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.”
Category: Uncategorized
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.
“Life Support” at the Guggenheim Museum
Two lines from my 1982 poem, “Life Support,” from the anthology Kamal Boullatta and I co-edited, We Begin Here, Poems for Palestine and Lebanon (Interlink Books, 2007) appear as graffiti over text in artist Jenny Holzer’s current Guggenheim exhibition Light Line. The list of poets whose words are shown appears on the plaque.
Two stanzas from the same poem appear in the outdoor projection For the Guggenheim which was shown Thursday May 16 through Monday May 20, 2024. The projection may be shown again. Check for updates.
I’m honored that my words appeare[ed] in the company of brilliant poets including Mahmoud Darwish, Seamus Heaney, Anne Carson, Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz, Wislawa Szymborska and more.
It was particularly meaningful for me to experience the installation first with my dear friend of 44 years or so, the peace and social justice leader and coalition builder, Leslie Cagan, whose late partner, Melanie Kaye Kantrowitz’s scholarship, political insight, and poetry have taught me so much and who I miss dearly. And it was moving to return again with former students who I cherish and learn with, who care deeply about justice for Palestine.
Let us honor the students everywhere who’ve been steadfastly, bravely and creatively insisting on an end to the genocide in Gaza, as we honor the people who somehow continue in the midst of horror, and the 40,000 plus the uncounted and uncountable who’ve been killed these seven months in Gaza.
I encourage us to read a poem by a Palestinian every day.
My poem, “Life Support,” was written in 1982 at the time of the US-supported Israeli invasion of Lebanon that June, which was followed by the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
“It would be water” on Poem-a-Day
Kathy Engel’s poem “It would be water” has been featured at the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day. Read the full poem here.
“The Gift” published in the Hobart Festival of Women Writers Journal.
Kathy Engel’s poem “The Gift” is featured in NOW 2, the latest edition of NOW, the online journal of Hobart Festival of Women Writers. The journal can be found here.
Vigil for Gaza
A vigil in Sag Harbour on Tuesday May 18 for Children killed in Gaza by Israeli forces.
Pushcart Prize Nomination
Kathy was nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize!
The Pushcart Prize recognizes and celebrates literary work from small presses and independent publishers.
Project Vote – “Movement”
You can find the full video here.
The image and design were created by Layton Miles Davis, and the video was edited by Christine Scully.
Border Lines, Poems of Migration
Kathy’s poem, “What could the title possibly be” is featured in Border Lines: Poems of Migration (ed. Mihaela Moscaliuc and Michael Waters), published by Penguin Random House, and launched in September 2020.
In this remarkable collection—the first of its kind—poets from around the world give eloquent voice to the trials, hopes, rewards, and losses of the experience of migration.
“Philosenes” vigil
The first Philosenes Vigil took place on the evening of Friday February 14, 2020, in Sag Harbor. This gathering came out of a desire to resist the dehumanization and disconnection of our time and to show up for community, social justice, and liberation. We lit candles and walked in silence together through town.
You can read the interview with Kimberly Quinn Johnson, Ella Engel-Snow, and Kathy Engel on The East Hampton Star.