Ready for Me

Deena Tyler is set to release her chapbook Ready for Me: Raw and Rough on Saturday, November 4! Stay tuned for event details.

Here is a poem from the book:

I Harbor No Illusions
by Deena Tyler

I harbor no illusions that I’ll go far,
that Oprah will buy me a car,
or I'll be a star.
I harbor no illusions that people don't judge my skin,
that losers ever win,
that everyone is my friend.
I don’t harbor those illusions.
There are days early in the morning
without warning
I feel my grandmother's presence and just for a moment, I am innocent again.
I believe…
I believe that Martin Luther King's dream could be true for me and you,
I believe we could love one another,
all be brothers.
I believe we could chase an ideal,
make it real,
make it worth living for.
I believe there is an honest man
who will take a stand.
Then…
the moment goes and heaven knows
that at any time without reason
it could become a killing season.
I could just be gone,
that everything I believed was wrong.
So I will not have delusions
about my illusions.
But I still want to believe.

To contact Deena, use this email address:

usATwomenwriters.us.to

Speaking Up

from Melissa...

The LSJ did leave a phone message asking for permission to print my letter to the editor, which I provided. But my letter is not included in Friday's letters. So...?

Derek Melot of the LSJ maintains its blog and recently posed on Mayor Virg Bernero's "plan" for safety in Lansing, which does not impress me. Check out Melot's post (Aug. 16) and my comment about (some reasons) why Bernero's plan is incomplete and misguided:

http://noise.typepad.com/derek_melot/2007/08/up-down-all-aro.html

Please join the dialogue! The LSJ Blog, your own blog, and/or a letter to the editor are some ways to speak up in the community.

Accountability NOW!

from Melissa...

LETTER TO EDITOR

Today I submitted the following letter to the editor of the Lansing State Journal, community newspaper of my hometown. In this version, I provide links to the referenced stories. Let's see if LSJ publishes it AND what version of it they publish (since it's 149 words long, within the 150-word limit).

LSJ, please fairly report about victims of violence. “Police ID Woman” (Aug. 12) glimpses at Debra Renfors while “Victim Tried to Change Life” (Aug. 14) is lopsided. Overall, you obscure her person and this disturbing trend: a second woman murdered in the same house without anyone convicted.

LSJ’s portrait of a record not the person of Ms. Renfors contrasts your coverage of murdered neighborhood-activist Ruth Hallman. In both cases, humans were killed. Irrelevant details about Ms. Renfors’s history, like past intoxication, is sensational not responsible or insightful.

I request that you publish a feature about Lansing-area violence spotlighting women and children as the majority of victims. Consider how recent reporting on the murders of Julie Mishoe , Barbara George, and Brandon Williams fails to address this proven pattern. October is domestic violence awareness month, an ideal time for such a feature. LSJ, give victims and survivors of violence our due.

Melissa Dey Hasbrook
Lansing

Comment: LSJ did print the story "Experts speak on grief, violence" (Aug 12). But nodding at domestic violence in response to Julie Mishoe's murder DOES NOT acknowledge RECURRING violence in our community, most often violating and/or taking the lives of women and children. Check out the stats:

http://www.endabuse.org/resources/facts/
http://www.nccev.org/violence/statistics/statistics-domestic.html
http://www.abanet.org/domviol/statistics.html
ADDED 21 AUG: http://www.now.org/issues/violence/stats.html

REMEMBERING THE VICTIMS

Here are stories about the victims (ones not linked in the above letter).

Deborah Kaye Cooke
Hunter Park homicide victim identified
The perpetrator/s murdered AND sexually violated Ms. Cooke.

Julie Mishoe
Murder-Suicide Victim's Family Speak Out

Brandon Williams
Victim, 17, remembered as 'loving'

Barbara George
Husband charged with killing wife in 1990

Barbara Jean Tuttle
2004 - the first woman killed at 1017 N. Washington Ave., Lansing.
Lansing's unsolved homicides

Debra Elaine Renfors
2007 - the second woman killed at 1017 N. Washington Ave., Lansing.

Ruth Hallman
Carol Wood remembers ‘Momie’

NO MAGIC, MAYOR!

An LSJ story-headline quotes Lansing mayor Virg Bernero about recent murders:

Mayor: "I wish I could wave a magic wand and stop this"

And what about the nature of such murders?

"Bernero said that most homicides in the city are drug related or domestic in nature, though he did not confirm or deny that today's homicide was either."

Intervening violence DOES NOT involve magic. We require a community-wide effort from teaching children to law enforcement to neighborhood collaboration. In this process, elected officials must take responsibility not brush away complicity.

Policy makers set agendas. I CANNOT imagine a mayor telling its residents that one wishes one could wave a magic wand for the economy to improve or to stop unemployment! There must be accountability for victims and survivors of violence demonstrated by our communities' priorities--from City Hall to police precincts to courtrooms to households.

Drum Roll, Please

Deena Tyler is in The New Citizens Press about July 26's Poetry in the City. Read all about it!

Updated Photo Gallery!

Good news - The Women Writers photo gallery is updated!

Pics from the April Survivin' & Thrivin' open mike and our spring 2007 featured performances (HerStories of Pleasure and Pain, Take Back the Night) are now avaialble.

Enjoy! (Just follow the links in the upper righthand corner of the WW blog.)

++Do you have a picture from one of our events? Please contact Melissa if so. MelissaHasbrookATgmail.com

On the Horizon

Deena hits the East Side Poetry open mike Tuesday, July 31,@Magdalena's Tea House, Lansing. Reading starts @ 8pm (sign-up @ 7:30pm) with a $5 cover (includes tea and coffee). She hopes to see you there! This month's host is Franny Howes.

Melissa's visit to the ABC Treehouse in Am'dam was postponed. Putting together her chapbook Blame It on Eve! is keeping her busy in Leuven, Belgium. Stay tuned for its release in September upon her return to the States!

Kudos to the NuPoets Collective for coverage in this week's City Pulse! Check out the article.

We're Back

Yes! The Women Writers blog is back to posting. After recuperating from a slew of performances, here we go again!

#1: In downtown Lansing, Deena Tyler performs at Poetry in the City, which starts at 7pm on Thursday, July 26, from the Michigan Capitol steps.

++The event features The NuPoet Collective, Ed Mabrey (2007 International Slam Poet Champion), Lisa bond Brewer, and Kai Brewer. Plus there's an open mike! Donations are accepted (and encouraged!). Read about last year's kick-off.

#2: On the other side of the pond, Melissa Dey Hasbrook performs at the ABC Treehouse open mike in Amsterdam on Friday, July 27. It's her first reading on the continent!

++While in England, Melissa performed her recently published The Red, White, and Blue at Open Mic Surgery in Hebden Bridge and with Write Out Loud in Wigan.

#3: Lansing's East Side Poetry open mike meets on Tuesday, July 31, at Magdalena's Tea House , where we hope Women Writers will surface! Sign-up 7:30pm; reading 8:00pm; cover $5 includes tea or coffee.

++This month's host Franny Howes visited the Survivin' & Thrivin' open mike more than once, and her poetry is well worth the hearing. Franny also is the current editor of the Allen Neighborhood Center newsletter - check it out!