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a note from PGI
P GI #7 is finished. Phew. A few months ago, I think we would have all
hesitated to say that this could be accomplished, but it has.
Over the last few months we lost our open mic venue (our beloved Speed
Jump went under), lost our journal editor/art director/co-founder Sachin
Pandya to Mexico, had an unruly copy machine eat a stack of our covers, and
had our own lives disrupted by some serious and not so serious drama and
hijinx.
Despite all of this, PGI #7 was finished with the hard work,
dedication and stubbornness of a group of artists and poets who decided
that rather than letting this mini art movement just survive, they'd take it to
the next level.
This has been one of the most ambitious efforts we've undertaken yet, and
the work of the artists speaks for itself. It was a special treat to get to talk to
Naomi Klein and alix olson, and also educational: be the media, a common
theme for this past year.
And our hats off to all the poets who we've had a
chance to publish in this issue. Whether the words come from an experienced
national poet like alix, or a relatively new voice like Adam Houle, the
poetry is challenging, profound, and we are proud to be a part of it.
We are also getting closer to our goal of making the journal into more than
just poetry. Jesse Walters gave us two beautiful lino cuts, and every cover was
hand painted by miriam, Barney and Sara. Look for more of this in the
future.
PGI has always been more than just a poetry journal. It has been about
making art a part of people's everyday lives. This year we got to bring poetry
to the streets and directly to the people through our poetry coups. That's
when you get a group of loud poets, find a street corner, and start belting out
your words. Some people would perk their ears as they walked by, tourists
started taking our pictures, some old ladies weren't so delighted with our
language-but at every turn a small group of people would always stop and
listen. On occasion, people would even join our coup. We hope to take our
coups from street corners into malls, gas stations, corporate coffee houses
and other places where we probably won't be welcome.
We also had the chance to get out from under the radar and get noticed by
the community at large at the Wisconsin Book Festival. A PGI editor was
featured on a panel with editors of Rosebud, The Progressive and Sam Hamill.
We also got to keep it real at the Book Fest and host an open mic salon for
poets to read their work and sell their publications. Not to mention the fact
that this year is the first year that we'll break even (the unemployed Enron
accountants decided to give us a hand).
Although sometimes it might seem that we're doing a lot at PGI, it all
started by getting a bunch of people together who like to read and write
poetry. We started meeting up regularly at our local coffee shop or under the
moon to try and bring words back where they belong: the public domain.
As you might notice by reading the note in the back of the journal from
Sachin, things here at PGI are evolving. This journal was done with hard
work and contributions from many different people. Instead of coming from
a single pen or a solitary keyboard, it is many people speaking.
You might be one of the handful of people who will ever read this. But we
need to keep writing this story to show that even though many people will
ignore our artistic and political voices, we still need to speak our words.
Whether they are whispers to ourselves as we try to sleep or shouts from
thousands of fists raised together, they are spoken nonetheless. Thank you
for being part of the world we are all trying to create; please keep reading
the words in these pages, and the voices of these poets and artists will also
become your own.
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