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| Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: The Making of Peace Broadside Series Contact Person: Kelli Russell Agodon P.O. Box 1524, Kingston, WA 98346 makingofpeace (at) agodon.com Website address: www.agodon.com/themakingofpeace Thirteen Poets Respond To The War In Iraq With Thoughts Of Peace For National Poetry Month Washington, March 31, 2006—Thirteen poets working toward peace and the end of the war in Iraq are featured in the international peace project called “The Making of Peace Poetry Broadside Series” created and edited by US poet and writer Kelli Russell Agodon. The project, which consists of thirteen poems on the theme of peace, is a series of finely designed broadsides to be displayed in independent bookstores, libraries, universities, and other venues across America during April’s National Poetry Month, 2006. The poets whose poems are included on the broadsides are a mix of well-known and newer poets including Jane Hirshfield, Naomi Shihab Nye, Lola Haskins, Todd Davis, Lisa Suhair Majaj, Lee Sharkey, Barbara Crooker, Martha Silano, Susan Elbe, Alisa Gordaneer, M. J. Iuppa, Lana Hechtman Ayers, and Kathleen Winter. Along with the displayed broadside series, a limited edition of broadsides will be produced and distributed free of charge to the public during literary and non-literary events across the United States. The project, inspired by this quote by poet and activist Pablo Neruda from Confieso Que He Vivido: Memorias, 1974, "Poetry is an act of peace. Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread," was designed as a public art project to return the conversation to peace and the end of the Iraq war. Kelli Russell Agodon, who coordinated the Poets for Peace: Mission 911 readings for Washington state after the September 11th terrorist attacks to raise money for the American Red Cross, had this to say about the project, “As individuals, sometimes it feels there is little we can do to change the outcome. This poetry project is one small step to refocus our thoughts back onto the peace effort in this country and to express our concerns with the war in Iraq. If we each continue to add our voice to the mission of peace, eventually we will be heard.” Many of the poets submitted their poems hoping to make a difference. Says poet Lola Haskins, “The world is in such pain. Sometimes I think if I could only reach out a hand. . .And I know that's what poems can do. . .” Poet Lee Sharkey adds, “A poem is a fragile thing, yet it may stir the moral imagination, without which we cannot conceive of peace.” Poet Jane Hirshfield continues, “Poetry reinforces the part of us that feels largely, knows largely, our place in the whole—and in such a state of soul, the need for peace is as obvious as our need for water, for air, for hope.” The thirteen poems to be displayed in the series were chosen from over four hundred poems that were submitted to the project. Agodon was awarded a generous grant by the Puffin Foundation to help fund the poetry broadside series for her commitment to the arts as well as to the peace movement. The poems will be displayed in thirty-seven states throughout the US during April. To find a list of venues displaying the series across America and in Cyprus, please go to the website: www.agodon.com/themakingofpeace or contact Kelli Russell Agodon at makingofpeace (at) agodon.com for more information. ### |
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