Poetry and Prose For Human Rights in Oaxaca

*Please note the audio files DO work now, after someone helpfully pointed out silence . . . there are a couple of items not quite fixed which we are waiting on hearing back from the Internet Archive about as it seems to be on their side, but everything here on our pages that we have control over is fine. Thanks!*
We see our job as more than perhaps just your usual librarian duties. It's also about proactively maintaining & adding to our library/archive, and acting as a witness and curator for poetry that is more fluid and transitory in nature - poetry that really has a place in the real world - as well as sticking by the opinions of one of our heroes, which includes remembering that 'The library is a growing organism' (Ranganathan: 'Laws of Library Science', 1931). Organisms exist in the real world. As does poetry. And me and you too. As part of these duties we went to document a public read-out for 'Justice in Oaxaca, Mexico' outside the Mexican Consulate (532 Folsom St, between 1st St. and 2nd St.) in San Francisco, which took place on Monday, March 26, from 12 noon.

It featured: Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood on the Border; Larry Bogad, author of Electoral Guerrilla Theatre and a veteran of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army; Aryeh Shell, Herstories Project; Itinerant Poet Bill Evans; Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco and more . . .


powered by Aryeh Shell
Aryeh Shell reads


powered by Jack Hirschman
Jack Hirschman reads a poem


powered by Bill Evans
Bill Evans reads a poem

These poets and writers are supporting the human rights advocates calling for the end to illegal killings and the restoration of human rights in Oaxaca. To read more about why this was such an important 'read out', go here

You can also access and download these recordings c/o The Internet Archive and we will upload the rest of the recording edits from this event to the Internet Archive in the very near future here they are despite The Internet Archive having hiccups all weekend (March 30-April 1st) - other edits include words from: Rebecca Solnit, Larry Bogad *is not fixed*, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, attorney John Viola, Ted Lewis *is not fixed* of Global Exchange and more. At the moment you can go grab You can also go grab Jack Hirschman, Aryeh Shell and Bill Evans.


Jack Hirschman, Poet Laureate of San Francisco


David Solnit


Aryeh Shell hands over the mic to Larry Bogad



The documentation of why people were here


Jack Hirschman, David Solnit & Jen make sure everything is shipshape


It really is the Mexican Consulate . . .

What You Can Borrow . . .

In readiness for our first San Francisco Library Installation, here's a selection of what may be available to you . . .

. . . if you come to our Reading Room . . .

ABC Wan Do Tree: Collected Poems Volume 2 by Bob Cobbing, El Uel Uel U Publications, April 1978

On the Sea I Spied Him: 21 Pre-Metaphysical Poems by Andrew Tait, Global Ghostwriters, 2005

Burnt Aces And The Shangri-Las: poems by Richard Caddell, drawings by Edmund Tillotson Ceolfrith Press, 1978

Caprice 2: Literary & Visual Entertainment: Fund with Word & Pictures edited & published by Keith Seddon & Jocelyn Almond, 1980

And All Living Things Their Children by Dan Georgakas, published by BB Bks, undated

The inside of And All Living Things Their Children by Dan Georgakas, published by BB Bks, undated

O POEMS by Peter Finch, Writers Forum, November 1981

The inside of O POEMS by Peter Finch, Writers Forum, November 1981

The Rambling Sailor by Charlotte Mew, The Poetry Bookshop, 1929

The inside of The Rambling Sailor by Charlotte Mew, The Poetry Bookshop, 1929

Lubos edited by Lawrence Upton, Good Elf Publications, 1974

Ludd's Mill No.s 16/17 edited by Andrew Darling(?), 1979(?)

Backlog Barks by Ulli McCarthy, Atman, 1979

The inside of Backlog Barks by Ulli McCarthy, Atman, 1979

Mermaids parts I & II by William Sherman, Spanner, 1986

Residu 2 / Mongol Review edited by Daniel Richter / John Esam, Trigram Press, Spring 1966

I Dare You by Cathy Ryan, Tall-Lighthouse, 2006
Knee High Affairs by Michelle Green, Crocus Books / Commonword, 2006


Rising magazine No.40 edited by Tim Wells, 2006
Samurai in Manhattan and Other Poems by Yasuhiro Yotsumoto, Editura Academiei Internationale Orient-Occident, 2006

PS: Poetry Student No.1 edited by Paul Merchant, Godfrey Rust, Toby Sachs, February 1975

Quarto No.23 edited by Richard Boston, Quarto Ltd, November 1981

Spanner: The New York Spanner edited by Dick Miller & Terise Slotkin, Spanner, 1978

TVP magazine edited by Barbara Watts, Feburary 12 2002

WF100 / And Magazine No.6 edited by Bob Cobbing & John Rowan, Writers Forum, 1973