Features

A Poetic Approach to Inauguration Day By MATTHEW ARTZ

Tuesday January 18, 2005

At the moment that President George Bush takes the oath of office Thursday, at 9 a.m. Pacific time, Artists and Writers for Peace are calling on people to gather at BART Plaza in downtown Berkeley, and in 14 cities around the country, to read the Langston Hughes poem “Let America Be America Again.” 

Participants for the Berkeley gathering at the corner of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue will include former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass and Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Darryl Moore. 

After everyone assembled reads the poem in unison, participants can read the poem individually. Later musicians and poets will be invited to read and sing original works of protest. 

Bonnie Hughes, a Berkeley Civic Arts Commissioner, is organizing the event and working to spread it across the nation. So far, protest organizers in 14 cities including Omaha and Philadelphia, have agreed to read the poem aloud as the president takes the oath of office. 

“Let America Be America Again” was first published in 1936. 

For more information, or for a copy of the poem, see http://artistsandwritersforpeace.org/index.html. 

—Matthew Artz