Art and Politics / Politics and Art

Title Page, Copyright Page

Art and Politics Politics and Art Also by D. H. Melhem P O E T R Y Notes on 94th Street Rest in Love Children of the House Afire / More Notes on 94th Street Country: An Organic Poem Poems for You (chapbook) Conversation with a Stonemason New York Poems P R O S E Blight: A Novel (Book I of the trilogy Patrimonies) Stigma & The Cave: Two Novels (Books II and III of the trilogy Patrimonies) Heroism in the New Black Poetry: Introductions and Interviews Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry and the Heroic Voice Reaching Exercises: The IWWG Workshop Book E D I T O R Mosaic: Poems from an IWWG Workshop A Different Path: An Anthology of RAWI (with Leila Diab) M U S I C A L D R A M A Children of the House Afire Art and Politics Politics and Art D. H. Melhem Syracuse University Press Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York 13244-5290 Copyright © 2010 by D. H. Melhem All Rights Reserved First Edition 2010 10 11 12 13 14 15 6 5 4 3 2 1 Mohamad El-Hindi Books on Arab Culture and Islamic Civilization are published with the assistance of a grant from the M.E.H. Foundation. ∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences–Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN: 978-0-8156-0976-6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Melhem, D. H. Art and politics / politics and art / D. H. Melhem. — 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN 978-0-8156-0976-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) I. Title. PS3563.E442A89 2010 811'.54—dc22 2010007005 Manufactured in the United States of America For Dana, Gregory, George The International Women’s Writing Guild and noble comrades in peace everywhere D. H. Melhem, Ph.D., is the author of seven previous books of poetry, including New York Poems (an omnibus volume that contains two early books); Country, a book-length poem sequence about the United States; Rest in Love, a widely acclaimed elegy for her mother; and Conversation with a Stonemason. Born in Brooklyn , New York, to Lebanese immigrants, she is a lifelong resident of New York City, where her two children were born and raised. Melhem is also author of the trilogy Patrimonies, comprising Blight (distributed by Syracuse University Press and optioned as a feature film), and Stigma & The Cave: Two Novels (published by Syracuse University Press). Of two scholarly works, Gwendolyn Brooks: Poetry and the Heroic Voice is the first comprehensive study of the poet. The other, Heroism in the New Black Poetry, presents an introduction to and interviews with six black poets including Brooks. Melhem wrote and produced Children of the House Afire, a musical drama based on her poems about her Upper West Side neighborhood , published over seventy essays, and edited two anthologies. Her Notes on 94th Street was the first poetry book in English by an ArabAmerican woman and was proposed by Gwendolyn Brooks for a Pulitzer Prize. Among Melhem’s numerous awards for poetry and prose are a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, an American BookAward, a City University of NewYork Ph.D.Alumni Association Special Achievement Award, and a RAWI (Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc.) Lifetime Achievement Award. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of New York University, she serves as vice president of the International Women’s Writing Guild. For audio of the poet, please visit the Web site http://www.dhmelhem.com. O! the one Life within us and abroad . . . —SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, “The Eolian Harp” ...