More than 2,000 writers have signed on to support Occupy Wall Street at the OccupyWriters website.
Here is the contribution by Alice Walker, civil rights activist, poet, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel, The Color Purple.
“If art doesn’t make us better, then what on earth is it for.” – Alice Walker
the joyful news of your arrest
this sunday morning everything
is bringing tears.
in church this morning
not a church anyone from my childhood
would
recognize
Cornell West arrested at Occupy Wall Street protest at the Supreme Court
as church
a brother singing
ecstatic
about the bigness of love
and then this moment
news of your arrest
on the steps of the supreme court
a place of intrigue and distrust;
news of the illegal sign you carried
that you probably made yourself:
Poverty Is The Greatest Violence Of All.
brother cornel. brother west.
what a joy it is
to hear this news of you.
that you have not forgotten
what our best people taught us
as they rose to meet their day:
not to be silent
not to fade into the shadows
not to live and die in vain.
But to glorify
the love that demands
we stand
in danger
shaking off
our chains.
The World We Want Is Us
It moves my heart to see your awakened faces;
the look of “aha!”
shining, finally, in
so many
wide open eyes.
Yes, we are the 99%
all of us
refusing to forget
each other
no matter, in our hunger, what crumbs
are dropped by
the 1%.
The world we want is on the way; Arundhati
and now we
are
hearing her breathing.
That world we want is Us; united; already moving
into it.
More on the arts and Occupy Wall Street:
- Lemony Snicket explains OWS to those who are confused
- Musical interlude: Amanda Palmer sings to OWS
- Sean Lennon and Rufus Wainwright offer OWS material support
- Bill Maher skewers right-wing idiots who hate OWS
- OWS: A short film by Jonathan Demme
- Calvin and Hobbes explain OWS
- You say you want a revolution? (With video)
- Occupy Sesame Street!
- Movie trailer: The Lorax speaks for the 80 percent (with Zac Efron and Taylor Swift)
- What can the US afford after the Great Recession? Annie Leonard has some answers in The Story of Broke.
(Image from Dossier)
About Jeremy Bloom
Now is the time. There is no other possible course of action. What we felt would never happen in this country is now happening. Freedom isn’t free. We have to fight just as hard as our grandparents did to unionize against tyrannical corporations. We have to fight just as hard as they did to win WWII. Are we tough enough to do this? Do enough of us realize that our backs are to the wall and we HAVE to fight? Are we smart enough to ignore the Government/Corporate/Media propaganda that is sur to start? Or are we going to resign ourselves to yelling Seig Heil (or its equivalent) at the top of our lungs. I agree with Michael Moore. I refuse to live in a country like this and I’m not leaving.