Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark McDonnell
Nearly 100 views and nothing, Julie. Seems that poets aren't interested in poetry. Or at least not in Poetry.
|
Like many of those of a formalist bent at Eratosphere, I have given up on the notion that
Poetry will ever have much relevance to what I do and enjoy in terms of poetry. So I wasn't too surprised that people here weren't very interested in the doings of a journal that they don't actually read much.
Also, most of the letter-writers' unhappiness seems to be with personnel decisions (which are not visible even to regular readers of
Poetry), rather than with decisions about which poets they choose to publish (which are far more noticeable).
Quote:
|
They can do what they want with their windfall, can't they? It's their money. They're a poetry organisation, not a civil-rights charity or a branch of government.
|
Oh, absolutely, they can spend their money as they wish. No question.
The only question is whether they can get away with claiming solidarity when they aren't actually investing much in making the sorts of changes that the letter-signers have been pushing them to make, for some time. Talk is cheap.
Any organization that appears to want to score easy PR points by claiming solidarity with the Black community at this time, without committing to making any specific changes to address its own well-documented diversity, equity, and inclusion deficits, is bound to look a teensy bit hypocritical. See this parody (you might need to click on the image to see the whole text):
https://twitter.com/Campster/status/1267183124582215680
Quote:
|
It's also telling to me that the people named in the first of the list of demands doesn't include working class people or those from economically disadvantaged circumstances.
|
Actually, two paragraphs earlier, they did say this (bolding mine):
Quote:
|
Though we can’t detail everything within the space of this letter, we refer you to the numerous critiques made in regards to the Foundation’s failures to support—or even appropriately acknowledge disparities as they relate to—Black and Indigenous poets, Latinx poets, trans and queer poets, disabled poets, poets of color writ large, and artists struggling economically.
|
I agree that that point would have received far more emphasis if it had not been omitted from the text of the demand, though.