Drew Dellinger: Poet for Global Justice

From Yes! Speakers Bureau,

Drew Dellinger, speaker, poet, teacher, and activist, has rocked mics and inspired minds at hundreds of conferences, colleges, rallies, and protests across the U.S., addressing issues of justice, ecology, democracy, and anti-racism. His poems have been published widely and in 1997 he received Common Boundary Magazine's national Green Dove Award for his work. Drew has studied cosmology with Thomas Berry since 1990 and currently teaches at Naropa University in Oakland and Prescott College in Arizona. He is founder of Poets for Global Justice, a project building movements for social and ecological change by unleashing the poetry in everyone. Drew recently released his first collection of poems, Love Letter to the Milky Way. He lives in Oakland, CA.

Here, from "Democracy @ a Crossroads," is Drew rapping for justice from the Justices in their black robes,

Democracy's at a crossroads of lost dreams and lost votes! So yes, I'm contesting the election requesting the rejection of invalid blocks at the ballot box. Weakass leaders speak as cheaters seek to eke out victory; bend the laws in their favor and reality bites like the jaws of a gator. And, the corporate, right-wing, pathetic, mainstream media tries to confound it when the issue at hand is thousands of votes that couldn't be cast or haven't been counted The combination of this and the lies meant disenfranchisement!

Are bloggers poets? Rappers? Activists? Much more interesting a set of issues than whether they are pundits, or part of the perception management industry. Maybe it is a matter of what we choose to do with words.

Comments

[Harry]

Right now, people who are activists, poets and rappers have blogs, but blogging itself is just a tool for further expression of who they already are. That's not to say blogs are unremarkable or the pursuit of it is all vanity. My favorite example is Roger's blog, Limited Inc. He uses the cheapest tools available to put up very impressive work. For the purist, you can get no better.

In groups, the more interested, or engaged, some of the bloggers have a mutual assitance samizdat. It produces enough assistance of all types to justify the effort, especially in light of the distancees covered and the difficulty of getting personality into written words.

[Tutor]

As an exercise I am trying to blog about people who are active in the progressive movement, and well connected in it, but who do not have a very big online presence or who do not blog. I hope some will in the future, but there are other ways, and probably more effective ways, for them to use their time and be active. But, perhaps, we can connect them online to those who do blog, or who are active in the "emergent democracy" discussion. Drew doesn't have a blog, as far as I can tell.

[Vanya]

I am trying to locate to buy Drew Dellinger's book of poems, either the book or one of the poems in it is called "love letters to the milky way" at the local bookstore they could not find it under books in print. Any help? Thanks

[The Happy Tutor]

Sorry, Vera, no info here.

[Drew Dellinger]

Hi Folks, Thanks for sharing my work online. If anyone would like a copy of my poetry book, love letter to the milky way, it's available directly from me (drew@soulforce.com). It's a collection of 12 poems with forewords by Thomas Berry and Matthew Fox. I'm working on a website that will be up in a few weeks, www.drewdellinger.org, and who knows, I may even do some blogging!
Best wishes, peace and justice.

[The Happy Tutor]

Thanks, Drew, for stopping by. Peace and Justice indeed.