Marginalized No More: FIGHTIN' WORDS from the Oakland PEN Center

Knox Book Beat, 21 July, 2016

“…As a result, I became one of the first/free women in the world,/in thousands of years.
 Freely I wandered, observed,/studied and pondered,/enjoying the greatest thinkers and artists./
Sure, I was insulted, mugged, raped,/beaten and glared at homicidally/but it was worth it!” (Janine Canan, p. 22, “Blessed.”)
     I congratulate Judith Cody, Kim McMillon and one of the PEN Oakland founders, Claire Ortalda, for editing this anthology, (published and?) distributed by retiring Malcolm Margolin of Heyday Books in 2014. At 104 writers filling 171 pages (warning: tiny print), it’s a stellar accomplishment all around. (Blessings to Zellerbach Family, Lef and East Bay Community Foundations; CA Arts Council, City of Oakland, Before Columbus, Oakland Public Library and many others for support.)
PEN stood, originally, for Poets, Essayists and Novelists; and in my mind, the New York City PEN Center meant Muriel Rukeyser’s work in the ‘60s and ‘70s for feminism and civil rights, her support for the voices, words and persons of the suppressed and imprisoned from “The Scottsboro Boys’” through Vàclav Havel.
   

Fightin' Folks from PEN Center Oakland. Reed, center, Doubiago to his right

PEN Oakland was the third center in the USA after NYC and LA. It was established not on the basis of nationality or language, (English and Spanish), but on “multi-ethnic literatures,” “the problems faced by marginalized people worldwide, as related to written expression” as its founders envisioned them between 1989-91. (Ortalda, p. 172-73, “The History of PEN Oakland.”) After two years of demand, petition, hammering out chapter rights and local sponsorship “brought national attention to multicultural literature,” PEN Oakland challenged de facto censorship, suppression and “media abuses of women, people of different ethnic and religious backgrounds and sexual orientations.” (ibid.)
     Obviously, these are still major issues, but would not have become so without “the brainchild of writer and activist Ishmael Reed,…launched in fall 1989,” (ibid.) which gathered writers with “words that push back against what is wrong in the world…Those of us, who are visionary,…challenged to give birth to a new narrative.” This had been brewing since the Sixties, and “When will the healing begin?” is still a potent question. (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted in E. Ethelbert Miller, p. 101, “Wounded by Words.”)

Jessica Hagedorn and Ishmael Reed Photo Carla Blank

I had been shocked and wounded by Reed’s misogyny and rhetoric in the early days; but also “educated” by his furious authenticity into finding my own voice, style and metaphor as well as to “dare to speak up against the confines of official narratives and connect with the growing silenced masses.” (Genny Lim, back cover.)
     While Reed, Hispanic-American Floyd Salas, Italian-American Claire Ortalda and Reginald Lockett were “Co-founders;” a host of other local and world writers, presenters, editors and publishers; including Adelle and Jack Foley, Isabel Allende, Carla Blank, Maxine Hong Kingston, Sharon Doubiago, Leslie Silko, Victor Hernandez Cruz, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Kitty Kelley, Paul Krassner and Toni Cade Bambara; donated their talents, time, name recognition and volunteer energy to “building our own institutions instead of waiting around to be selected as a token by the establishment.”

Claire Ortaldaby by Diane Sattler- 2013

      “Ultimately, we have survived these decades intact because none of us has forgotten where we came from,” (Reed, p. xiii, “Pulling Marginalized Literature To The Center…”). And many of us have identified, publicized and let go of the internal humiliation, shame, intimidation and isolation that the culture tried to silence us with as well. “When will the healing begin?” Now. And Now. And Now. AND NOW!

Judith Cody credit Lyn-Ann

“Well someone’s got to sweep
this broken glass.
Someone’s got to tell that kid
to watch out or his ass
will land in jail just like his old man.”
(p. 87, Alison Luterman, “Day’s News: Oakland.”)

“Think of never being able to say a word
for fear it will be heard
and transmuted and computed and filed in the appropriate place
deep underground with leaden walls to shrink your balls
catch even your cocktail chatter or the privacy of your bedroom
where you grimace at the mirror and cry in your secret heart”
(p. 136, Floyd Salas, “The Politics of Poetry.”)

Kim McMillon 2005 photo Edie Fogel

“books have the power to give us insights into the past, the present, the future, to give us something to reach for…Books can prevent wars, keep us from destroying ourselves and our planet… a society is in danger when good books are neither written nor read.” (p. 110, Elizabeth Nunez, “Boundaries.”)

“A knock on the door in the middle of the night
is a nightmare cliché. See? No one’s there.”
            (p. 14, Christopher Bernard, “Is There a Nazi In Your Future?”)
“How would you like to come of age behind
barbed wire in your own country, charged with being
yourself, a charge you could not deny,
a guard with a machine gun and itchy fingers
overlooking your evening stroll?”
            (p. 100, Adam David Miller, “My Nisei Friends are Dying, a Colloquy.”)

Jack Foley, PEN Center Board, of Adelle & Jack fame

“And this downturn, this turn down,
This big, big disappointment, bummer slump
Might just be Nature’s way of cooling us off
Cooling us down – all that dough
Rising and rising making us feel
Super, natural but you know she’s the boss
Nature had to cool off!
Man! She was feeling the heat.”
            (p.55, Joan Gelfand, “Good Morning, America, Where are You?”)

“Save all of that wasted commodity you call “love,” because there’s no such thing without hope. And no, you didn’t have it tougher. We’ve got it tougher. Because we’ve got nothing.” (p. 113, Claire Ortalda, “NO-Body.”)

“it has to be fine sitting here
 while the earth burns and the population
 spills into the sea which will soon boil over anyway.” (Neeli Cherkovski, p. 23, “At The Caffé Trieste.”)

Fightin’ Words: 25 Years of Provocative Poetry and Prose from “The Blue Collar PEN.”  Ed. Judith Cody, Kim McMillon and Claire Ortalda (Poets, Essayists and Novelists Oakland).

https://heydaybooks.com/book/fightin-words/
Available from Heyday Press, P.O. Box 9145, Berkeley, CA, 94709; Phone (510) 549-3564.