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ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE NEW YORK CHAPTER ELECTION AND CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

Dear Members of the New York Chapter of NWU/UAW Local 1981:

This letter announces the upcoming election for the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981. The positions of Chair or Co-Chairs, Treasurer Secretary, and Steering Committee Members (up to seven) are open.

Nominations will be accepted starting Friday, May 11, 2012, and will end Monday, May 21, 2012 at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. The term of office is for two (2) year[s] from Monday, June 11, 2012 if an election is necessary.

If you are a member in good standing, you are eligible to hold one of the offices listed below.  In order to accept nomination to an office you must do one of the following:

1) You may send an email to nwuelections@hotmail.com. (If your nomination is received at this address, you will receive a confirmation.)

OR

2) You may make a nomination via a paper letter to:

Elections Committee

P.O. Box 261

Chicago, IL  60690

Whether your nomination is by mail or email, please specify the office to which you are accepting nomination and your email address and phone number. You may only accept nomination to one office. If a member in good standing chooses to nominate you, the election committee will contact you to determine if you accept the nomination.

Ballot Statement

Each candidate may write a ballot statement of no more than 250 words. These statements will be mailed with the voting packets if there are contested elections. Chapter affiliation, address, phone number, and email address must be included, but are not counted in the 250 words.

It is the responsibility of the person nominated to submit the ballot statement. All ballot statements must be received by the time nominations close on Monday, May 21, 2012.

Late ballot statements will not be accepted.

Ballot Mailing and Counting

Races where there are not contested elections do not require the mailing of ballots and the nominees in those races will be deemed elected by acclamation. If there are contested elections, ballots will be mailed from the NWU Elections Committee on Friday, May 25, 2012.  Be sure to follow all instructions to make sure your vote counts. Marked ballots must be received by mail by Friday, June 8, at 9:00 AM in order to be counted. Ballots may not be dropped off in person.

Counting of ballots will take place on Saturday, June 9, 2012 at 10:00AM Eastern Time.   Ballots will be counted by members of the Election Committee and, if available, union staff, and volunteers.  The counting will be supervised by UAW Deputy Administrator Scott M. Sommer. Observers are welcome.

The Open Positions

The positions to be filled are Chair or Co-Chairs, Treasurer, Secretary, and Steering Committee Members (up to seven). 

Below are the duties of these officers:

Chair or Co-Chairs: It shall be the duty of the Chair or Co-Chairs to convene Steering Committee meetings at least every month (these may be held by telephone) and to conduct other chapter business between Steering Committee meetings.

Treasurer: It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to obtain prior approval for all expenditures by a vote of the Steering Committee and from the NWU Secretary/Treasurer.

Secretary: It shall be the duty of the Secretary to take meeting minutes for all Steering Committee meetings, submit these minutes to the Steering Committee for approval, and keep meeting minutes available for reference. The Secretary also keeps track of votes on email resolutions.

Chapter Officers and Steering Committee Members shall recruit members, carry out educational programs and activities on behalf of writers, and further the efforts of national organizing campaigns.

Chapter Officers and Steering Committee Members serve without pay. With prior approval by the national Financial Secretary/Treasurer, they may be reimbursed for per diem and transportation expenses undertaken for necessary duties as specified in the NWU/UAW Local 1981 By-Laws.

We look forward to receiving nominations. Thank you for your willingness to serve the union. Please direct any questions you may have regarding this election to Sarah Forth, NWU Elections Committee Chair, or Karen Ford, 3rd Vice President at electionsnwu@gmail.com

In solidarity,

NWU/UAW Local 1981 Elections Committee

Sarah Forth, Chair Ex-officio: Karen Ford, 3rd Vice President

_____________________

To Read the Interview with Yusef Salaam at the Natinal Black Writers Conference, click here...

___________________

Tim Sheard represented the NWU at the recent Left Forum conference at Pace University in Manhattan. He found a great deal of interest in the union, not only among New Yorkers, but writers from Boston and Philly, who were given directions to links for those local chapters. 

_____________________

Look Who's Signing!

If you have a reading and signing, send the details to info@nwuny.org

WRITERS: LEARN HOW -

          ,

"SELLING YOUR BOOK IS LIKE RUNNING A POLITICAL CAMPAIGN"

Former New Hampshire State Representative Ruth Nemzoff talks about how she has won her audience with 250 book appearances in five years.

A Free Seminar sponsored by the

               The  National Writers Union, NY Chapter      

                Monday, June 4, 2012, 6-8:30 PM at

The Houndstooth Pub, 37th St. & 8th Ave. (Downstairs)

REMEMBERING LOUIS REYES RIVERA

By Herb Boyd
Special to the Network Journal

Louis Reyes Rivera. No, this is not a household name, but in many urban centers, particularly in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and the Harlems of the world, it rings with all the conviction and integrity of a highly respected griot.
Rivera, who must have been in his middle sixties, died last
Friday evening in Brooklyn after a brief illness, it has been
reported. The idea that this progressive poet, this little giant, of words had joined the ancestors set off a barrage of phone calls and emails.
Among the first to get the word on the airwaves was WHCR-FM, the radio station at City College of New York, where noted commentator and host Daaiya Sanusi devoted portions of her programming to celebrating Riveras life and legacy.
And that was propitious since it was at City College that Rivera gained notoriety for his radical politics and visionary leadership at the helm of hundreds of students protesting the colleges reluctance to deal with minority rights and curriculum.
Rivera was a budding journalist during those turbulent times and soon established himself as a writer of considerable talent and a feel for the worlds oppressed, especially in the Black and Latino communities.
Representatives from those diverse and various communitiesbegan commiserating with one another almost immediately upon hearing of Riveras unexpected departure. Poet Ted Wilson of New Jersey was stunned for a moment to silence, still unable to accept that his longstanding comrade was no longer available to exchange salvos of salvation through their poems. Renowned artist Danny Simmons alerted his colleagues and friends that a memorial service for Rivera was planned for March 8 in Brooklyn. Bookstore owner Monroe Brown said that Rivera was conducting a lecture series at his True South Bookstore in Brooklyn two weeks ago. He was on the march, teaching his class about the missing pages of world history, Brown related.
At the National Writers Union, a steering committee in which Rivera was a key component called an emergency meeting and set in motion a number of ways to remember their tireless member. He was intricately involved in so many activities that it will probably take a team of us to fulfill just half of what he was doing and what was on his agenda, said Loretta Campbell.
Always there is need for song, Rivera wrote in one of his most memorable essays, Inside the River of Poetry. And every human has a poem to write, a compulsion to contemplate out loud, an urge to dig out that ore of confusion locked up inside. But with the contradictions of privilege and caste, of class and gender distinctions regulating access, of those ever present distortions in textbooks with their one-sided measure of human worth, and with the culture of white man still serving as ultimate yardstick to what is acceptable as matter, not everyone is permitted to learn to read, much less to study poetry or hone the art and take the risk of putting ones self on paper.
That risk was never an obstacle for Rivera and the only thing
missing from the quotation above is the sound of his voice reciting them, the melodious and edgy cadence that typified his delivery, the unblinking gaze from eyes shielded in part by ageless fedora, the colorful dashiki and the cane that came with the onslaught of ailmentsthis image gave his words added realness and urgency.

Later, Rivera would tell his fellow workers at the NWU at the close of a day and at the close of these words, Later, mi amigo!

______________________



IN MEMORIAM

 Louis Reyes Rivera

 1945-2012

     Poet, essayist, editor, teacher, radio host, and union organizer with the National Writer Union, UAW Local 1981, Louis Reyes Rivera died in Brooklyn Hospital on Friday, March 2, following a brief illness. Serving as chair of the New York Chapter since 2004, Rivera was revered and beloved by all NWU members who saw him in action in New York and at Delegate Assemblies, providing leadership on union issues and performing his insightful poetry.

     Calling himself the Janitor of History, Rivera is viewed as a living bridge between the African and Latino-American communities. Also called "the dean of Nuyorica Poetica," he is an internationally recognized literary figure, with translations of his work appearing in Russian, Latvian, Spanish, and Italian. Rivera published four books, including Who Pays The Cost (1978), This One For You (1983), In Control of English (1988 and 1992), and Scattered Scripture (1996), for which he received the 1997 poetry award from the Latin American Writers Institute. He had just completed his epic poem, Jazz in Jail, and was in the process of preparing it for publication.

      Rivera was the recipient of dozens of awards, including a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship (2003), a Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), a Special Congressional Recognition Award (1988), and the CCNY 125th Anniversary Medal (1973) -- each of which was given in recognition of his scholarship and impact on contemporary literature. Since 1996, Rivera appeared at jazz festivals and clubs, working with such bands as The Sun Ra All-Stars Project, Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora, Ebonic Tones, the James Spaulding Ensemble, and his own band, The Jazzoets. Last spring Rivera was inducted into the Brooklyn Jazz Hall of Fame. At his last public appearance on Feb. 11, Rivera was the featured poet at the American Jazz Museum’s Black History Month Salute to Jazz Poetry in Kansas City, Mo.

      Over the past 40 years, Rivera assisted in the publication of well over 200 books, including Adal Maldonado's Portraits of the Puerto Rican Experience (IPRUS, 1984), John Oliver Killens' Great Black Russian (Wayne State, 1989), Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Crown, 2001), co-edited with Tony Medina, and The Bandana Republic (Soft Skull Press, 2008). Rivera’s essays and poems appeared in numerous publications, including Areyto, Boletin (Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter), The City Sun, African Voices, and in several award-winning book collections, including In Defense of Mumia; ALOUD: Live from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe; and Of Sons and Lovers. He also appeared on the Peabody award-winning HBO show, “Def Poetry Jam.” Rivera completed the translation of Clemente Soto Veléz's Caballo de Palo/Broomstick Stallion and worked on the collected poems of Otto Rene Castillo of Guatemala, Por el Bien de Todos/For the Good of All.

     Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 19, 1945, Rivera was raised there and a proud graduate of Boys High. He began studying the craft of writing in1960 and founded the continuing student publication, The Paper, at City College of New York. After graduation in 1969, Rivera started teaching and his influence as a teacher spanned many generations. He distinguished himself as a professor of creative writing, Pan-African literature, African-American culture and history, Caribbean history, Puerto Rican history, and Nuyorican literature at such institutions as State University of New York-Stony Brook, Hunter College, College of New Rochelle, LaGuardia College, Pratt Institute, and Boricua College, among others.

      For 15 years beginning in 1996, Rivera hosted a reading series in Brooklyn, 1st & 3rd Sundays Jazzoetry & Open Mic @ Sistas' Place, where he also conducted writing workshops. For many years Rivera hosted the engaging radio talk and interview show, “Perspectives,” on New York radio station WBAI 99.5 FM (streamed at wbai.org/ archives).

      A political activist as well as a cultural icon, Rivera was active in the successful struggle for “open enrollment” and against racism at City College in1969. Since then he has participated in many progressive movement and activities, including supporting the establishment of the Freedom Party, which ran candidates in the 2010 New York State election. Rivera co-hosted two Writers for Mumia programs dedicated to freeing longtime political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, one in 2007, the other in 2010.

      Rivera is survived by his wife, Barbara Killens Rivera; two daughters, Abiba Deceus and Kutisha Booker; son Barra Wyn ; and four grandchildren, James Booker, Akalia Booker, Kwamey Venable, and Jean-Oliver Deceus. Funeral arrangements are being made, and will be announced in the near future.