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Arts Day Information

(Presented by Paul Nelson, January 20, 2007.)

Arts Day is Thursday, February 15, 2007. The day is sponsored by the Washington State Arts Alliance. The website: http://www.wsartsalliance.com/arts_day.htm

To participate:

1)      Get in touch with your Area Captain.

2)      Teleconference Calls for orientation in advance. Orientation the day of at 9A.

3)      Status, House Bill dropped last week.

a)      Mary Skinner, R–Yakima is prime sponsor. Co-Sponsors are Pat Lantz, D–GigHarbor and Lynn Kessler, D–Hoquiam, House Floor Leader, who is passionate about it.

b)   Senate bill as of yet has no sponsor. Kris Tucker is working on it.

c)   Ken Jacobsen D–Seattle, has a bill, but that is not the one the WSAA is supporting. It is not the one likely to pass.

4)   Meet with your legislators in your district.

5)   The Road Show poet would be helpful for lobbying.

6)   Blurb suggestion:

David Henderson said: “Poetry is the people’s form of expression. Poetry is the basis of all literary forms, and the germ of a wide-ranging array of artistic expressions. Poetry embodies the creative principle. That’s why the study and practice of poetry is so important. Not necessarily to turn out poets, but to develop creative and critical approaches to problems and technique that can be brought to bear on every profession, job and activity people engage in…” (214, 2nd Set)

and Walker Percy said: “…The difference between an alienated person and a person who contemplates alienation is immense. The contemplative has more freedom of movement and is not dominated by the raw feeling…” (211, 2nd Set)

It is the raw feeling that gets acted out in incidents like Columbine High School and other events much closer to home. They are events that can be avoided through proper outlets and poetry, historically, has been one of the prime ones.

William Blake said: “…If it were not for the Poetic or Prophetic character the Philosophic or Experimental would soon be at the ratio of all things, & stand still, unable to do other than repeat the same dull round over again.” Or, one is tempted to say, things would “stay the course.”

40 states have official Poets Laureate. The WPA Poetry Roadshow has been like a dry run of the Poet Laureate and has played to RAVE REVIEWS. (Can we get some rave reviews from the reviewers??)

(Feinstein, Komunyakaa, eds.   The 2nd Set: The Jazz Poetry Anthology, Volume 2,   Bloomington:   Indiana U. Press,    1996.)