Venue
for an Artist
In it's Venue for an Artist, The DISH features young and old artists from around the world. Artists include the famous and up-and-coming. There are poets, comedians, writers, playwrights and story-tellers. This page provides links to a few of those who have made contributions to the only international on-line weekly dedicated to the dialogue on Race - The DISH
§ §§§
Volume 11 …………………………………………….2008
Issue 1 Black
People Thinking out Loud…By Nadra Enzi
Great Story...A Baby's Hug…By Anonymous Issue 2
Paradise
Lost…By Doug Holloway Issue3
Issue 4 Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008…By FairEconomy.org
One
Bush Left Behind…By Greg Palast Issue 5
Issue 6 Who Will Clean Up the Elephant Crap?
By Robert W. Barker
Mr.
Crump…By W. C. Handy Issue 8
Issue 9 Obama’s Money Cartel…By Pam Martens
Issue 11 Archangel: Hope and Black
People..By John Burl Smith
Issue 12 Remaining Awake Through a Great
Revolution...By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Compulsory
State Education…By Memphis Blue Issue 14
We
didn’t mean to kill them…By B. Michael Issue
19
Alessandro:
A Fallen Loved One…By Gilda Carbonaro Issue
21
§ §§§
Volume 10 …………………………………………….2007
Democrat's De Facto Pardon Bush et al …By Karl Sanchez
Issue
2
You're Fired!
By Min. Paul Scott Issue 3
Why
Just Ask the Donkey By Hafiz Issue 5
PNAC Letter
to Bill Clinton Issue 10
The
Patriots By Dr. Bob Bowman Issue 12
Where
Have All the Leaders Gone? By Lee
Iacocca Issue 16
Contradiction By Domino Ca$h Issue 17
Eurocentric
Curricula Damage Black Students By Carl
Noldon Issue
22
Message
from the Front Line By STEP Issue 26
A
Letter to America By Ronald G.
Auguste Issue 27
The
Legacy By Nancey Greggs Issue 28
NAACP
or NWA: Buryin’ the “C” Word…By Paul
Scott Issue
29
Letter
to Judge J.P. Mauffray…By Dr. Donald H. Smith Issue
31
Strange
Fruit…By Abel Meeropol Issue 32
George
W. Bush is a Saint…By Victor Forsythe Issue
34
The
Forgotten Road Warriors…By Louis S. Diggs Issue
36
Prisoner…By
Lucky Dube Issue 45
In
Jerusalem…By Mahmoud Darwish Issue 47
Eight
Hour Song (1865)…By Charles Haynes Issue 48
Olive Trees…By
Iron Sheik Issue 51
Cancer
Ignorance…By Drs. Carol and William Kelley Issue
52
§
Volume 9 …………………………………………….2006
Seeds of Deception (Excerpts)…By Jeffrey
M. Smith Issue 1
Georgia Black Chamber Remarks…By Cynthia McKinney Issue 2
The Right to Vote…By Jesse Jackson, Jr. Issue 4
Hamas behind the wheel…By Raja Chemayel
Issue
5
Addicts…By Judge Greg Mathis Issue 6
A Homecoming (Excerpt)…By James Carroll Issue 9
The Ministry of Propaganda…By David Ray Issue 10
White Nationalism Put U In Bondage…By Autum
Ashante Issue 12
CONFORMation…By
Vashon Hinton Issue 13
The Human Abstract…By William Blake 1757-1827 Issue 14
Let's Impeach the President…By Neil Young Issue 21
Unemployment...By
Eliot Khalil Wilson Issue 22
Nanny…Lorna
Goodison Issue 23
My Dad…Performed by Paul Peterson Issue 24
Does the Pro-Israel Lobby work against U.S.
interests? By Mohamed Elmasry Issue 26
Obesity…By Robert William Service (1874 - 1958) Issue 27
Positivity..By Stevie Wonder (Featuring Aisha
Morris) Issue 28
The Silence of the Pig: On the Cusp of WWIII…By
Lynne Glasner Issue 29
La Belle Dame sans Merci…By John Keats
(1795-1821) Issue 30
Dear Commandante Castro…By The Honorable Minister
Louis Farrakhan Issue 35
Why Republicans Rip the Voting Rights Act…By Earl
Ofari Hutchinson Issue 38
The Devil’s Recipe (Excerpts from UN Speech)…By Hugo
Chavez Issue
39
Using Reparations to Repair Black Health…By Vernellia
R. Randall Issue 40
Pharmaceutical Tests on Prison Population Another Form
of Modern-Day Slavery?
...By Tonyaa Weathersbee Issue 42
Cosmetics, Capitalism and African Women (Excerpt)…By
Kathy Muhammad Issue 43
The Politics of Oil and Poverty (Excerpts)…By Emira
Woods Issue
45
(Excerpt) Notebook of a Return to the Native Land…By
Aimé Césaire Issue 47
Police Brutality …By Ank Justice SteadySpear Issue 48
The Dollar Melts as Iraq Burns…By James K. Galbraith Issue 49
Happy Holidays - Perhaps Not…By Rodney D. Coates Issue 51
No Not Another Bubble Test For Me!...By Ronald A. Mac Arthur Issue 52
Volume 8 …………………………………………….2005
The Balloon…By Bubba Lee Issue 1
O Black and Unknown Bards…By James Weldon Johnson
(1871-1938) Issue 3
Barbarians Are Coming…By I. K. Shukla
Issue 4
That Damn Bottle …By Stacy Peterson Issue 7
Across the Lines…By Tracy Chapman Issue 9
Jones v. Mayer (1968)…By William O. Douglas Issue 10
Woman And War…By
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) Issue 11
On Napster and the Music Industry…Commentary
and Excerpts from Interview with Prince
Issue 13
I’m the Son of Viet Nam…By James A. Stelly Issue 14
Not to Forgive Wasting Time…By Al Globus Issue 22
Lynching
(Excerpt)…By Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer (1907) Issue 24
Mercy Mercy Me…By Marvin Gaye Issue 26
40 Acres and a Mule…By Oscar Brown, Jr. Issue 27
Most Vulnerable…By Bunyan Bryant Issue 29
The Goodness of Whiteness…By Shabaka Tecumseh Issue 31
a revolutionary coalition…By Jimi Pocius
Issue 32
Hippocratic Oath -- Modern Version…By Louis
Lasagna Issue 34
The 1913 Massacre…By Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) Issue 35
High Water Everywhere (Part 1)…By Charley Patton Issue 36
Imhotep…By Yusef Komunyakaa Issue 37
New Orleans…By
Chuck Perkins Issue 38
Blaming Poverty On The Poor…By Josephine
Dixon-Banks Issue 39
The Many Evils of Inflation
(Excerpt)…By Hans F. Sennholz Issue 42
Party Pity…By Thistle Issue 46
Who Are These People?...Lyrics by
Burt Bacharach and Tonio K. Issue 47
Doomsday Politics…By Bill
Moyers Issue 48
Vaccination Condemned…By Ian Sinclair Issue 50
Why We Owe Them…By Carol Chehade Issue 52
Volume
7 …………………………………………….2004
What Ever Happened To Peace On Earth …By Willie Nelson
Issue 1
Sheep to the Slaughter…By Paris Issue 6
Will they ever return?...By Rodney Coates
Issue 8
Killin' Time…By Mike Bidwell Issue 11
It's Hypocrisy, Not Democracy…By Steeleyes Issue 12
The Lynching…Claude McKay (1891-1948) Issue 14
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness (1973)…Erich
Fromm Issue
15
Excerpt from The Slave Ship…By Antonio
Frederico de Castro Alves (1847-1871) Issue 16
Sympathy…By Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872- 1906) Issue 17
The Death of Emmett Till (1963)…By Bob Dylan Issue 18
High School Castes…By Derek J. Barbee Issue 19
An Essay on Man: Epistle II (Excerpt)…By Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Issue 20
The Jungle
(Excerpt from Chapter 26)…By Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) Issue 21
The Progress of Liberty…By James Madison Bell
(1826-1902) Issue 23
A Politician's Conscience…By John M. Swails Issue 24
Wars…By Carl
Sandburg (1878-1967) Issue 25
"Ethnic Cleansing" for Kosovo…By Dr. Charles
Zender Issue
26
Canadian Status Quo…By James Bredin Issue 27
Letter to Mr. Cosby: My Name's Not Crap…By Kiah
Thomas Issue
28
Accidental Terrorist…By Unknown US Soldier in Iraq Issue 32
Sheeple…By
John Langley Issue
33
Traffic Noise -
Cacophony - Urban Sprawl…By James Crowden
Issue 40
Democracy's @ a Crossroads…By Drew Dellinger Issue 41
The Battle-Field…By William
Cullen Bryant Issue 44
From The Anarchiad, On Paper
Money…By The Hartford Wits Issue 49
For the Love of Money…By The O'Jays Issue 50
For My People…By Margaret Abigail Walker Issue 52
Volume 6 …………………………………………….2003
§
Africa
Unite
§ § Issue 3 § §
About Me: This song is from Bob Marley's album "Survival." Marley's most political album, it debuted at a time of increased political conflict in Africa. The US leg of the "Survival" tour opened at Harlem's Apollo Theater in New York. During Black History Month, Rastafarians will celebrate the life of this gifted musician. For more about events celebrating Marley's gift of music and consciousness, see http://www.bobmarley.com.
§
America
Covets African Oil
§ § Issue 4 § §
About Me: Stanton hosts the Digital Underground at www.NewBlackCity.com on Sundays from 12 Noon to 2 PM Eastern. According to Stanton, "The Digital Underground facilitates the mental decolonization process; we never insult your intelligence. Free your mind, the rest will follow." An accomplished writer, Stanton's essays on contemporary issues appear in many newspapers and magazines serving the black community. Contact Stanton at jrswriter@comcast.net.
§
§ § Issue 5 § §
Let's
Burn the Confederate Flag
§
§ § Hip-Hopping a Six Spot § §
By John Burl Smith
About Me: The DISH echos her father's sentiments. It is an honor to tell the world of such a treasure. Jamia has been singing since the age of 2. An exceptional reader, she loves to sing, dance and act. She has performed on Showtime at the Apollo, appeared on Tonight with Jay Leno and shared the stage with a host of noted artists. Jamia Simone Nash is a rare talent. For more about this little songbird, log onto the World Wide Web; the keywords are Jamia Simone Nash.
§
§ § Facing West from California's Shores § §
By Walt Whitman
About Me: US poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) knew John O'Sullivan; his first short stories were published in the Democratic Review. Whitman supported the Free-Soil Party, which opposed the expansion of slavery and Southern influence. Yet, Whitman embraced manifest destiny and envisioned the US encompassing Central America and the Caribbean. Whitman wrote in a newspaper article, "'manifest destiny' certainly points to the speedy annexation of Cuba by the United States." (Source: Quoted in David S. Reynolds, Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography (New York: Knopf, 1995), 136)
§
§ § Issue 9 § §
Strange Fruit
Written by Abel Meeropol
Performed by Billie Holiday
About Me: Jazz critic Leonard Feather called "Strange Fruit," with its haunting lyrics about a lynching, "a significant protest in words and music, the first unmuted cry against racism." Abel Meeropol, a white Jewish teacher in a New York City high school, wrote it. Known for her solemn ballads and heart-wrenching blues, Billie Holiday reluctantly debuted it before a stunned crowd at Cafe Society, New York City's only integrated club. Her performance sparked a much needed debate about lynching and the repressive policies of Jim Crow segregation. The searing lyrics often upset club patrons and it became a weapon in continuing anti-lynching campaigns. In a 1971 interview Meeropol commented: "I wrote 'Strange Fruit' because I hate lynching, and I hate injustice, and I hate the people who perpetuate it." Used in 1972 Paramount film 'Lady Sings The Blues," Holiday recorded "Strange Fruit" on April 20, 1939.
§
§§ Issue 10 §§
By John Burl Smith
About Me: "I knew from the time I was very young that I wanted to be an artist." These are the words of Elizabeth Catlett, an 87-year-old sculptor and printmaker. Preempted almost fifty years ago, Catlett is recognized as one of the most important black artists of the twentieth century. Ranked with Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence, this ex-patriot rose above American obscurity to find success and acceptance in Mexico. Purposely, reflecting the plight of black and Mexican woman, the artistic value of Catlett's work was suppressed.
§
§§ Issue 11 §§
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost
About Me: Frost, Robert (1874-1963) was born in California. Named after Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate army during the Civil War (1861-1865), Frost drew inspiration from the New England countryside. The above poem deals with an everyday quandary. Whether it is to stand on principle or not, or a less complex decision involving dual routes to a physical destination, we often must choose between mutually exclusive paths. A 19th century bard, Frost's poetry is as relevant for today as it was when written.
§
§§ Issue 12 §§
What's Going On?
Performed by Marvin Gaye
About Me: Written by Al Cleveland, Marvin Gaye and Renaldo Benson, this is the title song from Marvin Gaye's landmark album, What's Going On. By far his most successful album, the 1971 recording revolutionized soul music by freeing it from the limitation of simple love ballads to include a wide spectrum of topics, including the formerly taboo realm of political commentary. To match the shift in subject matter, Gaye created a new musical style that continues to influence performers. Recorded at the height of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, What's Going On gave voice to the socioeconomic and political concerns of a generation.
§
§§ Issue 13 §§
E Pluribus Unum
by The Last Poets
About Me: From the group's album Chastisement (1972), the complete text of E Pluribus Unum is available at www.thedish.ws under Venue for an Artist.
§
§§ Issue 14 §§
Invictus
By William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
About Me: English poet, critic and journalist, W. E. Henley edited several popular magazines, wrote poetry and collaborated with Robert Louis Stevenson on four plays. Invictus is a pledge to fight the unfortunate circumstance of change, which in his case was illness; it is required reading for students of English literature.
§
§§ Issue 15 §§
War
By Edwin Starr
About Me: Recorded by Motown singer Edwin Starr, War was a number one hit during the height of the Vietnam conflict (1970). The legendary soul singer died this month at his home in England. Starr was 61. Since April is poetry month, War is an excellent choice for the current state of affairs and a fitting tribute to an artist for peace who has gone home, but whose words will live on.
§
§§ Issue 16 §§
Mississippi Goddam!
By Nina Simone
About Me: The "high priestess" of soul, the incomparable Ms. Nina Simone was born on February 21, 1933. She died on April 20, 2003 at her home in France. Simone was 70. The out-spoken soul singer left America because of racism. A close friend of Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King, she often sang at civil rights marches in the 1960s. Her 1963 Mississippi Goddam voiced her frustration with the slow pace of obtaining equal rights for blacks in America.
§
§§ Issue 17 §§
Excerpt from "The Color Line in America"
By Frederick Douglass
About Me: After the Civil War and Reconstruction, blacks remained second class citizens. State legislation and Supreme Court decisions neutered the constitutional amendments. Discrimination limited blacks in almost every socioeconomic arena. Frederick Douglass addressed these facts in his speech of September 14, 1883, and called on blacks to strike a blow for their freedom, because 'liberty given is never so precious as liberty sought for and fought for." (Source: Speech by Douglass from Three Addresses on the Relations Subsisting Between the White and Colored People in the United States, Washington, 1886, pp.3-23.)
§
§§ Issue 18 §§
Mother, I Love You More
By Nguyen Thi Lan
About Me: Husband and father of three, Nguyen Thi Lan works for World Vision International on two projects-- Children With Difficulty Moving (CWDM) and Let Them Walk Again (LTWA). Thi Lan comes from a poor Vietnamese family. His mother worked hard to raise 10 children. This poem is dedicated to her and all devoted and loving mothers everywhere.
§
§§ Issue 19 §§
Denial
By crystal cartier
About Me: Crystal Cartier is one of the most prolific writers on the Internet. In addition to being a poet, she is the author of a new novel "Curse of the Vendetta," which is available wherever books are sold or on her website www.crystalcartier.com. A songwriter, her music can be heard at www.cdbaby.com/ccartier. Apropos, her motto is, "If I can help someone as I journey through life, then my living will not be in vain."
§
§§ Issue 20 §§
O Captain! My Captain!
by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
About Me: Walt Whitman was a poet, teacher and journalist. He founded the weekly Long-Islander, and later edited a number of Brooklyn and New York papers. In 1848, he became editor of the New Orleans Crescent. It was in New Orleans that he experienced firsthand the viciousness of slavery. On his return to Brooklyn in the fall of 1848, he founded a "free soil" newspaper, the Brooklyn Freeman.
§
§§ Issue 21 §§
Fruit of the Flower
By Countee Cullen (1903-1946)
About Me: Personifying the diverse talent that became known as the Harlem Renaissance, Countee Cullen was born in New York. Raised in a Methodist parsonage, he started writing poetry at age fourteen. A New York University graduate, his poems were published in magazines from The Crisis to Harper's. He won the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize and other awards for Ballad of the Brown Girl. Harper published Color (1923), his first volume of poetry. He received his master's degree from Harvard, and published Copper Sun (1927). Blacks were highly critical of his second book of poetry because it failed to adequately treat the subject of race. Unlike other Harlem Renaissance artists, Cullen was raised and educated in a primarily white environment. His experiences differed from those of the larger black community, a difference reflected in his art. His works include The Black Christ (1929) and his novel, One Way to Heaven (1932). (Sources: www.math.buffalo.edu and www.nku.edu)
§
§§ Issue 23 §§
A Black Man Talks of Reaping
By Arna Bontemps
About Me: Author of 25 books of poetry, history, biography, fiction and anthologies, Bontemps was a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance. He served as head librarian at Fisk University (1969 -1972) and curator of the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at Yale University. (Sources: http://aalbc.com/authors/arna.htm and www.math.buffalo.edu/)
§
§§ Issue 25 §§
The Lynching and If We Must
Die
By Claude McKay
About Me: "The Lynching" and "If We Must Die" are from Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows (1922). The Jamaican-born American became a prominent figure in the 1920s Harlem Renaissance. Known for his poems and novels of black life, first in Jamaica and later in the United States, McKay used traditional forms to express unfamiliar ideas and themes, many of which related to the black experience. (Sources: http://encarta.msn.com and www.poetry-archive.com/m/mckay_claude.html)
§
§§ Issue 26 §§
What to the Slave is 4th of July?
By Frederick Douglass
About Me: The above are selected excerpts from a July 5, 1852 speech by Frederick Douglass. Born a slave in 1818, when Douglass died in 1895, he was recognized as the foremost black spokesperson of the 19th century. A human rights activist, orator, author, journalist, publisher and social reformer, Douglass has been called the father of the civil rights movement.
§§
Slave Driver…By Bob Marley Issue 27
On Liberty and Slavery…By George Moses Horton Issue 28
Booker T. and W. E. B…By Dudley Randall Issue 29
Slave Auction….By Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Issue 30
The Invisible Man (For Ellison*) By Conrad Kent
Rivers Issue
31
From Harlem
Gallery…By Melvin B. Tolson Issue 32
The Debt…By Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) Issue 33
Imagination Issue 34
Walls…By
R.L. Brown Issue 35
Mending Wall…By
Robert Frost Issue 36
Excerpts from America's Global Role…By George
Soros Issue
37
Saturday's Child…By Countee Cullen (1903-1946) Issue
38
Man in Black…By Johnny Cash Issue 39
No More Chain Gang…By Boney M Issue 40
“The Phantom-Wooer"…By Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849)
Issue 41
Death (1944)…By Thomas Merton Issue 42
To War …By
John Mills Issue 43
Beautiful and Free ... Naturally…By Leslie B. Spann Issue 44
The Beat of Black Wings…By Joni Mitchell Issue 45
Giving Thanks
Issue 46
From the Dark Tower (To Charles S. Johnson)…By
Countee Cullen (1903-1946) Issue 47
40 Acres in a Prison…By Crystal Cartier Issue 48
Genome Blues…By
Shabaka Tecumseh Issue 49
Inferred Racism…By John N. Smith Issue 50
Venue for an Artist ……. Volume 4 (2001)
Venue for an Artist ……. Volume 5 (2002)
§ § The DISH
Ó 2008 § §