african-american public. thank you spirit can i please make a request? if you would please stay, i would like to meet with you. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. >> our second panel from the 2010 national black writers' conference discusses the use of literature to promote palooka causes and instigate change and transformation. the program contains language that some may find offensive. it's an hour and a half. >> good morning. wonderful. all right. in soon-to-be released biography called john oliver killen's, the life of black literary activism, the author, keith gilliard,

takes note of the following. while killen's attempted to shape is very scenes into a novel, -- this is the king of his first novel, youngblood -- the pool of activism as well as his day job slowed his progress. he faced a contradiction, with which he would wrestle for the next 40 years. the perpetual need for solitude to write, and his insatiable desire -- >> just push it back a bit. >> and his insatiable desire to participate, concretely, --

>> push it back. >> he aimed to be both a writer and an activist who would help on the front lines, unquote. ever since the first human being composed that will devour upon another, our history has been marked by both social conditions and social struggle. by a presumption of caste and class, and its corresponding degradations against our humanity. ever since all that began we have sought and fought for liberation. each subsequent generation confronted by the challenge to acquiesce, to escape, or to

resist and change the nature of that imposition. throughout the americas and ever since 1493, our collective history has been so marked by a social psychosis that measures our place in the world according to race, ethnicity and gender. the struggle between how truly human we are and the refusal of another to recognize what we each claim. the active self-assertion of giving voice to our voice, of refusing to accept our conditions, manifests itself in art, and music, and certainly in both the spoken and written word.

the poet, the fictional list, the creator of myth and folklore has always been our headstone for possibility. for the active writing and of reading, in and of themselves liberate us into accessing self determination. the more we read, the less gullible we are. the more we write, the clear our own sense of can, will, must, do, did. but in addition to independent thought is the collective will to act. how many political and social movements have been launched by the work of writers? too numerous to name, but here in this country we can at least

begin with freedom's journal and david walker's appeal to the colored citizens of the world. with the work of martin delaney, frederick douglass, i did the wells, w.e.b. dubois, marcus garvey's, and the poets and novelists of the harlem renaissance, the post-renaissance, and black arts movement. with the lights of john oliver killen's. sanchez, tony, and with the panelists here before you. the writers on this panel are sure to examine the ways writers use literature as an instrument for social change. how we actively engage

resistance and look to break new ground for transformation. among our panelists in the order that i thought would be interesting to present them. our first is simply a prolific award-winning activist with a career that spans well over 40 years of consistent commitment. in addition to having authored and/or edited no less than seven books of poetry, two children's books, three collections of essays, several major anthologies, numerous plays, including a musical, kalamu ya salaam is a producer of literary festival, poetry and jazz concerts, as well as records,

cds, dvds and radio programs, while continuing to moderate the newsletter, that attracts well over 800 black writers and supporters, and as educators codirecting students at the center, a writing program in the public schools of his native new orleans. among his books, you might want to check out "the magic of juju: an appreciation of the black arts movement." everywhere is a literary anthology. our music is no accident. and what is life lacks reclaiming the black blue self. what the skills do we require to bridge the gap between writer and reader?

how best to hone that level of critical thinking required by both. the answers to these two questions have been made manifest in our second panelist. among his many act, patrick oliver has warned these. contract administrator, director of sales and marketing for third world press, two-gram director for the open book program, founder of and program developer for "say it loud!" readers and writers, and intergenerational literary arts forum. he is the producer and host of literary nation talk radio. where authors, activists and artists alike engaged public dialogue, and he is the editor

and publisher of at least one anthology, turn the page, you don't stop. is a panel facilitator and consultant for a month others, too many to mention, the association of writers and writing programs, the american library association, texas library association, college language association, and harlem book fair in new york city. in short, we have here a proactive us who makes it, not just possible, but most probable that the books we publish get into the hands of readers. the highly respected poet and artist, dorothea smartt, the quote british-born international

performance poet makes use of the political form to build those bridges we so surely need. interchanging as she does between standard and caribbean english, between the literary poetic and the rhythmically natural, between myth and history, observation and reflection. in addition to recitals, she leads workshops and lectures, currently for the united kingdom's art on foundation, and on apples and stakes evolved program. among her books are shipshape and connecting medium, in which she explores issues of heritage and identity come and as an artist in addition to being a poet, and installation she calls trade winds, which, like her

poetry video, landfall, explores the atlantic ocean as a natural phenomenon and transporter of dreams and people. her most recent commission, see words, focuses in on that dual sword known as climate change and social justice. in addition, she serves as sable litmag's poetry editor and as codirector of inscribed, a latin asian america develop program. our fourth panelist, another native of new orleans, award-winning poet and prose writer, frank wilderson the third pro mac special years in south africa. during which time my, he is a

new orleans native, during which time he became an elected official of the african national congress, and remains a member of the congress of south african writers. the odds are of in cog negro, a memoir of exile, and of several forthcoming projects, apartheid, "red, white, & black: cinema and the structure of u.s. antagonisms," and of the black physician, civil death in civil society. as well, he is currently directing a documentary, reparations, while continuing to teach drama and african-american studies at the university of california irvine. did i say that right? irvine? i figure they pronounce it that

way over there. in either case, each of the panelists, as i shattered the amount, -- shouted them out, was before roughly 10 minutes. and i had the dubious duty of reminding them when that time is out. and then we will engage in a q&a with the rest of you. there are microphones on each side of the aisle, and y'all feel free to ask anything you want. i am sure that between the five of us you will get an adequate response. in either case, welcome, kalamu ya salaam. [applause] >> a little preference.

♪ (singing) words. ♪ (singing) have. ♪ (singing) meaning. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only in, but only in context. are you already? , now. are you already?

[applause] >> yes, just to the english, all right? when i see words, just say have, meaning, but only, in, context, words. ♪ (singing) [laughter] words. ♪ (singing) have. ♪ (singing) meaning. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only in. ♪ (singing) context. ♪ (singing) i've got this part. ♪ (singing) all men. on them. no women. all men. no women. all men. all men are created. all men are created. all men are created.

no women. all meant. no women. all men are created. washboard. le, who owns, stage. words. ♪ (singing) >> come on, i by myself. ♪ (singing) have. >> meaning. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only. >> and. >> context. >> land. ♪ (singing) the land of the free. the land of the free. the land of the free. what's up? free land. i say free lead. i will take a. i will take a. i will take a. i will take it. ♪ (singing) free the land. i will take it. the land is really free. the land of the free. the land of the free. ♪ (singing)

>> was stolen. was stolen. was stolen from native americans. ♪ (singing) words. >> have. ♪ (singing) meaning. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) in. ♪ (singing) contact. ♪ (singing) last one. ♪ (singing) i love. i love. i love. i love.

i love. i love the. i love. i love. i love. i love. ♪ (singing) i love. ♪ (singing) i love. i love you. man. bring, me, is, why. ♪ (singing) word. have. ♪ (singing) meaning. ♪ (singing) t only. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) but only. ♪ (singing) if. ♪ (singing) context.

[applause] >> i only have about -- what? i just thought, i just thought that since we're going to hear some literary stuff we are to hear some literature that moves beyond the text. i had a presentation, that you can see us going to be for 10 minutes. so what i will simply say a few things. one, we live in a world of changing paradigm. kind of world where you have celebrate founding fathers, and a man that never gave birth to nothing.

o. oh, and it goes to the heart of nationalism. i was a pan african. levies be clear about. i used a but nationalism. nationalism as defined by a european oppressors is one of the major veins of the world. one reason the african concept is having a problem is because there are no african nation states in africa. each one of the boundaries of those nationstates was defined by europeans for the benefit of europeans. and to try and maintain those boundaries is to try and maintain european hegemony. on top of that, nationalism is based in fact up on symbolically, putting a flag to

claim, or to put it a better way, putting a dick in a whole. nationalism is about systematic oppression limit. you cannot own land, you cannot own women. and until we deal with that, we're not going to move forward. we're going to go in circles and think we are moving forward. this is a black writers conference and we don't even know what black as it took one of the hallmarks of blackness, i ain't black. so as soon as you see a dark skinned% say i ain't black, you know that person is what? black. recently we've had two major

pollsters make the transition. one was lucio clifton. some would say the quintessential black poet of this era. the other was i, who did not claim to be a black poet. our blackness must define and embrace them both. and if they cannot do that it's not really blackness. because our blackness has been about the result of the encounter with others. and unfortunately, being here in the united states we have become what i have called brown skin rednecks. we are philosophically zena phobic. we hate the other. and we bought into american exceptionalism. we think there's something different about us. ain't nothing a different about

your back except where you are at a given moment. so we must deal with this definition of black. my brother frank over there is smiling. it turns out we caught the train together by accident, both of us trying to discover our way over here. and he told me a story that i talked to him back in 1981? 1980. i don't even remember it. at the time i was doing something else. but the point is this. if you move on your past you will discover fellow travelers. if your past is consistent with consumerism, capitalism, need i go on? you know who you are going to discover?

your oppressor. and most of us on the past of mention sexism, heterosexual as them. you could go on and on. let me move on to the 13. i guess i myself as a new york real. this writing task. listen, the era of the hegemony of text is over. the air of the hegemony of text is over. most of the people who talk that text ship can't even text. [laughter] >> there's been a shift, and a shift has to do with the development of digital technology. and that has made possible we live in the era now where gutenberg to the bible? i've got to go.

[laughter] >> when gutenberg did the printing press and it should in another era. alphabet versus the cost. this was the era of the domination of the sky guard, the air of the domination of males, the air of the overthrow of female, and this text has perpetuated them. now we have to governments that run our lives. men with guns and men with bullets. and we have to fight both of them and we live in an era now where the image and sound is becoming dominant because this is the first time the masses other people can now make their own image and reproduce their own sound and this should be them worldwide. technology has three steps. first up was the computer the second step came in with the internet. and the third step has come in with the mobile platform. everywhere the third vote a mobile platform is the way to communicate with people. i could take this further, be glad to afterwards. that's just been a small piece.

been here and gone. by. [applause] >> welcome, patrick oliver. [applause] >> thank you, brother kalamu. i want to thank first of all doctor green for putting this event together. if of a big hand. [applause] >> and also all the folks who were care to make sure, it's very important that these types of for and take place. you know, so that we can gather, gather and share ideas. because it's about community. that's the premise from which i work and i do my work, recognizing there's a community out there, a community out there that has so much richness in terms of what it can provide. when i talk about providing, i

talk about providing for most young people. that's what my work is done, to look at young people and see how we get them to be in a position we are today here on this panel. that is where my work begins and ends every single day. and i look at how do we do that, you know, what level of community, what level of partnerships do we engage in making that happen. so again, that's my work. you know, and i utilize a lot of the skills that brother mentioned in my time in corporate america. and working with various industries. in those industries, the end product, they always went out and saw the best to produce the best. so i oftentimes try to find some way to find the best writers, the best activists that are in our communities to convey messages to young people. you know, to gather them in

their forms, whether they be panel discussions, poetry, whatever the case may be. i tried to make a strong effort in making sure our community provides that rich, rich, ghent level of resources that are after. and again, we do it to a number of ways. and through partnership. again, partnerships is really community. we do a weekly radio show, and it comes on every thursday. and i reach out to writers all over the country to be a part of it. a number of writers are produced they this conference this weekend. because we want young people to hear for themselves what our writers are saying. we want them to understand that their struggle is very common with the struggles of all, many of the writers around the country. their struggle is very common with sharon draper, sharon

drape. very, very, and. it is nothing new. therefore, if your struggle is common with people like that, that means your progress can be just like those individuals, that there is, now the, not in struggle but also, now the in success when you follow those successes or those roles those individuals have laid for you. so that's what we do to try to make sure these young people understand that. we also try to make sure their parents understand that because their parents have got to understand it as well. again, i mentioned partnership is very important. we tried to make sure schools that are in our communities, somehow we work with the schools that are in that community, that those schools understand that kalamu ya salaam, his poetry, clifton, her poetry, all those great writers in our community, langston hughes, their writing is very common with those young people in our community.

doctor said it best in her book, cultural literacy and learning. she makes reference to a theory, called cultural modesty. she encourages institutions, parents, to make sure that the literature that young people read on a daily basis, that they -- it models their community, their environment. therefore, the book, the literature they read has to look and sound like, very simple theory, we have heard quite a bit. and as we put this in the place that we have in chicago, make sure you visit the betty shabazz school. they have one of the greatest models of providing young people with opportunities to learn about their history through literature that looks at it.

again, consistent point we been promoting all over the years as we attend conferences such as this. . . that we again have the knowledge base with in our community to empower our young

people. that is my work. we also challenge institutions that exist in our community as well. governmental agencies. it is political season. let's make sure our elected officials keep in mind the information that is important, make sure literacy books, dollars that are available through various state agencies, literacy becomes -- conversation becomes part of public policy because there are in number of dollars that are available to young people that we need to make sure our public officials make it clear that those will go to our schools. engage our let -- elected officials in conversation. it is very important and easier

than we think. the johnson foundation and all these individuals, let's make sure we understand literacy as a major issue in our community and dollars should go in that direction. we have been successful to make sure they send some dollars toward our community. rockefeller foundation helped us develop a community technology center in a view for 13 station web gives people opportunity to come, a riding instructor and computer training instructor, part of a technology initiative getting funding from various individuals to make sure we open eight different tech centers in various communities around the city of little rock and they have been funded by organizations in our community. but hospitals giving us dollars

to the engage more around math and technology and literacy so we can see young people move toward the medical field. those are some things we are doing in terms of utilizing literacy and trying to engage young people in the writing process but more so earlier, that community activism are very important in the growth and development particularly in my area of young people. they are our next generation of readers and writers and leaders. let's make sure we make that happen in terms of efforts to engage in activism. [applause] >> all right. see how much you can do in ten

minutes. >> good morning. thanks for having me here. i am very conscious of being the only female on the panel and from the u.k. panel, so bear with me. i am going to begin with shipshape. in 2003, i was invited to write a contemporary for place, from london and in the north of england there is a grave where,

in the 1700's, there is not much known about the occupant of the grave, let me say a little bit. the occupant is an unknown african who died after his arrival at some point and on the estuary. according to a magazine in 1822, he arrived in 1736 in the west indies in the capacity of a servant to this day and named, when lancaster was becoming the fourth largest slave port in britain. this is not common knowledge in the u.k. and isn't known to many

people. outside the local area, the site is woven into the folklore area. i will read from the 1822 magazine after she had discharged her cargo he was placed at the end supposing himself to be deserted by the master without the ignorance of the language in the course, he fell into a state of stupefaction even such a degree he secretive himself in the house and stretching himself out full banks to refuse all sustenance. within a few days of arriving this african died and was

buried. i felt an obligation and responsibility to highlight this person's life. in the absence of factual information, i was a glad i was a poet rather than an anthropologist. i am going to share some poems with you. my mission was to educate people, not just black british people but british people generally about an aspect of the history that they shy away from.

and also to honor sambo. just keep an eye on the time. ruby lips. jetblue to tell note teals but the document -- a living african diaspora excelled out a living black mother. this black woman appears at scanned the facts and barely seize any one she could call family twists into dreams the sound of a name, the lingering scent of jasmine on the london underground, st. lucie parish winds unfurling something she can barely name coming with memories greater than her own,

ruby lips filled with stories of family even though she is gone. listen beyond the shallows. there is wisdom to be learned through fleeing words, instinctive feelings, fox and inspired dreams and dark bubbles from depths that are no more than air of greed. those erudite manuscripts that aid and abet corroborate and validate each other. i will vilify with my mother's knowing play. [applause] ship shape and lancaster fashion. sailors and shored cargo made the crossing keeping africans

for sale, sailors seeing ac shanty, homesick from the decks above the deep coral undertow of african voices rolling below. the first time together new and old worlds prayed the voyage to end, british sailors lives held down terror of the submerged africans. home in lancaster. did they relate stories of stories to waiting wives and children or were those ships tails remembered only when sailors shared one plank after another to sues them into forgetting the farm. secrets kept to blunt disquiet, a convenient forgetfulness. untitled. he has no name but sambo, filled

with your pity and remorse. i wonder if this grave is empty because he is no one of lancaster can name him for his past, not his people, bury him under its midst. if he is there at all could lancaster say his name or would the accent slur to sambo, you thought you saw him. did you say his name was sam boat? that is who you saw. [applause] >> one of the most important things in producing these poems and reading them around the country and sending them out was to give this unnamed person a

narrative and to give him a name so i will end with this one. my calling. i tell them my name is bill. bill, they reply. they laugh at me and i keep the source of my smile hidden as i whisper to myself yes, yes, i am my father. i am below my true name is a secret i keep from those that would defile me. [applause] >> last but not least, frank wilkerson iii. >> can you hear me ok?

i am laudable? thanks to the staff for inviting me. it is my second time. when my first book came out, he memoir on apartheid i was going around the country on a book tour and it wasn't always clear to me what kind of impact or how the book was being received. it was thought of as a controversial. i felt myself -- you know how it is when you publish something that you think will never get published and you are hoping it will never get published because it reveals so much about yourself and how you feel about the world and you go out and represent it and take all the hits and pot shots from people and i wasn't ready for that. when i came here in november of 2008 i had the most sustained

and engaged response and dialogue about my work i ever had. i am happy to be here and that my publisher came in to collaborate and relocated to make efforts. thanks for putting us all together. in the 1980s i was teaching creative writing in minneapolis, minnesota. as you can imagine i was struggling with how to be as a writer and a black writer in that place in this time and what my relationship was between my riding and the political movements i had been involved with as well as my personal life because my work and fiction and poetry and creative nonfiction is vertically integrated between the world of political struggles and more intimate and risky stories about intimate

relationships and family. i didn't know i had to give myself permission to write what i was writing and the way i needed to write it and to become portable and accept that you will see my commitment to the struggle. i was searching for mottos and voices that would give me permission to do what i was doing. i looked at two people i held in high esteem. one was james baldwin for the guidance of this. james baldwin gave me permission in a certain way when he had a dialogue in 1970 to that was recorded by the bbc, asking how could he go through the core of

his personal life, so unflinchingly and risk the kind of fallout in relation and being misunderstood. i will never forget what he said. when the book comes out he was speaking towards his father and this -- when the book comes out it may hurt you. if it hurt you it had to hurt me first. i can only say as much about you as i do about myself and anyone who has ever tried to live. so i thought ok, that is all i need. but shortly after that i was in a master's workshop with the creative writing instructor workshops with people who are

well known, teaching the teachers that the law. he asked her the same question and gave me a completely different answer. i would never write about anyone i related to. baldwin, he said another thing. he was committed to the struggle. the struggle, they reese struggled and sued their idea about how to get the writing done. tell me how to do it, favor

committed, this is at the height of what to say, he was learning to get out of the way of the result. they will accept it and get the writing done. what i am trying to say is they will accept me. this is a difficult thing to overcome. we are not just black writers but black people. we live everyday of our lives in an anti-black world. not a distinction from us.

we live everyday in that word context of daily rejection. it is understandable that we might strive for acceptance and appreciation for our writing. this gets us tangled up in the results. the lesson we have to learn about literature and political struggle, i am a political writer which is to say my riding is self-conscious about radical change, activists in political movements. labor has been intentional, goal oriented. with a purpose. to free all political prisoners or to abolished the industrial complex in the united states. or in south africa i worked to abolish apartheid and unsuccessfully set up a

socialist state. my poetry and fiction and creative nonfiction and theoretical writing to resonate with and impact and be impacted by those identifiable results. there is something really debilitating will happen to the writing. the writing will be hobbled if and when i become clear about the ways in which i want my riding to have an impact on political struggle. what i am trying to say when i say i want to be unclear, i don't want to clarify the impact that my work will have or should have on political struggle. the relationship of literature to struggle is not one of causality but one of accompaniment. when i write i want to hold my political beliefs and political agenda loosely. i want to look at my political

life the way i might look at a solar eclipse which is to say look in directly. in this way i might be able to liberate my imagination and go to places in my riding that i and other black people go to all the time that places that are too dangerous to go to and to speak about when one is trying to organize people to take risks or when a political organization is presenting a list of demands. i said this is an anti black world. if it is something i hate and it is anti-black in places i don't hate such as cuba. i have been involved with some radical political movements but none of them have called for the end of the world but if i can get out of the way of the results in my riding, if i can think of my riding as something

that a company's political struggle as opposed to something that will cause political struggle, then maybe i will be able to explore the forbidden territory, the unspoken demand that the world comes to an end. the thing i can say. maybe i can harness the energy of the political movement to make a breakthroughs of the imagination that the movement can't always accommodate to maintain this organizational capacity. that is what i would like to say today. thank you. >> thank you. and now for the exciting part, if you will. anyone who wishes to begin the process, just grab hold of the mike and hollered black as they say.

>> how are you doing? >> here they come. the icebreaker. >> when i was teaching high with a media historian. a gentleman -- i didn't get your name. something very provocative for me. that is the end of tax. you rightly pointed out the significance of the revolution and the european dominance of the world but i think i heard a contradiction that if it is the end of text what are we riders supposed to do now? >> i think i said and if i didn't let me correct myself. it is important. white men with guns and black men with guns and men with

books, one of the blooms of the modern world. what they do with those books is tell you this is a holy book and this is how you must live on this earth. i am saying the end of the domination of text. >> would that include the old books? >> does it include the holy books? if they are taxed, yes. >> the koran and the bible are irrelevant? >> i'm not calling anything irrelevant. i am simply saying they no longer need to dominate our lives. the use of the text has been to dominate our lives as people of color and specifically to dominate the lives of women and to dominate the earth. in the bible and i can speak of this because i have studied it a little bit. i give you dominance, right?

doesn't it say that? how can any man have dominance over the earth? how can any man have dominance over another human being? but that book says i give you dominance. and we must be willing to confront the dogs because we as africans have had to confront our own gods who failed us during our enslavement. what we are often not willing to to do is confronted what we have been told of the gods and i am simply saying text as the domination of the world is through. >> thank you. i think you clarified it. >> can i interject? hi would like for you to explore just for a taste how you

juxtapose what you just said with the liberation that takes place when i learned to read and write myself. >> learning to read and write is not the only thing you do. you become a temple on the ass of oppression. i am serious. i am serious. you do much more than that end specifically, if you don't know, there was a lot more than that. and once we begin defining ourselves in european terms we say i am a writer which means all i do is work with words on a page. no. i define myself as riding with text, sound and light and writing is just concreteing spoken word so that the author does not have to be present when

the audience perceives it. that is solid is. that is all writing is. if we can do the writing and say i can create something and you don't have to behere to e it. i can show it to you later. that is an image. you can hear me and not have to be present when i speak. that is a recording. digital technology made it possible for the average negro to record, make movies hand write books and to distribute them worldwide. that is the key that we are in the middle of a revolution and we have been on the plantation and we buy into text is so dominant, text is so dominant that if you are not literate, if you can't read and write that

there is something wrong with you and if that was the case our music would not be as powerful as it is because many of the creators of our music could not read or write music. that does not mean we don't learn how to read and write music. we embrace all of that. i am not a lot night. i do not say do away with this or that. i say embrace all of it. and what has happened is most of us who invested in text reject the image, reject sound. that is why the average rider has no -- has no record collection. you want to know how black somebody is show me their record collection. i don't want to see their library. >> do we have another question? all right. coming up. >> i understand what you were

saying because this is something that will be taken up at the seminar tomorrow. a panel discussion on the internet tomorrow, what you're talking about is the coming revolution and as a matter of fact we hear that the internet will be replacing network television in a few years but also in reference to what you were saying about the text, the gentleman's question earlier, there's a lot of misuse, the europeans use the bible to perpetuate the system of slavery but when we is the text like you said, we see the liberation in the bible. the misuse of that is really going to be -- that is what we're dealing with because there has been a lot of misuse of text

especially the bible. i wanted to address the brother at the end. just a question maybe all of you can answer. do you think it is the responsibility of all black writers today to be activists? >> i would say yes. i would not try to define for people what that means. i think that right now we are in the worst position we have been in since the end of reconstruction and if you are in some way -- a writer whose name is from the camera room and one of the things he says is there was a point in time when the arabs were pushing in from the east and europeans were pushing

down from the west and everyone in africa was in some way concerned, had some relationship to the institution of slavery and that is a provocative statement because nowhere else in the world have people had a relationship to the slave institution but the world has impinged upon them. it is similar to the period between a get -- 1800-1825 when they ripped people between the ages of 18-25 from the seaboard henry enslaved them in the south. with the industrial complex have done to us today. so to say that you do not have a relationship to the problems we are facing, it would be ludicrous. you have a relationship. the question is how to explore

that relationship in your own particular way. this is where the activism comes in. i would not want to be prescriptive about that. >> i would say no. because to be a revolutionary is a voluntary thing. there are no draftees in a revolution. you cannot impose revolution in saying you have to be a revolutionary. that is a voluntary exercise. is an exercise not for the faint of heart or for people who don't really want to do it. we cannot demand -- all we can demand of writers is that they write. you understand? the problem with the holy book is people take that stuff literally but they are not willing to disengage their mind.

the old testament and the new testament are two different books. two books in one and jesus said he came to overthrow the old. when the old testament said and are for and i, the new testament is saying turn the other cheek. and what we as followers of the book do we choose imparts of the book that we want to issues like it is an abomination for so and so and such and such, who was jesus running with? >> if i want to comment on anything, it is the internet and digital technology.

which is important. i am not trying to say it is not. but it is important to bear in mind for example i am not good at remembering statistics. i was in south africa in november and in south africa 30% of the population have access to computers and in many parts of the world tour access to electricity is something that happens during a certain few hours of the day. the internet is important and digital technology platform business but some people are dealing with the analog radios and write letters still. it is a privilege to have access to these different technologies and to have a 24/7 access to of

electricity and those kinds of things and it is important to have -- to keep that context in mind. >> very quickly. to be even activism a writer writes from his or her own experience and the experience does not engage activism, you can't push him in a direction but i am sure there is something that may spur someone else on to engage in activism. a compelling story that may engage the writer to look at this young person or adult life with sensitivity and maybe i should be involved with a particular initiative associated with what happened to this young person and the issue around

technology, the digital divide. i'm concerned about the conversation as well. i live in arkansas. moved back a couple years ago. you have communities in arkansas, mississippi, tennessee, who don't have access to broadband. so i am careful about making a statement at the end of text because oftentimes we forget about those folks because they don't have access to broadband. [talking over each other] you have communities of medium income around $12,000 a year. they don't have self loans. the libraries and communities continue to have books but these buy expensive tennis shoes and overlook the fact that with this

cellphone, access to the world. his parents don't understand the importance of replacing the cellphone with that $100 t-shirt. we have to make sure that information is disseminated to their parents. the discussion of the technology replacing the tape because again because i work in this community i see it all the time. young people don't have the cellphone. we make sure their libraries are spinning, those books around the country. >> let's be clear. >> how many people here have got a cellphone? [talking over each other] >> these are people who are able to get here, who live in the

city. wait a minute. let's be clear on what i am saying. if i wanted to reach 50% of the people in this room i could reach 50% of the people faster with a cellphone. that is all i am saying. information that is in the book i can put on the cellphone. [talking over each other] >> i understand where you're going. i firmly believe in the importance of reading. i firmly believe in the importance of reading but i am not going to be confined to page. [talking over each other] >> nobody said that. let's appreciate that one of our biggest struggles today is how technology has spoiled our youth away from the discipline of

discovering the page and its importance. we are not talking just about the christian bible or the moslem iran. don't forget, the phas always been responsible for writing the script to begin with. every generation healed that. >> human beings have lived on the planet for tens of thousands of years longer than writing. writing is in terms of human existence it is a relatively new thing and what we don't want to face is our allegiance to our oppressors. >> go ahead. you got a question. >> i hate to interrupt this dialogue. a little earlier you alluded to

consumers some and i have been challenged by a question, my parents are panthers out of the chicago chapter and before my dad died we have a conversation where he asked me if i was a revolutionary. i knew i had to be real careful as i answer that question because me coming out of college and following that traditional mainstream route high heart has always been in working with young people. i am from little rock, arkansas, and i told him i was but the revolution i was fighting was in the minds of young people. i hope that that sufficed but as i have kids i think about the challenge of the work i do now at a two year college and i'm interested in the prison industrial complex. these are things i am trying to fight to but at the same time i

have young people. my dad didn't leave me anything to build on because he gave everything to the revolution. they both left school early and are always resented a part of them for not giving me the picket fence and i am at a place where this is where my heart is but at the same time i struggle with what am i going to leave my kids if i give it all to the people with nothing in return. with this much wisdom in the room i hope to put that in front of you and see what that yields. >> go ahead. on the other side. >> going on a different bent in regard to the black rider as a literary activist. i am from state university and i want to know what this responsibility of the black writer in terms of the good news. not just to talk about the

struggle, the oppression but to talk about the good news in terms of awakening the people to what is good, what is vibrant, what is sustaining, it is very serious but i am thinking too often the good news is disregarded as not valuable. so what is the good news? >> don't look at me. you have a bunch -- >> whoever wishes to address the young man's comment, ones from arkansas and the young lady's comment. >> to be truthful about it, there is not much we can leave

to future generations materially in this society unless we have become part and parcel in the oppression of the world and the sprawling of the environment because that is the only way you are going to amass any great wealth in this society by exploiting others and spoiling the environment. what we should leave hopefully, we should pass on everything we have learned that we think is important and most of all set an example of dealing with whatever your conditions are to make life better and more beautiful for others as you pass through. that a child can learn from. you can leave them a car or a house but if you don't leave them an example of being a human

being who is committed to making the world a better and more beautiful place than when they got here you haven't left anything. >> anybody else on that question? >> let him continue. >> i do understand because that has been the gift my folks have given me but more directly to the point as i get out here and do the work i am doing i have to go to the people who do have the wealth to help impact this issue so that is where i am going. because i know people sell books and i have a book that sells on the mainstream market. but the work i am doing if i have to keep begging and oppressor for the money to do

the work to change the situation. so that is a question that has to be answered. fundamental question in terms of how can we make this a profitable. how can you leave not just riches but well off? >> we have to devise ourselves of a belief that the bottom line is god. people talk about want to be a writer but i want to be comfortable. i want to be a writer but i want to make a living with my work. we live in a capitalist society. this society -- why would the richest country in the world, the most powerful nation in the world not want to give health care to all its citizens? why in the world with a significant segment of its citizens be willing to curse out

people for wanting to give health-care to everyone? because we live in a capitalist society and we are still living in a capitalist society. we have become capitalists in our own head and we believe, we really believe that we must make a profit off of everything. there is nothing sacred to a capitalist. nothing. they pound on the bible all day long and they sell bibles. there is nothing sacred to them. everything is for sale. once we get to the point of believing we must make a profit off of everything we will continue trying to profit off of everything. our relationships with each other, our intimate relationships and everything else like that, we will begin to measure how good those relationships are by the profit. it is a very in insidious

elevation of individual aggrandizement over the good of the community, the good of the earth itself. we are messing up this planet. and if we don't address that situation all these other issues become academic. become academic. the water wars are coming. the water wars aren't come. we have to deal with these issues. the united states of america under the bush made a decision that they would stockpile nuclear waste and not charge the nuclear energy for the stockpiling of the waste. i was trained in chemical biological radiological warfare. nuclear waste does not go anywhere for thousands and

thousands and thousands of years and the safest way to contain nuclear waste is to rack in gold because that is the only metal that can contain it for thousands of years. wrap your waist in gold. that is the only way but the u.s. government has said we're going to stockpile nuclear waste and the nuclear waste being stockpiled is causing this country millions of dollars each year and yet obama says we are going to build more nuclear plants. we have to deal with these issues and stop being so concerned about the finding everything by what was brought in by the europeans. >> addressing the question, please let's be creative leasing. we have the question of the

responsibility of the writer in relation to, quote, the good news versus the bad news. >> the literary activism in terms of good news. >> if i may very quickly, john oliver kiln's used to say it himself, he said it is your responsibility to tell it like it is but it is also your obligation to tell it like not to be. please don't the night on behalf of wanting to be positive. don't deny your aspirate state in line with the conditions of our despotism. you got to find a balance between the two if i can interject that to speed this up. >> our culture is the good news.

our creativity and imagination and no matter how much we have been oppressed or discarded we keep coming up with new ways to express our humanity and that is very important that we continue to develop our imagination and not put limits on ourselves. >> i want to allow this young lady her question but we have come to an end of this panel. >> i have a question but i will keep it to one. i am still struggling with the definition of activism now particularly when i am told we are in the whole racism era. there's still a conflict for me as far as how you read the fine

it or define it at this point since obama is president and i am told we a in a post something. >> it is very interesting because when benazir voodoo became president of pakistan no one said sixes and was over and when they had a woman president in ireland and no one said sexism is over. interesting people would say sexism--racism is over because there's a black president. that is not true. one of the things i was trying to say is i would not want to be prescriptive about how a person -- you can't recruit someone for a revolution. part of a creative literary education is a political education and i came through a fine arts program in columbia in which they didn't believe that. you live in a political context

and if you are a writer and you are educating yourself formally about how to educate about the world in which you are living and your writing is going to be very stilted, what comes out of that in your riding education is completely open. i would not want to be prescriptive. i see all of that as activism. not just getting out in the streets and marching. reflection is activism. reading is activism. the question is how do you inform your work? >> and building alternative. we have reached the point where i want to thank our panelists and ask you to help me do that.

[applause] >> primarily because this was the last place that he taught and the last place that he brought these conferences to, used to enjoy fay. whenever i go to the typewriter d with the intention of changing world. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. for our panel, patrick oliver, goerge the smart, and frank wilkinson iii. you have two minutes to give summaries if you so desire. two minutes each. >> go ççto:lou.com.

you can check out our music website. people all over the planet are checking out. go to ask ac students at the center new orleans louisiana. we put that together. and you can read and download for free if you choose or you can purchase a hard copy if you have to have a hard copy of the work we do with high school students in new orleans and whatever else you do make a personal vow to make your world better and more beautiful however you should be fine better however you should define more beautiful. make a vow to make your world more beautiful from relationships to interaction with the material world. >> i would say read outside of

your culture. the u.s. has african-american literature, has its own hegemony outside of that for us and there are other black voices apart from african-americans, experiences and things to learn from other black writers globally. so i would encourage you not only to read your immediate culture but to read black culture globally. [applause] >> we have next generation of young people. we have to reach back, generations back to become children centered and engage in some programs that impact the young person's life. we have to do that. we reflect our own personal lives. we know somebody impacted us when we were a child so we must

do the same thing. for engage some young people in some form of literary activity. be a part of it. www.speakloudly.com. that is what we do. turn a page when you don't stop, essays and short stories, testimony about how reading transform their life. 22 people who speak to young people about how reading was transformed of. it took me where i am today. that is what i encourage you to do. engaging in an activity to transform a young person alive. >> i would like to say the political movement for a writer in a way the writer feeds the political movement and in the best of times there is a synergy of intensity and purpose between the two that is very important

but what is also important is the political struggle and labors of creative writing are very similar. we should not forget that there is a difference the between the labor of political work and labour of the imagination and give credence and voice to both of them. >> w are at the end. a round of applause for our moderator and panel. >> patrick oliver is editor of turn the page and you don't stop. the appreciation of the black arts movement. london poet boris the smart is poetry editor. frank wilkerson is assistant professor of african-american studies at university of california. for more information visit nationalblackwritersconference. org.

>> pat buchanan conservative ideology. he will take your calls and e-mail. three hours with pat buchanan sunday at noon on c-span2. >> sydney milken's of the university of west virginia recounts theodore roosevelt's campaign for the presidency in 1912 and his leadership of the progressive party. the heritage foundation in washington d.c. coasts the hour and a half event. >> welcome to the heritage foundation. i'm director of lectures and seminars and it is my privilege to welcome you. we welcome those who did join us on the heritage.org web site so they can submit questions in the presentation e-mailing us at