambeau, Emily Calvo, Nina Corwin, Teneice Delgado, Richard Fammerée, Maureen Tolman Flannery, Chris Gallinari, Francesco Levato, Christina E. Lovin, Mikki Mendelsohn, Brent Mesick, Erika Mikkalo, Simone Muench, Charlie Newman, Kristy Odelius, Steven Schroeder, Rachel Webster (and more to come).  The Chicago Poets for Human Rights reading will be featured as a podcast on Rattapallax.com.

Houston Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Ken Jones

Date: Sun Dec. 10, 2006 at

Time:  8 p.m

Location: Artery Art House, 5401 Jackson, at Prospect in the Museum district, Houston, Texas. Houston

A reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights promulgated by the United Nations. Relevant guest speakers, and poets reading related poems. Program will be videoed for cable broadcast.

Poets include: Carolyn Adams, Mike Alexander, Kristi Beer, Tina Cardona, Robert Clark, Kim Cotton, Maryke Cramerus, John Gorman, Lisa Grable, Samantha Levy, Juilo and Carlos Marquina, Jim Milkereit, Tamara Nicholl, Maraia Palacios, Dave Parsons, Daniel Rice, Paul Smith, Brian Swain, Martha Margaret Tamez, Tryfon Tolides, Luis and Adiana Vasquez, Randy Watson, Chuck Wemple

Austin Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Peggy Zuleika Lynch

Date: Sunday, December 10 

Location: Barnes & Noble Booksellers Westlake, 71 S. Capital of Texas Hwy, Austin, Texas. Austin

Our coordinator Peggy Zuleika Lynch, is a nominee for the next Texas Poet Laureate. A distinguished list of guest poets include Mary Agnes Taylor, Ruth Richardson, Dorothy Turner, Jo Virgil, Dillon McKinsey, Carlyn Luke Reding, Glynn Irby, Wendy Woodruff, Thom the World Poet, Barbara Carr, Dr. Lisa Kahn, Alan Birkelbach, Faye Leeper, Brack Miller, Herman Nelson, Ruth Savage, Mary Houston, Nancy Kenney Connelly, Dr. Brandy Strahan, George Klawitter, Tecia Skelding, Dr. Marilyn Konechak, Ginger Pierson, Dr. Marvin Kimbrough, Kaye Abikhaled, Dr. Charlotte Renk, Tommie Ortega, Deltina Haye, Courtney O’Banion, Joyce Pounds Hardy-McDonald, Charlie Johanneson, Brian Emmett Swain, Chloe Brown, Dr. Jim Dimmett, Wendy Dimmett, Angela Villareal Ratliff, Steve Vera, J. Paul Holcomb, Dr. Dave Oliphant, Patricia Fiske, Gary Martt, Dr. Byron Kocen, Deb Akers, Ruthan Mezaros.

Port St. Lucie Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Michael Grover

Date: Sunday, December 10 

Location: Exodus Coffee & Culture, 1352 SW Bayshore Drive, Port Saint Lucie, Florida.

Scheduled to appear will be Michael Grover, Richard Spisak, Vibe One of Under No Order, Hope Freid, Rachel, Darcy VonOhlen, Mariama Diamond Barbie, Steve Berry and George MacAurthur. Michelle Lucey will be performing music.

London, Canada Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Penn Kemp

Date: Sunday December  10th, 2006
Time: 8:00 PM
Location: 525 Canterbury Road, London.

I invite you to 525 Canterbury on Sunday evening, December 10th for an evening of readings by various local poets in honor of International Human Rights Day.  We will join our voices together in poems that acknowledge this day as we make the journey from this darkest time of the year to the returning Light.  We will also celebrate our growing awareness of the Light within and our desire for Peace, personally and on the Planet.   We look forward to sharing this gathering of poetry, spirit and hope with you at this sacred time of the year.   Come read your favorite poem...     

Many of the poets who read at our gathering for Human Rights on Dec. 10, 2005, will be reading again this year including: Gloria Alvernaz Mulcahy, Beryl Baigent, Andreas Gripp, Mary Hamilton, Robyn Israel, Susannah Joyce, Daniel Kolos, Penn Kemp, Gavin Stairs, Hiedi Vamvalis.  Katerina Fretwell's poem will be read in absentia.

A half hour interview with Penn Kemp about the reading and poem for peace will be played on 1069 FM, Radio Fanshawe, London Canada, on Sunday December 10 at 5 pm EST. Hear it live. Click on the big X; then click on "Listen Live".

Romania Astro-Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Andrei Dorian Georghe

Date: December 2nd 2006
Time: N/A
Location: Bucegi Mountain, Romania

On December 2nd, 2006, the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy-SARM organized at Vanatorul Complex in the Bucegi Mountains, in advance for the International Human Rights Day, the reading below (coordinated by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe and Valentin Grigore, and accompanied by Dan Mitrut’s astrofolk
music):

Contributing poets - Valentin Grigore, President of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy Cristina Slovineanu Ion Moraru Doina Chilargi Dan Mitrut Constantin Dumitrescu-Cunctator Zigmund Tauberg Dominic Diamant Iulian Olaru Alexandrina Zuza Florian Saioc Andreea Nanciu Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
 

Editor's Note: To read a sample of the poem created and read by these incredible Romanian poets click here.

Dallas/Ft. Worth Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Hippie Rick

Date: Sunday December  10th, 2006
Time:  Spontaneous   
Location:  Streets of Dallas/Fort Worth

Hippie Rick Rumpel will cover the Dallas/Fort Worth region with spontaneous street readings throughout the day.

Prague Poets for Human Rights

Coordinator: Jana Jakesova

Date: Sunday December  10th, 2006
Time:  8:00 PM   
Location:  U BOZIHO MLYNA, Lublanska 50, Praha 2, Czech Republic
 

Poetry reading on social topics and human rights to enhance people awarness about their responsibility to do something for others, and by voice of poets to express a disagreement with violation of it. Promotion of Universal Declaration of Human Rights by printed Declaration and a to inform a public about their right of human and enhance their tolerance to each other also in a environment to not support discrimination or unjustice around. Mic is open for all interested poets from three main Czech poetics servers and interested public can contribute as well.

Banner Time

If you would like to add a Poets for Human Rights banner to your web site we have two different styles for you.

• Poets for Human Rights

• PforHR Discussion Group

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Youth for Human Rights

• Artists for Human Rights