In California they say that someday everything east of the San Andreas fault will fall into the ocean. And then all the rest of us, from our new homes at the bottom of the sea, will be like "wow, we miss being able to drive to California." These fotos take a stab at summing it up. None were edited or manipulated in any way except for size.
with my cousin, the beautiful and talented shayne eastin. foto: the cobra snake
foto: karen ladson
As the 2006 tour winds down, a glance at the infamous Merch Crate tells me this: it’s been a successful trip. Over the last two months, 8,000 miles, five states and 30+ shows, I’ve sold out of every single bit of merch that I had. After two printings and over 400 copies, the book Sun Said Shine is officially gone. There are no plans for another printing, I’d rather spend the money on the next book, whose working title is “This Line Drawn Across Footprints.” The manuscript is finished, Pedro Dia has returned to illustrate, I’ve just lacked the time and finances to put it out. It will happen, this time with more proof reading. The CD Fourteen Ways to Move the Tongue is gone after 100 copies. Likewise with La Calaca T-shirt, a big box of 100 shirts is now one shirt: mine. There might be more CD’s, but that particular shirt is done.
Thanks to everyone who has passed me some money in exchange for any of the above. It means more than you could imagine, and I have no one but you to thank for supporting me during my first four months as a ‘professional’ poet. I promise I didn’t blow all of it on booze. Yet.
Don’t forget though, you can always
via PayPal.
More info to come.
On the eve of our Congress passing a “comprehensive immigration reform package,” and just about a week after our President gave a rare speech from the Oval Office calling for the same, this country has still not come to grips with the true nature of what we are about to undertake. The stakes are far higher than immigration or even border security, however even at this late hour few recognize the effect of what we are about to do.
President Bush defined in his speech last Monday the five elements he sees as comprising “comprehensive” reform. Among them, border security, a guest worker program and a “path to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants already working in our country. It occurs to me that while Bush currently has the lowest approval rating of any president ever, we can consider ourselves at least mildly lucky to have a President now who is a former governor of a border state. We’ve already seen the proposals that equally radical conservatives without border experience have come up with: Santorum and Sensenbrenner just to name two.
Regardless, the current “immigration debate” in this country is laughably limited. In a political climate controlled by fear and religious radicalism, deporting 11 million people is presented as a reasonable part of the solution while our country’s role in destabilizing Latin America economically—and thus causing much of the immigration ourselves—is never mentioned.
But at this late hour we’re lead to believe that the “debate” has been defined, and it’s the details that our lawmakers still have to hash out for us. What worries me most is the guest worker program. Of course there must be a way for people to enter this country legally to work. It is both a personal necessity for them and a necessity for our entire economy. But we’re missing what a guest worker program as currently proposed would really be.
A guest worker program without a path to citizenship would be the formal murder of the American Dream. Further, we would be codifying an American caste system the likes of which haven’t been seen since slavery. If we invite poor workers to come into this country to work in our restaurants, pick our food, build our homes, maintain our roads, clean our buildings and in the same stroke of the pen deny them any chance to be come full, voting citizens of our country, where does our democracy stand?
It is the era of doublespeak. Under the guest worker program, employees would be tied to their employers for their status in this country. We once had another name for this system in this country, though it’s long out of fashion and longer out of use: indentured servitude.
How likely is a guest worker to report his or her employer to the government for withholding wages, if that worker knows that he or she could lose their right to be in this country? How likely is an indentured servant to report abuses when they fear the same? If we legally create a foreign working underclass, how far off could wide-spread discrimination and racism really be?
And, it cannot be mentioned enough, we tried this type of system before, not even that long ago. But how often do you hear the Bracero Program and its failure mentioned in the current debate?
All of this, however, isn’t very surprising. It is also the era of burning down a house to fix a broken door. Codifying an American underclass is seen as the only way to solve the immigration issue just as NSA wiretapping, the USA PATRIOT Act and the wholesale loss of civil liberties is billed as the only way to fight terrorism.
Many argue that the American dream has been dead a long time. As the chasm between the rich and the poor continues to swallow the middle class whole, I suspect they are right. But if we pass a law destroying this critical part of our national mythology, our country will have turned a corner and embarked down a path that we may never come back from.
So what have I been doing over the last week, on a break from tour, holed up in a room in downtown Flagstaff?
Well, I’ve been heavy into design again. It’s been awhile, I haven’t done a website since I redesigned this one last year.
This new project was for Nicole Torres, a singer/songwriter out of Denver. She's awesome, she's cuban-argentine, speaks a smooth spanish and has a hot butter voice. Check out her new site, which just went live: NicoleTorres.com.
I did it from the ground up and I'm pretty happy with it. Especially the logo. Oh, and of course she's on MySpace here. Will I design a website for you? Well, no. I hit the road again Saturday. But maybe next fall. Let's talk about it.
Well, things have taken a turn for the wonderful. A few weeks back I wrote up an article on the Cuba travels for Northern Arizona's only truly independent print news source, The Noise. Turns out they really liked it. Also turns out that I'm now a roaming correspondent for The Noise, giving NORAZ 1000 words of a different country for at least the next four months.
You can check out a pdf of the current issue here. It's large, about 20mb. It contains the Cuba story (which I may be posting here soon) and a few fotos from my partner-in-crime, the Polish wicked eye known as Bartek.
This is going to be a special one, so I'm posting it here on the ol main page. Wednesday, May 17 2006 Logan Phillips feature performance The Well Red Coyote Book Store, Sedona, AZ 6:00pm Come see and hear what the road teaches. This is my only performance in NORAZ during this tour.
"The Well Red Coyote Book Store is located at 3190 W. Hwy 89-A at the corner of Dry Creek Rd. and 89-A. Call 928.282.2284 for more information about this and future events."
Fotos from yesterday's immigrant rights rally in Denver, CO. Over 75,000 were in attendance, making it Denver's largest public rally ever. I attended with the infamous Ken Arkind, and it was awesome. The Denver Post has this to say. Thanks to Katie FS and Cindy for the sandwiches.
In honor of today's May Day events, I'm posting an audio file online that I'd like you to listen to.
Variations on Thirst: "And I Walked..." 6:06, 7mb
This is a radio story produced by Kara Oehler and Anne Hepperman, two talented friends of mine from the Flagstaff days. The story debuted at the Third Coast International Audio Festival as a shortdoc in a few years ago, the theme that year was "thirst." It is narrarated by Charles Bowden, a well-known hombre fronterizo. More of his work can be found in this series of stories.
In these days of debate, we must remember that desperate people will always do desperate things. If it was your children who didn't have enough to eat, you'd cross a desert too. It's time for immigration reform based on this reality. It's time to remember the human face of the "issue." Thanks to Kara for permission to post the story here.
español sigue abajo For Immediate Release
Tucson May 1st Coalition Joins International “Day Without Immigrants”
Tucson- More than 22 local allied organizations will unite on May 1st to commemorate the International Day of the Worker, otherwise known as May Day, by joining in an economic boycott and work stoppage for immigrant rights. Dubbed, “A Day Without Immigrants,” participants will refrain from making any purchases, sending money abroad, making phone calls to or from México, and going to work or school. These actions are part of an internationally-coordinated boycott of American goods intended as a wake up call for the U.S. Congress to acknowledge the vital role of immigrants as co-workers, neighbors and members of society.
“The Boycott will send a message that immigrants and our communities cannot support pending compromise immigration proposals which offer legalization for a limited few and second class status for immigrant workers under exploitative “guestworker” programs,” said Sebastian Quinac , a volunteer with the Tucson May 1st Coalition. The unprecedented mobilizations of undocumented immigrants over the last several weeks have improved the proposals in Congress, but organizers say that all of the current proposals contain numerous repressive measures which intensify the policing of all workers and their families at their work sites, schools, in their neighborhoods and along the heavily militarized U.S.-Mexico border.
Boycott demands include legalization for all immigrants, the protection of human, labor and civil rights for all, an end to deadly border militarization policies which have directly resulted in the deaths of 4,000 people and a rejection of H.R. 4437 and other repressive proposals now in the U.S. Congress. The May 1st Coalition also seeks to stop the attacks on immigrants in the Arizona state legislature.
The Coalition invites the community to Armory Park on May 1st to participate in a youth teach-in, music and spoken word concert, community service booths and voter registration, ending with an evening interfaith prayer vigil.
“Immigrant workers, students and families are making incredible sacrifices to raise their voices for themselves and future generations, in the face of raids, recriminations and disciplinary actions from the Migra, employers and schools,” said Consuelo Aguilar, a University of Arizona student participating in the Boycott.
May 1st Coalition members include: Alianza Braceroproa, Barrio Viejo Neighborhood Association, Community Food Bank, Derechos Humanos, PCIC, AFSC-Arizona, Su Voz Vale, Fundación México, Promotoras de Derechos Humanos, Las Adelitas, No More Deaths, Tucson Jobs with Justice, Salt of the Earth Labor College, Center for Biological Diversity, WILPF, MEChA (U of A., Pima College, Tucson High), Defeat 200, National Writers Union, Wingspan, NAACP, Dry River Collective, LULAC, Cesar E. Chavez Holiday Coalition, SEIU, Arizona Democratic Progressive Caucus, Tucson Club of the CPUSA, Pan Left Productions, Acorn, Steelworkers Union, U of A. SACASA and Peregrinos Juntos. ###
Qué: Conferencia de Prensa Cuando: Jueves 27 de Abril de 2006, 10:00 am Donde: Centro Armory Park (220 S. 5th Ave.)
La Coalición 1ro de Mayo de Tucson se Une al Internacional “Día Sin Inmigrantes”
Tucson- Más de 22 organizaciones locales se unirán el 1ro de Mayo para conmemorar el Día Internacional de los Trabajadores, también conocido como Día de Mayo, uniéndo en un boicot económico y en un paro laboral por los derechos del inmigrante. En el nombrado “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes” los participantes se abstendrán de hacer cualquiera compra, de mandar dinero al exterior, de hacer llamadas telefónicas para o de México, y yendo a trabajar o a la escuela. Estas acciones forman parte de un boicot internacionalmente coordinado de productos Americanos con la intención de hacer un llamado que despierte al congreso de los EE.UU. para que reconozca el papel esencial de los inmigrantes como compañeros de trabajo, vecinos y miembros de la sociedad.
“El Boicot mandará un mensaje que inmigrantes y nuestras comunidades no pueden apoyar las propuestas pactadas de inmigración pendientes que ofrecen legalización para un grupo limitado y de un status de segunda categoría para trabajadores inmigrantes bajo el explotador programa de “trabajador huésped,” dijo Sebastián Quinac, un voluntario de la Coalición 1ro de Mayo de Tucson. Las movilizaciones sin precedentes de inmigrantes indocumentados en las últimas semanas han mejorado las propuestas en el Congreso, pero los organizadores dicen que todas las propuestas actuales contienen numerosas medidas represivas que intensifican la vigilancia de todos los trabajadores y sus familias en sus sitios de trabajo, en las escuelas, en sus vecindarios y a lo largo de la fuertemente militarizada frontera entre EE.UU.- México.
Las demandas del boicot incluyen legalización para todos los inmigrantes, la protección de los derechos humanos, laborales y civiles para todos, un fin a políticas de militarización fronterizas mortales que han tenido como resultado directo las muertes de 4.000 personas, y un rechazo a la H.R. 4437 y otras propuestas represivas que están ahora en el Congreso de los EE.UU. La Coalición 1ro de Mayo también procura parar los ataques hacia los inmigrantes en la legislatura estatal de Arizona.
La Coalición invita a la comunidad al Armory Park este 1ro de Mayo para que participe en los talleres juveniles, la música y el concierto, mesas informativas de servicio comunitario y registración para votar, terminando en la tarde con una vigilia interfé de oración.
“Los trabajadores inmigrantes, los estudiantes y las familias están haciendo sacrificios increíbles para alzar sus voces por sí mismos y por generaciones futuras, enfrentando redadas, recriminaciones y acciones disciplinarias de la Migra, los empleadores y las escuelas,” dijo Consuelo Aguilar, un estudiante de la Universidad de Arizona que toma parte en el Boicot.
Miembros de la Coalición 1ro de Mayo: Alianza Braceroproa, Barrio Viejo Neighborhood Association, Community Food Bank, Derechos Humanos, PCIC, AFSC-Arizona, Su Voz Vale, Fundación México, Promotoras de Derechos Humanos, Las Adelitas, No More Deaths, Tucson Jobs with Justice, Salt of the Earth Labor College, Center for Biological Diversity, WILPF, MEChA (U of A., Pima College, Tucson High), Defeat 200, National Writers Union, Wingspan, NAACP, Dry River Collective, LULAC, Cesar E. Chavez Holiday Coalition, SEIU, Arizona Democratic Progressive Caucus, Tucson Club of the CPUSA, Pan Left Productions, Acorn, Steelworkers Union, U of A. SACASA and Peregrinos Juntos.
###
For you Northern Arizona cats: the 2006 NORAZ Poets Grand Slam is coming up this weekend. This will be the first time in four years that I won't be competing, but I'm wishing I could attend. Why? Besides the locals bringing the stinging Awesome, the feature is Derrick Brown, who is probably my favorite living poet / performer, bar none. He used to be a weatherman in Flagstaff. He's worth the admission price (or double as much) all by himself. So go. More info: The 2006 NORAZ Poetry Grand Slam, Sunday, April 30. Tickets Available in Sedona at The Well Red Coyote Book Store!
It's coming! The moment we've all been waiting for. The Grand Slam held each year at the historic Orpheum Theatre in downtown Flagstaff.
Doors open at 6:30pm, Show starts at 7pm!!
All proceeds go to helping get our new team to Austin, Tx and back for this years National Poetry Slam!!
This years host was last years Grand Slam Champion, Mr.Lane!
This years featured poet? None other than NAU graduate Derrick Brown!
The night will consist of ten poets competing for the coveted honor of being one of the five members of the 2006 National Poetry Slam Team representing Northern Arizona at the National Poetry Slam help this August in Austin, Tx.
Rowie Shabala Greg Nix Meghan Jones Christopher Fox Graham Aaron Johnson John Kofonow Al Moyer Justin Powel Lindsay Chamberlain and Patrick DuHaime
All will duke it out for an evening you'll never forget!
And you don't have any execuse's to not be there because tickets are even cheaper than last year.
$8 in advance, $7 for students by calling the Orpheum Theatre @ 928.556.1580! Or just go by these locations to buy a few:
The Well Red Coyote Book Store in Sedona Animas Trading Co. in Flagstaff Rainbows End in Flagstaff Gopher Sounds Orpheum Theatre Box Office in Flagstaff
San Antonio, Texas, EUAfirst printed in the Arizona Poetry Newsletter
The lightning is flashing so much it looks like some god is changing channels in the sky. The freeway between Austin and San Antonio is one long city, but the only people who live here are the billboards and the streetlights. They’re afraid of the lightning, and so am I. The show in San Antonio starts in half an hour and all the radio can talk about is the hurricane-force winds in the east that are moving toward I-35. The Puro Slam, though, is one of the few shows that’s worth risking electrocution to see.
Outside of Sam’s Burger Joint, the mood is right: sirens, those pre-storm winds, an orange sky, cars pulling up right and left. Anthony Flores and his lady Dee Dee are climbing out of a car and squinting in my direction. Anthony has become one of San Anto’s best poets, and it’s good to see him here. Shaggy, doorman / scorekeeper / announcer / brains-of-the-operation is already inside, his hand buried in some green alien’s head that they use as a tip jar at the door.
Eleven PM and the show finally begins. This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest poetry slams in the country, certainly one of the most unique. It’s a Tuesday, almost midnight, and there’s over a hundred people in the dark and swanky room, many huddled around the drink specials at the bar. It’s beer, it’s poetry, it’s cursing and it is good. Thanks to this being Texas, eighteen-year-olds are also allowed in, though the government says they must stay sober. But there is not a lot of sobriety at the Puro Slam.
Tonight’s host is Ria, who skips announcing the rules and gets straight to insulting the audience, which they love. The woman controls the room with a drink in one hand and her purse in the other. First on the mic is Anthony, as it should be. All you can really ask of poetry slams these days are just a few moments of startling originality, and Anthony brings the unique. “Playing with words is like playing with knives” he chants as he mimes knife juggling, keeping infectious rhythm with his hands clapping as he reads.
The room loves it, as they should. It’s a good crowd, but many of the well-known poets like Anthony are taking the night off from competing: San Anto just had their Grand Slam last week, so everyone is ready to relax. And something else unique has happened here in this city: both Anthony and his daughter, Amanda Flores, have made it on the team that will go to the National Poetry Slam in Austin this August, making them probably the first-ever father / daughter team on a Nationals-bound poetry slam team. It’s like I’m telling him during the first round: writing group pieces is going to be great for them. The second that the crowd realizes they’re seeing a family on stage together, I’m sayin the tens will be in the bag, which is the kind of thing you worry about when going to Nationals.
Ria is onstage making fun of a rookie poet who just performed in a muscle shirt. He deserves it. Puro Slam is not known for being kind: the crowd’s heckling is known throughout the nation. It’s a strange thing, to be in a room full of people watching a poet shaking and sputtering through a played-out rhyming poem, when someone suddenly begins The Carwash Clap. You know The Carwash Clap, if you know Carwash. It’s an unmentioned rule here in San Anto: at the first sign of the crowd starting The Carwash Clap, the poet had better get off stage quickly.
I have no sympathy. A good poetry slam is just a bit mean around the edges: like a carnival with rides, bad cotton candy and a certain menace in the colors of the merry-go-round. At a good poetry slam, anything can happen, which is why the crowd is here.
The first round ends. I’m called up to feature. People have been buying me Red Bull and Vodka for about the last hour and a half. I’m a livewire walking a tightrope in front of a crowd that will either riot or rejoice in a few minutes. I just rip through the poems, lots of yelling, insulting and laughing. I feel pretty well at home when being cut no slack. Cheering and clapping breaks out during my sestina about the border. No Carwash Clap in sight, they’re with me.
It’s 1:30 in the morning when I look around and wonder if anyone still remembers a poetry slam is going on. Ria is loaded, as is everyone else. It’s one of those rare moments when an entire group of people all devolve at once, leaving their normal selves at the door and basking in poetry, chaos and laughter. It’s the Puro Slam and we’re headed toward sunrise.
Austin International Poetry Festival 1 - 3 p.m. Reading
Resistencia, 1801 S. First (at W. Annie) Steve Vera, host Kaye Abikhaled, Michael Casares, Marian Haddad, Beryl Dov Lew, Deborah Wardlaw Pattillo, Michelle Pina, Tito Perez, Logan Phillips, Brenda Nettles Riojas, Magda Vasquez
This is gonna be good: 4 - 5:15 p.m. The AIPF Forum
Ruta Maya, 3601 S. Congress Anne McCrady, Moderator
What times are these When to speak of trees is almost a crime For it is a kind of silence about injustice — Bertold Brecht
Panelists: Marian Haddad, Ilya Kaminsky, Logan Phillips, Eddie Tay, Sam Taylor, Zhang Er
Austin International Poetry Festival 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Readings
Ruta Maya, 3601 S. Congress Cindy Childress, host Robin Cravey, Janese Dunavant, Enrique Fierro, Ed Madden, Collin Kelley, Kittie Keyser, T. Keyser, Suzy LaFollette, Deborah Wardlaw Pattillo, Logan Phillips, Vince Quinlan
Austin International Poetry Festival 10 - 1 a.m. After Hours
Ruta Maya, 3601 S. Congress Michael Guinn, host Lucy English, Rupert Hopkins, David Jenkins, David Johnson, Collin Kelley, Suzy LaFollette, Chris Lee, Melanie Marcee, Agnes Meadows, Logan Phillips, Sonya Renee, Danny Strack, Rod Stryker
Austin International Poetry Festival
7:30 - 9:30 p.m. Reading
St. Edwards University, 3001 S. Congress, Ragsdale Bldg, Mabee Ballroom A Vicki Goldsberry, host Del Cain, Carol Cotten, Judy Jensen, Ilya Kaminsky, Charles McBride, Carol Metellus, Logan Phillips, Dr. Charles Stone, Eddie Tay, Magda Vasquez, Sarah Webb
THE AUSTIN POETRY SLAMis held every Wednesday night at Ego's 510 S. Congress, 474-7091 Sign-up at 7:30 pm, slam at 8 pm. Hosted by Mike Henry with Andy Buck, Genevieve Van Cleve and soundtrack by DJ Hot Wings
Austin, Tejas, The United States of North America 3,000 miles into this tour I realize maybe I should be writing something about it. It's more clear now than ever that the North American Southwest is my home, northern New Mexico is a meditating landscape, southern Arizona is bandito territory, west Texas is the thick beginning of the south, etc. And what is travel but a parade of beautiful faces? In no particular order, I should mention that the Central School Project is quite possibly the best performance space south of Tucson, that Spring Winders is the best printer in the goddamn world and her recent show in Flagstaff deserved much critical acclaim, Don McIver of Albuquerque has a new book out called the Noisy Pen and is constantly writing, his better half Mindy is wonderful too. Emily, Tanya and all of Amy Biehl High School are right-on. Gary Mex Glazner is pushing the limits as usual, leading 'hippy love circles' with high schoolers that rock any slam team. Word is that his new book should be out as soon as he finishes it. Paul White is an artist in Santa Fe who has a wonderful house and hospitality and whose portfolio I can't remember the URL for. There I met many wonderfuls. And Liz hooked it up with Lila Downs tickets, Liz and Lila Downs are awesome. Then sleeping in west Texas in the back of my truck...
Rich is not Mexican. He's from Austrailia. He lives in San Anto. Get it right. He has a budding show at the new Ruta Maya and Bonnie smiles, nods, and doesn't let anyone get away with shit. Ft. Worth has an art community that doesn't yet know it. There's many Awesomes there including Tammy (tejana spitfire), Claudia (teatro as ritual) and Ken (musico and thinker, listener & laugher), each of whom is Involved. Meanwhile Suzy is training to fight fires instead of causing them on microphones...
More to come.
Private performance in a nursing home as part of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project.