Poetry slam, spoken word workshops and group poetry reading all coming up
Three different poetry events are scheduled for this week and next, all involving Woosh Kinaadeiyí, organizers of the monthly poetry slam in Juneau. First up, the monthly poetry slam and open mic, to be held Friday, May 17, at 6:30 p.m. this time at …
Read more on Juneau Empire (subscription)

Charles Henry Rowell Is 'Prepared to Do Battle' Using Poetry
He called the magazine "Callaloo," after a popular Caribbean stew, hoping the journal would be a spicy mixture of poetry, fiction and essays. At age 74, Rowell has had remarkable success. His journal has helped introduce several generations of now …
Read more on PBS NewsHour (blog)

James Frey There certainly are. I touched on the writers groups or writers associations that maybe available on a local or a statewide basis. There are also …

A humorous poem about Curtains by Matt Harvey (www.mattharvey.co.uk) from the book “The Hole in the Sum of my Parts” (publishers The Poetry Trust – www.thepo…
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Venezuela Calls In Military To Fight Crime In Streets
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday launched a plan to fight crime that, in its first phase, will involve 3,000 soldiers in police operations in crime-ridden neighborhoods in Caracas. "The most important problem that our society has to …
Read more on Fox News Latino

Writers of All Types Head to the Wildwoods Convention Center
… Publishing 101; Dan D'Auria, M.D.on Self-Publishing; Ken Lang on Social Media; Merry Jones on Character Development; Renee Sherkness on Yoga & Self-Inspection; A.M. Boyle on Queries & Elevator Pitch; Eva Feeley on Memoir; Douglas Goetsch, poet; …
Read more on Cape May County Herald (press release)

Switching Sides: Latinos Ditching Catholicism For Evangelical Churches
Latinos make up the largest ethnic minority in the United States — 52 million, according to latest Census stats. The majority — two-thirds — are still traditionally Roman Catholic. But there's been a palpable shift from one generation to the next …
Read more on Fox News Latino

John Hadley states in the opening chapter that many people throughout the world would say that Amazing Grace is one of their favorite hymns of inspiration. It is a hymn that truly captures the hearts imagination and exercises the mind in thinking about God. It is Hadleys goal in Amazing Grace Discovery (published by CrossBooks) to show just where and what those inspirational words mean.

The idea for the book came to him one morning after he had sung Amazing Grace in a worship service. After pondering the words he decided to let his curiosity win and traverse biblical texts and documented research to find the songs true meaning.

In Amazing Grace Discovery, Hadley casts off with John Newton on the storm-tossed ship Greyhound which, as he explains, should have been destroyed during a storm in 1748. Hadley explains to readers why Newton chose to present his personal response to Gods saving grace in the form of a hymn lyrical poetry and his purpose for writing it.

Once readers have acquired a strong understanding of where the lyrics came from, Hadley switches to an examination of the words themselves. Each lyrical phrase is broken down as Hadley clarifies what he believes is the true definition of each phrase of each verse using authoritative passages from Holy Scripture and the poetic sentiments and heart-felt prayers from many of Newtons other hymns.

Southern Partners Fund (SPF) will convene Where Do We Go from Here? A Listening Circle Conversation. This event will be held on Monday, May 13, 2013, from 11:00am 12:30pm EST. To register for the call email: fernando(at)spfund(dot)org or call 404.541.9091 Ext 114. The event is open to the public.

On May 17, 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in the case of Oliver Brown et.al. v. The Board of Education of Topeka, signaling the beginning of the end of racial segregation in the United States. By a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court found that segregating children of different races in distinct schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which guarantees all citizens Equal Protection of the laws.

The purpose of this conversation is to commemorate the historic decision by examining and learning from the complex issues of racial injustice resulting from the high court decision; give recognition to the reality that communities are still suffering from its effects; highlight the historical gains made by grassroots leaders and organizations still fighting against injustice in the public school system, and explore past and present roles of grantmakers, individual philanthropists and resource organizations committed to winning the battle for lasting and permanent justice and equal opportunity in public school education.

The Conversation will be facilitated by Southern Partners Fund Senior Advisor Hubert Sapp. Presenters include civil rights veteran Karen Watson, Executive Director of Positive Action Committee (PAC) and Chair of the Southern Rural Education Network (SERN), established by the Southern Partners Fund. Joining the panelists will be guest presenters Steve Suitts, vice president of the Southern Education Foundation (SEF), who will share pre-Brown remembrances and SEFs current work; Alan McGregor, former Executive Director of the Sapelo Foundation, who will discuss post-Brown philanthropic, community and civil rights gains and challenges; and Lori Bezahler, President of the Edward Hazen Foundation, who will discuss the role of philanthropy and the Foundations current grantmaking strategies to help end the School to Prison crisis impacting African American, Latino and disabled youths.

-more-

Many of our grantee partners have more than 50 years experience tackling the onslaught of challenges imposed when school districts were slow to comply with the court ordered mandate of integration to achieve racial balance, said SPF Interim Assistant Director Rose Johnson. SPF remains committed to providing ongoing funding to support grassroots groups who work tirelessly to dismantle the cause and lingering impact of de facto segregation throughout the rural South. As a public charity, we encourage our allies in philanthropy to allocate greater resources to support community organizing for education reform and racial justice. We also ask people of good will across the nation to begin to think about the significance of Brown, and use this as a time to prepare conversations and events in preparation for the 60th Anniversary ( May 17, 2014) of this historic decision.

Southern Partners Fund is a regional grant making Foundation that has invested more than $ 1 million in education reform, in the rural South, since 1998. The foundation serves over 200 rural community groups in 12 southeastern states. We work with diverse communities that embody the legacy of struggle, and the future of social change. Our grantee partners are from areas of the South where organizing and community were rooted by and in the Civil Rights Movement and the Latino Farmworkers Movement. The organizations and leadership that we fund live and walk in a historical reality that includes communities from Selma, Alabama to Tupelo, Mississippi, to farm worker communities in Apoka, Florida and Appalachian women in rural West Virginia. These areas of the deep South includes historically underdeveloped regions with citizens, primarily people of color, who have lower incomes, low levels of education and higher disease rates than the rest of the country. It also has a growing population of immigrant workers often exploited and denied their basic constitutional rights.

Southern Partners Fund is a 501(c) (3) public foundation created to serve grassroots social change organizations throughout the Southeastern U.S. including: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Our Mission is to support rural Southern communities and organizations seeking social, economic, and environmental justice by providing them with financial resources, technical assistance and training, and access to systems of information and power to shift the balance of power in their communities.

Want to learn more or contribute to Southern Partners Funds effort to advance social change in the rural South? Visit us at: http://www.spfund.org. Donate online.

Find More Latino Press Releases

Local poets to read at Annual Fig Poetry Festival
The poetry festival is hosted by Bill Muzychko the founder and owner of Bill's Figs located in Hunterdon County. Bill has 230 different types of fig trees. 55 are currently available for sale. He has approximately 1,300 fig trees of different sizes on …
Read more on Hunterdon County Democrat – NJ.com

Recognition Grows for Poets of Streets, Main or Otherwise
For many poets, and those in the poetry business, the popularity of poets laureate — those who labor over words to sing a community's virtues or plumb its psyche in an age defined by Twitter messages — is a pleasant surprise. Why now, though, remains …
Read more on New York Times