From: ARNOLDADOFF at aol.com <ARNOLDADOFF>
Date: Tue, 18 May 2004 14:34:54 -0400

even back in 1988 when pen met in nyc sweet norma klein organized their first youth lit panel with virginia and walter dean(the absolutely revolutionary arrogance of two separate and equally observant and thoughtful black voices!!) and a novelist from china: looking beyond the dead eye single voice of literary bankrupcy/comfort of easy listenin/my home sweet home:

penners and dear fran and anyone who still has eyes and ears there are dozens of afrikanisher-american and his/her-spaniching and asian and asian and amerindian and indianindian...and and beyond writers and illustrators to critics like dianne johnson and editors with names like bhatnagar...and on and on....

so simple to go to amazon to pw and slj roundup issues to ccbc compilations to child/book/council to some place in plain sight and obvious where we really just have to look and smile evensilently because it is a g i v e n that the emporer is naked :

and so happy pre-re-segregation- tuesday and lets form a committee that can measure the size of the tokens and weigh their worth...and for this panel not even a token into the slot of reality:

who will raise a voice and who will take umbrage(and upon which doorstep will you lay that umbrage(oi!) )and who will spit disgust onto the clean white pages of business-as-usual:

it is really so simple to just say i cannot be on a panel that does not/will not represent the multiplicity of visions and voices: to take a step beyond langston's phrase "name in print"and the merely filling of slots and spaces and val id it ee is not invited to the party even inside our heads and hearts...

where is that list of what we o w e our kids....a.
Received on Tue 18 May 2004 01:34:54 PM CDT