Printable, Readable Declaration of Independence

Every summer I make the journey back to my home town on Long Island to celebrate the Fourth of July with my dearest friends. I go back to participate in a wonderful tradition in which they gather friends and family on their lawn to read The Declaration of Independence aloud. It is a spirited reading with hoots and hollers for the patriots and boos and hisses for King George, all facilitated by lots of free-flowing American beer.

If you'd like to host your own reading, just print this document, hand out the parts to your friends (the parts are clearly marked), and read with pride.

Let freedom ring!

He rode off in many different directions

The other night we went to hear poet John Ashbery speak at the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) and were delighted by his easy sense of humor. Ashbery was born in Rochester and even took painting lessons in the basement at MAG when his high school in Sodus, NY cut their art program. He seemed very relaxed and at home in the gallery (though he's probably always like that).

The talk coincided with a beautiful piece of experimental book-making that's currently on view in the museum - a setting of Ashbery's poem Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. When asked about how he felt about the popularity of that poem he gave a great response that I'll try to capture here:

'It's funny how popular this poem is because it's not necessarily the direction I went in. In fact, I've tried to go in many directions, like, He saddled his horse and rode off in many directions.'

Two things I love about this statement: 1. The manner in which he delivered it, with the craft of a poet and the lightness of an improv comedian and 2. The confidence with which he is able to speak about such a non-traditional approach to life.

Everywhere we go we are told to choose one thing to do and to learn to do it well. We're discouraged from working on many things at once lest we confuse our audience with too much noise. Yet, if we are a curious about life's mysteries, then we are bound to pursue many different directions simultaneously. So thank you, John Ashbery, for spontaneously crafting this silly and meaningful line. I'm glad we were there to hear it.

Does poetry matter?

Poet Nikki Giovanni was interviewed on the local radio station earlier this afternoon. She is in town for a Martin Luther King celebration. It was a fantastic interview. In it she said something about art, and poetry in particular, that I want to capture here. 

The host of the radio show asked her something like, 'Does poetry matter to the average person? Is poetry important?' 

Now, before I taught in a b.school, I didn't ever have to think about questions like these. When you are in art school as a professor or a student you just assume that what you are doing matters. 

But now that I travel in business and tech arenas, I'm constantly finding myself explaining the value of creativity to skeptics. Which is challenging, but ultimately good for me and, I hope, good for the skeptics.

But back to the interview. When asked if poetry mattered, Giovanni responded with this convincing anecdotal evidence, 'We have words poured over us when we are born. We have words poured on us when we marry. We have words poured on to us when we die. Surely, poetry must be important to us.'

I love this answer. It's straightforward and clear. It's the kind of answer that I can picture one of my colleagues in business or technology responding to. But I can also imagine these colleagues pushing back with something like, "Well, of course art matters to us during those milestones, but those moments are few and far between. I still don't understand how art, or creativity, is meaningful in our everyday lives."

‪Poems are important to us at births and weddings and funerals because we want them to shape those important moments of our lives. But we should be seeking to shape our lives every day. ‬Business and technology are every day ventures. Every day these forces shape us whether we want them to or not. So as long as they are shaping our lives, I'll make mine, and take mine, with poetry. 

bonus: Here's a much longer post on design & poetry that I wrote a few years back. Enjoy. 

Poem

This poem is inspired by stories that my mother told me, or by things I observed, about her life. My mother's life was a series of could-be failures that she turned in to opportunities over and over again. As for the poem's form, I played with the constraints of six word memoirs and I chose to make the poem twenty lines long. Let me know what you think.

Peddled Ice Cream on the boardwalk

Four in a one bedroom on Ocean Parkway

When he drank, she ran away

She was the son he never had

Disrespected her mother for staying with him

After high school, sailed to Europe

Brought back a love of primary colors

Bought a Stingray, drove to Miami

Was a go-go dancer in Lake George

Fell in love with a musician

Made him quit drugs, then married him

Moved to Brooklyn, had a daughter

Traded in Corvette for a Beetle

Moved to suburbs, there were snakes

Brooklyn girls don't like snakes

Built a house called "Dreamland"

Either he left or she kicked him out

The first wave of divorced parents

Clan of single mothers reclaiming their lives

They roller skated in shimmery tights


still image: W. Michelle Harris