Poets for Human Rights

Words of Freedom

A message to all members of Poets for Human Rights

2010 Poets for Human Rights Annual Awards event was

held Sunday, December 12, 2010 at the Artists in Action Gallery in Clearwater, Florida



The event was hosted by Stazja McFadyen, Poets for Human Rights co-founder, who opened the program by reading the "Clearwater Human Rights Week" proclamation, presented to Poets for Human Rights and Youth for Human Rights Florida by the Mayor of Clearwater.



The 2010 Anita McAndrews Award poetry contest was introduced by Kate Sweet, one of the contest sponsors. Kate discussed the humanitarian works of Anita McAndrews, including tutoring disadvantaged youth and exposing human rights violations of patients at a mental institution in Panama. Anita was also a prolific writer, poet and fine artist.



The winning poem and two honorable mentions were presented:



2010 Anita McAndrews Award Winner – “I Ask My Granddaughter...” by Elizabeth Thomas.

Elizabeth is a widely published poet, performer, teacher and advocate of the arts. As an outstanding advocate of youth in the arts, Elizabeth Thomas is a coach and organizer with Brave New Voices: International Youth Poetry Slam and Festival. She is also the founder of UpWords Poetry, a company dedicated to promoting programs for young writers and educators, based on the belief that poetry is meant to be heard out loud and in person. She lives in Connecticut.



“When I saw the award email in my inbox, I didn’t expect my poem had won. I am thrilled to receive this award. As a poet and educator, I’ve worked with young people from around the world. I like to think the writing we do together offers a voice to many who would otherwise be silent or sad or alone.”



I Ask My Granddaughter...

And she says
"School was fun today.
I didn't worry at all."
As she rocks in my lap
black curls sweep my cheek,
subtle scent of cinnamon rises.
I wrap her close and ask,
"Honey, why would you worry?"

No stray bullets
track through her neighborhood.
She can pull a chair to the living room window
and look out
without fear,
watch birds eat from the feeder
she made at school.

There are no IEDs,
no unexploded cluster bombs
near her jungle gym,
nothing to detonate
when dug from the earth
with a plastic red shovel.

No janjaweed militia
rides horseback through the streets
to force her chubby finger
around the trigger of a gun,
no men dressed as monster
to push her to the front line.
She will not be asked
to strap explosives to her belly,
to martyr herself in a marketplace.

When she goes to school
the shelves overflow
with books,
the room with teachers.
After lunch,
she'll nap
with her favorite Dora the Explorer blanket -
while outside the window
a large black bird
pecks at the glass
trying to break in.



(Read by Stazja McFadyen)



Honorable Mention - “Dilemma” by Jack Thompson, Florida



Dilemma

(What to do with Man)



You can teach him to obey the law

and follow every sign;

You can teach him not to think

but think the thoughts that you opine.

You can even drug his senses

into catatonic sleep –



But when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



You can train him like a monkey

and put him through his paces;

Tax and sweat and drive him

and make him run rat races.

You can work him dawn to dusk

‘til he collapses with exhaustion –



But when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



You can cage him like a beast

and he’ll forget about ambition;

You can force obedience, at least,

or trick his willful submission.

You can carve his body slowly

‘til he begs for bliss unconscious –



But when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



You can kill a man again, and again, and again,

but he will always come back –



And when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.

And when he dreams, he dreams of freedom.



(Read by Sioux Hart)



Honorable Mention - “A Teenager Ponders a New Kind of Knownness” by Lynn Veach Sadler, North Carolina



A Teenager Ponders a New Kind of Knownness



Social activist Nancy Pocock, a Quaker,

Refugees called her “Mama Nancy.”

She sounds a lot like Mother Teresa.

Both of them are dead now.



The refugees had her name

scrawled on little pieces of paper

they carried in their hands from

Guatemala, El Salvador, Iran, wherever.

Even draft dodgers from the USA

during The War in Vietnam.

Wonder if she ever met Jane Fonda?



Can you imagine

the kind of being knownness

Mama Nancy had?

Rad awesome!



© Lynn Veach Sadler



Winners of the 2010 Year of Youth Poetry Contests, youth category and children's category were announced.



2010 Year of Youth Poetry Contest Winner – “Questions” by Andrew David King.

Andrew is 18 years old, and attends U.C. Berkeley. This is his second contest win. He was awarded the Alex Popoff Youth Poetry Contest Award in 2009 for his poem, “Eggshells Tiananmen Square, June 5, 1989.”

Questions

The small daisy he stuck between
my helmet strap and stubbly chin
had already begun to wilt. Slowly, it returned its borrowed color
to the earth, leaving a brown stem in place of vivid green.
I kept walking on as the leaves and petals cascaded toward
the rutted street. Only I did not feel them fall—I felt a small hand
reach past my face to fasten a flower to me,
and touch something deeper.


This is what Ali did the day his father left.
If I could return to that time,
I wouldn’t ask any questions.
I wouldn’t ask Ali if his father was returning
sometime soon. His father always came back, Ali told me—
always. I wouldn’t question the low, flat horizon,
the edge of the earth waiting for me to fall off of it.
Nor would I have anything to ask of the wind and its
pressured air, spilling out from lungs
squeezed too tight by armor.


Sometimes, after a day when I have been strong
in the face of danger, I want to ask
what it is, exactly, that makes my muscles loosen
and quiver—I know it is not solely bullets or the thunder of gunfire.
But I do not ask these questions any longer—
instead, I look to the horizon in twilight
and watch how the flaxen daylight dissipates into onyx,
punctured only by the sporadic fires
of cities and hearts;
how a small boy waits by a window
for a familiar light down the road to draw nearer
night after night.



(Read by Alan Graham)



2010 Year of Youth Children’s Poetry Contest Winner – “A World of My Dreams” by Suvansh Raj Nirula.

Suvansh, aged 14, lives in New Delhi, India and is a 9th grader at Delhi Public School.



A World of My Dreams

As I tread outside smiling
The joy of freedom seems to have gone missing
The feeling of equality and security
Overtaken by the sights of torture and misery

Trust and faith lay shattered
Families divided, growing hatred
Scarcity of food, education in shambles
Is this the gift for the next generation?

Why is there no war against poverty
Why no war against illiteracy
Why no one to fight the war against hunger
And why no one to fight War on AIDS, the biggest danger

As the bullets fly and bombs explode
The howls of crying babies go loud
The scare and pain of getting orphaned
In their mind, always embedded

Few faces of evil and cruelty
Seems to be creating havoc for the majority
Why are they using their ability
To fight this WAR ON HUMANITY

In a flash, walking, I feel so lonely
Tears flowing on feeling their hunger and poverty
Hoping for a home and education for all
I pray for universal peace and health for all

I feel, not for me, but for us all here
I pray for a world where cruelty to humans, no one hears
But, I ask, “Can my prayers ever come true”?
YES !! Only if with me I also have ALL OF YOU.



(Read by Stazja McFadyen)



Other poets who read at the event:

Elyse Van Breemen - read two poems by Anita McAndrews

Malcolm Johnson

Renee Duke

Magdy Battikha

Helen Henry - sang her poem, accompanying herself on piano.



A special presentation was made by Denise McGahee, Executive Director of Youth for Human Rights Florida, who presented copies of Youth for Human Rights DVDs to audience members. Dustin McGahee, President of Youth for Human Rights Florida, sang two original human rights songs, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar.



The event closed with an audience participation reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.




Visit Poets for Human Rights at: http://poetsforhumanrights.ning.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network