PHYLLIS BECK KATZ, POET
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Abael Meeropol Social Justice Award

1/8/2018

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On November 12, 2017 I attended an event celebrating the first AbelMeeropol Social Justice Award (see the blog written by Ellen Meeropol, President of the Straw Dogs Writers Guild).  The event, included a stunning performance by Pamela Means of Abel Meeropol's incredible "Strange Fruit and a reading of her powerful and moving poems by Patricia Smith.  I urge you to visit Ellen Meeropol's blog:
http://www.strawdogwriters.org/social-justice-writing/blog-ellen-meeropol.  Out of this amazing evening came the following poem.
 
 
Voicing Social Justice
         For Patricia Smith
 
It doesn’t grow on its own,
takes more than a village,
thrives best when fed
by concern, by passion
that cannot be denied,
by voices that are so loud,
so true, so angry that they
rouse what is sleeping
in us, make our hearts
beat faster, our breath
deeper, voices that insist
we feel the pain, torture
terror, of those denied
tolerance and respect,
those who day and night
live with fear that will
only go away when all of us
acknowledge that we must
add our voices to theirs,
letting ours ring out
with the same conviction
same passion, same resistance,
never quieting until social justice
is a given.
 
Phyllis Beck Katz ©
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    Phyllis Katz: My Blog.

    This Blog begins with a description of my development as a poet, and goes on to discuss my teaching with Donald Sheehan, long-time director of The Frost Place. In subsequent entries I describe the summer programs at The Frost Place and The Fine Arts Work Center and discuss the reading and writing of poems.

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