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Somebody in my MFA program sent me the below message related to the poem:
You Can’t Fire Poetry!
In a climate where dissent and diversity are already menaced, the attempt to silence New Jersey poet laureate Amiri Baraka must not be allowed to succeed, or to further damage the right to write, speak and think openly. New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey exceeds the limits of his office by asking Baraka to resign his position as poet laureate of the state only days after his appointment because of controversial lines in a poem read at a poetry festival. The governor did not appoint Baraka to the laureateship and so has no legal capacity to fire him. Baraka was selected by New Jersey arts and humanities councils that do not have a process for firing laureates. But the issue is larger than the legalities of due or undue process. The question is whether one of the nation’s most brilliant and necessary voices can be muzzled by gubernatorial directive. The governor must learn: except in despotic regimes, you can’t fire poetry. If dissent is suppressed in America, the world will have lost even the hope of democracy. When poetry is silenced anywhere, the soul of the world dies a little. That death makes any "getting and spending" bilious and pointless.
Clyde Taylor, Professor
New York University
Manthia Diawara, Professor
New York University
St.Clair Bourne, Filmmaker
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