The great Iraqi poet Nazik al-Mala’ika, who died in 2007, wrote in her “Love Song for Words”: “Why do we fear words/when among them are words like unseen bells,/whose echo announces in our troubled lives/the coming of a period of enchanted dawn,/drenched in love, and life?… so pour us two full glasses of worlds! Tomorrow we will build ourselves a dream-nest of words.”
In this special reviews issue of WIN, we discover information, insight, and inspiration mingling with the horrors and hopes embedded in empire, racism, feminism, love, and the complexities and joys of everyday life. We hope you’ll find pleasure and value in reading these write-ups, whether or not you then pursue their subjects.
As we mark the 40th anniversary of 1968, much will be said about the events and legacy of that moment’s global rebellions. The U.S. war in Southeast Asia and our movement against it resound through these pages, in obvious juxtaposition to our contemporary west Asian predicament. Nostalgia and romance are fine things, tempered with assessment and appraisal relevant to the present. The vibrant voices of Mavis Staples and John Fogerty reveal more than just quaint flashbacks to a bygone era’s rousing (and fun!) art and culture; there is intergenerational continuity and vitality that endures and carries on.
Also herein, Gloria Williams takes us through Poems from Guantanamo, a singular project both politically and artistically, her review is echoed in our feature on the WRL Peace Award, as Frida Berrigan’s remarks make visible the dignity and courage of disappeared prisoners and their friends on the outside. Ali Mir introduces us to the great Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, placing her distinct voice in the context of poetry’s patriarchy; while Judith Pasternak, evoking the life and work of one of WRL’s dearest comrades, reminds us of Grace Paley’s challenge to poets (and rebels?) of all genders to embody a woman’s perspective.
While avoiding the crudest comparisons of present to past (’68 or otherwise), it is our opportunity and responsibility to study both the historic machinery and practices of suppression and suffocation, and the gasps and battles for freedom that met them head on. WRL’s own history, artifacts, and veterans are known to (and embodied by) many of us - we’ve got to share them with more and more people in the United States as we engage with other veterans, artifacts, and histories past and present, as well as those being made every day around the world.
To pursue Mala’ika’s dream-nest one step further, the Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’o offers: “The goal of human society is the reign of art on earth… creativity, movement, change and renewal… This ‘reign of art’ would subsume or transcend the coercive nature of the state: a more ethical, more human society that is constantly renewing itself.”
Our reviews and their subjects are, for the most part, more humble in their aims, but we challenge ourselves and each other to dare to be inspired and transformed in our study and exploration, so as to ourselves better transform and inspire in our political work. On thath note, we introduce two new periodic features in this issue of WIN: a field report, in which WRL’s well-traveled field organizer offers dispatches about movement trends and wisdom, and a local report, in which members of a WRL local or affiliate share with us the exciting organizing they’re doing, and lessons learned.
