THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE NEW YORK CHAPTER

BETWEEN THE LINES

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1. NWU 1^stMonday Forum: Enhancing the E-book

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Monday, February 6, 2012(6-8:30p.m.) The NWU NY Chapter continues its ongoingFirst Mondays Writers Seminars, featuring producer, marketing consultant andNew York TimesBest Selling authorAlina Adamsdiscussing how to produce the enhanced E-book for Kindle, Nook, et al, with music, video, internet links and other interactive features and how to use your enhanced book to garner press coverage and sell more books.

Moderated by NWU novelist Tim Sheard, this event takes place atHoundstooth Pub(downstairs!),520 8th Ave. (at 37th St.), in Manhattan.Free drinks for the first ten attendees!

Free and open to the public. For information emailinfo@nwuny.orgor call Tim Sheard at917.428.1352.

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2. Help NWU E-Book Survey

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ImmediateThe National Writers UnionBook Divisionis researchingE-book contractsand the terms publishers are offering to writers. Because E-books represent a growing revenue stream for authors and publishers, we plan to issue a report on the subject in the next few months.

Our goal is to initiate a campaign, based on our research, that advocates for writers to receive a higher rate of income than they presently do from e-book publishing. But we need your help.

Please copy and paste the following link into your search engine,www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Vv6PqcZF8s_2fC0OuhG_2bBmpQ_3d_3d, and fill out our survey. Your answers will be kept confidential and will provide the NWU with invaluable information. This link is uniquely tied to this survey and your email address, so please do not forward this message.

Thanks for your participation!

Susan E. Davis, Co-Chair Book Division,

Edward Hasbrouck, Co-Chair Book Division,

Paul J. MacArthur, Vice President of External Organizing,

Barbara Mende, Grievance and Contract Division Coordinator.

Louisreyesrivera@aol.com

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Table of Contents

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Part I: Within the Union

1. NWU/NY Forum: How to sell it

2. Publicist Wanted

3. UpWrite Editorial Services

4. NWU NY Member Web Sites

5(a). Report: NY NWUs 30th Anniversary Celebration

(5b) The NWU: 30 Years Later by Larry Goldbetter

5(c) Writing The Future by Jan Clausen

6. Another Member Sparks Dialogue

Part II: Around Town

7. Sonia Sanchez Now Poet Laureate

8. True South Lecture Series

9. January Phat Tuesday Reading

10. Community Meets Over Mis-Education Agenda

11. Diaspora @ Sistas Place

12. Revolution in Exhibition

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Part I: Within the Union

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1. NWU/NY Forum: How to sell it

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Monday, January 9, 2012 (6-8:30 p.m.) The NWU NY Chapter begins the New Year with its ongoing 1^st Mondays Writers Seminars, featuring author Leonard Peters sharing his expertise in How to sell it with a Winning Presentation how best to present and negotiate your ideas, manuscript, book, et al, to win over an agent, a publisher, a reviewer, and your potential readers with a powerful, convincing presentation its how you do it that can make all the difference.

Leonard Peters, author of the upcoming book, Demystifying Public Speaking: The Art and Essence of Communication, has been mentoring professionals in such far-ranging fields as publishing, theatre, politics, media, architecture, law, religion, healthcare, business, and finance.

Moderated by NWU novelist Tim Sheard, this event takes place at the UAW/NWU headquarters, 256 West 38 Street, 12th floor Conference Room, starting at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. For more information, call 917.428.1352, or email at either info@nwuny.org or timsheard@optonline.net.

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2. Publicist Wanted

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Immediate: Brooklyn-based Melville House is seeking a publicist for its book releases.

Duties include designing campaigns; writing press materials; securing coverage; managing pre-publication reviews and publicity; arranging and managing events and tours; maintaining social networking campaigns; daily blogging on company website; representing the company at events; and raising the companys profile.

Send an email including a cover letter, resume, and attached writing sample giving evidence of ability to write press materials and blog posts, to Dennis Johnson at dlj@mhpbooks.com. In the cover letter, please detail not only your experience, but how your skills match up to our list. Salary to upper 30s plus

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3. UpWrite Editorial Services

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Effective April 2011 If youre looking for an editor, a writing coach, freelance writer and writing instructor, consider Loretta H. Campbell. An activist member of the NWU New York Chapter, Ms. Campbell is accepting writing and editing assignments in addition to teaching and tutoring both on a one-on-one basis and in workshop settings.

Her background includes teaching writing skills at Touro College, a position shes held since 2003, proofreading abstracts and manuscripts for Elsevier Science and for Bear Stearns, at which company she reviewed financial documents prior to their publication. Having majored in Journalism at Syracuse University, she began her professional writing career with The City Sun, in Brooklyn, where she served as both a freelance news reporter and the editor for that papers weekly Health page.

She can be reached via email at lucianikita@verizon.net.

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4. NWU NY Member Web Sites

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Between The Lines encourages all members to visit the web sites of NWU/NY Chapter members (yes, New Jersey members as well). If youre looking for assistance, collaboration, speakers, editors, educators, or a new book to read, try starting with these:

* Peter Benjaminson (author/lecturer) peterbenjaminson.com.

[Florence Ballard: The Lost Supreme available at thelostsupreme.com.]

* Samuel Buckley (author) web site/ phoenixstoryproductionsllc.com; books available at www.buckleysamuel.com.

* Loretta Campbell (author/editor/educator) UpWrite.weebly.com.

* Susan Elizabeth Davis (activist/author) sednyc@rcn.com [email].

* Barbara Fisher & Richard Spiegel (editors/educators) offering archived books, video readings, interviews, et al at tenpennyplayers.org.

* Thomas Altfather Good (writer/editor/photojournalist) has two web sites (nextleftnotes.net, thomasgood.com). Contact: thomasaltfathergood@gmail.com.

* Michael Lindgren (freelance editor/author) www.mikelindgren.com.

* JoAnne Meekins (author/speaker) joannemeekins-inspired4u.com

*Charles Patterson(author/therapist/editor) excellenteditor.com [author of Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust(4th printing; 14 languages powerfulbook.com].

* Roy Murphy (author/editor/designer) murphyroy.com.

* Tim Sheard (author/teacher) timsheard.com.

[Note to NY Chapter Members: To be listed in BTL Member Web Sites, send information to Louisreyesrivera@aol.com. To be listed in the New York Chapter web site, send to Alexandria Faiz at alphaomegastrategies@gmail.com. For other updates, news, and access to NWU archived materials, visit the National Writers Union general web site at www.nwu.org.]

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5(a). Report: NY NWUs 30th Anniversary Celebration

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[Editors Note: If you werent there, you missed a wonderful program celebrating the National Writers Unions 30th Anniversary, held this past December 5, 2011, at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, in Manhattan, and bearing the theme, Writing The Future. Before an estimated crowd of 70 celebrants, each of the speakers brought high quality to each of their respective senses of vision that earned them a collective standing ovation by the end of the 90-minute program. Emcee/NWU activist Susan E. Davis gave a concise summation of NWUs history; UAWs Scott Sommer delivered his incisive congratulatory remarks with both humor and seriousness; President Larry Goldbetter gave an impressive overview of the NWUs future, union activist-educator Jan Clausen literally astounded everyone with her extremely well-thought out commentary on the theme, fee-lancer Herb Boyd shared a highly personal and relevant series of remarks on the need for such as NWU, and Louis Reyes Rivera recited several of his riveting class/caste conscious poems that brought the program to a close and all participants to their feet. For your edification, BTL reprints the text of statements delivered by both Larry Goldbetter and Jan Clausen.]

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(5b) The NWU: 30 Years Later

by Larry Goldbetter

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Welcome special guests

They say the first 30 years are the hardest! You wont get an argument from the National Writers Union. Its been quite a road weve traveled, from the Land of Ronald Reagan in 1981, to Zucotti Park and the spirit of Occupy in 2011. Reagan huffed and puffed and blew down the Berlin Wall and the old Soviet Union, which had already thoroughly rotted out from within, and unleashed an assault on working people and unions that continues to this day. With unions at their lowest level since the Great Depression and with 90% of the workforce non-union, here we are, still standing. No small accomplishment. Thats one reason we celebrate tonight.

By now, most of you are aware of Inkwell, a Development House used by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, one of the Big Three textbook publishers in the US. Inkwell shut its doors in 2009, after not paying 60 freelancers for three months, owing them over $360,000 for a completed, translated Texas textbook project. On my second day on this job, we held a meeting with 17 workers in the union conference room. It was the start of a great relationship. We had confidence in those freelancers, and we earned their confidence for the union. Today, we won a court settlement for the full amount. This is not the end of the fight. It will take a long time to collect. There is no justice under the 1%. But no matter how much we end up collecting, we have put the Inkwell bosses out of business for good. They will not rip off anyone else. And we have a number of Inkwell workers in our union, becoming more active and becoming leaders. That, as the commercial says, is priceless! Standing up with the Inkwell freelancers has made us a stronger union. And we celebrate that tonight as well.

But the truth is, things may get worse before they get better. We live in a world defined by growing wars, economic crises and austerity budgets. The bankers and billionaires are passing out bonus checks while more than 30 million workers remain unemployed and underemployed, and every benefit fought for over the past 70 or 80 years is being stripped away. Working freelancers, some in this room, cant collect any unemployment insurance and arent counted in the figures.

Among Black, Latino and immigrant writers and workers, things are even worse. Todays NY Times lead editorial reports that for Black workers, unemployment rose to 15.5% even as the national figure dipped, and that tens of thousands of Black workers have been hit first and hardest from the loss of over half-a-million public sector jobs since 2008.

Here, there are more Black New Yorkers out of work than white, even though there are 1.5 million more white people in NYC. Immigrants and the poor are scapegoated with mass deportations and racist budget cuts, while Newt Gingrich campaigns for President on a platform of abolishing child labor laws and putting poor children to work as janitors in their schools. As UAW President Bob King said some months ago, in many ways these times mirror the developments in Hitlers Germany which reminds me there is a recent poll that shows that a communist takeover of the United States is now more popular than Congress! I dont wanna say I told you so, but thats for another discussion.

Low pay and rising poverty directly affect our membership. Between 75-80% pay the minimum dues, and its a struggle for them to maintain their membership. They say tough times produce tough people. Were about to find out what were made of.

Our industry is in turmoil, caught between amazing technological advances, economic crises, and the drive for maximum profits. Print newspaper and magazine circulation is dropping, and many are either folding or going digital. Tens of thousands of journalists are losing their jobs. Whats more, the shift to digital journalism is driving down the pay scales of online journalists and creating a business model that rests on free labor.

This issue was crystalized when last February Arianna Huffington sold the Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million and landed a $4 million/year job as content director for AOL. She was able to establish a progressive brand and following based on hundreds of journalists who contributed their work for free in order to bring more traffic to this progressive site. These were professional journalists who worked on assignment, including our members. Arianna says that writers should be glad to write for free in exchange for free exposure. But it is the Huffington Post that profited from the free exposure brought by these writers Huffington on TV talking about low paying jobs while she makes millions off NO-paying jobs.

For seven months, we led a boycott against HuffPo with the Newspaper Guild. Many labor leaders, including the UAW, as well as hundreds of writers, journalists and bloggers, supported it [As a result of that experience, our] goal remains the organizing of hundreds of freelancers into the NWU and establishing an industry standard of fair pay for quality journalism at online publications. If we represent few writers, our chances are slim to none. If we represent many, we have a much better shot. This is a complicated fight. The vast majority of HP bloggers are willing to write for free, but they bring little if any traffic to HP. Our challenge is to organize online freelance journalists and involve them in the process of thinking this through.

In book publishing, the big publishers are consolidating while many book authors turn to self-publishing to try and make their mark. This year, ten million people read 100 million e-books, double the number for 2010. Yet publishers want to pay authors the same for e-books even though it costs them nothing in print, shipping, or storage costs.

And Google has digitized about 17 million books without the consent of a single author, ripping off the electronic rights of all authors even as a federal judge has thrown out the proposed Google Book settlement.

NWU, Science Fiction Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) opposed this settlement and played a significant role in getting it thrown out. Now we are continuing to talk and plan a joint strategy that truly represents the best interests of authors and readers [and that may lead] to a Digital Library of Congress, not Google and we celebrate that tonight!

NWU leaders met this spring with the White House Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator to advocate prosecuting publishers who criminally violate writers copyrights and contract agreements. And the new head of the US Copyright office, Maria Pallante, is a former NWU Executive Director, and we are in touch with her and we celebrate that tonight!

Just last month, the Second Circuit Court threw out the $18 million class-action lawsuit settlement resulting from New York Times vs. Tasini. Now there is no settlement, and we will have to meet with the UAW Legal Department to assess our options and have a full discussion in the union.

The turmoil and crises facing freelancers demands a strong union that fights for its members and for the whole working class. Our union, with all our limitations and weaknesses, starting with mine, is answering that call and we celebrate that tonight!

There are no easy answers. It takes a lot of hard work to push that boulder up that hill, even a little bit. And it will take all of us pushing in the same direction; towards the next fight; towards another organizing opportunity, and towards a bigger, stronger, more active, more integrated NWU.

Its not just what we bring to freelance writers, but what they bring to us their knowledge, their experience, their willingness to fight back. As we put the union in their hands and they make it their own, it will become something even more special. If youre not a member, join tonight. If youve lapsed, renew. If youre current, make a commitment to sign up a couple of colleagues. Get active.

Heres to the next 30 years!

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5(c) Writing The Future

by Jan Clausen

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First of all, I want to say how honored I feel to be speaking here tonight doubly honored because, though I've been a consistent, dues-paying member of UAW Local 1981 since the 1980's, and though I've been a dedicated activist with another UAW local, 7902 the union that represents part-time faculty at my former employer, the New School I can't say I've been active with the National Writers Union. I've just been tremendously grateful through the years that the NWU was there, fighting both good old garden variety exploitation and the harsh consequences for freelancers of the radical structural changes afoot in the publishing world. The ascendancy of bookstore chains and then Amazon at the expense of independents, the collapse of the so-called mid-list book, the multiple revolutions in electronic publishing, the evisceration of print journalism taken together, these developments threaten writers at a level that strikes me as metaphorically comparable to the Enclosures in late 18th and early 19th century England. As described by E.P. Thompson in The Making of the English Working Class, the enclosures of common lands broke the independence of artisan workers, driving the poor into a stark condition of miserable industrial servitude. The National Writers Union is our vehicle for collective resistance to the corporate publishing juggernaut.

I find the topic of this evening's celebration, "Writing the Future," to be both thrilling and terrifying. It's thrilling because we are living such a fraught historical moment, with a surge of peaceful, creative resistance as working people in many countries proclaim our intention to "write our own future," rather than have it written for us by the corporate masters, the post-colonial masters, the masters of war in short, the one percent. As Indian novelist and activist Arundhati Roy reminds us, what we need now is not only mobilization, but a sea change in the social imagination:

Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones were being brainwashed to believe." [War Talk]

If Roy is right, as people devoted to crafting words and shaping narratives, we writers have a central role to play. What an opportunity! But at the same time what a fearful responsibility! To "write the future" means squarely facing the long odds against fashioning a truly sustainable global order, one that bends the narrative arc in the direction of justice. Even beyond that, we must face the threat of threats: absent some radical course corrections, humanity may not have any future at all. As just one example, the Durban climate conference, unfolding at this moment, raises the most profound questions about our ability to compel a reconfiguration of the planetary economy and a new accountability on the part of wealthy nations for their (our) disproportionate part in creating this crisis.

Beyond chanting, "We are unstoppable another world is possible!" it will take the full spectrum of human skills, courage, and creativity to bring that world into being. We have no guarantees. As writers, we are indeed on the frontlines of a new situation for the species imagination: not the mere possibility of "the end of the world" (something that many cultures and traditions have depicted in mythic and religious terms), but the prospect that we may quite literally be done in by failure to grasp the consequences of our cumulative power to destroy each other and the biosphere. Our collective challenge, then, is no less than the invention of what poet Muriel Rukeyser called "a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values.

The invention of that way of living, I want to suggest, may depend less on snazzy futuristic visions than on our ability to face and assimilate the truths of history, as in the writings of those poets and novelists whose work constitutes a profound meditation on histories of survival in the face of terrible damage. Im thinking, for example, of the moment when Tayo, the American Indian war veteran and apprentice shaman at the center of Leslie Marmon Silkos great novel, Ceremony, arrives at the point of convergence where the fate of all living things, and even the earth, had been laid [T]he lines of cultures and worlds were drawn in flat dark lines on fine light sand, converging in the middle of witcherys final sand painting. From that time on, human beings were one clan again, united by the fate the destroyers planned for all of them, for all living things.

So, I've moved from the very local and specific the plight of the American writer caught in the gears of a technologically-enabled structural shift in the publishing world to the very, VERY big picture of planetary crisis. Where does a plucky, U.S.-based writers' union that fights for freelancers sit in all of this?

The first and simplest answer is that "we (writers) ARE the 99%," and, as in other industries, a union is an absolute necessity to help us fight the conditions of our exploitation. Whatever our genre or specialty, the vast majority of wordsmiths are targets in the class war being waged against all kinds of working people. Our first task is simply to survive long enough in our profession to even have a shot at writing in the future. I recently got scared, then infuriated, when I realized how many of my writer friends, both older and considerably younger than I, have left New York or are on the verge of leaving because they can't afford to live here any longer. Add to that the numbers of those with strong publishing track records who can't get their new work accepted anywhere, or are making the choice to sign a contract for virtually no advance simply to get a book out, and you will see that, if the 99% of non-elite writers expect to sustain a writing life, we must get together and fight back. United we bargain, divided we beg is every bit as true for writers as for transit workers, teachers, carpenters, or nurses. Pay the writer!

The Writers Union is also a vehicle for freelance writers to enact solidarity with other unionists in our struggle for social justice, thus having an important effect on both the direction of the labor movement and the larger political process. I'll give just one key example, Local 1981's affiliation with U.S. Labor Against the War. USLAW works within local unions and nationally to raise labor's voice against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, calling for new priorities that cut military spending and channel tax monies into domestic job creation, social safety nets, and more. Thanks largely to USLAW's organizing within union locals, many of which passed their own resolutions on the topic, last August the AFL-CIO's National Executive Council issued a groundbreaking statement that reads: "There is no way to fund what we must do as a nation without bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The militarization of our foreign policy has proven to be a costly mistake. It is time to invest at home."

It means a lot to have Local 1981 affiliated with USLAW, even more so because there's a strong network of other UAW locals in the northeast that have made the same commitment.

I don't have time to mention all the ways in which the National Writers Union fights to give us a shot at writing a livable and creatively satisfying future, but in closing, I want to touch on one more key dimension of this effort. When I look at the list of major campaigns that the NWU has been involved in, legal actions like the historic Tasini vs. The Times lawsuit (involving electronic publication rights to material originally published in print) and the current action against the proposed Google Book Settlement stand out as major interventions in writers' struggles to control the products of our labor. Above and beyond the important question of our legal right to our "intellectual property," the ability of writers to exercise a decent level of control over what happens to the material we produce implicates, in the long run, the cultural understanding and impact of that work.

Like other intellectual workers teachers, public interest lawyers, medical professionals, for instance writers are discovering that getting organized is the precondition for effective resistance to corporate-style attempts to hollow out our vocation until it has no meaning beyond its ability to generate a profit. We see this currently in the redefinition of writer as "content provider," implying that our work is nothing more than the necessary pretext for lucrative ad click-through rates, while the term "author is reinterpreted in the lexicon of publishing conglomerates to mean the celebrity, famous for being famous, whose "book" can be manufactured with the aid of a ghost writer.

"Writing the future" means, in the fullest sense, wresting back our work from corporate definitions of "content" and reasserting the centrality of our storytelling, wordplay, reporting, and critical analysis to the future shape of the culture itself.

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6. Another Member Sparks Dialogue

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[Editors Note: Back in November, I posted in BTL an overview of the Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS) and its social/political impact across the U.S. and the planet [see Between The Lines, November 2011, Item 6. Citizens & Unions Alike Back Occupy Wall Street]. One member simply reacted to the content of the article in a manner that reflected much of the void endemic to right wing thinking (or lack thereof). After communicating with that author, I offered to run the letter in the December issue (see Between The Lines, December 2011, Item 4. A Members Commentary). After running the item, I received several critical responses, the most intelligent of which is presented here in the form of the dialogue I initially sought and thought most appropriate to a writers community.]

Dear Louis:

I am responding to a section in your latest (December) Between the Lines where you saw fit to publish a diatribe against the OWS which was full of unsubstantiated and erroneous abuse and assertions against this almost entirely peaceful movement.You spoke of the "opportunity for in-house dialogue," but there was no opportunity to be found there because there was no respect, nor were any intelligent proposals or analysis offered.And the name attributed at the end was obviously bogus, so the whole thing was a sorry example of what we're supposed to be good at, namely, writing and taking responsibility for it.

I notice that this kind of mistake is made by many progressive blogs that I

look at, such as, among many others, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo.They reproduce a dozen or more paragraphs of some rightwing hate rant and then append a supposed "ironic" comment which superficially agrees with it.I suppose they think they're showing these people up, whereas they are merely preaching to the choir and supplying yet another outlet for the hate propaganda without adequately answering it.In fact their response merely shows another form of assumed superiority.

Such hate examples could be described and summarized, with perhaps a representative quoted phrase or two, without reproducing them in full and thereby circulating the message further, and then answered in an appropriately responsible way.If people want to read the whole thing, it could be made available to them on request.I think that would be a much better use of space for the NWU's Between the Lines and a higher standard to aspire to.

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Dear Roy:

I welcome your comment and ask you to allow me to run it in the next issue. If you wish to add to it or flesh it out more, please do so. I'll wait for your response.

Yes, I've been catching flack for running that diatribe. And yes, I totally disagree with the content of that message, its approach and its lack.

But we've been down this road before i.e., members of the NY Chapter had previously taken potshots at me once before to the point ofranting at the coverage I gave to what I considered a legitimately progressive event.

It happens that, several years ago, the NY Steering Committee and then-NWU President Gerard Colby supported the convocation of an Arab-American literature conference, which support was severely criticized by chapter members who virtually saw it as anti-Israeli (the organizing group for that conference planned to hold a fundraiser for the conference with Amiri Baraka as keynote speaker to the fundraiser itself it was of no consequence that the fundraiser and its keynote had nothing to do with NWU support for the proposed conference itself but that Baraka was involved in an Arab-American writers effort). The 'ranting' was so infectious that, for the sake of both clarity and dialogue, I had to gather all of the comments into one email (along with my response) and package them into one full reportage to Chapter members. Theend result wasa better understanding of the issues involved in that episode and the legitimacy of the positions/actions I had taken.

Similarly, this particular came up. How best to handle it?

(1) Like it or not, there's a sentiment, a proclivitywithin ourmembership, as within our general population (i.e., the actual rise of Tea baggersand all others in between)towards what could betermed in a manner of ways as right wing, reactionary, conservative, and peppered with the libelous and unfounded (your choice).We see it on CNN and MSNBC every day.

While I would like to believe that the overwhelming majority of NWU members (especially in NY, SF, et al) are much clearer and share a more progressive-to-radical perspective, neither you nor I can comfortably assert that the other is non-existent or that it comprises an "insignificant" minority there's nothing insignificant about right wing thought witness the current composition of the House of Representatives.

(2) Meanwhile, our media sources (the ones that update us with what(?) "information") are totally inundated with widespread distortions of such a caliber that the overwhelmingly majority of our citizens focus more on distractive non-issues (Herman Cain's personal indiscretions taking up three weeks of daily news coverage being a more recent example) that, in fact, we are all being dis- and misinformedby what is no longer a "free press" and to the extent that whatresults is the kind of diatribe I decided to let run in BTL.

Why? Why did I do that? How could I permit such a blast of ignorance into the pages of our newsletter?

(3) Because it exists, and has long existed in this culture and in this country.I could easily take you back from 1850 through to the present with adequate examplestestifying to our collective backwardness the Fugitive Slave Act, the Civil War, the post-Reconstruction rise of the KKK, the 100 years of lynching Black folk as a matter of course, the rise of an imperialist U.S., the Palmer Raids, union-busting, the resistance to FDR's patchwork reforms, the televised daily and violent repression of citizens wanting but to register to vote (i.e., the Civil Rights Movement), thewanton murders we all euphemistically refer to as assassinations of how many progressives and liberals throughout the 1960s, beginning with Patrice Lumumba, Medgar Evers, JFK, Malcolm X,MLK, RFK, the full implementation ofCOINTELPRO, the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush/Cheney administrations, brick by brick, chipping away at citizen-oriented reforms that had been put in place from FDR to LBJ all of which brings us into the present.

What that writer wrote is merely more testimony to our collective lack of clarity and to our collective insistent denial of both the fascist/racist nature of our politic and ofour acquiescent acceptance of our state. After all, did we not witness the literal theft of two presidential elections? Where the outcry against such heresy?

(4) I disagree with you on one point that I gave lip service to an "opportunity for in-house dialogue" without substance (i.e., in your words, "because there was no respect, nor were any intelligent proposals or analysis offered"). Why do I disagree because, by running that member's rant, I did open up for a sorely needed dialogue needed not just among writers in this union, but throughout the planet and who best to promulgate such a dialogue than from within "our better representatives" (to borrow a phrase fromFrantz Fanon) to wit, the writers (i.e., thinkers)among us.

What that member's email made clear is the fact that we all beardistortion, that too many of us have bought into the current hypefully propagatedwithin the construct of an ever-growing corporate-dominated world (fascism in another face) andto such an extent thatclarity requiresa long discussion not just an article or a paragraph in one issue of a newsletter.

The fact is this 46% of ourown citizenry (across the board) are functionally illiterate. That's damn near half of our total population. But, given that statistic, what does this say about the other 54%, with all of those levels of difference in thedegrees to which they've developed both some semblance of literacy and critical thinking skills?

(5) Please. As writers (as thinkers), we have the capacityto propagate dialogue towards clarity. Join me in that effort. Let's confront our own ignorance. The OWS and its detractors are, in fact, current metaphors for the contradiction that has always ailed human progress. Help me to use the metaphors to expand our own human possibility.

A quick glance around our planet, today,clearly reflects the need to contribute dialogue against the distortions we continue to be guided by. It's all there, right in our faces. Not just in the Middle East and North Africa. Not just inEast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Not justin South America and the oft-ignored Caribbean (as with our own attitudes and hidden agendas regarding sovereignty and conglomerate control over such asHaiti and Puerto Rico), but right here in New York City,in Arizona and in Texas, in Atlanta and in South Central Los Angeles.

What OWS offers is the need to confront; what OWS lacks, we have the capacity to lend. And it's a good time (this epoch we're in) to do so how else, if not to confront ourselves.

Later. Louis.

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Louis:

Thanks for your always thoughtful and intelligent response.I still don't believe that publishing such stuff without context or response is productive, and in fact is counter-productive because it enrages the progressives while promoting a destructive message.However, we can agree to differ on that.

Sure you can publish my response if you wish.Let's hope it's not the only one.It may even provoke a more restrained deconstruction of the Occupy movement, which is not a bad thing.

I was going to speak to you at the 30th celebration, but you are always inundated with admirers.

Yours, Roy Murphy.

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Part II: Around Town

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7. Sonia Sanchez Now Poet Laureate

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As of Thursday, December 29, 2011, Mayor Michael Nutter and the City of Philadelphia have installed West Philadelphia resident Sonia Sanchez as their first Poet Laureate. In his announcement, Mayor Nutter called Ms. Sanchez "the longtime conscience of the city."

Throughout her vocation as such, the 77-year-old poet has geared her poetry as a tool for social activism during the culminating periods of both the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements. As well, the Harlem born poet has held teaching positions at eight universities, including her long-time residency at Temple University.

At the induction ceremony, Mayor Nutter said, "Poetry is an extraordinary and powerful art form. Ms. Sanchez exemplifies the role a poet can play in helping to define a city and helping its citizens discover beauty."

In her position, shell be called upon to mentor a youth poet laureate and appear at Spoken Word and other poetry events at City Hall and at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Ms. Sanchez was quoted as stating that she seeks to explore what it means to be human in the 21st century. To her, that means promoting peace in self and others. One project that she has recently initiated is to gather haikus from her comrades of the pen (i.e., Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Louis Reyes Rivera, among others) for purposes of having them posted on a public mural in South Philadelphia. The theme Peace!

======================

8. True South Lecture Series

======================

January 2012: True South Bookstore is offering a series of short Black History courses throughout January.

Fri., Jan. 6: Jitu Weusi raps up his on-going updated and detailed discussion of Booker T. Washingtons Up From Slavery, from 6:15 pm 8:30 pm. Suggested Donation: $10.00; copies of text are available for sale.

Sun., Jan. 8, 15, 22, 29: True South Bookstores Brother Brown will lead a four-part discourse on Ancient Egypt through the use of co-author Robert Bauvals Black Genesis and The Orion Mystery, from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Copies of both texts available for sale. Wed., Jan. 11, 18: Kinyofu Mlimwengu conducts a Computer Basics course for seniors and beginners (Windows Operating System only), from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Suggested donation (sliding scale) $15 to $20 (for the two sessions).

Fri., Jan. 13, 20; Fri., Feb. 3, 17: Poet/essayist Louis Reyes Rivera begins his seven-session discourse, What They Still Dont Teach Us, an overview of historical chapters not in standard texts, with an emphasis on common trends in the development of the American hemisphere. Sessions run from 6:15 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Find out why Rivera is known as the Janitor of History.

Mon., Jan. 16: True South Bookstore offers a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., focusing on the question, Where is his dream today? Discussion includes a survey of Claude Andersons Powernomics: The National Plan to Empower Black America and Tom Burrells Brainwashed.

Fri., Jan. 27: the Rev. Elizabeth Butler discusses the relevance of Biblical Engagement, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. While donations are welcomed, this event is free.

9. January Phat Tuesday Reading

==========================

Poets Layding Kaliba, Atiba Kwabena and Tony Mitchelson continue hosting their Phat Tuesdays monthly music and Spoken Word program as part of their Linyak Project and in collaboration with Sisters Uptown Bookstore. Readings take place every second Tuesday of each month. The new year's January entre takes place Tuesday, January 10, with featured poets C. D. Grant, Tom Mitchelson, Tanya Tyler,with music provided byAtiba Kwabena Trio, and an open mic added in. All readings run from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sister's Uptown Bookstore is located at 1942 Amsterdam Ave., between West 156 and 157 streets (# 1 train to 157 St., or the C train to 155 St.), in Manhattan. Visit sistersuptownbookstore.com on line or call 212.862.3680 for more information.

=======================================

10. Community Meets Over Mis-Education Agenda

=======================================

Saturday, January 14, 2012: a broad coalition of parents, educators, students, community leaders and activists will meet at Clay Avenue Tenants Community Center, in the Bronx, as part of an on-going effort to organize and challenge Mayor Bloombergs devastating control over the public school system.

Whats behind the Mayors agenda? Why the charter school invasion along with its concomitant co-location of charter schools in the same building as the public schools and the latters multiple closings? What are the myths and facts regarding this political assault on the education of our youth? What can united citizens do to stop it?

The Clay Avenue Tenants Community Center is located at 1195 Clay Avenue (corner of 168th Street), in the Bronx. [Take the D train to 167th Street or the No. 4 train to 169th Street (or the BX35 bus to 168th Street and Webster).]

The event starts at 12 noon through 4 p.m., and is open to all concerned citizens. For more information, call 347.447.7645 and/or 718.467.1195.

==================

11. Diaspora @ Sistas Place

==================

Saturday, January 21: Sistas' Place continues its January line-up of Saturday Night Jazz Concerts with trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah leading his Diaspora ensemble Alex Harding (baritone), D.D. Jackson (piano), Radu (bass), Reggie Nicholson (drums), along with vocalists Miles Griffith, Monique Ngozi Nri, and poet Louis Reyes Rivera. They hit with two sets [9 & 10:30 p.m.].

Reservations are highly recommended as this group tends to consistently draw Standing Room Onlys. Sistas is located at 456 Nostrand Avenue (at Jefferson Ave., Brooklyn). For reservations and information, call 718.398.1766.

================

12. Revolution in Exhibition

================

The New York Historical Society (NYHS) continues its exhibition, Are You Ready for the Revolution! Described as a path-breaking part of the societys educational initiative, the exhibition runs through April 14, 2012. Among the exhibitors is NWU NY Chapter member, author/fine artist Phyllis Bowdwin. Her work includes a poster she designed and a special brooch commissioned specifically for Revolution!

This exhibition exploresthe enormous transformations in politics and culture between the 1763 triumph of the British Empire in the Seven Years' War and the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815), comparing three globally influential revolutions the American, French and Haitian revolutions that are presented for the first time as one global narrative.

Exhibits include treasured paintings, drawings and prints from the NYHS along with historical documents, manuscripts, maps, audio-visual presentations, computer-interactive learning stations, and new works of artthat link the attacks on monarchism and aristocracy with the struggle against slavery to demonstrate how freedom, equality and national sovereignty became universal goals, fully establishing the principle of human rights and the struggle for justice.

Located at 170 Central Park West (near West 77 Street), in Manhattan, the NYHS is open from Tuesdays through Saturdays ( 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and on Sundays (11 a.m. to 5 p.m). For information, call 212.873.3400.

December 2011

Editor: Louis Reyes Rivera

Louisreyesrivera@aol.com

==============

Table of Contents

===============================

Special Invitation: Celebrate NWUs 30^thAnniversary

===============================

Part One: Union News and Advisories

1. Pre-Holiday Forum/Celebration

2. Presidents Report /November 16, 2011

3. NWU Marches With NY Central Labor

4. A Members Commentary

5. NWU NY Member Web Sites

Part Two: Around Town

6. Jazz @ Sistas Place

7. Ending the Decline of Progressive Media

A New Media Outlet Makes Its Debut

8. Jazzy Mondays at For My Sweet

9. Ongoing Anniversary:MontgomeryBus Boycott!

10. Phat Tuesday Poetry Jam

11. Website for Latino Authors

12. Revolution in Exhibition

==========================

Part One: Union News and Advisories

1. Pre-Holiday Forum/Celebration

2. Presidents Report /November 16, 2011

3. NWU Marches With NY Central Labor

4. A Members Commentary

5. NWU NY Member Web Sites

Part Two: Around Town

6. Jazz @ Sistas Place

7. Ending the Decline of Progressive Media

A New Media Outlet Makes Its Debut

8. Jazzy Mondays at For My Sweet

9. Ongoing Anniversary:MontgomeryBus Boycott!

10. Phat Tuesday Poetry Jam

11. Website for Latino Authors

12. Revolution in Exhibition

==========================

Part One: Union News and Advisories

==========================

1. Pre-Holiday Forum/Celebration

====================

Monday, December 12, 2011:The National Writers Union New York Chapter hosts an annualHoliday Partyas part of its monthly seminars at theHoundstooth Pub(downstairs), located at520 Eighth Ave.(at West 37St.), in Manhattan.

In addition to food, beverages and someAuld Lang Syne[literally meaning,old long since, orlong long ago, i.e.,on behalf of days gone by], this years theme isPlanning for Success in the New Year a round robin discussion with veteran writers on how best to make our goals marketable.

All members are naturally invited to attend. Writers yet to join the NWU and want to learn more about what the union offers its members should consider joining in the discussion. Come share with us as we continue networking with other writers as key to every attempt each of us makes.

This celebratory seminar is free and open to the public, refreshments and all, and runsfrom6to8:30 p.m.For information, contact Tim Sheard atinfo@nwuny.orgor call 917 428 1352.

=========================

2. Presidents Report /November 16, 2011

=========================

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the very day our union was founded in 1981. Its only been three weeks since our last report so there isnt too much thats new. But this past Monday, I attended the DC Chapters 30th anniversary event at the UAW Legislative Offices and it was a winner. Organized in large part by new chair, Margie Burns and Ann Hoffman, there were about 20 people, plenty of refreshments and lots of good discussion.

Former NWU President Alec Dubro was there with his wife Kim, a former NWU ED. Long-time GCD activist Phil Materra came as did a mix of new and veteran members. NWU Delegate Tim Ryan, who works at theAFL-CIOSolidarityCenterwas giving his card and offering help to a speaker fromOccupyDC, a young AU freshman interested in journalism. Through Ann, the chapter is also in touch with the new head of the US Copyright Office, who is also a former NWU ED. The DC Chapter is in good hands and in good shape.

On the same theme, a more modest event was planned for LA last Sunday, and in NY, the national office and the NY SC are working hard to make the December 5 event a success. Were having weekly planning meetings and the event looks good. Now we have to make sure theres a good crowd to participate. We have the 30 Inkwell workers, the 70 writers who took part in the Oct. 15 conference, the 30 who participated in the PTW panel and others whove signed up for the campaign, and many current and lapsed members to focus on.

Were also hoping to get some guests from ASJA, USLAW and other UAW locals. A press release went out and its posted on Media Bistro and Craigs List. Well try to either organize phone banks or see about using a robo-call to contact people.

Bostonis planning its event in January and the Bay Area in February. Carrying out this resolution from the DA was not easy or a slam dunk, but it is proving to be a challenge to the chapters, and they are responding.

Pay The Writer!

Since we last met, I attended a forum at the Columbia J-School with John Dinges and NY journalist, Carl Ginsburg. Like ours, it was on the Changing Media Landscape, only much bigger, given it was packed withColumbiastudents. John introduced me to some students, and there was at least one young woman there I recognized from our event. We exchanged cards and Ive invited her to our Dec. 5 celebration. I got a chance to speak from the floor and plugged PayTheWriter, and the room applauded, not a bad sign.I think I got about three new names there, plus the time spent with John and Carl was very important.

OWS

We are participating in the National Day of Action tomorrow, which has taken on special significance since the police eviction fromLibertyPlazaearly Monday morning. Most major unions have issued press releases condemning themidnightraid, including the UAW (http://www.uaw.org/articles/statement-uaw-president-bob-king-condemning-overnight-raids-occupy-wall-street-protesters). We are especially concerned over the arrest of six journalists trying to cover the raid and the fact that for a good part of Monday the police and the City enforced a news blackout on events, not honoring reporters press passes.

We have been involved to one degree or another in numerous cities. As I mentioned in the last report, we need to pull together an informal NWU network of members involved in OWS. NY member Tim Sheard wants to put together an e-book, collecting stories from everywhere we are involved.

Larry Goldbetter, President
NWU/UAW Local 1981

=======================

3. NWU Marches With NY Central Labor

=======================

This pastThursday,December1, 2011, theNew York City Central Labor Council, of which the NWU New York Chapter is a member,sponsored aMarch for Jobs and Economic Fairness. The march, in solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon that has stretched across the nation and several parts of the planet, stretched in numbers, according to reports, occupying no less than five city blocks.Marchers from well over 100 affiliated local unions began to gatherat4:00 p.m.,atHerald Squareand walked alongBroadway toUnion Square.

In addition to an outpouring ofNew Yorkunions, sistersand brothers from the labor movement came from Upstate New York, Connecticut,MassachusettsandNew Jersey. As part of this collaborative effort, no speakers were scheduled to address the overwhelming crowds, as the marchers themselves testified on their own behalf by the sheer numbers of participants. It was joyous, said C.C. Reilly, a member of the NWU NY Chapter delegation.

The permit for the march, said one UAW spokesperson, was for the entire street, curb to curb.Broadway was ours!

5. NWU NY Member Web Sites

===================

Between The Linesencourages all members to visit the web sites of NWU/NY Chapter members (yes,New Jerseymembers as well). If youre looking for assistance, collaboration, speakers, editors, educators, or a new book to read, try starting with these:

*Peter Benjaminson(author/lecturer)peterbenjaminson.com.

[FlorenceBallard:The Lost Supremeavailable atthelostsupreme.com.]

*Samuel Buckley(author) web site/phoenixstoryproductionsllc.com; books available atwww.buckleysamuel.com.

*Loretta Campbell(author/editor/educator)UpWrite.weebly.com.

* Susan Elizabeth Davis(activist/author)sednyc@rcn.com[email].

*Barbara Fisher & Richard Spiegel(editors/educators) offering archived books, video readings, interviews, et al attenpennyplayers.org.

*Thomas Altfather Good(writer/editor/photojournalist) has two web sites (nextleftnotes.net,thomasgood.com). Contact:thomasaltfathergood@gmail.com.

*Michael Lindgren(freelance editor/author)www.mikelindgren.com.

*JoAnne Meekins(author/speaker)joannemeekins-inspired4u.com

*Charles Patterson(author/therapist/editor)excellenteditor.com[author ofEternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust(4th printing; 14 languages powerfulbook.com].

*Roy Murphy(author/editor/designer)murphyroy.com.

*Tim Sheard(author/teacher)timsheard.com.

[Note to NY Chapter Members: To be listed in BTL Member Web Sites, send information toLouisreyesrivera@aol.com. To be listed in the New York Chapter web site, send to Alexandria Faiz atalphaomegastrategies@gmail.com. For other updates, news, and access to NWU archived materials, visit the National Writers Union general web site atwww.nwu.org.]

==================

Part Two: Around Town

==================

6. Jazz @ Sistas Place

==============

Saturday, December 3: Sistas' Place continues its 17 season with Kiane Zawadi on trombone, Charles Davis Jr. on saxophone, Sharp Radway on piano, Taru Alexander on drums, and Radu on bass.

OnSaturday, December 17,Tulivu Donna Cumberbatchwill be kicking it there with her band. Both concerts include two sets(at 9 and10:30 p.m.).

Sistas Place is located at456 Nostrand Ave., atJefferson Ave., inBrooklyn. For information and reservations, call 718 398-1766. Admission is $20 with reservations, and $25 at the door.

==========================

Part One: Union News and Advisories

==========================

7. Ending the Decline of Progressive Media

A New Media Outlet Makes Its Debut

==========================

Saturday, December 3, 2011: Keynote speakerTim Wise, along withLarry Hamm(Peoples Organization for Progress) and media activistBernard White, will inaugurate an initial fundraiser forCPRMetro, a new media outlet for artists, broadcast journalists and social activists alike. The fundraiser takes place atThe Community Churchof New York,40 East 35 Street, inManhattan, beginning at6 p.m.

Initiated by veteran program producers formerly with WBAI, CPRMetro (Community for Progressive Radio Metro) is a community-based, multi-media outlet created to remedy the lack of media attention devoted to critical issues affecting the tri-state area.

[Ed. Note: For the past three years, WBAI, as well, its parent organization, Pacifica Foundation, has been under the control of a new managerial clique as the result of questionable election procedures to the Local Station Board. The result has been a turn-around in progressive coverage and programming. From the outset, and over that three-year period, more than 25 producers, most of whom were among the more radical elements at the station, have been replaced and/or fired from the listener-sponsored station, many without due process.]

Through the interactive use of current technology, CPRMetro intends toprovide a dual forum that will cover a full range of community-related issues and the opportunity for training and teaching community residents the science and art of media production, including a venue for writers, musicians, critics and activists to learn those media skills that will allow them access to larger audiences.

To be part of this new venue and for other related information, contact Bernard White via email atbwhite60@optonline.net. Suggested donation for the fundraiser is $10.00. No one, however, will be turned away.

=====================

8. Jazzy Mondays at For My Sweet

=====================

Brooklyns latest live music venue,For My Sweet, continues its second season with weekly Monday evening concerts. This fall/winter schedule includes:

Monday, Dec. 5:The TK BlueBand

Monday, Dec. 12:The Lee Family Band(Cliff, Bill & The Folks)

Monday, Dec. 19:JuJu Gordon& Her Band;

Monday, Dec. 26:Ras Chemas Lamedand poetLisa Muhammad.

All concerts feature two sets (7:15&9:15 p.m.). Doors open at6 p.m.The admission is $10.00. Food and beverages are available.

For My Sweet is located one block west of the Franklin Avenue subway station (C line and Prospect Park Shuttle), at 1103 Fulton Street (Claver Place) in Brooklyn.For information, call 718.857.1427.

==============================

9. Ongoing Anniversary:MontgomeryBus Boycott!

==============================

Tuesday, December 6, 2011:thePeoples Organization for Progress(POP), along with a coalition of over 100 endorsing organizations will host a march and rally in commemoration of the 56 Anniversary since the launching of the epic Montgomery Bus Boycott (Dec. 5, 1955).

Participants will assemble at theLincolnMonument(Springfield Ave., andWest Market Street) at4:30 p.m., and march through downtownNewark. That evening, beginning at6 p.m., participants will host a teach-in and rally atEssexCountyCollegein the J. Harry Smith Lecture Hall (located on MLK Jr., Blvd., near Market Street), in Newark.

This will be the first of our Daily Peoples Campaign, said Lawrence Hamm of POP, to dramatize the impact of current draconian public policies stemming directly from the Bush/Cheney administration.

In honor of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, POP intends to host daily actions for a total of381 days(the length of the boycott that propelled a young Martin Luther King Jr. onto national consciousness and that initiated the Civil Rights Movement), with a National Jobs Program at the top of the list of core issues driving the commemorative campaign.

For the next 381 days, marchers plan to convene from Monday through Friday, from4:30to6 p.m.at theLincolnMonument, and, on Saturdays, from12 noonto2 p.m., on Broad and Market Streets, in downtownNewark. On Sundays, the Daily Campaign returns to theLincolnMonumentfrom2to3 p.m.

The Peoples Organization for Progress hosts weekly meetings every Thursday at theAbyssinianBaptistChurch,224 West Kinney Street,Newarkat6:30 p.m.For more information on the Daily Peoples Campaign for Jobs, Peace, Equality and Justice and POP, call 973.801.0001.

==================

10. Phat Tuesday Poetry Jam

==================

Tuesday, December 13, 2011: TheLinyak ProjectcontinuesPhat Tuesdayspoetry readings atSister's Uptown Bookstore, with poetsLora Rene Tucker,Gary Johnston,Sandra Maria Estevesand an open mic. Hosted by Layding Kaliba, Tony Mitchelson and Atiba Kwabena, with musical accompaniment by members of the Songhai Djeli Ensemble, the program, presented as part of a series every second Tuesday of each month, runs from7to10 p.m.

Sisters Uptown Bookstore is located at1942 Amsterdam Ave.(between 156 & 157 Streets), inManhattan. Several subways are nearby, including the numbers 1, 9 trains to157th St., and the C train to155th St.As well, riders can take the M101 and 102 busses to155th St.andAmsterdam Ave.

==================

11. Website for Latino Authors

==================

Corina Martinez Chaudhry is the CEO ofwww.TheLatinoAuthor.com, one of the largest web sites for books by Latino authors (poets, screen and song writers, etc.). Her staff is currently reaching out to 48 countries and over 45 states as part of an all-out effort to provide a most comprehensive platform for Latino authors.

Interested parties should visit the site and click on Submit Author Bio to be included. Photos should be submitted under separate email. Authors with their own web pages can click on the Submit Website Link section to have that address linked onto the page.

================

12. Revolution in Exhibition

================

TheNew-York Historical Societycontinues its exhibition,Are You Ready for the Revolution!Described as a path-breaking part of the societys educational initiative, the exhibition runsthroughApril 14, 2012. Among the exhibitors is NWU NY Chapter member, author/fine artistPhyllis Bowdwin. Her work includes a poster she designed and a special brooch commissioned specifically forRevolution!

This exhibition exploresthe enormous transformations in politics and culture between the 1763 triumph of the British Empire in the Seven Years' War and the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815), comparing three globally influential revolutions the American, French and Haitian revolutions that are presented for the first time as one global narrative.

Exhibits include treasured paintings, drawings and prints from the New York Historical Society as well as historical documents, manuscripts and maps, audio-visual presentations, computer-interactive learning stations, and new works of artthat link the attacks on monarchism and aristocracy with the struggle against slavery todemonstratehow freedom, equality and national sovereignty became universal goals, fully establishing the notion of human rights that still fires the desire for justice everywhere.

Located at 170Central ParkWest (near W. 77St.), inManhattan, the New-York Historical Society is open from Tuesdays through Saturdays (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), and on Sundays (11 a.m. to 5 p.m). For information, call 212.873.3400.

4. A Members Commentary

=================

{Editor note: This commentary left out as inappropriate for an NWU publication]

November 2011

Editor: Louis Reyes Rivera
Louisreyesrivera@aol.com

==============
Table of Contents
==============
Part One: Union News and Advisories
1. NWU Celebrates Thirty Years
2. Pre-Holiday Forum/Celebration
3. Advisory: Writers Targeted by Scam Artists
4. NWU Writers Confab: A Marked Success
5. NWU NY Member Web Sites
6. Citizens & Unions Alike Back Occupy Wall Street

Part Two: Around Town
7. Revolution in Exhibition through April 2012
8. Writers Workshop at APT
9. Jazz @ Sistas Place
10. Jazzy Mondays at For My Sweet
11. Memorial Concert for poet Gil Scott-Heron
12. CBJC Anniversary at Sugar Hill
13. Free Books for Toddlers
14. St. Marks Bookshop Still Needs Help
15. Website for Latino Authors
16. On the Passing of Piri Thomas

==========================
Part One: Union News and Advisories
==========================
1. NWU Celebrates Thirty Years
===================
Monday, December 5, 2011: the National Writers Union (NWU/UAW Local 1981) celebrates its 30th Anniversary with Writing the Future: 30 Years of Fighting for Freelancers, at The Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West 42th St. (near 9th Avenue), in Manhattan. The program showcases the history, talent and vision of the NWU.
This celebration comes at a time of great upheaval and uncertainty for many, including freelance writers. It is much easier to get published online but much harder to make a living at it, said NWU President Larry Goldbetter, one of the scheduled speakers. We successfully opposed the New York Times ten years ago, and we opposed the so-called Goggle Book Settlement for the past several years; now, were fighting for fair e-book royalties and against the general exploitation of online reporters. Writers create more than content. We create value and wealth. Ask Arianna Huffington, he added, referring to the recent campaign against HuffPos refusal to pay freelance bloggers after a $315-million buyout by AOL.
At the anniversary celebration, New York Chapter Chair and poet Louis Reyes Rivera will perform from his selected works and will be joined by activist-authors Jan Clausen and Susan E. Davis, along with keynote speaker, editor/ journalist Herb Boyd.
The program itself, said Rivera, reflects the scope of what makes up the NWU journalists, book authors, technical writers, poets, playwrights, editors and bloggers. We are indeed an inclusive union working for the good of all.
Doors open at 6:00 p.m. with a reception, and the program begins at 7:15 p.m., followed by a champagne toast and a slice of cake.
With sixteen chapters throughout the country, the NWU is the nations only labor union and advocacy organization for writers in all genres, media, and formats. In addition to print media writers, the NWU represents electronic writers and editors of blogs, e-newsletters and web sites. Affiliated with the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the AFL-CIO, the NWUs national office is located at 256 West 38th Street, Suite 703, New York, NY 10018.
Seating is limited. For reservations, go to www.nwu.org, and on the home page scroll down to the announcement for National Writers Union Celebrates 30 Years of Fighting for Freelancers and click Register here. For information, contact President Larry Goldbetter (212.254.0279) or NY Chapter Chair Louis Reyes Rivera (718.622.4426).

* * *

Pay the Writer! is the latest campaign initiated by the National Writers Union advocating for fair pay for online writers and journalists. More information on the campaign can be found at www.PayTheWriter.org and on Twitter@PayTheWriter.

====================
2. Pre-Holiday Forum/Celebration
====================
Monday, December 12, 2011: The National Writers Union New York Chapter hosts its annual Holiday Party at the Houndstooth Pub (downstairs), located at 520 Eighth Avenue (at West 37th Street), Manhattan.
In addition to food, beverages and some Auld Lang Syne [literally meaning, old long since, or long long ago, i.e., on behalf of days gone by], this years theme is Planning for Success in the New Year a round robin discussion with veteran writers on how best to take the goals we set and make them marketable.
All members are naturally invited to attend. Writers yet to join the NWU and want to learn more about what the union offers its members should consider joining us in the discussion. What goals have you set for yourself? How do you intend to market them? Share that with us and take note of the responses after all, networking with other writers is key to every attempt we make.
This free seminar and celebratory event runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m. For more information, contact Tim Sheard at info@nwuny.org or call 917 428 1352.

===========================
3. Advisory: Writers Targeted by Scam Artists
===========================
[To All NWU Members: Please be advised that a crew of scam artists have been targeting NWU members. Members of the New York Chapter have noted at least two instances in which theyve been approached via email by grifters. To their credit, the two writers took the time to contact their New York Steering Committee members, just in case Louis Reyes Rivera BTL Ed.]

Here are the basic elements at work:
A/ Locating the Target
Generally, scam artists visit various web sites, looking for ways to contact potential targets in this case, different associations and web pages, such as the NWUs web site. They then enter the domain, click on different accessible links, find the profiles of members, link onto their web pages to obtain email addresses, and contact the owner of that page with a lucrative sounding offer.
Of course, going directly to google and searching for targets through that source is also just as workable, given that email addresses and sites are publicly listed i.e., from a blurb or promo to the web page to the email address.
B/ The Letter of Invitation
[Please note that what follows is a copy of the communiqu our members received. It is not edited (not even to insert periods) outside of separating words that ran together without proper spacing. Scammers are neither writers nor proofreaders Ed.]
[Quote] I am Prof. Justin Orton from Kings College Campus Here in London UK. We want you to be our guest Speaker at this Year Kings college Seminar which will take place here in UK. We are writing to invite and confirm your booking to be our guest Speaker at this years event. Kings College Campus. The Venue as follows: VENUE: Kings College campus in Strand London, United Kingdom POST CODE: WC2R 2LS Expected audience: 850 people Duration of speech per speaker: 1 Hour Name of Organization: Kings College Campus. Topic: HISTORY OF ART Date: 24th November 2011. We came across your profile on //www.nwu.org/ and we say its up to standard and we will be very glad to have such an outstanding personality in our mist for these overwhelming gathering. Arrangements to welcome you here will be discussed as soon as you honor our invitation. If you have any more publicity material, please do not hesitate to contact us. A formal Letter of invitation and Contract agreement would be sent to you as soon as you honor our Invitation. We are taking care of your traveling and Hotel Accommodation expenses including your Speaking Fee. If you will be available for our event, include your speaking fees In your email so it can be included in your CONTRACT AGREEMENT. Stay Blessed Prof Justin Orton Kings College Campus. Tel: + 44 702 408 2535 [Unquote].
C/ The Trap:
Once you reply as to your availability and fees, a second email is sent. One member reported that upon replying to confirm availability and fees, the member was told that the fees were agreeable but that the writer had to wire a 950 pound payment to a (bogus) British Embassy official in order to obtain a work permit.
D/ Only if you fall for it will step D come into play. The moment you are asked to send money, you know a scam is unfolding. Send no money!
Post Scripts
(1) For Everyones Information: Ive been to several European countries for paid engagements and never did I have to pay any fee or obtain any special permit. If required (and, in my case, hardly ever), such matters are taken care of (i.e., visa, etc.) by the hosts. All I ever needed was my passport and a Letter of Intent from the host (which Ive had to produce only once to a State Department official and only for purposes of expediting issuing my passport). In other words, money is never supposed to come from you.
(2) For Everyones Further Information: Upon receiving the request for the 950 pounds, the writer in question fully understood a scam was at work and forwarded all relevant emails to spam@us.gov. You may wish to do the same.
(3) Last Note: On behalf of the writer and for my own curiosity, I did go on line, got information from the web page for Kings College in London, and wrote an email to two different sections of the college (personnel and alumni), requesting information about the alleged professor and the program described in the invitation. Kings College wrote me back and told me that I should (quote) ignore the email received. This seems to be a scam that has recently come to our attention. There is no Prof. Justin Orton and the email address is not an official one (unquote).
In the other case, an NWU member wrote to members us and asked if we knew of anyone else who had been similarly honored. In tandem, two of our Steering Committee members responded that, as far as they were concerned, it sounded like a scam and that the member should ignore it.

==========================
4. NWU Writers Confab: A Marked Success
==========================
Update & Proper Kudos The National Writers Union New York Chapter hosted a one-day conference for freelancers and book authors this past October 15, 2011, at the UAW/NWU headquarters in Manhattan. Judging by the attendance (close to 70 writers all told) and feedback from participants, the panels proved most informative and relevant to writers needs. The event ran from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., via a series of one-hour discussions on topics affecting current markets, with meals and beverages provided in between.
The organizers of the event Loretta Campbell, Susan E. Davis, Alexandria Faiz, C.C. Reilly, Louis Reyes Rivera, Yusef Salaam, and Tim Sheard (the central planner for the event) did themselves proud, fully demonstrating in practice what collective action and cooperation could produce as proper result.
Panelists Janet Andrew, Herb Boyd, Susan E. Davis, Sandra Maria Esteves, Laurence Holder, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Jeri Quinn, Louis Reyes Rivera, Tim Sheard, and, NWU President Larry Goldbetter each contributed their expertise regarding (1) Writers Rights and the dos and donts of negotiating a fair contract; (2) pitching, selling and marketing published works; (3) recouping compensation for pirated work; (4) setting up a web page for a world-wide market; (5) earning income in other related venues; (6) low-cost self-publishing; (7) writing as a business; and, (8) the state of the writer today with the concurrent theme of how best to protect ones work from wanton exploitation consistently running throughout the day.
On the day of the conference, seven participants immediately joined the NWU; as of November 12, a cumulative total of 26 writers are now listed as new members.
Stay tuned for what may become an annual event for both NWU members and the writing community at large.

===================
5. NWU NY Member Web Sites
===================
Between The Lines encourages all members to visit the web sites of NWU/NY Chapter members (yes, New Jersey members as well). If youre looking for assistance, collaboration, speakers, editors, educators, or a new book to read, try starting with these:

* Peter Benjaminson (author/lecturer) peterbenjaminson.com.
[Florence Ballard: The Lost Supreme is available at thelostsupreme.com.]

* Samuel Buckley (author) web site/ phoenixstoryproductionsllc.com; books available at www.buckleysamuel.com.

* Loretta Campbell (author/editor/educator) UpWrite.weebly.com.

* Susan Elizabeth Davis (activist/author) sednyc@rcn.com [email].

* Barbara Fisher & Richard Spiegel (editors/educators) offering archived books, video readings, interviews, et al at tenpennyplayers.org.

* Thomas Altfather Good (writer/editor/photojournalist) has two web sites (nextleftnotes.net, thomasgood.com). He can be reached via email at thomasaltfathergood@gmail.com.

* Michael Lindgren (freelance editor/author) www.mikelindgren.com.

* JoAnne Meekins (author/speaker) joannemeekins-inspired4u.com

* Roy Murphy (author/editor/designer) murphyroy.com.

* Tim Sheard (author/teacher) timsheard.com.

[Note to NY Chapter Members: To be listed in BTL Member Web Sites, send information to Louisreyesrivera@aol.com. To be listed in the New York Chapter web site, send to Alexandria Faiz at alphaomegastrategies@gmail.com. For other updates, news, and access to NWU archived materials, visit the National Writers Union general web site at www.nwu.org.]

===============================
6. Citizens & Unions Alike Back Occupy Wall Street
===============================
On September 17, 2011, close to 1,000 citizens gathered in protest of corporate greed. They literally began an on-going occupation of New York Citys financial district and in Zuccotti Park and, later, in Washington Park. Since then, citizens across the country have unfurled their banners of support with similar occupation rallies in well over 70 cities throughout the United States and in countless other cities throughout the planet too many of which demonstrations have resulted in mass arrests and police-instigated instances of violence.
Citizen support for the Occupy Wall Street movement continues to grow in cities as near as Newark, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., as far south as Richmond, Raleigh, Atlanta, Birmingham, as far west, southwest and northwest to Chicago, Denver, Austin, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Los Angeles, and as far away as India, Egypt, Tunisia, and Melbourne, Australia.
On the Ides of October, a Global Day of Action was called which brought tens of thousands out into New York City streets, a large contingent of which marched on and held the Times Square area, with similar marches taking place in Rome, London, et al with people from over 80 nations supporting and collaborating in support of the movement in some instances, again, resulting in mass arrests here in the U.S.
Two days later, on October 17, another global protest was called for October 29, during which time the G20 Summit was taking place in France with protesters introducing the call for a Robin Hood Tax (i.e., from the rich to the poor, a 1% levy on all financial transactions and currency exchanges to be earmarked on behalf of public services, funding for climate change, and to combat poverty).
On October 21 in Melbourne, close to 100 demonstrators were forcibly removed from their City Square camp site by riot squads using pepper spray and other forms of repression. On October 26, police move on citizens in both Oakland and Atlanta, among other places, again resulting in mass arrests.
Meanwhile, several international and local unions, including the UAW, the NWU, SEIU, the New York State AFL-CIO, and the New York City Central Labor Council, among others, have fully endorsed the movement for economic and political justice.
In a joint statement issued by NYS AFL-CIO President Denis Hughes and NYCLC President Vincent Alvarez, both stated that they unequivocally support the rights of the participants of Occupy Wall Street to express their point of view. As such, the labor movement strongly opposes any attempt to silence their voice, and, by extension, the voice of 99% of working Americans dissatisfied with our current economic system and the unleveled playing field everyday working Americans are confronted with.
Citing the long overdue need to reorder Americas economic priorities, the UAW announced it will commit resources and activate its membership nationally in support of reclaiming the American economy on behalf of working men and women, the poor, the elderly, the unemployed and our nations youth.
America is not broke, UAW President Bob King stated, We have the resources to turn our economy around. The courage and determination of the Occupy Wall Street movement has galvanized generations of Americans fed up with corporate greed and feeling powerless. They have a vision toward a more just, equal, and fair society demanding real democracy.
While, initially, the collective face of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been characterized as comprising a mass of white youth, as the movement continues to grow, more People of Color have become more directly involved. Here and there, particularly in Harlem and in Detroit, an Occupy The Hood movement has cropped up to emphasize the central theme of economic justice. Well known Rappers and other entertainers have also joined the movement in several key hoods, including parts of Oakland, Chicago and Houston.
As with the Twitter Insurrection that began in Tunisia and spread straight across North Africa and into the Middle East, the Occupy Wall Street movement may very well bring about the changes needed throughout the planet in the general distribution of wealth and in instituting genuine regulation over business.

==================
Part Two: Around Town
===========================
7. Revolution in Exhibition through April 2012
===========================
November 11, 2011 April 14, 2012: The New-York Historical Society opens a new exhibition, Are You Ready for the Revolution! Described as path-breaking and part of the institutions educational initiative, the exhibition will run to April 14, 2012. Among the exhibitors is author/fine artist Phyllis Bowdwin, a new member of the Writers Workshop at Sistas Place in Brooklyn. Her work includes a full poster and a special brooch designed specifically for this exhibit.
The exhibition explores the enormous transformations in politics and culture between the 1763 triumph of the British Empire in the Seven Years' War and the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815).
Responding to growing public interest in the history of other cultures, Revolution! compares three globally influential revolutions that had taken place in the United States, in France, and in Haiti. While these world-changing events have usually been told exclusively as chapters within national histories, this exhibition promises to tell the story of these 18th-century Atlantic revolutions as one global narrative.
During that epoch, often labeled The Age of Revolution, contending forces included opposing European imperial authorities, diverse men and women of the Atlantic world natives of Africa, Europe and the Americas who argued with both pamphlets and armaments. Their first major outburst, the American Revolution, had launched radical ideas throughout the Western World. In turn, many Britons were drawn to abolitionism, inspired a revolt against monarchy in France, and helped spawn an insurrection in the French colony of Saint-Domingue, resulting in the worlds only successful slave revolt and the founding of Haiti, the first nation to establish the principles of equality and emancipation.
The exhibition features treasured paintings, drawings and prints from the New York Historical Society as well as items from more than 20 collections in Britain, France and the U.S.; historical documents, maps and manuscripts; audio-visual presentations and computer-interactive learning stations, as well as several inventive and beautiful works of art commissioned specifically for this exhibition. Linking the attack on monarchism and aristocracy to the struggle against slavery, Revolution! demonstrates how freedom, equality and national sovereignty became universal goals. These activists invented the notions of human rights that still fire the desire for justice everywhere.
The New-York Historical Society is located at 170 Central Park West (off West 77 Street), in Manhattan. It is open from Tuesdays through Saturdays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, call 212.873.3400.

=================
8. Writers Workshop at APT
=================
Saturday, November 12: The Afrikan Poetry Theatre continues its World of Writing Workshop series with poet George Edward Tait focusing on the relationship between Literacy and Literary Skills (craft, content, creativity) in a nine-segment series that covers the full range from the muse to the manuscript to the market and microphone. With 38 years of expertise and experience, Tait brings a host of developed skills to the table.
This workshop series will culminate with all participants showcasing their finished works in a special public presentation and in a published anthology. Sessions begin on Saturday, November 12, 2011, from 4 to 6 p.m., at the Afrikan Poetry Theatre, 176-03 Jamaica Ave. (F train to 179 St.), in Jamaica, Queens. The cost is $10 per session. For registration, call 718.523.3312.

==============
9. Jazz @ Sistas Place
==============
Sistas' Place continues its 17 Season of live Saturday Night Jazz Concerts. Among the upcoming highlights are performances by Bluiett on Saturday, November 12th; Kiane Zawadi on Saturday, December 3rd; and Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch hitting Saturday, December 17th.
All concerts offer two sets [9 and 10:30 p.m.]. Sistas Place is located at 456 Nostrand Ave. (at Jefferson Ave., Brooklyn). For reservations and related information, call 718.398.1766.

======================
10. Jazzy Mondays at For My Sweet
======================
Brooklyns latest live music venue, For My Sweet, continues its second season with weekly Monday evening concerts. This fall/winter schedule includes:

Monday, Nov. 14: Dr. Mambo & the Experience Ensemble;

Monday, Nov. 21: The New Black Vibrations plus Charisa "The Violin Diva";

Monday, Nov. 28: Brandon Sanders Quartet featuring Warren Wolf on vibes;

Monday, Dec. 5: The TK Blue Band

Monday, Dec. 12: The Lee Family Band (Cliff, Bill & The Folks)

Monday, Dec. 19: JuJu Gordon & Her Band;

Monday, Dec. 26: Ras Chemas Lamed and poet Lisa Muhammad.
All concerts feature two sets (7:15 & 9:15 p.m.). Doors open at 6 p.m. The admission is $10.00. Delicious cuisine and beverages available.
Located just down the block from the Franklin Avenue station (C line and Prospect Park Shuttle), at 1103 Fulton Street (just off Claver Place) in Brooklyn. For information, call 718.857.1427.

============================
11. Memorial Concert for poet Gil Scott-Heron
============================
Friday, November 18, 2011: The Africana Institute at Essex County College, in conjunction with Frances E.W. Harper Literary Society, The Bibliophiles, Inc., and the Harlem Book Fair Newark, is hosting a special evening memorial concert in honor of the recently deceased poet/recording artist, Gil Scott-Heron at the Rutgers University (Newark Campus), Paul Robeson Center, 350 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., in Newark, starting at 7 p.m. The concert, initially part of the State of Black Writers Conference held last month at Essex and Rutgers, was rescheduled from its original date due to the snow storm of mid-October.
Hosted by Helena D. Lewis, the tribute features Sonia Sanchez, Tantra-Zawadi, David Mills, EQueen GodIs, Elijah Wong, Abiodun Oyewole, Louis Reyes Rivera, Atiba Wilson & Songhai Djeli. For more information, call 973.877.3219 or visit Africana Institutes web site at www.essex.edu/ai.

=====================
12. CBJC Anniversary at Sugar Hill
=====================
Wednesday, November 16: The Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium (CBJC), producers of the annual Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival, celebrates its 12th anniversary at Sugar Hill Supper Club, featuring trumpeter Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora [Salim Washington on tenor and flute; D.D. Jackson on piano; Radu on bass; Reggie Nicholson on drums, along with vocalist Miles Griffith and poets Monique Ngozi Nri and Louis Reyes Rivera].
The event includes a special CBJC award presentation to Noel Pointer Foundation and foreshadows CBJC's upcoming 2012 April Festival theme, Jazz: Music of the Spirit, a working thesis co-authored by three members of Diaspora [see Ahmed Abdullahs web site at www.ahmedian.com and click on the NEWS icon to gain access to the thesis].
Sugar Hill is located at 609 DeKalb Ave. (at Nostrand Ave.) in Brooklyn (G train to Bedford-Nostrand station or 44 Bus to DeKalb). Tickets are $25.00 per person, including two sets and a light buffet. Doors open at 5 p.m. Advanced tickets are available at brownpapertickets.com/event/205543 or by calling 800.838.3006. For more information, call 718.467.1527 or 718.773.2252.

=================
13. Free Books for Toddlers
=================
EAP Coordinator Gloria Jenkins (212.480.7431) recently announced that the NYC Dept. of Ed. provides children under five years with a free book every month through its Imagination Library program regardless of parents income status. Interested parties should allow six to eight weeks for deliveries after submitting online applications.
To apply, go to the following web site and let BTL know the outcome: nyc.gov/html/nycha/downloads/pdf/NYC_Imagination_Library_application.pdf.

=========================
14. St. Marks Bookshop Still Needs Help
=========================
The St. Mark's Bookshop, a vital institution that has historically served an increasingly rare function, is struggling to pay the market rent its landlord, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science, is charging. An online petition is still in the works and reads, in part, that "The St. Mark's Bookshop, a vital Lower East Side cultural institution, needs a rent low enough to survive. Join the Cooper Square Committee petitioning Cooper Union, the bookstore's landlord, to give St. Mark's Bookshop a lower rent."
NWU NY urges all readers to sign the petition at the listed web site: signon.org/sign/save-the-st-marks-bookshop?source=s.em.mt&r_by=519043.

==================
15. Website for Latino Authors
==================
Corina Martinez Chaudhry is the CEO of www.TheLatinoAuthor.com, which site she has turned into one of the largest resource venues for readers and Latino authors (poets, screen and song writers, etc.) on the web. Her staff is currently reaching out to 48 countries and over 45 states as part of an all-out effort to provide a comprehensive platform for Latino authors.
Interested parties should visit the site and click on Submit Author Bio to be included. Photos should be submitted under separate email. Authors with their own web pages can click on the Submit Website Link section to have that address linked onto the page.

=====================
16. On the Passing of Piri Thomas
=====================
Novelist and former member of the National Writers Union Piri Thomas made his transition last month, Monday, October 17, in his home in El Cerrito, California, after succumbing to pneumonia.
Born in Harlem Hospital on September 30, 1928, of a Puerto Rican mother and Cuban father, Piri grew up in East Harlem, with experiences that served as the substance for his bestselling memoir, Down These Mean Streets (1967). He later wrote two other novels, Savior Savior Hold My Hand and Seven Long Times, several plays (The Golden Streets and Ole Ole Oy Vey), short stories (Stories from El Barrio), and two CDs of poetry and music (Sounds of the Streets and No Mo' Barrio Blues).
The subject of three films, including Every Child is Born a Poet, Piri, along with Pedro Juan Soto (Spiks, 1956), Jaime Carrero (Neo-Rican Jetliner and Other Poems, 1958), Jess Coln (A Puerto Rican in New York, 1961), was viewed as among the lead writers whose works served as cornerstones for what became known as a Nuyorican Literary Movement.
Piris writing career began in the mid-1950s, while he was serving time in prison. According to Piri, one day, a fellow prisoner hollered out t
...

October 2011

Editor: Louis Reyes Rivera

Louisreyesrivera@aol.com

==============

Table of Contents

Part One: NWU In The House

1. Harlem Playwrights Read

2. QPTV Town Hall Meeting: Death Penalty

3. Philly & NY Chapters Collaborate

4. NWU Online: The Future of Online Writing?

5. NWU Upcoming Writers Confab

6. Harlem Arts: The Devil and Elijah Muhammad

7. NWU NY Member Web Sites

Part Two: Deadlines & Noteworthy

8. Call for Poetry Submissions

9. New Poetry Reading Series

10. Upcoming Reel Sisters Film Festival

11. Forty K in 40 Days

12. Playwright at Sistas Place

13. Nuyorican Founders Reading

14. St. Marks Bookshop Needs Help

15. Free Books for Toddlers

=======================

Part One: NWU In The House

=================

1.HarlemPlaywrights Read

=================

The Harlem Playwrights 21 Reading Series continues thru this coming Sunday, October 2, 2011, featuring NWU member Laurence Holders General, on Thurs., Sept. 29, at 7:30 p.m. Tom Mitchelsons B, on Fri., Sept. 30, at 7:30 p.m. Charles Whites Unentitled, on Sat., Oct. 1, at 3 p.m. Sabura Rashids Paradigm Shift, on Sat., Oct. 1, at 7:30 p.m. and Laurence Holders Mary and Eleanor, on Sun., Oct. 2, at 2 p.m..

All readings are hosted by the Richard Allen Center for Culture and Art and will take place at its Shooting Star Theater, the Seaport Salon, 40 Peck Slip, lower Manhattan, South Street Seaport area. The theater is next door to the Paris Caf (corner of South Street & Peck Slip, just two blocks from Pearl Street). Take the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C trains to Fulton St./Broadway-Nassau station. Suggesting donation is $5.00. For information, call 917.239.6690.

==========================

2.QPTVTown HallMeeting: Death Penalty

==========================

In light of the recent Georgia state execution of Troy Anthony Davis, QPTVs Queens Update: A Live Town Hall Meeting will host a discussion on the death penalty with Roslyn Nieves, Clifford Jacobs and a panel of activist lawyers, writers and filmmakers, including Al Anderson, Felix Leo Campos, Beverly Daniels, Carl Dix, [NWU member] C.C. Reilly, and William Scott.

The program will air live on cable channels 34 and 82, from 8 to 9 p.m., this Friday, September 30, 2011, from the QPTV studios (41-61 Kissena Blvd., Queens). Potential audience participants are advised to arrive by 7 p.m to secure seating.

=====================

3. Philly & NY Chapters Collaborate

=====================

The NWUs Philadelphia and New York chapters are sharing a table at the upcoming October 1, 2011 Collinwood (New Jersey) Book Festival.Philly Chairperson Rev. Irving C. Jones and NY Steering Committee activist Tim Sheard are coordinating. For details, email Tim at sheard2001@gmail.com or the Rev. Jones at ijkaramo2@aol.com.

===========================

4. NWU Online: The Future of Online Writing?

===========================

Freelance Journalists Beware: There are plenty of online publications looking for content but very few of these sites, like the Huffington Post, want to pay their freelance writers for their work. How can a freelance writer earn a living in an Internet full of unpaid blogs?

Join the National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981, on October 11, 2011, in New York City where a panel of journalists will explore the future of online freelance writing John Dinges (Columbia University School of Journalism Professor and NWU Member), Katti Gray (award-winning veteran freelance journalist at DailyYonder.com and TheRoot.com), Samuel Apple (Editor-in-Chief of TheFasterTimes.com), and Erik Peipenberg (senior producer for the theater section of NYTimes.com) will discuss whats at stake for journalists trying to make a living in a world where a new wave of publishing outlets is exclusively digital.

The discussion takes place on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, at 7 p.m. (Eastern Time) in the Starlight Loft of the Roger Smith Hotel, 501 Lexington Avenue (between East 47 and 48 Streets), in Manhattan. This event is free, but space is limited. Interested writers should RSVP via the Internet at www.PayTheWriter.org to secure a seat.

If youre not going to be in New York City that day, the discussion will be streaming online at www.PayTheWriter.org.

====================

5. NWU Upcoming Writers Confab

====================

Saturday, October 15, 2011 The National Writers Union New York Chapter is hosting a one-day conference for freelancers and book authors in all genres, at the UAW/NWU headquarters, 256 W. 38 St., Manhattan, 12 fl. Conference Room, beginning with a 9 a.m. on-site registration and continental breakfast. Panel presentations begin promptly at 10 a.m. For information, email at info@nwuny.org.

Registration: $15.00 for Union Members; $40.00 for non-Union members (includes light breakfast, lunch, dinner and beverages).

Special Note: if you join the National Writers Union during any part of the date (October 15), you will receive $25.00 reimbursement. If you join between now and before October 15, the Union Member Registration Rate will apply. All trade union members may also attend at the Union Member rate (Union I.D. required).

Through a series of panels with professional writers, publicists, editors, and activists, the conference will attempt to cover the following topics: knowing what rights you have and how best to assert them; pitching, selling and marketing original works; negotiating a fair contract; recouping compensation for pirated work; setting up a web page to sell your work world-wide; earning income as a writer in other mediums and venues; low-cost self-publishing in todays market; writing as a business; state of the writer today; and, how best to protect your work from wanton exploitation. .

Conference Itinerary

9:00-10:00 Registration. Meet & Greet. Continental Breakfast provided.

10:00-10:45 Assert Your Rights: NWU Grievance & Contract Division co-Chair Susan E. Davis and New York Chapter Chair Louis Reyes Rivera discussing writers rights and how to protect and assert them.

11:00-12:15 Market Your Work & Build Your Brand: Career Coach Janet Andrew and novelist Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa discussing how to promote your work and build your reputation as a writer and an expert in your chosen field.

12:30-1:30 - Lunch: Networking Opportunity

1:45-2:45 Poets & Playwrights: Playwright Laurence Holder and poet Sandra Maria Esteves discussing how to promote your work and earn income as a writer in related areas.

3:00-4:15 - Sell to the World: Author/publisher Tim Sheard discussing how to distribute traditionally published, self-published and reprinted works (in print & in E-book formats), and how to build a low-cost web site.

4:30-5:15 Writing as a Successful Business: Small Business Coach Jeri Quinn outlining basic accounting principles to keep track of costs and that bottom line.

5:30-6:30 Banquet & Networking

6:30-8:00 The State of the Writer Today NWU President Larry Goldbetter, author/ editor/journalist Herb Boyd, and journalist/educator John Dinges. Discussing the state of publishing today and how best are writers to protect their interests.

=============================

6.HarlemArts: The Devil and Elijah Muhammad

=============================

The Harlem-based H.A.D.L.E.Y Players will perform NWU playwright/journalist Yusef Salaams The Devil and Elijah Muhammad at the Harlem School of the Arts Theatre, from October 25 through November 6, 2011. Set in the 1960s, during the peak of the Nation of Islams (NOI) popularity, this two-act play focuses on crucial issues betrayal, inner circle conflicts, and theological and doctrinal changes challenging the leadership of the NOIs founding leader, Elijah Muhammad.

With an opening matinee performance on Sunday, October 30, at 2:30 p.m. ($25.00 admission), the two-week run includes evening performances from Tuesdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., and a subsequent Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20.00 for adults, $15.00 for seniors, students and groups of five or more, and $8.00 for children under 12.

A long-standing member of the National Writers Union New York Chapter and Steering Committee, freelance arts critic/journalist Yusef Salaam has been a local mainstay for well over forty years with articles and essays appearing in the New York Beacon, New York Amsterdam News, Black Enterprise and Essence magazines, among others. His full-length and ten-minute plays have been performed and read throughout his career in libraries, restaurants, churches and theatres.

The Harlem School of the Arts is located at 647 St. Nicholas Avenue, near West 142 Street in Harlem. For further information, call 646.323.0223 or 212.368.9314.

===================

7. NWU NY Member Web Sites

===================

Between The Lines encourages all members to visit the web sites of NWU/NY Chapter members (yes, New Jersey members as well). If youre looking for assistance, collaboration, speakers, editors, educators, or a new book to read, try starting with these:

* Peter Benjaminson (author/lecturer) www.peterbenjaminson.com. [Note: his book, Florence Ballard: The Lost Supreme, is available at www.thelostsupreme.com.

* Samuel Buckley (author) web site/ www.phoenixstoryproductionsllc.com; books available at www.buckleysamuel.com.

* Loretta Campbell (author/editor/educator) UpWrite.weebly.com.

* Susan Elizabeth Davis (activist/author) sednyc@rcn.com [email].

* Barbara Fisher & Richard Spiegel (editors/educators) www.tenpennyplayers.org, offering archived books, video readings, interviews and workshops.

* Michael Lindgren (freelance editor/author) www.mikelindgren.com.

* JoAnne Meekins (author/speaker) www.joannemeekins-inspired4u.com

* Roy Murphy (author/editor/designer) www.murphyroy.com.

* Tim Sheard (author/teacher) timsheard.com.

[Note to NY Chapter Members: To be listed in BTL Member Web Sites, send information to Louisreyesrivera@aol.com. To be listed in the New York Chapter web site [www.nwuny.org], send to Alexandria Faiz at alphaomegastrategies@gmail.com. For other updates, news, and access to NWU archived materials, visit the National Writers Union general web site at www.nwu.org.]

===========================

Part Two: Deadlines & Noteworthy

==================

8. Call for Poetry Submissions

==================

Juanita Torrence-Thompson, editor and publisher of the award-winning Mobius poetry magazine, is now accepting poems for its 3^rd Dr. Zylpha Mapp Robinson International Poetry Award. The deadline is Thursday, October 20. This years theme is Helping Your Fellow Man; first prize is $200; second prize is $50.

All interested parties should read the submission guidelines at www.mobiuspoetry.com for details (bios, themes, et al). E-mail submissions only (mobiusmag@earthlink.net). No Snail Mail! Theres a $15.00 entry fee with up to two poems submitted along with a 35-word bio. Checks should be made out to Mobius: The Poetry Magazine (Dr. Zylpha Mapp Robinson International Poetry Award), P.O. Box 671058, Flushing, NY 11367-1058.

All poets living in the U.S. and abroad are eligible. Entries should be accompanied with a SASE, telephone and email addresses for purposes of notification.

No erotica, no obscenity, no racial slurs. Theres a 48-line limit and a 56-character line width (including spaces). No previously published poems and no simultaneous submissions permitted. Poems should be single spaced. Include your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address on all poems. All entries will be considered for publication, with Mobius acquiring first rights. All rights revert back to the author upon publication. All submissions will be considered for a Pushcart Prize nomination. Mbius staff and immediate relatives are not eligible for either of the two contests. All decisions by the judges are final.

Winners will be notified by Nov. 30, 2011, and winning entries will be published in Mobius 2011 and on the magazines web site.

==================

9. New Poetry Reading Series

==================

Poets Layding Kaliba, Atiba Kwabena and Tony Mitchelson are now hosting Phat Tuesdays, a monthly music and spoken word event as part of their Linyak Project, and in collaboration with Sisters Uptown Bookstore. Readings take place every second Tuesday of each month. The October entre, Tuesday, October 11, features Brenda Connor-Bey (Thoughts of an Every Day Woman), Jeanette Rideau (Your Music Brings Out the Poetry In Me) and Ted Wilson (Slo Dance; Senses & Shadows) with music provided by The Atiba Kwabena Trio. All readings begin at 7 p.m.

Sisters Uptown Bookstore is located at 1942 Amsterdam Ave., between West 156 and 157 streets (# 1 train to 157 St., or the C train to 155 St.), in Manhattan. For more information, call 212.862.3680 or visit sistersuptownbookstore.com on line.

========================

10. Upcoming Reel Sisters Film Festival

========================

African Voices Magazine is presenting its 14^th Annual Reel Sisters Film Festival & Lecture Series, throughout the weekend of October 15-16, 2011, at Long Island Colleges Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts (downtown Brooklyn). This year, theyre offering more than 25 films that were directed, produced or written by women of color from as near as Brooklyn and as far as Great Britain. This years theme is From Cleopatra Jones to First Lady Michelle Obama: Exploring Feminism in Film & Media.

For tickets, call 718-488-1624 or 347-534-3304, or visit either of these two web sites for schedule and overview of each film: www.reelsisters.orgorwww.kumbletheater.org.

==============

11. Forty K in 40 Days

==============

A one-time matching-grant fundraising campaign to open up a bookstore in East Harlem has been under way since early September. Spearheading the campaign, Ms. Aurora Anaya-Cerda, who has been operating her online bookstore, La Casa Azul, since 2008, announced that, Every dollar you give to the 40K in 40 days campaign will have twice the impact! Thats because until October 24, 2011, a generous donor will match, dollar for dollar, every donation we receive up to a total of $40,000, as initial capital for opening and operating the new bookstore.

La Casa Azul Bookstore will sell new and used books, she adds, as well as coffee, pastries, art, clothing and locally-made cards and gifts. A fresh stock of books by local and Latino writers will help solidify our niche as a purveyor of authors of local and regional interest.

To highlight what she calls, sustainability, the proposed bookstore willcross-promote with local businesses, and work with area schools and nonprofits to promote literacy in the East Harlem community.

Interested donors can contact Ms. Anaya-Cerda via email (lucha.libros@gmail.com) or at her web site (www.indiegogo.com/LaCasaAzulBookstoreNYC).

==================

12. Playwright at Sistas Place

==================

On Saturday, November 5, 2011, the 1st & 3rd Saturdays Writers Workshop at Sistas Place will host a special reading of Tom Mitchelsons new play, B, with a professional cast consisting of Martina Vann, Sean Turner, Lawrence Floyd, and Marshall Mitchell under the direction of Count Stovall.

Hosted by Louis Reyes Rivera, this event includes an interview with author Mitchelson, the actual reading of his play, and a general Q&A with author, cast and director.

B, by the way, is an adaptation of a previously published fictional work that takes place in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the mid-1960s. B (or Beatrice Holloway) is an early victim of a gang rape who, by the time the play opens, had developed multiple personalities and embarked on a killing spree in her efforts to heal from the trauma shed suffered.

Elements in writing, such as characterization, time, place, et al, and the process of transitioning a story line (the plot) from a short story format to a staged drama are examined during the open discussions as part of what the Writers Workshop offers its participants.

Among the original performance poets of the 1970s, Tom Mitchelson fronted his own band (New Dawn Ensemble), and has worked with Sekou Sundiatas Are and Be Ensemble, George Edward Taits Black Massical Music, and Gylan Kains Holy Ghost Fallout Shelter, among others. A founding member of both the Calabash Poets Workshop and New Renaissance Writers Guild, he took to writing short fiction and stage and radio dramas while hosting radio programs (Montage, Night Flight, and, The Gut-Bucket Matinee) on WBAI/Pacifica.

Together, the author, the cast and the director of B are all current members of Harlem Playwrights 21, under the direction of playwright and NWU member Laurence Holder.

Sistas Place is located at 456 Nostrand Avenue, at Jefferson Avenue, in Brooklyn. Doors open at 12 noon and the program begins promptly at 1 p.m. As is the custom at this workshop, donations are welcomed at the discretion of each individual. This program is open to the general public and aspiring writers alike.

====================

13. Nuyorican Founders Reading

====================

Nuyorican Poets/Founding Voices brings together five of the key players who laid the basis for a Nuyorican Literature Sandra Maria Esteves, Lois Elaine Griffith, Tato Laviera, Jesus Papoleto Melendez and NWUs NY Chapter Chair Louis Reyes Rivera performing [where else?] at the Nuyorican Poets Caf, 236 E. 3 St. (between Avenues B & C), in Manhattan. Thats Tuesday, November 8, 2011. Starting tightly at 7 p.m.

This program is part of the White Wing Brushing the Building Project co-sponsored by the Bowery Arts and Sciences, City Lore and the Borimix Puerto Rican Festival.

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14. St. Marks Bookshop Needs Help

======================

The St. Mark's Bookshop, a vital institution that has historically served an admirable and, now, increasingly rare function, isstruggling to pay the market rent its landlord, Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science,is charging. An online petition is now in the works and reads, in part, that "The St. Mark's Bookshop, a vital Lower East Side culturalinstitution, needs a rent low enough to survive. Join the Cooper Square Committee petitioning Cooper Union, the bookstore's landlord,to give St. Mark's Bookshop a lower rent."

The NWU NY Chapter urges all parties to paste the link into your search engines and sign up.

http://signon.org/sign/save-the-st-marks-bookshop?source=s.em.mt&r_by=519043.

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15. Free Books for Toddlers

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EAP Coordinator Gloria Jenkins (212.480.7431) recently announced that the NYC Dept. of Ed. provides children under five years with a free book every month through its Imagination Library program regardless of parents income status. Interested parties should allow six to eight weeks for deliveries after submitting online applications.

To apply on line, place this into your search engine [let BTL know the results]: nyc.gov/html/nycha/downloads/pdf/NYC_Imagination_Library_application.pdf.

September,2011

Editor: Louis Reyes Rivera

==============

Table of Contents

==============

Part I: Union Events

1. Labor Day Parade/Saturday, September 10

2. Upcoming Brooklyn Book Festival

3. NWU Hosts Writers Confab

4. List Your Website & Events

5. UpWrite Editorial Services

6. Sustainable Publishing

Part II: Other Events Worth Noting

7. Bedford-Stuyvesant Outdoor Art Exhibit

8. Musicians Celebrate Billy Bang

9. A Wonderful Opportunity: Own A Magazine

===============

PART I: Union Events

===========================

1 Labor Day Parade/Saturday, September 10

===========================

The New York City Central Labor Council (of which the NWU NY chapter is a member) holds its annual Labor Day Parade this coming Saturday, September 10, 2011.All interested members are welcomed to join in the march with the UAW/NWU contingent, which will be situated near the front of the parade in the first contingent of labor unions.

Also marching in that sector will be the FDNY andNYPD unions as well as the NYS Nurses Association, the utility workers (SEIU), and the Postal Service unions.

All participants are expected to assemble at 9:45 a.m. on West 44th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, in Manhattan.They are scheduled to step off ontothe parade route at 10:15 a.m. (the parade starts at 10:00).

UAW Local 259 is arranging to have union-made vehicles as part of its entourage along with UAW t-shirts for its members and UAW signs for marchers to help carry.

NWU President Larry Goldbetter is asking chapter members to contact him at larryg601@gmail.com a.s.a.p. in order to better estimate how many of our members to expect. We want to make sure we have enough t-shirts, signs, etc.

If you already have one of the blue UAW Mobilizing for Justice t-shirts, he adds, please wear it.

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2. Upcoming Brooklyn Book Festival

======================

The annual Brooklyn Book Fest takes place on Sunday, September 18, 2011, from 10 to 6 p.m., in the park adjacent to Boro Hall (Jerolemon and Court streets), downtown Brooklyn. With more than 100 exhibitors, better than 1,000 titles, and well over 20,000 visitors, its a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. If youre in the neighborhood, stop by the National Writers Union canopied booth and talk to us.

NWU/NY Chapter members who want to exhibit their books and help staff the tables, should contact Louisreyesrivera@aol.com. Its not too late, yet.

Among the authors featured at the NWU booth this year are Loretta Campbell, Susan E. Davis (Love Means Second Chances), Jo Anne Meekins (For Such A Time As This), Roy Murphy, Louis Reyes Rivera, Julie Spooner, Tim Sheard (Love Dies), and Ted Wilson (Senses & Shadows; Slo Dance), among others.

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3. NWU Hosts Writers Confab

==================

Save the date: Saturday, October 15, 2011 The National Writers Union New York Chapter is hosting a one-day conference for freelancers and book authors in all genres, with professional writers, publicists, editors, and activists sharing their expertise in publishing & promotion.

Topics include: knowing what rights you have and how best to assert them; pitching, selling and marketing original works; negotiating a fair contract; recouping compensation for pirated work; setting up a web page to sell your work world-wide; earning income as a writer in other mediums; low-cost self-publishing in todays market; writing as a a business; state of the writer today; and, how best can writers protect themselves from wanton exploitation. .

The conference takes place at the UAW/NWU headquarters, at 256 West 38 Street, Manhattan, 12^th floor Conference Room, and begins with a 9 a.m. on-site registration and continental breakfast. Panel presentations begin promptly at 10 a.m. For reservations and information, email at info@nwuny.org.

Among confirmed presenters are career coach Janet Andrew, journalist & book author Herb Boyd, Grievance & Contract Division co-chair/author Susan Elizabeth Davis, freelance journalist John Dinges, poet/illustrator Sandra Maria Esteves, author Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, NWU President Larry Goldbetter, playwright Laurence Holder, poet Louis Reyes Rivera, Small Business Coach Jeri Quinn, and author Tim Sheard.

Registration: $15.00 for Union Members; $40.00 for non-Union members (includes light breakfast, lunch, dinner and beverages).

Special Note: if you join the National Writers Union during any part of the date (October 15), you will receive $25.00 reimbursement. If you join between now and before October 15, the Union Member Registration Rate will apply. All trade union members may also attend at the Union Member rate (Union I.D. required).

The National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981) is the only labor union that represents writers in every genre. Its mission is to advance the economic and working conditions of writers via lobbying for legislative action, initiating lawsuits to defend writers rights (see Tasini vs. New York Times), initiating and promoting writers campaigns for collective action (i.e., licensing alternatives against unfair publisher practices), defending authors' constitutional rights, and by otherwise mobilizing members writers to help fight for their collective interests.

This one-day conference takes place at the UAW/NWU headquarters, 256 West 38 Street, Manhattan, 12^th fl. Conference Room, and begins with a 9 a.m. on-site registration. Panel presentations begin at 10 a.m. For reservations and information, email at info@nwuny.org.

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4. List Your Website & Events

==================

Effective immediately, Between The Lines will regularly list NWU-member web sites for BTL readers to visit. As well, the E-letter will include any members event and announcement received at least one week prior to the subsequent month. All members of the New York and Philadelphia chapters (New Jersey included) are welcomed to use this service.

* * *

Meanwhile, you might want to visit:

* Samuel Buckleys books at www.phoenixstoryproductionsllc.com and/or at www.buckleysamuel.com.

* Author/editor/educator Loretta Campbell: UpWrite.weebly.com.

* Activist/Author Susan Elizabeth Davis (Love Means Second Chances) can be reached via email at: sednyc@rcn.com.

* Barbara Fisher and Richard Spiegels website offers archived books, video readings, interviews and workshops/ www.tenpennyplayers.org.

* Author/Speaker JoAnne Meekins: www.joannemeekins-inspired4u.com

* Author/Editor/designer Roy Murphy: www.murphyroy.com.

* Author/teacher Tim Sheard: timsheard.com.

* * *

If you want your events or website listed on the NWU New York Chapter web site, send data to Alexandria Faiz at alphaomegastrategies@gmail.com. If you want to post events or other information into the NY Chapter newsletter, send your materials to Louisreyesrivera@aol.com.

Visit NWU/NY Chapter web site at www.nwuny.org.

The National Writers Union general web site is at www.nwu.org.

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5. UpWrite Editorial Services

==================

Effective April 2011 If youre looking for an editor, a writing coach, freelance writer and writing instructor, consider Loretta H. Campbell. An activist member of the NWU New York Chapter, Ms. Campbell is accepting writing and editing assignments in addition to teaching and tutoring both on a one-on-one basis and in workshop settings.

Her background includes teaching writing skills at Touro College, a position shes held since 2003, proofreading abstracts and manuscripts for Elsevier Science and for Bear Stearns, at which company she reviewed financial documents prior to their publication. Having majored in Journalism at Syracuse University, she began her professional writing career with The City Sun, in Brooklyn, where she served as both a freelance news reporter and the editor for that papers weekly Health page.

She can be reached via email at lucianikita@verizon.net.

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6. Sustainable Publishing

===============

NWU activist author and NY Chapter member Tim Sheard (Love Dies) will speak at the Manayunk EcoArts Festival (Sept. 24-25), in Manayunk, PA (just outside of Philadelphia) on behalf of the National Writers Union. His topic Sustainable Publishing what authors can do to sustain the marketability of their works.

Says Sheard, Both self-publishers and traditionally published authors must promote their books; even the large publishing houses do little to promote the work of most of their authors.

That means we each must wear all four hats that of the author, that of the promoter, that of the publicist, and that of the book seller. How best to do that with little money is what Ill be discussing, he adds.

==========================

Part II: Other Events Worth Noting

=============================

7. Bedford-Stuyvesant Outdoor Art Exhibit

=========================

Brooklyn, New York Travelled Rhodes International Sculptor Arts Garden presents this seasons third and final outdoor garden program of visual and performing arts on Saturday, September 10, 2011 (1 p.m. to 8 p.m.), featuring works by internationally recognized fine artists and a full afternoon of live performances.

The outdoor community garden is located at 290 Gates Avenue (near Bedford Avenue) in Brooklyn, comprising two backyards in the historic district of Bedford-Stuyvesant.

Exhibiting artists include Beryl Benbow, Debra Marcano, Veron Williams, and several represented by Michael Bradley. Performances throughout the day will be provided by Bolade Shola Akintolayo, Makeela Amani, Amadoma Bediako, Definition, Tammy Hall, Patsie Ifill, Alkamal Jemmott, Tony Mitchelson, Osage, Kita P., Mireya Perez, Cheryl Thomas (Sisters of the Calabash), Arthur Wilson, Marcus Wright Louis Reyes Rivera/emcee.

Thegarden on Gates Avenue is within walking distance of the Nostrand Avenue and Franklin Avenue subway stations. Admission is free and donations are welcomed. For more information, contact billsimp@optonline.net.

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8. Musicians Celebrate Billy Bang

====================

On Monday, September 19, 2011, musicians, poets and singers will celebrate the birthday (Sept. 20) and musical legacy of Jazz violinist Billy Bang at St. Peters Church (619 Lexington Avenue, at 54 Street) in Manhattan. The tribute begins at 6 p.m.

A highly respected violinist with an international following, Billy Bang passed away this previous April at 63 years of age. Viewed by his own peers as an important innovator in the music, Billy has collaborated with a literal Whos Who in the ongoing evolution of Jazz since his entre onto the stage back in the late 1960s including [but far from only] Ahmed Abdullah, Fred Anderson, Alex Blake, Bluiett, Marion Brown, Andrew Cyrille, Alex Harding, Craig Harris, William Hooker, Fred Hopkins, D.D. Jackson, Kidd Jordan, Charles Moffett, Cody Moffett, Reggie Nicholson, John Ore, William Parker, Sun Ra, Andrei Strobert, Carlos Ward, Salim Washington, Kahil ElZabar like so.

The celebration on September 19 will be followed by a reception (no later than 9:30 p.m.) at the church. Internet footage on Billy Bang is accessible by pasting http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/857.html into your search engine.

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9. A Wonderful Opportunity: Own A Magazine

===================================
For Immediate Action: Juanita Torrence-Thompson, Editor-in-Chief and publisher of the internationally acclaimed Mobius: The Poetry Magazine, seeks a group of poets and/or editors (or any literature department, organization or business) to purchase and continue to publish this 29-year-old non-profit print magazine.

Check out the web site at www.mobiuspoetry.com.

Serious buyers can e-mail Ms. Torrence-Thompson at either of the two addresses: mobiusmag@earthlink.net or at poetrytown@earthlink.net.

Past contributors included such caliber poets as Robert Bly, Laura Boss, Joseph Bruchac, Edward Butscher, Rita Dove, Cornelius Eady, Ed Galing, Daniela Gioseffi, Nikki Giovanni, Roxanne Hoffman, Colette Inez, Maurice Kenny, Yusef Komunyakaa, Esther Leiper, Linda Lerner, Lyn Lifshin, Ellarained Lockie, Georgia Banks Martin, Julio Marzan, Sandy McIntosh, Samuel Menashe, Daniel Thomas Moran, Tammy Nuzzo Morgan, Duane Niatum, Naomi Shihab Nye, Simon Perchik, Marge Piercy, Rochelle Ratner, Louis Reyes Rivera, Thaddeus Rutkowski, Sonia Sanchez, Hal Sirowitz, Stephen Stepanchev, Susan Terris, Juanita Torrence-Thompson, Diane Wakoski, George Wallace, Maxwell Wheat, Jr., A.D. Winans like so.

PART I: Union News

1. NWU NY Summer Readings

2. Upcoming Brooklyn Book Festival

3. NWU/UAW Support Verizon Strike

4. UAW 9A Leadership Conference

5. NWU Hosts Writers Confab

6. NWU Activist Releases New Book

7. List Your Website & Events

Part II: News & Worth Noting

8. Veteran Producer Gil Noble Stable After Stroke

9. Premiere of Precious Knowledge

10. Sustainable Publishing

11. Mari Toussaint and WE

12. Congressional Reps of What(?)

==================

PART I: Union News

==================

1. NWU NY Summer Readings

===================

The NWU New York Chapter hosts the second of a two-part summer reading series, Reading and Righting, on Saturday, August 27, from 2 to 4:30 p.m., at the Muhlenberg Library, 209 West 23 Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues, Manhattan). Featured readers include NWU members Yusef Salaam, Constance Gemson, Irving Jones, and host Loretta Campbell. Theres still room for one or two more authors. Interested chapter members (of either prose or poetry) should contact Loretta Campbell at lucianikita@verizon.net.

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2. Upcoming Brooklyn Book Festival

======================

On Sunday, September 18, 2011, from 10am to 6pm, the NWU/NY Chapter will have an exhibitors booth at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Chapter members from both New York and New Jersey are encouraged to bring their books to sell and to read from their work. Interested parties should contact Louis at Louisreyesrivera@aol.com between now and Labor Day. The chapter exhibit space will be under a full canopy with two tables.

Loretta Campbell and Louis Reyes Rivera are coordinating a series of informal authors discussions and short readings throughout the entire day.

======================

3. NWU/UAW Support Verizon Strike

======================

Since early August, both the National Writers Union and the United Auto Workers have come out in open support of the strike against corporate bigwig Verizon. The Communications Workers of America (CWA) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) have put their picket lines up on behalf of East Coast workers attempting to maintain current contractual benefits which corporate bigwig Verizon is insisting on changing hard-won workers benefits.

According to a cited Wall Street Journal article, Verizon Communications Inc. is seeking some of the biggest concessions in years from its unions, which include weaker health care benefits, reduced job security, pension cuts, and the elimination of certain paid holidays, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, even while the corporations profits [2010] were reportedly in the billions of dollars.

According to a New York Times report, Verizon's top five executives [had] received a total of $258 million in compensation, including stock options, over the last four years.

In an article posted by Dissent Magazine, Mark Engler noted that both the CWA and IBEW have posited that Verizon has made some $20 billion in profit in the same time period, and [that] Citizens for Tax Justice has pointed out that the company has done so while paying little to nothing in corporate income taxes (see http://dissentmagazine.org/atw.php?id=530).

UAW Region 9As Scott Sommer has recently issued a call for that unions members (including those of the NWU/UAW Local 1981) for ways to support the strike, especially on the picket lines.

He writes, There is a site where you can direct people to where they can find the Verizon picket lines at either Verizon Wireless stores, an important profit center for Verizon, and at Verizon garages, call centers and other work sites.

In short, he adds, there is a place to picket near many of our homes, the homes of our members and UAW work sites.

Potential supporters can log in to either or both of two web sites. One is

http://cwa-union.org/pages/join_verizon_wireless_picket; the other can be logged in at http://cwa-union.org/pages/verizon_picket_lines.