Solidarity, it seems, is among the most important lessons one can bestow. Following the strike authorization vote, author and Tisch professor Kathy Engel composed a poem for CFU-UAW organizers, in which she recalls labor struggles of the past and affirms her commitment to withholding her labor if necessary. In a nod to Gwendolyn Brooks, the poem concludes: “We are each other’s glory/we are each other’s last chance/we are each other’s other.”
Author: Kathy Engel
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor on MER Literary
The Grand Days of Noho Star
for Kathy Engel
Dear Kathy I miss our poetry brunches
at Noho Star
our talks on MFA programs
children spouses mothers finances
manuscripts submission guidelines—
I miss our San Pellegrino flat radish onion and avocado salad
at Noho Star we enjoyed
fried onions in a spicy mango chutney
it was there that I tried Blue Moon beer for the first time
with two orange slices
she gave me not one but two orange slices
and who ever heard of Mexican pizza with raw eggs on top
or fried shrimp with garlic eggplant
on other days a white eight-seater bench
on Lafayette Avenue near the window
held our joy after readings
after classes after book launches
where we sat for hours sipping drinks and laughing loud
then that time the clumsy white boy spilled deep red Chilean wine
on my new suede jacket
on my mother’s beige antique hat
Golda held me back I almost fucked him up
because he refused to give his name
and hid in the kitchen rather than apologize
it was at Noho on that fall Saturday evening
that I fell in love with Kathy Engel and her two beautiful daughters
we set out on a journey of writing poetry and keeping each others secrets
I think of you Kathy and our beloved Noho
every time I order garlic eggplant and curry fries
from the bodega near my corner.
Cheryl Boyce-Taylor is a poet born in Trinidad and raised in Queens, New York. She is the author of seven collections of poetry which include Mama Phife Represents, a verse memoir about the life of her son, Hip Hop Legend, Malik “Phife Dawg” Taylor, which won the 2022 Publishing Triangle’s Audre Lorde Award. Her most recent collection,The Limitless Heart, won the 2024 Firecracker Award for poetry. Cheryl is a graduate The Stonecoast MFA program.
